Reducing Eye Movement While Using a Prompter#
Perhaps the most frequently asked question we get is:
How can I reduce noticeable eye movement while using a teleprompter?
The tips below, for reducing lateral eye movement while using a teleprompter, will apply both to dedicated prompting hardware as well as using your computer webcam.
The ultimate solution is a physical teleprompter hardware device that uses a teleprompter mirror (beam splitter glass) to project your prompter script directly in front of your camera lens. However, there is a huge group of people out there that don’t make more than a video or two per year and don’t want to invest in dedicated prompter hardware. You could certainly rent a teleprompter! But if you are a low volume video producer, you may just want to use your webcam on your normal computer to record a business presentation, webinar, course content or training video.
1. Increase the distance between your eyes and the prompter#
The first step is to increase the distance between your eyes (or the “talent’s” eyes) and the camera. If you are using a laptop, place the laptop on a stand or a stack of books and push it back more than an arms length from your eyes.
2. Adjust text size for readability at the camera distance#
Now that the camera or laptop has been pushed further away from you, you can use FluidPrompter’s appearance settings to make it more readable. Increase the text size (or “font size”) so that it is comfortable to read at the further distance.
3. Reduce number of words per line on screen#
After setting your desired text size for comfortable reading, you can now adjust the width of the prompter script on screen to increase or decrease how many words are shown on one line.
It can be tempting to put a lot of words on screen so that you have some buffer space to speed up or slow down your reading - but that is a misplaced practice from other prompter apps that don’t allow for quick and easy adjustment of the scroll speed.
To minimize lateral eye movement (how much your eyes move back and forth), it is much better to only have about 2-4 words per line on the prompter and then just adjust the scrolling speed to match your speaking pace.
4. Choose a prompter controller to vary the scroll speed#
At this point you will have adjusted your distance from the camera, text size and number of words per line in order to minimize how much your eyes move back and forth while reading the text.
Now you just need to decide what type of teleprompter controller best matches your personal preferences so that you are as comfortable as possible on camera. You don’t want to appear distracted or flustered on camera because you have a bit too much going on to focus on presentation.
Foot Pedal Controllers#
In our opinion the #1 best prompter controller (that results in the most natural on screen presentation) is an analog foot pedal. This keeps your hands free for on camera presentation whether holding a product you are reviewing or just avoiding a stiff looking presentation because you are holding a handheld remote off screen. Analog foot pedals allow continuous smooth adjustment of the scrolling speed like an accelerator pedal in a car. This is very intuitive and doesn’t require much thought to operate.
Unfortunately analog foot pedals cost a bit more than most other options. If you aren’t making videos very often, you might want to choose a lower cost option (even just the keyboard and mouse on your computer).
There are also momentary foot pedals which cost less than analog foot pedals, such as the Airturn Duo silent bluetooth footpedal. Momentary foot pedals have only two states: stop and go. So it’s not quite as smooth as an analog foot pedal, but still keeps your hands free for on screen presentation and is a great option for a lower price point.
Keyboard/Mouse Control#
As mentioned you can use the keyboard and mouse on your computer to control the prompter, just keep in mind that we moved back from your camera in step 1 above to reduce noticeable eye movement. If you have a laptop, you might consider using a separate keyboard or mouse so that you can maintain your distance from the camera at more than an arms length.
Handheld Bluetooth Controllers#
Probably the most common type of controller included with many teleprompter hardware devices is a handheld wireless bluetooth controller. These are generally fairly low cost and available almost anywhere around the world from multiple vendors.
Speed Dial Style Controllers#
In the video world a speed dial is referred to as a jog wheel or shuttle wheel. One of the most common jog wheel or shuttle wheel controls is the Contour Shuttle product line including ShuttleXpress and Shuttle Pro V2.
This style of controller is less common when the person on camera is also controlling the prompter, but is very common when you have an extra person available to help control the promtper on behalf of the person on camera.