Novel Teleprompter Application: Acting Audition & Demo Reels

Interrotron was a development in prompting that allowed documentary subjects to look directly into the camera while talking to someone.  

Basically it's a teleprompter setup, but instead of the graphics output, it carries a video output so the subject looking at the camera, can look at someone in front of the camera and talk to them directly.

So I'm thinking about acting and I'm thinking about this inexpensive laptop based solution. 

(I spoke with the manufacturer - the product image shows a laptop with a 180 degree hinge, but it'll work with a MacBook, which does not open to 180-degrees.)

(Learn your lines: It's not about being off book by using a prompter -- it's about giving yourself something to work off of, an image, directly in front of the camera.  You could actually look into another (projected) person's eyes and talk to them.

Technology is making it more and more possible for people to record their own video demos and email them to a casting director.

Since the beginning of acting actors have had to deal with their environment, from talking to their audience, to having a 4th wall, to cameras, to sets falling down, to trucks backfiring, clanking dinner plates, to cellphones (unless you're Hugh Jackman).

In any case, here's a what if:

Actors can put up an image of someone on their computer like an interrotron (see above) - using this inexpensive setup.  They can either project an image of someone like they'd be talking to, or actually edit an acting friend's performance into the scene as they do theirs, looking directly into the actor's image.

So if your demo uses a side, and let's say you're reading against a hard-boiled cop, you could put up any number of acting images in your Interrotron setup.  Or better, either you or a friend could act the other role, and play it on the laptop while the beam-spitting glass puts the actor's image up, while recording your role through the camera.  You have someone to act against.

Will this give you a competitive edge?

I think it works well as a concept, but I don't know anyone who's actually doing it.  If you're getting a lot of auditions like this, it might make sense to do this setup.

It's likely better, and cheaper, to use and hone your chops by doing a substitution or just working on place or music, but if that isn't coming strongly to you, or you're new/uncomfortable with it, and you gotta get something goin' on, this may be an option.

But in any case, on a set, no director is going to set up an interrotron just for the actor to get comfortable with a camera in their face.

Maybe a waste of money and effort? Maybe not?

Ultimately it's probably better for the actor to get cool with their skills under any/all conditions and deal with it - almost every set I've ever been on has a lot of things which are working against the actor, and it's the good ones that integrate the total reality (without trying to control everything to death) into their performance.

That said this may be a bad idea, perhaps even a disservice, but it may also be useful.

I can see how a producer would jump on this kind of setup in order to get a better performance out of a wooden actor who is paying them $500 - $2000 for a great reel-- but whether it will work is anyone's guess at this point, I guess.

What do you think?  Have you or anyone you know tried this?

I can easily actors with iPods/iPads doing this with their equipment using the new iPad/iPod/iTouch Prompters because Macs make it so easy to cope with video.