Teleprompter Operation Techniques
Basic teleprompter operation is a mission critical part of your student newscast and other video productions.
Your teleprompter operator should thoroughly practice running the teleprompter software, should communicate with on-camera talent and thoroughly practice running the software with their on-camera talent prior to the production.
Practice with the software
Thorough practice with the teleprompter software means that your operator can answer or demonstrate the following:
How to properly load the script or load the entire show script?
How do you start the teleprompter scroll?
How do you scroll the teleprompter script forward?
How do you scroll the teleprompter script backward?
How do you pause the teleprompter scroll?
How do you control the speed of the forward scroll?
How do you control the speed of the backward scroll?
How do you skip ahead to the next story or script?
How do you skip back to the previous story or script?
How do you skip to the beginning of your story, script or show?
How do you skip to the end of your story script or show?
Communicate with your talent
Each on-camera talent has a unique teleprompter reading speed and preferences so teleprompter operators must communicate with their talent with questions regarding the following topics:
Can you read this teleprompter font size? If not make, make proper adjustments.
From where (which line) on the teleprompter screen do you plan to read the teleprompter script? (Top Line, 2nd Line, Middle of the screen etc)
Practicing with your talent
There is no substitute for practice.
For live production practice, scroll through the teleprompter script a few times with your talent and be sure to practice or acknowledge realistic pauses to read live voice-over copy, realistic pauses play video elements such as your video Sound on Tape (SOT) segments such as interviews, realistic pauses to play your video package stories and be sure to properly emulate story-to-story transitions and commercial/sponsor breaks.
Things do not always go as planned during live production. What do you do if something goes wrong during live production and you need to skip ahead to the next story? If you have time, be sure to also practice this type of production scenarios.
Again, there is no substitute for practice.
Your school’s newscast production, including teleprompter operation, is an exciting event that requires coordinated planning, preparation and execution. If you plan to have a great school newscast, a number of excellent high school broadcast programs around the country are using the Inception Newsroom System for their newscasts and other shows.
With current demands placed on broadcast instructors and the limited time available for you to prepare your students, the best way to ensure that a well established news gathering and news production process is followed by everyone on your news team is the implementation of, the established standard for newscast production, a Newsroom Computer System (NRCS). In fact, a NRCS is the only choice of serious and competitive broadcast programs because these productions require a uniquely efficient, effective and structured workflow that cannot be well performed by unconnected tools.
For educators, your NRCS must be both easy to learn and easy to use for the average student because, in a relatively small amount of time, all members of your news team and production crew must be ready to fulfill their rolls and cooperate to produce a well executed and informative program. Your NRCS must be able to run on standard and readily available “off the shelf” computers, which in most cases, are already available and in place at your school. Finally, you NRCS must be flexible enough for use in both studio production and in-class instruction.
For productions, your NRCS must properly facilitate all of the basic integrated newscast planning and production functions including story assignments, script writing/approval/printing, rundown building, show and segment timing, producing, directing, teleprompting and complete show archiving as well as optional interfaces with common production devices such as broadcast quality character generator (CG) solutions.
In the classroom, your NRCS must allows instructors to teach and students to practice specific broadcast news skills such as news writing, show building and other required production skills in an open environment.
To inquire about the Inception for your newscasts and other show productions, we encourage you to visit the Ross / Inception website, call them toll free at (888) 326-1415 or visit with a Ross Video Systems representative in person at any number of upcoming educational trade shows this year. They can answer your questions, provide you with an Inception Quote specific to your school’s requirements or even schedule an individual Inception demonstration for you at your school.