Props that read on camera: five rules for screen inserts
Phones are tiny on a vertical frame. Here is how to make a staged screen legible in the first second.
Most screen inserts fail for one reason: the viewer can't read them before the cut. On a vertical video a phone screen takes up maybe a third of the frame, and you have about a second. ## 1. One number, big Decide what the viewer must notice and make it the largest thing on screen. Everything else is texture. ## 2. Kill the brightness war Set your phone to a fixed brightness and expose for the screen, not the room. A blown-out screen reads as a white rectangle. ## 3. Script the timing Use playback timelines so the message lands on the beat of your line, not three seconds later. ## 4. Turn notifications off A real banner sliding over your staged screen ruins the take. Switch on Do Not Disturb before you hit record. ## 5. Shoot a clean plate Record ten seconds of the screen alone. Editors will thank you.