Today, we're a little bit less theoretical and a bit more tactical. -Yeah.
We are talking teleprompters. You 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 YouTube. -Yes. That's become a lot
easier. And I highly recommend this for new and experienced people. Just to watch
this. See what I 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. Maybe what reasons we shouldn't use a teleprompter. So... -Start
with the pros. -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 a 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 we're just going by points. If you have it scripted,
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 that 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, "Oh, I want to say that better." -Been there, done
that. Yes. 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 for shooting a lot of videos in one setting. -In the last point,
I'll 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.
-It does. -If I'm going to write a video and write 5 bullet points, that
might take me a minute or so just to think of the points. 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 said, 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 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.. 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... 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?" -Yeah. The
illusion is blown. -But I have a teleprompter. I'm going to show you that
works really really well and we're gonna demonstrate how to use the
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 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. 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, 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. Because the lens needs to see through it? -Yes, clearly. Yes. -This attaches
to the lens. So, the lens goes through it. But then... Here, can you assist me? Just
put the camera to the phone to set it in
here. -Oh. In here? -Yeah. -Oh, sorry. Okay.
-In fact, let me... -I'm learning along with long 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 that 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 the... Okay. So, you can
see the words scrolling there. Angle 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 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 speed. -And it's fairly slow. -Yeah. You can you can speed
it up, slow it down. Just to whatever you're talking speed is. So now,
I switched it to another app that I forget the name of it all. I'll put a
link in the description for this app. But it moves automatically with your
talking. So, how can we demonstrate it and show the automatic? -Well, I'll do it. -Scott
and I were 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? -It's voice acted.
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. -Yeah. -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 grab. 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 MS nausea during pregnant... Okay.
-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 MS? 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...
-That's cool, though. And may 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. 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 over the top of it. And I actually... Somebody asked me the other day, "Hey. can I
borrow your teleprompter?" And I'm like, "I don't lend out my stuff." And I thought,
"You know, I've got that old one." So, I let him borrow my old 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. -Yeah, will you? But no you don't need it now.
That's obsolete. This is so easy. -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 points. And we filmed it. He's like, "That was amazing. I got to give
me one of those." So, this is called the parrot. I'll hold this up there so
you can.. I'm trying to get it to focus on the...
-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 lens sizes. -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 gonna think, "Man, I thought I was being a
energetic." That's what happen to me. So... -See? I think that in - back to our point about
the cons as we wrap this up is really, 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
decision maker here: What's going to help you make videos faster?
You know, what's going to help you get started? -Yeah. Well, I think it was pretty
helpful. -Good. -Especially for those who have no idea how to use the teleprompter.
-Did we convince you? -One way or the other? -Yeah. Let us know. Are you going to be trying
use a teleprompter or not? -I'd be curious to hear it. We'll see you tomorrow. -Thanks.