Real phone. Real screen.
Live control.
Mombie is a fake text message app for film and TV: a real phone on set whose screen you drive live from a tablet at the monitor. Scripted messages, incoming calls and lock-screen notifications play on cue — repeatable, continuity-safe and clearance-clean, with no screen replacement in post. The shot you capture is the shot you keep.
Messaging shots quietly become the most expensive scene in the schedule.
Green-screen the phone, then pay a VFX artist per shot to comp the conversation back in.
The real conversation plays live, in camera. Nothing to fix in post.
Real iMessage or WhatsApp UI on camera means legal review — or a reshoot.
Seven original, clearance-safe interface skins built for broadcast delivery.
A rewritten line means re-shooting stills or waiting on a graphics vendor.
Retype the line on the tablet and fire it on the next take.
Two modes. One session code.
Pair a control tablet to the prop phone, then drive every pixel in real time — scripted lines, live messages, typing bubbles, brightness, colour and haptics.
Write the dialogue, set per-line delays, attach photos or video, and pick the platform skin. Or let the AI script reader import a page of screenplay.
Open Actor Mode on the hero phone and enter the session code. The device locks to the prop screen — nothing the actor taps can break the take.
Play the scene on a timer or step line by line. Fire ad-hoc messages, hold to show a typing bubble, trigger read receipts, calls and silent whisper cues.
Export a timecoded dialogue log as .txt or .json for continuity, editorial and the post-production handover.
Everything the screen has to do, in one control surface.
Play a written scene on timed beats, or fire any message instantly as either character. Hold to show a live typing bubble.
Trigger incoming voice or video calls, missed calls and lock-screen notifications on cue.
Flip the prop screen to green or grey with tracking markers in one tap, so post can replace it if the plan changes.
Match the phone to your LUT — exposure, contrast, temperature, vignette and grain — then lock the grade so it never drifts.
Brightness pinned to 100% with anti-flicker, so the screen reads cleanly at any shutter angle.
Silent haptic and visual cues — tap, buzz, flash, action, cut, hold — to the actor’s hand without a word on set.
Turn a script page into a full conversation with believable timing, or generate matching app icons and wallpapers.
Draw blocking notes straight over the monitor feed with adjustable brush and eraser.
Timecoded dialogue logs exported as .txt or .json for continuity and editorial.
Three ways to put a phone on camera. Only one plays live.
Screen replacement fixes it in post. A real phone with real apps hopes for the best. Mombie puts a real screen on set and drives it live — so what the camera captures is the final shot.
Screen replacement in post
- Green-screen or track the phone every take
- VFX artist composites the conversation per shot
- Costs scale with shot count and revisions
- Actor performance feels disconnected from the screen
- Flexible if the script changes late
Real phone with real apps
- Trademarked UI on camera — legal clearance risk
- No repeatability — notifications arrive on their own clock
- Actor taps can break the take
- No continuity log of what played
- Looks real because it is real
Mombie
- Real phone, real screen — plays live in camera
- Clearance-safe original interface skins
- Repeatable on every take, cued from a tablet
- Actor Mode locks the device — nothing breaks the take
- Timecoded continuity log exported per scene
The monitor, and what the camera sees.
Scene library, transport, live cues and quick actions — on the tablet at the monitor.
Notifications land on cue.
Typing bubbles and read receipts.
Mombie On-Set Package
We bring the kit and run it on the day. Device setup, message and call scenes, cue programming, remote control, continuity support and on-set technical support — so the phone on camera just works.
Indicative test range. Final pricing depends on shoot length, number of devices, on-set presence and production scale.
Prop phones configured, paired and tested before call time.
Conversations, incoming calls and lock-screen notifications built to script.
Every line timed to the beat of the scene. Repeats take after take.
Driven live from a tablet at the monitor — fire, hold, advance, reset.
Timecoded dialogue log for script supervision and editorial handover.
A technician on the floor across the shoot day.
One prop, six departments happier.
Add a text or a call to a scene between takes, and shape its timing like a performance.
Take screen replacement out of the post budget and off the schedule.
A screen that holds exposure and never flickers on camera, at any shutter angle.
A phone that behaves. The scripted line lands on cue, whatever they tap.
Build and amend graphics on the floor in minutes, without a third-party vendor.
A timecoded log of every line that played, on every take.
Learn how on-camera phone screens get made.
Straight answers for directors, DPs and prop teams working out how to put a text message, call or notification on a phone screen without going back to post.
Questions from the floor.
A phone screen prop is a real phone whose screen plays scripted content — a text conversation, an incoming call or a notification — on cue during a take. Mombie turns any phone into one you drive live from a tablet at the monitor.
Real phone. Real screen. Live on your set.
Book a production demo, or request an on-set package quote for your next shoot.