Mock Cellphone Needed for Production

[djd776]

I need to know from where I can buy / obtain new / 2nd hand mock mobile phones to be used in a production that we have. The production requires the use of a mobile phone on stage. The mobile phone needs to be seen ringing. So we cannot use a dummy phone helped with sfx.

 

The phone cannot depend on cellphone reception.

It has to be a theatre/film prop maybe designed to work on radio-waves or have some form of remote control to activate the ringing.

 

When we tried to use real phones we were getting a delay. The actors end up waiting for the mobile phone to connect to the network, making it totally impossible for backstage to create a sync with the ppl on stage. It is only a tiny delay but in this production every second counts.

 

Any ideas ?

[bruce]

How about a DECT phone? Modern ones are about the same size and shape as mobiles. Some can do intercom, or maybe put it on an "internal" extension?

[djd776]

How about a DECT phone? Modern ones are about the same size and shape as mobiles. Some can do intercom, or maybe put it on an "internal" extension?

 

 

it's funny how u miss simple solutions sometimes !!!! thanks I will try it out in the next couple of days and will let you know how it went. 10x once again

[Jivemaster]

Can you get into the software and use the "try this ringtone" control as when chosing a ringtone.

[djd776]

Can you get into the software and use the "try this ringtone" control as when chosing a ringtone.

 

 

We tried that already in some rehearsels which we had but a production like Mercury Fur is not so gentle with its actors...** laughs out loud **...too much action happening in a very short span of time...the result was a bit horrendous and the director got quite a bit impatient(to put it midly) waiting for them to find the ring tones.

 

thanks ;)

[karl]

When we tried to use real phones we were getting a delay.

 

Also what happens when just as you reach the cue you find there's no network coverage? This happened on a show I was operating sound for (the director insisted on using real phones), good job I had an emergency phone SFX cue'd up in case.

[dbuckley]

The phone needs to be seen ringing; thats very different than needs to be sounding like ringing.

 

To make it visual you need to get a tiny RC toy from the post-xmas sales, get someone who has a passing familiarity with electronics to gut it, and put the works in a body of a mobile phone that you get from your local cellphone supplier, one of thoses dummies they've just taken off the wall. A few LEDS instead of the motor and the job's a goddun.

 

Place a FX speaker where required, which may well be in the grid.

[Jayke93]

and put the works in a body of a mobile phone that you get from your local cellphone supplier, one of thoses dummies they've just taken off the wall

 

eBay. eBay do really cheap dummy phones. that would probably be cheaper than going to a phone shop

[peternewman]

How about a DECT phone?

it's funny how u miss simple solutions sometimes !!!!

If you look around at the range available, you may even be able to find one with a button on the base station to ring the handset, to help you locate it when you put it down, certainly my cheap one (I think it may be analogue not DECT) has one. That way you're not even relying on internal extensions, just the phone as a standalone device.

[J Pearce]

All good ideas, but by the third row back who is going to see the phones screen?

 

Why not just use a phone that is turned off, play a sound effect from a speaker located somewhere close to the phone (offstage or hidden in the set) and get your actors to do some work and through their acting persuade the audience that the phone is ringing. Its called suspense of disbelief.

[Bryson]

Or suspension of disbelief, if you prefer accuracy....

[J Pearce]

Indeed, I blame that mistake on the intoxicating nature of the drinks served at the theatre bar.