Cell Phone Ringing on Cue

[TheJohnnyK]

Hello,
Im in process on working on Dead Man's Cell Phone. The play calls for a cell phone to ring as if receiving a call, and beep as if getting a text message different times during the show and at different places. The simplest way to achieve this would just be to make a cue, but the director wants the sound to come from the cell phone. Is there a way that I could put a speaker in a gutted cell phone and run it like that?

Thanks

 

[headcrab]

You could use a real cell phone and have someone competent i.e. not an actor call/text the phone on stage.

 

[MNicolai]

While possibly the easiest idea, you do that at the risk that if you don't always have stable service on stage, you might have a text or call ring through delayed or not at all if reception drops out.

For a one-off or a few nights, and in a room gets typically good reception, I'd go that route for ease-of-use. For more than a few nights, I'd come up with something better, even if it's the guts of a two way radio squeezed into the skin of a cell phone or an FM receiver and speaker in the phone with an FM transmitter hooked up to a playback device in the booth. I'd probably go the route of the FM transmitter because it's likely the highest quality and easiest-to-fit-in-a-small-package solution. You're essentially buying an FM transmitter like you'd use with an MP3 player in your car and sending the signal to the FM reciever pulled out of an el-cheapo MP3 player/radio and connecting it up to a small amplifier and speaker inside the case of an otherwise gutted phone.

 

[erosing]

Use a real phone, set a alarm on it for everytime you need it to go off, use a different sound for a text.

If you use an iPhone (and others) just put it IMO airplane mode, or use a iPod touch. Someone in the cas I'd void to have a device they can do this with.


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[MNicolai]

Use a real phone, set a alarm on it for everytime you need it to go off, use a different sound for a text.

If you use an iPhone (and others) just put it IMO airplane mode, or use a iPod touch. Someone in the cas I'd void to have a device they can do this with.

Just make certain you can keep the cast member(s) consistent and at the same pace every single night. If they don't hit the same cues at exactly the same times, a ring could happen a minute too early (which cuts critical parts out of a story and advances it too quickly) or a minute too late (which makes for an awkward minute of improv where the cast starts to wonder if the battery died and how much longer they have to stall before it rings).

 

[erosing]

Just make certain you can keep the cast member(s) consistent and at the same pace every single night. If they don't hit the same cues at exactly the same times, a ring could happen a minute too early (which cuts critical parts out of a story and advances it too quickly) or a minute too late (which makes for an awkward minute of improv where the cast starts to wonder if the battery died and how much longer they have to stall before it rings).

This is a concern, however I had thought more that if the alarm was easy to turn on quickly, (The fruit product in my head) that the alarm would not be turned on until a few minutes before. This way you don't have as much of a risk from this problem. Of course, it would likely require blocking changes, depending on where the phone is.


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[MarshallPope]

Is the phone being carried by one particular cast member, or is it passed around or left lying around during the play? If one actor holds it each time it is to ring, it may be easier to hide a speaker on their body than attempting to fit an entire setup in a gutted phone. I doubt that an audience could discern a difference of two feet between the phone and the sound source. If this is the case, depending on your electronics knowledge, you may even be able to give the actor two buttons hidden on their belt or somewhere - one to play the ringing sound, and one for the text.

 

[lomahongva]

How big your theatre. Cause I would say if it's 300 people or more u might be able to get away with just piping it through the sound system. I know we have done this same effect before and I piped sound effects to front fills and it worked perfect. Now if u don't have front fills. I would say hide a speaker in a prop would be the ideal situation.

 

[ccm1495]

I have used an iphone/ipod touch app called Sound Box. With the app you can play pre recorded or your own sounds remotely over wifi. You use a web browser and can control the sounds that play, and upload your own sounds. The best part is that when you press the button the sound plays with out a delay. Also an iphone playing from its built in speaker or ipod touch with external speaker could be hidden anywhere or on an actor. All you need is a wifi network.

 

[museav]

How big your theatre.

That might be a more general consideration as well. Things like could all of the audience clearly hear an actual phone ringing, might you have to mute the mics on stage if you had an actual phone ringing and didn't want to hear it coming from the house sound system, etc.

 

[Ben Crop]

I just opened the production of dead man's cell phone and the director required that the cell phone ring on stage, not through a house speaker. She also suggested that she wanted to sometimes hear a person on the other side of the phone while the actress was on the phone. I solved this challenge in our 120 seat blackbox theatre with a custom Bluetooth system. Here is how I did it:

Go Here to see pictures of the process: https://carousel.dropbox.com/photos/cc/6HW0U5lFXu8HB6M

1. I got a cheap fake cell phone with an empty interior from amazon (the director wanted a "flip-phone") $6.99: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009W9G5V8/?tag=controlbooth-20
2. I purchased a very small Bluetooth speaker that would hopefully fit in the phone $11.99: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IF0NJOG/?tag=controlbooth-20
3. I carved out the phone with a Dremel tool (after removing the fake battery cover) large enough for the Bluetooth electronics (see pictures from above)
4. Everything fit in there quite well but the Bluetooth connectivity straight out of the computer was not enough. I found a great long range transmitter which reconnects to the "phone" whenever it is withing its 150ft range (far greater than the 10 meter standard Bluetooth range). I was even able to get the "phone" to connect on back side of our thick steel loading dock wall on the far wall of the theatre. It has stereo RCA inputs and an external power adapter for $54.99: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00713RSE0/?tag=controlbooth-20
5. It was all working great until we found out that the advertised 2 hour battery life of the Bluetooth speaker was not going to cut it. The battery that came with the speaker was 3.7V with 180mAh. We were able to solder on a new battery at 400mAh and it now lasts for over 5 hours; the new battery still fits in the phone. The battery also has overcharge protection which means you can plug it in each night and it will charge until it is full without needing to unplug it after a few hours for $6.95: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10718

The show is still running, but so far it is working great with no problems.

A couple of notes:

1. The speaker says it will turn off if it goes without signal for 15 minutes. We play a loop of silence tot he speaker throughout the play to be sure it is always connected.
2. The transmitter has to be plugged into clean power to avoid noise.
3. Because we were able to find a fake phone we liked for purchase online, when the actress has to break the phone each night we were able to give her a dummy replica for that purpose.
4. Total project cost: $80.92 +tax & shipping.

I hope this helps you find success in your production!

Ben