Tips for Reading From a Teleprompter on Set

Whether the set is a broadcast station or a podium in front of your peers, you will probably encounter teleprompters at least once in your professional career. Teleprompters are helpful tools for providing lines from a script to a presenter, without interfering with their eye contact or speech flow. These tips for reading from a teleprompter on set will help you maintain your professionalism through each and every line.

Practice Makes Perfect

Although the teleprompter will show you the script while you’re speaking, the day you say those words should not be the first time you see the script. In order to avoid awkward pauses and stumbling as you speak, make sure to read over that script multiple times. You should know as much of that script by heart as possible because it will allow you to say those words with the conviction they require. If you lack conviction while delivering your lines, you run the risk of losing audience engagement.

Work on Your Pacing

Before the big day arrives, talk to the teleprompter operator about the pacing of the teleprompter. That way, you can take it into account when solidifying the pace of your presentation. You shouldn’t go too slow, or else you can wind up boring the audience, but you don’t want to go too fast, or else you can confuse them entirely.

When practicing your script, find out where to speed up and slow down, which you can do by practicing out loud. In other words, know how you’re going to say certain sentences. It might sound like a generic tip, but the reason this is so important is that if you focus on knowing the words and not how you’re going to say them, you’ll have to figure out the pacing in real-time, which isn’t ideal if you start lagging behind the teleprompter.

Don’t Rely on It Entirely

This goes hand-in-hand with the importance of practicing because if you simply rely on the teleprompter to give you the lines, it will hinder your speech. While the purpose of these machines is to help you glance at the script without it being noticeable, it will become noticeable if you never look at the audience. Good eye contact is one of the basics of properly speaking to an audience. Not only will knowing your script inside and out make you sound professional, but it will also make you look professional to those watching.

These tips for reading a teleprompter on set will show you how to deliver your script with the right conviction and professionalism you need in order to engage audiences. In fact, these devices are so useful that if you’re in a business like delivering the news, which requires using a teleprompter on a regular basis, you should have a back-up teleprompter in case of an emergency. Luckily, if you know how toturn your everyday iPad into a teleprompter, your set can have an easily portable backup if the situation calls for it.