Today we're a little bit less theoretical and a bit more tactical. They
were talking teleprompters. You've used teleprompters before. I am using one
right now. Actually we're not. But we're going to show you and we're going to
demonstrate for you how to use a teleprompter.
If your new or old in YouTubing, I could have talked a little bit about
teleprompters today and the use of this really cool technology that recently app
developers and others have made it so easy for you to use. Yeah, it become a lot
easier. And I highly recommend this for new and experienced people. Just to watch
this. See what... See we're going to show, I'm actually going to demonstrate a
really cool teleprompter that you're really going to enjoy. But I want to
introduce it by talking about some pros and cons of when and why we should
use a teleprompter or maybe what reasons we shouldn't use a teleprompter. So, start
with the pros. So, one, it gives you great confidence. Definitely.
If you if you have a fear of being in front of the camera, you don't know what
to say, you're going to be doing lots of takes. Confidence, I mean, you already have
it scripted out, you just have to read the words. Not a problem, especially if
you're the one that's written it. It's your own stuff already, anyway. Off you go.
So, you can also be a lot more intentional. So, if you're doing a promo
video and you want to script it out, take somebody through it, kind of a sales
conversation, get somebody engaged emotionally. It's harder to do that when
you're just off the cuff or you're just going by points, if you have a script then
you know exactly what to say, you know, you put in the right words. Yeah, makes sense. So,
you can be a lot more intentional. And I mentioned, you know, the takes.
If you're scripted, you know what you're going to say, it'll take less takes, you
don't have to start over and "I want to say that better". Been there, done that. Yes.
What about stress? You know, when I use the teleprompter because I do a lot of
professional stuff as well, that's broadcast or whatever. The stress of
thinking that I have to memorize or at least capture the gist of a lot of
things does give me a lot more nervousness. And to be able to just stare
into the lens like I'm talking to you right now and read these words, certainly
makes it a lot less stressful. It takes away a lot of that energy that you don't
need especially if you're shooting a lot of videos in one setting. In the last point,
I'll say, I call better content but that not necessarily because sometimes when
it's more conversational that has a lot of value in itself. But what I mean
in this case is, you can make it more concise, you can make sure you're hitting
all your points and so you can provide a complete picture, perhaps.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, now let's talk about some of the cons. "It takes time to
write a script." If I'm going to write a video and write five bullet
points, that might take me a minute or so just to think of the points. But if I'm
going to script it out, for me, that's at least an hour. Yeah, right now, if you
can't guess, we're not on teleprompter. I mean, this is all very much bullet points
that we have on a computer underneath the screen. But that makes it very
conversational and like you say, "Anything can come up". And it's a lot quicker this
way. And it's... With the teleprompter, "It's easy to lose energy". Because you can just
get into reading mode, it's really easy to read and you can have a
really boring voice when you're when you're reading. And actually the
movement can get a little hypnotic as well. If there's a lot of copy on the
screen at once or you... It really doesn't matter but if it's moving at a certain
pace and rhythm, it can be challenging to keep you awake. Yeah. Yeah. And then
"Eye movements" depending on the teleprompter, depending on how close you
are to the camera. Sometimes people will see or your eyes moving back and forth
and they're like, "Is he reading?" The illusion is blown, yeah. So, but we have
some... But I have a teleprompter, I'm going to show you that works really, really
well and and we're going to demonstrate how to use a teleprompter correctly. You're
going to be the guinea pig so you better be a good example. I'm in. So, I've got my
camera here. It's a DSLR. This is a this is a wide
lens but it's also a big lens. Big is important because if your eyes are
moving back and forth in here you're looking at the lens no matter or so, you
got a big area that you can look at versus if I were to be filming on my... The
camera on my phone but I'm looking over here. So, anyway. Check this out. This is
the teleprompter. This little box and in fact, it's got a cover on it so that the
trick is there's the beam splitter glass. It's basically a glass with a special
coating on it that's really reflective on one side. Right. And this... Because the lens
needs to see through it clearly. Yes. This attaches to the lens so the lens
goes through it but then... here, can you assist me? Just put
to put the camera or the phone, just set it in here. Oh, in here? Yeah like that. Oh,
sorry. Okay. In fact, I'm learning along
with you. I've seen other versions and this is really cool. You can see my lock screen
or my wallpaper. So, it just reflects. Oh it turned off. Let me bring up a
script now. And I'm going to hit play. So, I'm going to hold this up here, get it to focus
on that. Here, you hold this and you hold it up close. I'll make sure the focus
goes on there. Okay, so you can see the words scrolling there and go it down a
little bit because it glare. There we go. So, anyway you're basically reading the
words of the script as they scroll along. And you can change the font size.
