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Showing posts with label How to Avoid Prompter Fail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How to Avoid Prompter Fail. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
More Notes on Working with the Autocue SS17
In terms of overall build quality it's a prompter whose lines give confidence.
However: there are these little silver things that sit in the rails that posts stand on - I've mentioned these posts in prior postings.
Those little silver things have little tongues that press them up into the roof of their groove so they don't fall out. OTOH in normal use, those little tongues are somewhat fragile and break: then the silver thing falls out of the machine.
Also: As I had mentioned in other posts, Autocue doesn't include an additional screw for the camera if the camera plate is mounted and the riser plate is used: that means you need two screws - one to screw the prompter rails into the camera plate on the sticks, and another to screw the camera actual onto the riser plate.
Be sure as a prompter operator to bring an extra set. I was lucky on one shoot to have a cameraman with an extra screw, and another with mechanic sense to find a regular metal screw that would fit, that bolstered the difference with nuts and washers.
Going to B&H to get the rest of the parts.
ALSO: If you're buying a case for it, the Pelican 1660 is a monster-widowmaker case. While the Pelican 1650 case seems ideal, I haven't proven you can cut the foam and set the prompter in there as of yet, in addition to the monitor.
Both Pelican cases are outstanding in their own right but the 1660 is really very, very large.
However: there are these little silver things that sit in the rails that posts stand on - I've mentioned these posts in prior postings.
Those little silver things have little tongues that press them up into the roof of their groove so they don't fall out. OTOH in normal use, those little tongues are somewhat fragile and break: then the silver thing falls out of the machine.
Also: As I had mentioned in other posts, Autocue doesn't include an additional screw for the camera if the camera plate is mounted and the riser plate is used: that means you need two screws - one to screw the prompter rails into the camera plate on the sticks, and another to screw the camera actual onto the riser plate.
Be sure as a prompter operator to bring an extra set. I was lucky on one shoot to have a cameraman with an extra screw, and another with mechanic sense to find a regular metal screw that would fit, that bolstered the difference with nuts and washers.
Going to B&H to get the rest of the parts.
ALSO: If you're buying a case for it, the Pelican 1660 is a monster-widowmaker case. While the Pelican 1650 case seems ideal, I haven't proven you can cut the foam and set the prompter in there as of yet, in addition to the monitor.
Both Pelican cases are outstanding in their own right but the 1660 is really very, very large.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Beamsplitter
Here's a neat trick of the beamsplitter glass of prompters.
In this image, the beamsplitter appears as a mirror. But if you were to look at this beamsplitter on-location, it would appear transparent.
This is from the Benjamin Moore How to Paint industrial shoot in Ridgewood, New Jersey. See how in the reflection of the glass, you can see the floorboards? It's picking up the reflection of the 17-inch monitor mounted underneath, facing the ceiling with reversed text. (Which I fuzzed out in the photo.)
In the room, you're looking through the glass to the camera lens.
In this image, the beamsplitter appears as a mirror. But if you were to look at this beamsplitter on-location, it would appear transparent.
This is from the Benjamin Moore How to Paint industrial shoot in Ridgewood, New Jersey. See how in the reflection of the glass, you can see the floorboards? It's picking up the reflection of the 17-inch monitor mounted underneath, facing the ceiling with reversed text. (Which I fuzzed out in the photo.)
In the room, you're looking through the glass to the camera lens.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
How to Avoid Prompter Fail
World Prompter guy Ian McGrady thinks days like this should never happen:
Ian says:
My first job was at ABC News, World News Tonight. We were retyping the entire show starting about 2 hours before the show, cutting and pasting it practically as we ran upstairs.
Peter Jennings had a copy of the script at his desk. If the prompter failed due to wrong copy, or just plain eating the paper (it was basically turning the script into a conveyor belt beneath a camera) he was mindful of the copy and could seamlessly switch between his copy and the machine.
Although it makes talent nervous when the script disappears, "good" talent knows the script and the story in their mind: so if the prompter fails, they have a sense for thinking about what's going on, and can extravert their thoughts seamlessly.
Unfortunately the prompter falsely presents an illusion that people can talk freely especially when cameras are almost always zoomed in past the prompter.
Maybe as a function of truth in advertising cameras should always show when people are talking on prompters.
That aside, here's a good tip to avoid massive system failures like the one above:
1. Print the script.
2. Put in TURN PAGE blocks or markers that show where the physical script is printed
(the operator can provide the best marking - they should collaborate with the writer)
3. Producers should give talent time to rehearse while turning the pages and confirming the behavior for themselves until they're comfortable
4. Practice once with deliberate failure and switching so the talent feels comfortable in any circumstance, prompter or no
5. NOW you're ready to go live.
Ian says:
My first job was at ABC News, World News Tonight. We were retyping the entire show starting about 2 hours before the show, cutting and pasting it practically as we ran upstairs.
Peter Jennings had a copy of the script at his desk. If the prompter failed due to wrong copy, or just plain eating the paper (it was basically turning the script into a conveyor belt beneath a camera) he was mindful of the copy and could seamlessly switch between his copy and the machine.
Although it makes talent nervous when the script disappears, "good" talent knows the script and the story in their mind: so if the prompter fails, they have a sense for thinking about what's going on, and can extravert their thoughts seamlessly.
Unfortunately the prompter falsely presents an illusion that people can talk freely especially when cameras are almost always zoomed in past the prompter.
Maybe as a function of truth in advertising cameras should always show when people are talking on prompters.
That aside, here's a good tip to avoid massive system failures like the one above:
1. Print the script.
2. Put in TURN PAGE blocks or markers that show where the physical script is printed
(the operator can provide the best marking - they should collaborate with the writer)
3. Producers should give talent time to rehearse while turning the pages and confirming the behavior for themselves until they're comfortable
4. Practice once with deliberate failure and switching so the talent feels comfortable in any circumstance, prompter or no
5. NOW you're ready to go live.
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