6 Great Places to Use a Teleprompter

There are many environments in which a teleprompter makes sense. Here's a breakdown of common possibilities.

1) Newsroom. Volumes of information being spoken, mis-speaks can result in inaccuracies costing reputations and possibly fines. A no-brainer investment.

2) Industrial movie. As I had posted with my Red Camera update, one industrial shoot had dozens of talented young people. Some had memorized the script, some didn't. The producer of the show said they felt the teleprompter had saved them from multiple takes. Producers don't need to tell you how great it is to save an hour or more at the end of the day, or to have to sacrifice quality of their content, just for saving on a prompter.

3) Live television, or live productions. A teleprompter can be a good visual signal as to where people are in the script, reaffirming communication between the producer and the talent. Literally it can help everyone who can see the output stay on the same page.

4) Webcasting. Webcasting is tricky: usually the content is point-of-view, like an opinion, but the talent is usually sitting about 2 feet from their computer, which makes it very intimate. If talent would get hip to better audio (i.e. using a decent wireless lapel mic) they could back off their computer, and their eye travel (motion from left-to-right) as reading would be drastically diminished. If you do use a prompter for webcasting, be sure to practice your controller motions so they are not distracting to you mentally or physically.

5) Quarterly sales events. These are good occasions for management to use a prompter because there are usually arguments made in terms of growth and decisions that are carefully worded. However: these same people that operate like sharks all year long, with Blackberries as their swords and spreadsheets as their shields aren't going to turn into the people you'd want to cast into the commercial for your product overnight. Either they tend to deliver a strictly-vetted statement or they just put up a few number sets usually to get them through. Either way, even if they don't *need* a prompter, having the information in front of them can help root them in a complex discussion of numbers and events. It'll be "there" for them, supporting them as they freely discuss complex ideas. These people think strategically and are usually blessed with some kind of edge. Let them keep it: don't go forcing anyone into a box.

The information in these things can get kind of list-y. Like, "We were up 9 percent in the first quarter, with 50% of our sales coming from 3rd tier vendors, an increase of 2-percent from the same time last year." Where the text is list-y, the talent should also be adding up the meaning of all that information over the course of their script -- what did that mean for the company's / their division's / their performance - are they sad, cool with it, or celebratory. It should add up and register within the individual without being forced, sales-y, or syrup-y.

6. Documentary interviews. You can take the video signal and using a teleprompter device, have the talent look directly into the camera in order to interact with the questioner. That's called an "Interrotron" setup, and is somewhat effective at getting direct contact with the camera because the talent is looking at someone's face splashed on the beamsplitting glass in front of the camera, while the camera just looks directly at the talent/subject. So there can be a greater sense of intimacy with the lens (and therefore, the audience). Just make sure the camera height and angle isn't forcing the subject into unnatural contortions with their neck and posture to look at the person. Eye-to-eye is likely what you're going for, with a flat facial plane for the talent to the camera lens.

7. Any live event (except theater pieces). Live events can put a prompter LCD off to the side, or the script at the foot of the stage, so that hosts and other readers can feel more free. A presidential style prompter can be fine, and let's not allow those insults to the teleprompter president degrade the value of a good presidential (glass on a rod) style prompter for speeches. (I've written about this topic in other blogposts here). Don't blame the prompter for what happens to our country!

I will modify the theater statement: I've been in shows where talent definitely would have benefitted from a prompter nestled in a piece of set furniture or offstage. Some people are in plays for reasons other than their ability to remember their lines, which is fine. Just give them some support and as a producer, don't let them hang out to dry without some kind of text in front of them. Perhaps an audio prompter would be even better but that may lead to unconscious "What? Please repeat that" statements that may throw the play off even more.

8. Training. A day of a prompter setup at your company can be great for feedback in a relaxed setting. People can become comfortable with *not* controlling how the script rolls, and engaging the operator in terms of what they need *before* the event. They'll know what to expect and how to manage it. The talent should be there, as well as their superiors, interacting to make sure the people are aligned with the corporate mission and message and they all are unified aesthetically through the live presentation of the words.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. In any of these cases, even cursory rehearsals can illuminate problems in communication and workflow that can be remedied before airtime. (I'm not assuming a national or local, or even hyper-local newsroom, where bascially yesterday's show was the rehearsal for today. I'm talking about intermittly produced shows, or one-offs.)

Thanks, good luck, and drop me a line if you have any questions or want to book me for something: WorldPrompter [at] Gmail [dot] com.

Prompters In Action

These prompters are outside of the WNET Public Channel building in New York City, just a block down from Julliard. Note the Autoscript logo:

This takes a committee of people to arrive at this now famous moment

http://www.losteyeball.com/index.php/2008/12/08/way-to-read-the-teleprompter/

You can't just blame the talent here.  The producer has to see it's just in the end a thin line between one story and the next.  The transitions have to be talent-proof.  The way some writers write, they just write the story and that's necessary in an environment where a producer just wants to slide stories around like blocks.

But the newscast isn't just the story - it's the flow and transitions as any producer will tell you, and that's the lyrical part of the job.

If you're a producer, you have an obligation to study the talent and know what they're going to do with the text.

