Teleprompter for actors: when it helps and when it shows

A teleprompter for actors is a safety net, not a script. A newsreader reads the prompter. An actor uses it to stop worrying about the one line that will not stay in, so the rest of the scene can be about the other person. That is the whole difference, and most of what goes wrong with prompters on selftapes comes from forgetting it.

I use one. I also know exactly what it looks like when an actor is reading, because I have watched my own tapes and winced. So this is the case for and against, from someone who has done both.

What a teleprompter does for an actor (not a newsreader)

A newsreader's prompter scrolls at a set speed and the reader keeps up. Every word is on the glass, the eye line is straight down the lens, and reading is the job. Nobody minds that it looks like reading, because it is meant to.

An actor's job is the opposite. The words are supposed to come from somewhere, and the eyes are supposed to be on the other person, not on text. So what a prompter can do for an actor is narrower and more useful than what it does for a presenter. It holds the words nearby so you are not holding them in the front of your head. It catches you on the line you always drop. It lets you tape sides that arrived at midnight without three hours of drilling first. It does not deliver the scene for you, and the moment you let it, the tape shows it.

The useful way to think about it: the prompter is there for the ten percent of the lines you are not sure of, and it should be invisible for the ninety you know.

Eye line, and why casting can tell

Casting directors watch hundreds of tapes in a sitting. They can spot reading in a second, and it is not because of the prompter itself. It is the eyes.

Reading eyes move in small horizontal jumps. They track left to right, snap back, track again. Even when the text is right next to the lens, the pupils are doing something that listening eyes never do. On a phone screen it is subtle. On a casting director's monitor, with your face at full width, it is obvious. The other giveaway is the fixed stare. An actor who is listening blinks, glances away, comes back. An actor who is reading holds the same spot with a slightly glassy look, because looking away means losing their place.

So the question is whether they can tell you are reading, not whether they can tell you have a prompter. A prompter placed well, with the words you mostly know, is invisible. A prompter you depend on for every line is a tell, however close to the lens it sits.

Two things keep the eye line honest. Put the prompter on the same side of the lens as your reader's eye line, so your eyes are already where they should be when you glance for a word. And know the scene well enough that the glance is a glance, not a read. The prompter is a net under a tightrope. You still have to be able to walk.

Teleprompter for a selftape

The selftape is where a prompter earns its place, because the selftape is where you are doing five jobs at once and the lines are the one that can go missing under pressure.

blablabla is a teleprompter app for actors: it reads the other character off camera while you record, with a teleprompter for your own lines. It is the best selftape reader when you need to tape tonight and nobody can read with you.

The part that matters for eye line is how the text moves. A prompter that scrolls at a fixed speed forces you to keep pace with it, and the moment you take a beat the words have gone past. That is a newsreader's prompter, and it produces newsreader eyes. In blablabla's Selftape mode the teleprompter follows the scene instead. The reader speaks the other character's line, your line comes up, and it stays there for as long as you take, because the app waits on your cue and never talks over you. You can sit in the pause. The text does not leave.

The other thing I would say about a selftape prompter: decide how much of the line you want to see before you press record. Full text is for the first take, when you are still finding the scene. By the take you send, most actors are better off with a hint or the first letters of each word, enough to catch a drop without giving the eyes anything to track. blablabla has that as a dial, full, hint, first letters or off, and it can change between takes without resetting anything. The rest of the recording setup, lighting, sound, where the phone goes, is in self tape setup on no budget, and the reader side of it is in how to selftape without a reader.

Teleprompter for learning lines vs performing them

These are two different uses, and mixing them up is how actors end up reading on camera.

For learning lines, the prompter is a page you do not have to hold. You run the scene with the full text up, the other parts spoken back to you, and you let the words go in through repetition instead of drilling. Then you turn the text down a notch and run it again. Then again with only the first letters. Then with nothing. That is a learning tool, and it works, because each step takes away a little support and your memory fills the gap. The technique is the same one actors have always done with a hand over the page, only now the other character keeps speaking while you do it.

For performing, the prompter should be nearly gone. If you are still on full text when you record the take you send, you have not finished learning, and casting will see the learning instead of the scene. The honest test: if you took the prompter away right now, would the scene fall apart? If yes, you are still in the first use. Keep running it. Send the tape when the answer is no and the prompter is there for the one line you still doubt.

The mistake I see most is actors who do all their learning with the prompter on full and then try to perform the same way, hoping the lens is close enough. It is never close enough. Reading is reading.

Settings that matter

Position first. The text should sit as close to the lens as the screen allows, on the side where your reader would be if a reader were in the room. If your reader's voice comes from the phone, that is already the right side. If you are using a second device as the prompter, put it touching the phone, not on the table below it. Eyes that drop to a table read as eyes that dropped to a table.

Text size next. Big enough to catch at a glance, small enough that a whole line fits without scrolling. If you find yourself leaning in, the size is wrong, not your eyes.

How the text advances is the setting that matters most, and it is usually the one you cannot change. A prompter on a timer sets your pace. A prompter that follows the scene lets you set it. If you have the choice, take the one that waits.

How much of the line shows is the last one. Start on full text, finish on as little as you can stand. The take you send should be the one where the prompter did the least.

Then there is everything on the camera side, focus lock, exposure, keeping the phone from switching lenses mid-take, which I covered in iPhone selftape camera controls. And if the lines are not going in at all, the prompter is not the fix. The fix is in the complete guide to rehearsing alone, which is about doing the learning so the net never has to catch you.