Lessons Learned on the Autocue SS17

I recently broke out an Autocue SS17 at an industrial shoot in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

The SS17 is plate-based.

Here's something you need to know about setting up your Autocue SS17.

It arrives pre-assembled: It takes just a few minutes to whip it out of its flat box and onto the sticks when you are familiar with it.

However, it's easy to run into this problem: the camera operator had mentioned several times that the prompter felt wobbly on the sticks.

Not a good sign. What was the problem?

Here's one problem that caused that situation:

The SS 17 comes with a series of posts, 1- and 2-lengths long, that screw into each other, to form 1, 2, or 3 post high platform riser for a camera with a longer lens that extends closer to the beamsplitter (the teleprompter glass).

In order to screw the lengths in, you firstly have to screw the male part into the female part -- that makes the post stand up.

At this point, you can't screw them in all the way, because of the following procedure: you need to place the plate over the posts and reposition the posts underneath the holes in the plate to get the correct alignment. Then you place screws in from the top to fasten the plate to the posts.

Got it? The posts are screwed in loosely to find the position under the plate. Then the screws go in to secure the relative positioning of all of it, together.

Problem is, you have to then go back under the plate, and finish screwing in the posts to their "fixed" position. Then finish screwing in the screws.

The operator was mentioning, rightly, that the posts were loose. But I thought I'd tightened the screws when I mounted the plate.

The user error was in not going back around after positioning all the parts and fastening it all together tightly. In order to get to the part of tightening the top screws, the bottoms might be loose at that point.

BOTTOM LINE: Make sure you go around the rig and tighten everything up, screws and posts alike, bottom and top, because initial setup requires doing the whole thing loosely first, then tightening all around again, bottom, then top.

ALSO:

The posts that are 1- and 2-lengths long: They're hard to unscrew bare- or glove-handed. Good luck, though, is that one of the sections has a hole big enough through the diameter that you can fit a screwdriver through it, and the torque from the screw driver instantly unlocks the screws. With bare hands, though, because the steel is plated and very smooth, and very hard to unscrew.

Also: There's only one screw that mounts to the camera plate. The camera plate we used had about a dozen screw holes of several widths in different positions.

An operator should carry two screws for the camera mount to the plate, so that there's more than just one possible point of failure. The steel just isn't "grippy", so all that steel-on-steel action, with the constant movement of the operator on the camera arm, winds up loosening the screw. Operators have a lot of faith in that one little screw, but because there's only one point of contact, the camera tends to rotate around the axis that's been formed, sliding around the pivot and needing readjustment. The prompter operator should carry a few extra screws to mount the plate to the camera shoe.

Your operator will admire your concern for their well-being.