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Tips for reading from a Teleprompter

Reading from a TelePrompter is a specific skill. It can be a bit daunting if you’re doing it for the first time.

When you’re speaking to someone – whether it’s one person or a hundred – you’re getting some kind of feedback. It could be a smile or a nod of acknowledgement. It could be a quizzical look. It could even be someone drifting off to sleep. Whatever the reaction, you have an idea of how things are going and you can feed off those cues and adjust your performance.

Now picture your audience as a teleprompter. A black square with scrolling text. Not much feedback or response to work with. Now add in the fact that you’re reading a prepared statement. There’s something about reading off a prompter that often makes people sound flat. I think that most people are so concerned with getting the words right that they’ don’t think about what they’re saying.

The best way to get a feel for reading from a prompter is to practice. Make sure you build in enough time before the shoot to run through the script a few times. You’ll get more comfortable and you’ll be able to make some changes to the script to make your read more natural. Which brings me to another point – prompter operators can be your best friend. They’ve know how to format the script, stress words and give you a visual break so that you sound better and are more comfortable. They’ve done this thousands of times for executives, politicians and others. They can big a tremendous help.

If you’re looking for a more extemporaneous feel and you’re comfortable working with PowerPoints, you can feed your presentation into the prompter so that it appears on the prompter’s screen. Use the presentation as your script and you’ll be through it in no time.