Phone vibrate effect

[GradyH]

Long-time lurker, first time post. Hi!

I'm running a world premiere play called "Holding On, Letting Go," and I have a sequence where a phone has to be on vibrate and go off during the scene- twice. I've searched the forums and haven't found any solutions. My question is- how to make this happen? My house is only 67 seats, so I'd like this to be practical. I have an extra iPhone that I can use as a prop, but I need to know how to send it a signal to vibrate. My actor has her own iPhone, but for a million reasons I don't want her to use her personal phone, not to mention how bad it'd be if her phone goes off at the incorrect time.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[Footer]

There is an app for that... Remote Masseuse - The #1 Online Massager for iPhone on the iTunes App Store

You can also find similar apps on android... even little web servers that allow you to ring and vibrate the phone.

[MPowers]

Ummm, the point of a phone vibrate is to Not disturb or annoy your neighbors. I.E. Vibrate is silent and only loud enough to alert the person using the phone. How do you intend to amplify the "vibrate" to a point noticeable, even to as intimate an audience as you describe?? Oh, wait, if you have to amplify it, you might as well make it a sound cue and by-pass the actual phone altogether.

Just a thought.

[MarshallPope]

I have had one iPhone that definitely vibrated loudly enough to be heard across a quiet-ish classroom, so I wouldn't be so quick to discount its audibility. My instinct would be to use an instant messenger app and use it for signaling. If the vibrate isn't quite loud enough, though, you may want to play with recording the vibration and making it into a ringtone.

[GradyH]

I suppose I'll try a messenger of some sort. I'd prefer it to just vibrate, and if that doesn't read (or I'm just not getting it to reliably happen) I'll just make a sound cue out of it. Since our house is only 67 seats, and the phone is on a table at the time of cue, it would totally read. Heck, I can usually hear when it goes off in someone's pocket, onstage dialogue permitting. I'll check out remote masseuse app, and look at ones like AIM and such.

Thanks!

[venuetech]

Put a Vibrator in the table and have that rattle off the phone.

[GradyH]

Put a Vibrator in the table and have that rattle off the phone.

Nah. :shock:

I've decided I'll just go with a practical speaker hidden around the coffee table. I can't find a reliable way to get the effect to the phone consistently. SFX is the way to go.

[shiben]

Nah. :shock:

I've decided I'll just go with a practical speaker hidden around the coffee table. I can't find a reliable way to get the effect to the phone consistently. SFX is the way to go.

What kind of SFX are you going to make? Various companies make vibrators that are nice and powerful, easily enough so to move along the table. Just trigger with a momentary switch. However, I feel like SFX probably is the right choice.

[Joshualangman]

There's always Prop Phone.

Prop Phone | Use an iPhone or iPod Touch as a stage prop by controlling it remotely.