If you're talent, you have an obligation to try to not find a catch-all style that "works for everything" because obviously it doesn't.  You can just click through channels and see who is "doing their style" and who has actually read and understood if not the entire story, the part that they're responsible for.

If you're the prompter, you have an obligation to indicate to the talent, very slightly, that a new story has come up but sliding the top of the next story to the top of the glass, and "imaging" (freezing) slightly - giving them a visual cue that a new story has come up. 

Prompting effectively is very much about very close communication through the tools.  Prompting isn't writing and it isn't reading - it's an idiom unto itself, and an operator has habits that they adjust for the talent. 

Don't just look at this anchor and say, "what a dope".  These things happen by committee and everyone is part of it.  Even the prompter.

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.

Dude, Don't Bogart My Script...Scroll Your Own!

(Conflict of interest indicator on this opinion: 10 out of 10!  I'm a prompter operator for hire!) 

The iPad-iPhone-iPod Prompting System from ProPrompt sniffs other Apple devices and wirelessly unifies the prompting effort, so that various iPods/iPhones/iPads can act as controllers and slaves for a wireless prompter solution.  I haven't tried it or seen it in person but it seems worth talking about.

Both iPads and iPhones act as either/both the LCD under the semi-reflective glass, and the prompter character generator.  One unit is under the camera, and the other (optionally) is in-hand acting as a remote control.

Part of their solution is software based - a license for iPads, iPhones, and iTouch is $9.99.

They also have a version that pushes scripts to reporters in war zones exlusively.

The hardware price points vary.  For example they offer an iPad bracket and mount that on your stand, but the talent won't be looking directly into the camera.  They also offer a range of TelePrompTer style rigs based on Apple products, as well as their one rig that works on DSLR's up to ENG/Studio cameras.

TECHNIQUE POINT
What you may or may not know about shooting, is that film works at the level of registering how someone is thinking about something.  The camera-subject relationship aligns the audience with events and people.  So if someone is supposed to be looking either at a) someone else or b) you-the-camera, and that's off by even the slightest degree, I-as-audience, feel that person is disconnected from my "reality" as defined by the camera.  So the decision to move the script off the camera lens is extremely crucial, and one that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Basically the cost of the prompter is worth the cost of the project because it's a critical point of failure - have you ever spoken to someone who can't look at you?  or have you seen someone not looking a the person they were supposed to be talking to even a little bit?  I know!  They look crazy, right?

My two cents:  The talent should be doing nothing other than reading the prompter.  The should not be scrolling it, which demands a kind of distracted attention of their presence that cannot-but-register on camera, no matter how talented they are.  Their entire presence should be focused on connecting to people with the material running through them.  Always try to have a separate operator who is skilled enough to keep the relationship between the talent and the material seamless.

Obviously, the one or two-man band that newsrooms frequently deploy obviate this.  I'm just trying to illustrate a goal and some points.  Your mileage may vary.

Of course the most optimal is no prompter, but that's not always optimal when there are legal implications of what is being said.

(Conflict of interest indicator on this opinion: 10!  I'm a prompter operator for hire! But I believe in this logic 100% as I am also a classically trained actor, and have also worked in newsrooms.  While the neural stress may make the person onscreen more engaging, it's not really the right kind of tension that develops trust -- it just makes the talent look medicated, in a bad way.)

NEWSROOM/REPORTER APPLICATION
This apparently makes it easy for reporters to "scroll their own" in the field and in the studio.  From live updates, to stories that fall through, to demanding weather conditions, they have a lot to cope with while trying to look like they marched straight out of Brooks Brothers or Nordstrom's, as the world turns around them.

It also allows producers and associate producers to push scripts to repoters (via email) to update their stories in the field.

Those who worked during 9/11 remember the long hours of talking about the same thing over and over again with no end in sight and no new information except for a rushed words just before air from their producer.  As we seem to be living in an era of increased possiblities of 9/11's, climate change disasters, and the manipulation of commodities prices that is precipitating revolutions that demand 24/7 coverage, this seems like an excellent way to push volumes of timely copy to reporters on a relatively inexpensive setup.

What's the value?  Basically it's how much gripping air time you can generate by keeping your talent on-air longer with cutting edge truth waiting to be spoken.  How many commercials can you weave in around live updates that are geniunely useful and new? 

With this the talent can be hands-free (which frees up their musculature to appear more relaxed and natural), rather than do the look into the camera - look into the iPad - look into the camera - look into the iPad thing.

There are some costs though: do you really want reporters to be virtually paperless? Paper may not be the most reproduceable media any more, but it certainly seems to be extremely durable compared to LCD displays powered by batteries.

LIVE/STUDIO/DOCUMENTARY/FILM/SITCOM/WEBISODE APPLICATION

In a secure location it seems very useful.  A key concern will be the daylight visibility of the i-series devices, and syncing updates with the writer/producer so that changes can be made rapidly. 

I'm going to be scheduling an interview with ProPrompter to discuss various (newsroom, sitcom, film, hosting demo, field) applications, advantages, limitations, cost/benefit, ease of use and  integration into newsroom environments, and any other issues.

Do you have any questions?  Email a text or MP3 of your question, and I'll be happy to pose them during the interview.  I'll use your first-name only and not disclose your email on-air or blog.

Have you tried the software or the hardware? In what environment?  How did it work?  Comments are welcomed.