I occasionally do freelance work in photography and videography (side note: Unser Imagery is my company). A few months ago I shot a series with John Baker from The Asking Formula. They had asked me if I had a TelePrompTer system at that time, which unfortunately I did not. We shot our first series with some prompter software running on my iPad directly to the side of the camera lens. As much as John tried to make it work, I could tell that his eyes would look off-screen every so often to get himself back on track. And it was frankly difficult to capture a clean take, as inevitably he would get off track. He’s a total pro, it’s just a tough thing for anyone to do.
So, when John called again for another series, I decided to provide a TelePrompTer for him.
They make TelePrompTer systems for digital cameras but they start at about $450. That’s not crazy expensive, but it’s out of my budget. I decided to make one on my own. There are many tutorials out there about how to do this. I work with them every day for my job at Twin Cities Live, and they are fairly simple at their core – you’ve got a piece of angled glass for the camera to shoot through, and in front of that glass is your display device with the words. Due to the angle of the glass, the camera does not see the reflection of the words but anyone looking through the glass from the other side can read them easily.
A real TelePrompTer uses something called “beam splitter” glass, which basically has a highly reflective side for the words but it won’t prohibit the camera from seeing through it. Back in the olden days, a large TV monitor would hang off the front of the camera pointed up at the angled glass. But since tablets like the iPad have rolled around, those bulky TVs are no longer needed. I used an app called PromptSmart on my iPad to function as that monitor.
The build was fairly simple. I sketched out how I wanted the prompter to look, mostly so I could remember the pieces to make.
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Quite the blueprint, I know. Then I got to the actual construction. I bought a $6 8×10 photo frame on clearance from Michaels. I didn’t need the frame – I just needed the glass. And it needs to be glass, as plastic is not nearly as reflective.
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I cut some framing pieces off some spare wood that I had in my garage. I also cut grooves in the framing pieces in some very sketchy moves on my table saw. I was in hurry.
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I also cut a piece that was a little bigger than a standard size iPad to be the base and busted out the nailer to secure everything together.
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Initially I cut some corner pieces to form a brace to make sure my glass was at a 45 degree angle but I ended up taking those off the final design. I also added a hinge I had in my garage but I eventually took that off too, as it was easier to manipulate into position with the loose frame instead of securing it. If I ever make a better one, I’ll spend more time working out the tolerances and might add some metal to make everything nice and rigid.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
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For testing purposes, I just threw a blanket over the assembly. You have to make the camera enclosure pretty dark so the reflection shows up and they don’t just see a camera and out the back of the unit.
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For the final touch, I added some black poster board to the sides and top to form a box to keep out the light. We tried it out for our shoot and it worked just great! Fancier glass and a black paint job would make it even better but for $6, it’s hard to beat!
