Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan.
Today on The Slanted Lens we're gonna take a look at teleprompters.
Why you need one and how to use them.
MUSIC
Today on The Slnted Lens we're gonna take a look at teleprompters.
And for one main reason.
In the last three months I've been using them constantly.
Long shoots with tons of dialogue on teleprompters.
And some times it can be arduous and very difficult if you don't know a few things.
So here are some things I've learned.
First off, the teleprompter we got, the PT1200 from ikan, the reason I got it is because
it is- it collapses, it goes into an SKB case.
I threw it on an airplane, we flew to Colombia and it worked fabulously.
Put it back on the airplane, flew it back.
So it's just portable, it sets up really fast.
I just can't stand teleprompters that don't set up fast.
So number one, get a teleprompter that sets up quickly so you can set up your shot and
get on with the work you have to do.
Number two, clean the thing.
All the surfaces.
Clean all the surfaces.
You've got a surface of the monitor, you've got a surface of the, two surfaces of the
glass, and the lens.
Clean all those things before you set it, before you get everything all in place, and
make sure those surfaces are clean.
Just use a little microcloth and clean them up.
Make sure you flag the entire teleprompter.
'Cause you've got all these glass surfaces, and a little rim light can get in there and
really cause a problem for you.
So make sure you flag the entire teleprompter, all those surfaces.
Get a flag up there and make sure it's clean.
Get the type large enough on the screen.
Not just so that the person can read it, but also so that their eyes are not going like
this, back and forth, back and forth.
As they're scanning.
'Cause people automatically go well that guy's reading off a teleprompter, man.
You know.
But you want them to look straight into the lens.
They type is large enough so that they can just perceive the type as they read it as
it goes up.
So it's really important to get it the right size.
I think it's important to prep the script beforehand.
Take out everything that is not going to be what you want your voiceover, or your actor
to say, on the teleprompter.
So get rid of all the other actors lines.
Get rid of everything else so that you can just have their voiceover.
It'll go a lot faster.
But in doing that, there's always the danger that you'll miss a line.
So have a script on hand as a director, as a person behind the camera, and mark off each
section as you go through it so you know you've covered each section that you need to do on
teleprompter that day.
That way if you miss something in the edit, or if somehow something got deleted when you're
working on the teleprompter, you're there looking at it going, you know what, we missed
this line.
Where's this line?
We'll pick it up.
It's pretty important.
When you're doing this for six or eight or ten days, you'd be shocked at the number of
things that happen like that.
On a teleprompter, the type is very basic.
It's just one font, one size, one color.
So you use other things to give the actor cues about how to read the dialogue.
A comma, they know that there's a break a little bit in the thought there, not an end
to the sentence, but it gives them a chance to break and to move forward.
We use quotation marks when we want them to know this is something we want emphasized.
You know, emphasize.
In a van down by the river.
So you want to emphasize that.
And it's really important to make sure that your script is conversational.
Read it back, read it out loud so you can make sure that you understand and what it
sounds like.
Read it out loud.
I like to sit down with the writer and we read the whole script out loud.
It really makes it flow better and you know it's going to be much nicer to read when you
do that.
And give your teleprompter person who's operating and the actor time to get into a rhythm together.
Because the teleprompter is moving the entire time.
So the person who's running it has got to get into the groove with the actor.
The speed the actor's going to like.
Be able to pause it when it's time to pause it.
Be able to move it on when the actor's ready to move on so that the person running the
teleprompter is not going to slow the actor down and make the actor feel unnatural.
Just because you're on a teleprompter doesn't mean you can't use your hands.
Get those hands up.
You know, let the actor become comfrotable gesturing.
Make this interesting.
Don't get them like this the whole time so they turn into a robot.
Get those hands up.
ikan had a lot of great teleprompter models, and they will serve you depending on what
you want to choose.
I chose portability.
Which for me, portability and quick set up were the most important things to me.
But there are others there that if you're going to leave them set up all the time, and
be using them a lot, are bigger and more robust.
You may want to go that direction.
This is not sponsored by ikan, but I did call them up and say, "ikan, I love this teleprompter,
send me one."
And they said, "Ok, great.
Here's one."
So there's some quick tips on how to run a teleprompter.
I'm not an expert on teleprompters, although after the last three months I think I have
a pretty good idea how to use them and some things to watch out for.
So take a look at those tips.
Hopefully they'll help you avoid some problems when you use a teleprompter.
Keep those cameras rollin' and keep on clickin'.