A believable, living screen for your shot. No licensing, no footage.
Light, motion, flicker and color, generated on the device. Royalty-free by design, for photographers and filmmakers who need a screen in frame.
App Store link coming after release.
iPhone & iPad · Free, with Premium modes
Why this exists
You want a phone glowing in your frame. A character scrolling at night, a TV flickering on a wall, a screen lighting a face. Then comes the question of what’s on that screen, and the answer costs money: a film clip needs a license, a game needs a license, even an app interface belongs to someone. Shooting your own screen content burns a day you don’t have.
Imitation Screen removes the question. It generates the activity itself: the light, the movement, the flicker, the color. Nothing on the screen belongs to anyone, so there is nothing to clear. Point it where you need it and shoot.
Where it ends up in the frame
A catchlight in the eyes. Hold the phone just off-axis and the screen puts a soft colored spark in your subject’s eyes — the smallest softbox you own.
A motivated practical. A character “watches TV” in a dark room. The flicker engine plays cool blue light across faces and walls at the speed you set, and no TV appears in the shot.
A reflection. Glasses, glossy tables, windows, car paint. The screen shows up as a clean colored shape instead of your ring light.
A colored fill. Kelvin white from 2000 to 10000K, or any RGB color, in your pocket. Useful when the location has no power outlet and your assistant has no third hand.
A backdrop in frame. Green screen and blue screen presets for keying, gradients for everything else.
What it does
Light & Color. Solid colors with RGB and HEX input. Kelvin temperature mode for warm-to-cold white. Animated gradients. Chroma key presets.
Motion & Effects. A flicker engine that imitates a TV, a candle, a screen or ambient flutter, with adjustable speed and timing. Moving gradients with custom color sequences. Text overlay when the shot needs words.
Slideshow. Your own photos and videos full-screen, with fade, parallax and card transitions — for the shots where you do have content.
Built to be in frame. Controls disappear, the notch hides, corners round off artificially. The screen reads as a prop, the phone stops looking like a phone.
Free and Premium
The core app is free with ads. Premium unlocks full-screen Kelvin and chroma modes, multi-color move sequences and flicker timing, as a monthly or yearly subscription managed through your Apple account. Cancel anytime, the usual way.
Behind the app
I kept running into the same small absurdity on shoots: the cheapest light source in the room, the phone, was also the most legally complicated thing to point a camera at. Everything it could display belonged to somebody. So I built a screen that displays nothing in particular, and does it well — color, light, motion and flicker, tuned for how they read on skin and in reflections rather than how they look to the person holding the device.
Year · 2024–2026 — Role · product + design + dev
FAQ
Is this legal to use in commercial work?
Yes. The app generates abstract light, color and motion. There is no third-party content on the screen, so there is nothing to license. What you film is yours.
Do my photos and videos leave the device?
No. The slideshow plays your media locally. The app uploads nothing.
Does it work on iPad?
Yes, it’s universal. The iPad makes a bigger light and a bigger backdrop.
Why are there ads?
Ads keep the core app free. Premium removes the gates on advanced modes.
Put a living screen in your next shot
App Store link coming after release.