Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (
More info?)
"Mike Kujbida" <kujfam-misleadingspam@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:36qhr0F5118ccU4@individual.net...
> Owamanga wrote:
>> On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 19:10:12 GMT, Craig Busch <clbusch@earthlink.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I would appreciate it if you could please share any ideas on
>>> alternatives to using a teleprompter?
>>
>> Memorize your lines.
>
>
> The old fashioned way is a Sharpie and several pieces of bristle board (2'
> x
> 3' - $1 ea.). I've also put a computer monitor next to the lens, loaded
> up
> MS Word on a laptop, set the script to a large font, and stepped through
> it.
> Not elegant by any stretch of the imagination but it works.
> One on-camera talent I've worked with in the past recorded the script onto
> cassette, put it in a small player, hooked it onto his belt in the back
> and
> ran an earpiece up. Right before we were due to start, he'd hit "play"
> and
> talk along with his own voice. As long as we weren't on a really tight
> shot, you never saw the earpiece. It takes some practice not to get
> confused but he regularly did 1/2 hr. trade show talks this way - on
> subjects he knew absolutely nothing about
Beware---long, long reply with more than you probably want to know about ear
prompting.
We dubbed it the 'Ear Prompter', when we first started using mini-cassette
players coupled with hearing aid technology as a substitute for visual
prompters back in the 80s. At that time I was working only as an actor. My
time was about equally divided between VO work on commercials and corporate
on camera presenter roles. This was about the time that training scripts
became longer and longer. In the studio, where regular teleprompters could
be used, it became routine to knock out 30 or 40 pages per day. However, in
the field visual prompters were and are often not practical. It was also
not reasonable to expect an actor to memorize even ten or twenty pages of
copy, particularly about arcane subjects with unfamiliar jargon. After all,
ten or fifteen pages of copy is like memorizing a significant role for a
theatrical play. I remember how we struggled. Then, a fellow actor, Bob
Hultz, heard about an actor working in Detroit that was using a portable
cassette player, about as big as a brick at that time, hung from his belt as
a cueing device. He approached a hearing aid store for help in creating an
in-ear device that was unobtrusive. I and a couple of other got wind of it
and assembled our own kit. Maybe five or six of us had a remarkable
competitive advantage for several years as other actors shunned the devices
as 'cheating'. Whatever, ear prompting kept me busy for over a hundred days
a year for many years.
Here are some of the advantages. First, an actor can appear on set, receive
a script from the director and be ready to go with the first scene on the
shot list literally in minutes. (I prefer to record my guide track scene by
scene as the day progresses. That way I don't have to search for the proper
scene.) After acquiring the skill to listen to yourself talk and speak
those words aloud in a believable and convincing way, the actor can do take
after take at exactly the same pace, while the rest of the team perfects a
difficult camera move. The actor won't burn out as happens when performing
memorized copy. Prompter stare is at the very least unnatural and often
obvious, when actors work with visual prompters. An ear prompter frees the
actor up to speak like a real human being, changing eye contact as
appropriate to the action and environment. I often put prop-cues right on
the prompting track. "Pick up the widget." "Write on easel card, 'Ten
rules for effective presentation.' And so on. Actors who are proficient
can use ear prompting effectively in dialogue scenes as well as to the
camera presenting. I worked on scenes with as many as five or six actors
all on ear prompter who were able to do take after take, for different
camera angles, flawlessly.
My current kit, used only a few days ago, consists of a Sony Digital note
taker, which holds over an hour of audio, a 'neck loop', and a completely
invisible custom molded wireless in-ear monitor. The neck loop plugs into
the Sony. The loop acts as the primary of a transformer that induces
current in a tiny coil in the ear monitor, which is amplified. I also have
back-up kit that consists of a little ear phone button whose output is
channeled through a very small diameter transparent plastic tube to a stock
sized ear insert. The tubing goes over the top of the ear and, as Mike
said, is all but invisible except for tight profile close-ups.
As one of the earliest adopters of this method of overcoming the
difficulties of memorization and frequent script changes, I believe the
technique has had as big an effect on productivity --- where presenters are
involved--- as moving from film to videotape. Today it is perfectly
reasonable to expect to do thirty or even forty pages a day of presenter
copy without stress and with greater apparent spontaneity than possible any
other way.
If anyone is interested I can hook you up with someone who has been putting
this kind of gear together for a couple of decades.
Steve King
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