It seems like a basic skill set: put the file in the program, roll the prompter. Up, down, back, go back to here. But adding presence adds a lot.
The measure of a prompter operator, then, is in very small degrees of their attentiveness to their environment while rolling, as well as their presence in the room.
And the question shouldn't be do they just not do anything wrong, but do they actually contribute the correct zeitgeist in their presence? Does their presence, and those little moments of communication, really add something to the set, or the production floor?
Of course these are questions normally a hiring manager would answer... but you really have to consider what someone is bringing to the mix beyond the skill set.
Why is this important?
Because prompter part of the art of communication, and our world is rife with palatable and distasteful moments.
So not just the prompter operator's skill and acumen, but their disposition, should add something. They should be willing to lend supportive presence... not with a sense of "doing" something, but of allowing the best possible combination of production and talent events to conspire so that the talent, your point-person, can feel not just unencumbered by the machine and the operator, but supported in a kind of invisible, energetic way.
That's what you want - someone who really can bring that into the room. Even dumb stuff, like eating crackers quietly while someone's trying to read, can just add a really small negative to the room.
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