So, it's reflecting from the phone up to that glass but the cameras is just filming
right through it. So, you're looking right at the lens just like you're reading the
television news. So, I want to show you a different app. I'm using, this app right
here, it just has its scroll and you can control the spin...And it is fairly slow, yeah. You
can you can speed it, up slow it down, just whatever you're talking
speed is. I'm going to switch to a different app. So, now I switched it to another app
that I forget the name of it all. I'll put the link in the description for this
app. But it moves automatically with your talking. So, how can we demonstrate
it and show that automatic. Well I'll do it. Scott and I we're trying to figure
out how to show this to you and demonstrate what we're seeing here and i
can't figure out how to do it. So, I'll just describe what it does. It moves when
you read the words. So, it's voice-activated. Its voice activated.
And it recognizes the words that I'm using. And so, if he wants to talk slower and pause,
it'll just wait and then as he says it, it will then catch up. Okay,
this is how... The do-how-not-to first. How not to read from a teleprompter. So this
is just a script that I grabbed. "So, if you're watching this because you're
suffering from morning sickness and looking for help, when I say I feel your
pain, I mean it. What is M-S nausea during pregnant"... Okay, that's bad.
That is bad. Okay, go back, go back to where you were and now let me... see I
don't know how to do it wrong. I've never been taught that.
"So, if you are watching this because you're suffering from morning sickness
and looking for help, when I say I feel your pain I mean it.
What is M-S? Nausea during pregnancy which can be mild or severe often accompanied
by other digestive issues like indigestion,
acid reflux, heartburn, these are just so many good things I want to talk about." So...
It's cool though, I mean, I just say as a witness to this that it is moving with
me as I go. Which normally, that requires a whole other warm bodied person to sit
there and be the teleprompter operator. I've worked with them for years. They're
normally union guys. Don't have great personalities but they do know how to
follow you. In this case, working on your own, it's doing it for you. Which is great.
Because I've used other teleprompter apps for some of my stuff and I have to
just set it at a constant speed. And sometimes it's going too slow and I have
to stop and fix it and put a little vice-versa, so this is great. So, in the
past I had another teleprompter that was... it was a big box, it had a lid that had
the special glass on it. You put your iPad inside it or your phone inside that
would reflect it up which sometimes there'd be a big projector. But in my
case, I still used an iPad and then I put my camera behind it on a
different tripod and had a big black cloth or the top of it and I actually...
Somebody asked me, "Hey, can I borrow your teleprompter?" And I'm like, "I don't lend
out my stuff." And then I thought, "You know what, I've got that older one." So, I let him borrow my
older one and he hasn't returned it. That's why don't lean out my stuff. But if
you're watching this video, give me back my other teleprompter. But they don't need it now. That's so obsolete. This is so easy.
But this one, because it attaches to the lens, it shades out the background,
it's amazing. Now, for those of you who don't... Who still aren't convinced. You're
probably not watching this video. So, maybe I'm talking to people who aren't
watching this video. But if you are really confident on camera, you feel like
you don't need a teleprompter, I bet you still write bullet points down on a
screen or on a whiteboard or something like that.
So, with one of my clients that's that way, he was anti-teleprompter, I put up a few bullet points. His script on the screen was just the bullet
point. And we filmed it and he's like, "That was amazing! I got to give you one of
those." So, this this is called the parrot. I'll hold this up there so you can... I'm
trying to get it to focus on that. Well it's the parrot. You know the word parrot.
It's the parrot teleprompter. So, yes, it attaches to a
DSLR lens and it comes with adapter so it can fit all in sizes. It's cool. Very
cool. Yeah, definitely worth it. So, hopefully that gives you a little
introduction of how to use a teleprompter. Fairly simple as you can
see. If the technology is half the battle and then the rest is, can you read
conversationally? If not, you might consider the bullet point approach which
is actually a really great alternative because most of the time, I think, and I'm
not the expert but you'll know enough about what you want to talk about that
if you just have a few prompted bullet points, you can then go. And then
conversational is, unnatural is right at the tip of your tongue. It takes
practice but, yeah. But I mean, if you're not reading it, we're not reading. Does
this sound natural? So, that I guess I'll give one more point on the reading it. If
you're reading a script, all it takes is practice. Record one, use a teleprompter
and raise your energy, be more energetic and then watch it afterwards and you're
going to think, "Man, I thought I was being energetic." That's what happened to me .Okay, so,
When I first started filming, I had to use a teleprompter for everything.
I would raise my energy but then I watch it afterwards and I was just sitting
there totally dead monotone I'm like, "But that was with high energy." So... See, I think
that...Back to our point about the cons, as we wrap this up is really, you
know, it can be a con for the reasons that we mentioned particularly the time
that it takes to write it and then if you need time to practice it and because
you're not very good at it. And the extra equipment, I mean, it just kind of depends
on I think, you know, like a great intro to a video, you might put on a
teleprompter. It's brief, it's quick but it's also concise and to the point it
doesn't need to be terribly conversational. But the meat of your
video, you might want to be more fluid. Just depends on your style of videos and
ultimately, let this be your your decision maker here. What's going to help
you make videos faster? What's going to help you get started? Yeah.
Well, I think that was pretty helpful. Good. Especially for those who have no
idea how to use a teleprompter. Did we convinced you? One way or the other. Yeah, let us know.
Are you going to be trying a teleprompter or not? I'd be curious to hear?
We'll see you tomorrow.