Using a Teleprompter/ Autocue for video communications

An invaluable tool when filming direct to camera communications; this studio technology has been made portable and accessible for use by videographers.

By incorporating a tablet which reverses and automatically scrolls the text, the presenter is able to read the text reflected on piece of glass directly in front of the lens of the camera. The presenter can maintain a fixed gaze upon the camera without looking down at notes; the result is a confident and professional looking communication.

The teleprompter that I use has a remote control allowing the presenter to adjust the speed of the text. It does take a few run throughs to get right, but will still save a lot of filming time. I would allow enough time for a maximum of four takes

This is especially useful for last minute shoots, when the presenter has not had time to learn the script or for inexperienced presenters who are not used to speaking to directly to camera.

As the text has to be loaded into a tablet and played through a specialist app, it is advisable to have this in place before the shoot, as it can be time consuming to set up. The text should be provided as a text file with UTF-8 encoding - this will preserve language accidentals and punctuation which is essential if the text is in a foreign language.