![]() ![]() This is true for all “direct address” jobs, but it requires a little more effort when a prompter is added to the mix. Tone, inflection, fluidity, sincerity, the list can go on and on. All of them fall under the heading: "Talk to the camera as if you're talking to a person." Anything you do or don't do when talking to a real person about something that you find interesting should be reflected in how you talk to the camera. It's not rocket science, but there are some things that you need to know. So now that there is no serious obstacle to having a teleprompter for you to use, the only other trick is learning how to use one. There are several iPad apps, some free, others very low-priced, that turn an iPad into a full-featured teleprompter, controllable remotely by a smart phone. Teleprompter mirrors and mounts are available for every conceivable kind of video camera, and, within the context of video equipment, are now incredibly affordable. The only excuse for not having it would be laziness. And now it can be yours!Īny show, commercial, or web video that asks you to talk to a camera should absolutely have a prompter for you to use. But even knowing that the anchor was reading the words as they scrolled across the front of the lens, instead of talking from memory, the effect of looking directly into the camera while speaking was a powerful new tool in communications. Over the years news viewers figured it out, of course. "You rarely look down at your script! Amazing!" ![]() "How do you memorize all that news copy every night" people used to ask me. But despite its awkwardness and tendency to humiliate actors by suddenly running backwards, it undeniably gave anchormen a good chance to look cool, calm, and in control. Then you would need to run cables to another electronic device that contained and controlled the words that would appear in front of the TV lens. You had to hang a black-and-white monitor below the lens of the camera and mount the reflective magic glass on a bracket that could support the weight of both. Since their infancy, teleprompter set-ups have been large, bulky, and expensive. Those evil cue cards, in other words, can finally be put out of our misery. It used to be something that only fully equipped studios would have, but now there is no excuse for not having a teleprompter wherever one would be helpful, including commercial auditions. The teleprompter, an indispensable tool for TV news broadcasters since the 80s, has grown up. If you've ever auditioned for a commercial where you were asked to read cue cards, held somewhere in the vicinity of the camera, and hated every impossible second of trying to do it well, your moment has come. ![]()
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