How to Prepare for a Teleprompter Video Session

A teleprompter can make recording a video much easier. You don’t have to memorize a script, remember every talking point or worry that you’re going to forget the most important sentence halfway through.

But there’s a catch.

Reading words off a screen and looking like you’re not reading words off a screen are two different skills.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a professional broadcaster to get comfortable with it. A little preparation before your session can make a huge difference.

Write for your mouth, not the page

This is probably the biggest one. Something can look perfectly fine when you’re reading it silently and feel completely unnatural when you try to say it out loud.

Before your session, read your entire script aloud. Not in your head. Actually say the words. If you stumble over something, change it. If you stumble over it twice, definitely change it.

There’s no prize for successfully conquering an awkward sentence. If your mouth doesn’t naturally want to say something that way, rewrite it in a way that it does.

That might mean shortening a sentence, using a contraction, swapping out a word or breaking one thought into two.

The best teleprompter scripts sound like something you would actually say.

Don't memorize your script

You have a teleprompter. Let it do its job.

You should absolutely be familiar with your script before you arrive, but you don’t need to memorize it. In fact, trying to remember the exact wording can sometimes make people more tense because they’re mentally comparing what they’re saying to what they remember writing.

Know what you’re talking about. Know where the script is going. Then use the teleprompter to handle the words. That frees you up to concentrate on the part that matters: communicating with the person watching.

Go three notches bigger

This is something I tell people during shoots all the time: Go about three notches bigger than where you feel comfortable. Think theatre.

You don’t necessarily need to start waving your arms around and projecting to the back row, but you do need more energy than you probably think you do.

Smile a little more. Put some emphasis behind important words. Let your face react to what you’re saying. Vary your tone. Use your hands if that's how you naturally talk.

What feels slightly exaggerated when you’re standing in front of a camera often looks completely normal when you watch it back. What feels "normal" to you can sometimes look surprisingly flat on camera.

We can always bring the energy down. It's much harder to manufacture energy that wasn't there in the first place.

Don't chase the teleprompter

A good teleprompter operator follows you. You shouldn't have to race to keep up with the words on the screen. We'll adjust the speed to match your natural speaking pace.

And you can pause. In fact, please do.

Natural pauses give your words room to breathe, and they make editing much easier. You don't have to deliver an entire paragraph in one uninterrupted run.

If you mess up, just stop

Everybody messes up. Professional broadcasters mess up. Actors mess up. People who spend their entire careers on camera mess up. The worst thing you can do is make a small mistake, panic and then try to somehow rescue the rest of the sentence.

Just stop.Take a second.

We'll back the teleprompter up, and you can start the sentence again.

That's what editing is for.

Try to finalize your script before the session

Small changes during a shoot are completely normal. In fact, sometimes we won't realize a sentence isn't working until we hear you say it.

But there's a difference between tweaking a script and writing one while you're sitting in front of the camera. The more settled your script is before your session, the more time we can spend getting a great performance instead of rewriting.

Pay particular attention to names, numbers, acronyms and technical terminology. Those are often the places where people get tripped up.

Remember what the teleprompter is actually for

The goal isn't to become really good at reading.

The goal is to make reading look like talking.

Once you're in front of the camera, try to stop thinking about the words themselves and think about what you're saying. Imagine you're explaining it to a real person.

Because ultimately, you are.

The teleprompter is just there to make sure you don't forget what you wanted to tell them.