Filed under: iPod Family, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, iPhone
Journeyman: The iPhone as character actor
Turns out that iPhone will play a major role in the upcoming NBC show Journeyman. When the show debuts on September 24, keep your eyes open to spot the iPhone as it repeatedly appears on-screen performing such vital acts as losing network connectivity through time travel and having visual voicemail work as an indicator of missing time. The iPhone reportedly follows the method and insisted on not bathing and gaining 20 lbs before its scenes were shot.
TUAW mourns the early passing of Adam Finley
Update: Reader Mike passed along this amusing screen shot showing a Journeyman hand actor holding the iPhone upside down with a screen mockup added in postproduction. Mike notes that the iPhone is encased with the Griffin Clear Case.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dominic said 1:05PM on 9-10-2007
And the funny thing is, he's not holding an iPhone in half of the shots in the pilot.
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Stevievep said 1:29PM on 9-10-2007
NBC and Apple, sitting in a tree...? What a cozy pairing.
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Johnny Dangerously said 1:31PM on 9-10-2007
An iPhone product placement on NBC? Could this Apple-NBC relationship get *any* weirder?
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Scott said 1:35PM on 9-10-2007
Do you think NBC has the "Journeyman" post-production people scrambling to create new insert shots with something other than an iPhone? Or maybe the showrunners are inserting a scene where the lead actor loses his iPhone, or has it accidentally crushed under a garbage truck.
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Marcos said 2:13PM on 9-10-2007
I saw the pilots and in many scenes it looks like the character is holding something else, and in some closeups the phone looks like a mockup of some sort. I'm sure in newer episodes they'll use a real iPhone.
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jack said 2:36PM on 9-10-2007
Speaking of iPhone placements (or at least, prop folks displaying iPhone love), I saw an ad on HGTV HD this weekend for window coverings in which the busy businesswoman's vibrating iPhone represented the stressful working world she was escaping with her luxurious new bathroom blinds... Exciting!
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mike said 3:06PM on 9-10-2007
It is in fact an iPhone, It has the griffin clear case around it. what bugs me is that in the show he holds it upside down. I took a screen cap and put it here for you all to take a look. http://web.mac.com/mferreira84/Site/ZZ65EF9342.jpg It's just everyone and their mother knows how to hold a phone and I can't get my mind around the fact that some how they set up the shot and kept that as a take.
Journeyman has lots of Apple products from computers to ipods and iphones. also lots of ipod gadgets like the iHome clock radio
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mike said 3:20PM on 9-10-2007
Sorry for posing twice, I just wanted to say he uses a iPhone but is really holding a Motorola Q. I'll post a pic of that also. They shoot the shots of him holding a phone then a hand in(stand in but with hands) comes in and they shoot footage of the phone. Again i cant get my head around the fact that they let this happen but w/e nothing we can do
Link: //web.mac.com/mferreira84/Site/ZZ79F4DCF7.jpg
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Joost Schuur said 3:23PM on 9-10-2007
The pilot had a scene where he travels back in time, while looking at a web page (presumably a search engine result), and immediately the web page disappears when he lost service.
In reality, Safari on the iPhone would have kept displaying the cached page. So if you're considering time traveling with your iPhone, take that scene with a grain of salt ;)
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Low Impact Development said 3:55PM on 9-10-2007
Looking forward to this shows. Seems like 21st Century "Quantum Leap" redux. This just gives me another reason to turn it.
http://www.filterra.com/low-impact-development
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Steve said 4:32PM on 9-10-2007
http://notbusy.com/Journeyman.S01E01.DVDSCR.XviD-SAiNTS.avi-20070906-163145.jpg
--->motorolla Q - not an iphone
http://notbusy.com/Journeyman.S01E01.DVDSCR.XviD-SAiNTS.avi-20070906-162935.jpg
---> again
and... finder-spydeR ... not google.
http://notbusy.com/Journeyman.S01E01.DVDSCR.XviD-SAiNTS.avi-20070906-163255.jpg
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antibot said 5:54PM on 9-10-2007
not to be touchy, but the iphone would be a "personality actor", not a "character actor". elvis presley is a perfect example. in any role, he was always immediately identifiable as...himself, as a brand.
the iphone would be functioning in the same capacity- as a tool.
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mike said 6:00PM on 9-10-2007
So I will do this one last time. insted of linking to pics I just added more pics to an album that can be seen here. I created this for the readers on this blog http://web.mac.com/mferreira84/Site/journeyman.html Steve if you look at the pics you can see he holds both an iPhone and a Q thats why my 2nd post had the link for the Q. It's not a back in time thing with the iPhone and the Q since in the last 2 pics he is showing his brother a video on his phone and if you look at the time code on playback it's within a few secs.
They just messed up as far as it comes with gadgets on this show. one min you see him holding an iPhone the next a Moto Q.
But what still gets me the most is the upside down iPhone.. on the other hand the show is not so bad.
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Steve said 6:43PM on 9-10-2007
Hey Mike, Are you saying he's carrying around two phones? I was just saying they kept switching back, not that it wasn't an iphone or that he only has one or the other future/past.
but yes, im guessing the iphone wasn't quite production ready when this show was cut. it was scene released a couple months ago--so I imagine it was shot well before that.
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mike said 6:59PM on 9-10-2007
steve, I think he is ment to carry just the iPhone but they really made a mess of things. At first i figured it was a hold this we can do close up shots in post. But the more i think of it in a few shots he holds the iPhone like on my page pic 3.
They even show typing on the so called google(finder-spyder) on the iphone GUI.
Again like i said they made a mess of things. I hope NBC wont fudge up like this on the bionic woman since that is ment to be all tech like.
A thanks has to go out to erica for posting this it has been fun digging in to the Journey man.
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Big Dave said 8:42PM on 9-10-2007
I like how it says "No Service..." on the in call screen. =)
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Gene Cowan said 9:11PM on 9-10-2007
As a designer, I have to say that the most galling thing about this is that the mockup iPhone screens in this show don't use Helvetica. I mean, how hard would it have been to match the iPhone's font? It's available on every freakin' computer, after all.
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nick said 10:09PM on 9-11-2007
It should be noted that Journeyman is being produced by 20th Century Fox (for NBC), so I doubt NBC had anything to do with the iPhone placement. But it's funny irony.
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Craig said 11:43PM on 10-15-2007
The iPhone doesn't work during time travel?!?
I knew it sucked.
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