Screen Dressing · Journal
Faking screens for film, TV & theatre
Practical guides to putting a believable, clearance-free computer screen on camera — and the props that do it for you.
How Films & TV Fake Computer Screens (Without Getting Sued)
Almost every scene with a computer in it is faking the computer. When you wonder how films fake computer screens, the honest answer is that productions almost never shoot real soft…
Read · 5 min →How to Make a Fake Hacker Screen for a Film or Play
A convincing fake hacker screen for film has almost nothing to do with real hacking and everything to do with theatre. Real intrusion is someone reading documentation in a text edi…
Read · 5 min →The Best Fake Screens for No-Budget & Student Films
When you've got no money and a shoot on Saturday, the screens in your scene are exactly the kind of detail that gets cut — and exactly the kind that makes a short look amateur when…
Read · 5 min →Why You Shouldn't Put Real Software on Camera (Clearance, Logos & the DP)
Pointing a camera at a real desktop feels like the path of least resistance — the software's already there, it's free, it works. Then your software clearance for film turns into a…
Read · 4 min →Set-Dressing the Monitor: A Props & Art-Department Guide
Set dressing computer screens is one of those jobs that looks trivial on the call sheet and eats your whole afternoon on the day. A glowing monitor in frame is a prop like any othe…
Read · 5 min →Fake CCTV Walls & Surveillance Screens for Film & TV
A fake CCTV wall prop is the workhorse of the crime and thriller genre. The moment a character walks into a dim room stacked with glowing monitors, the audience knows exactly where…
Read · 5 min →Browser Screens on Stage: Fake UIs for Theatre & Live Events
Screens for theatre and live events come with a different brief than film. There's no post, no second take, and no margin for an app crashing in front of a thousand people. A proje…
Read · 5 min →How We Build a Screen Dressing Prop (Behind the Scenes)
An interactive screen prop looks simple from the audience's seat — a glowing terminal, a trading desk, a face scanner doing its thing in the background of a shot. Under the hood, t…
Read · 5 min →