Teleprompt - Auto cue

M

morgan_moore

Major Contributor
Following my other thread on live 'broadcasting' Im interested in some teleprompt software.

It seems to me that teleprompt should be driven by a director/operator

So Im after this..

1) no connection to internet
2) ipad pro or pc laptop shows script the right way round for the director to read/drive*
3) monitor has minimised and flipped version of the text for my mirror box

I note that some of my monitors can flip the image but not all, Id prefer a software flip.

So just trying to find software.

BTW when driving the cue it seems best to do this ..

text scrolls, space bar stops scrolling ad starts it again

I find one drives the text a litttle fast and then pause it while the talent breaths.

*im not sure if it should be laptop or ipad.. I can see my laptop doing the stream.. and my ipad batteries dieing.. neither being perfect.

Thanks for thoughts.
 
Presentation prompter is on this MacBook - but to be fair, all of them offer the two screen mode you want - it's standard really. for PC the prompt lite version is still free I think. As you start to pay for the software, features get added like importing word documents or putting oil markers and being able to do more clever stuff.

You can drive it for the presenter - if you are good enough. Getting it wrong infuriates them, while other presenters are happy doing it themselves with a foot pedal - handy if they can do this. Some can, some can't. Personally, a decent person operating frees the presenter, but a poor one really winds them up!
 
Two screen with the second flipped..*? Im not so sure. Or is one always doing this with having a monitor that flips in the menu.

My Dp7 does that and maybe my atomos (which is usually not available for this) but not my old DP1 monitors which would do good duty on this task.

A recent youtubeer says feelworld have flip screen which is a cheap possibility

*some systems will flip everything.. but then the director must read/edit flipped text

I need..
director sees normal text
external is flipped for projection through mirror


S
 
So do you have any examples.. there are milllions on google and a thousand aholes reviewing them on youpube.

for PC
or
Ipad pro

Ive downloaded 'proptdog' but I dont like the scroll speed elements of it. It does fip the screen.
 
morgan_moore said:
text scrolls, space bar stops scrolling ad starts it again
Click to expand...

That does not give you enough precision. Having the text move at a constant speed and then pausing every now and then is too jarring for the talent. You never want to stop the scrolling entirely. The text needs to be moving at all times, and using a single speed never works as different words and sentences require more or less time to speak. What you want is software that has true variable speed. Both of my prompters run from the scroll wheel on the computer mouse so you just gently roll the wheel one way or another to slightly speed up or slow down to keep the line they are reading right at 1/3 down from the top of the screen. You also want software that allows you to have formatting cues for the talent, such as bold, underline, and changes in color. All important stuff to get a good performance out of the talent.

I just took pictures of one my prompters a few days ago as I'm preparing to sell it . . . but you're in the UK so not worth even mentioning/.
 
I have a 2006 MacBook Pro that I use as my dedicated prompter computer. It lives with the prompter and doesn't get used for anything else. The text plays on the computer screen for whoever is running the prompter, and also feeds a monitor under the beam splitter glass. Whoever is directing (often that is me) runs the prompter because it forces that person to focus on every word of the talent's performance and to make subtle changes in speed when necessary. Also, if text editing is necessary, it is so much easier for the director to be hands-on.

I keep my prompter fully-assembled in a hard case so that all I have to to is pulll it out, click it into the tripod, add a camera behind the glass and I'm ready to shoot in less than 5 minutes.

The software I use is called FlipQ. It can import Rich Text Files from Word with all my formatting intact, which is critical for how I work with the talent. You can easily help and direct the client through the way the prompter is foramatted and operated.

Once the script is inside FlipQ it can still be modified as much as you want. I got the software and prompter system from The Prompter People about 20 years ago.

https://prompterpeople.com/software-1/
https://prompterpeople.com/

Best ROI of any hardware I have ever bought. Period.
Sometimes I have charged extra for the prompter but mostly I just throw it in as part of the package because I know it will make the shoot go so much smoother. CEO's. doctors, politicians, etc. have an inflated idea of what they can do ad-lib. I love to pull out the prompter and tell them to focus on the performance instead of memorizing. If the talent looks good, the client looks good, and then I look good. I get hired again and I make more money. Win-win. Sometimes just putting up Keynote slides or bullet points is enough to keep the right person on track. It doesn't always have to be a word-for-word script. And it is easy with a little coaching to get almost everyone to deliver in a natural tone.
 
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