Using a teleprompter naturally: tips for first-timers

A teleprompter read looks stiff for three reasons: the script was written to be read rather than said, the text moves at someone else's pace, and the reader's eyes give them away. Fix those three and most people look natural within a few takes.

We have two teleprompters at Isle of Pods, and clients use them for podcast intros, CEO messages and online course videos. Here's what we've learned watching people go from rigid to relaxed.

How a teleprompter actually works

A sheet of angled glass sits in front of the camera lens. A screen below it shows your script, and the glass reflects the text towards you while the camera films straight through it. So when you read, you're looking directly down the lens, and to the viewer it feels like you're talking to them.

That's the clever part. The hard part is that you are still reading, and people can tell when you read badly.

Write for the ear, not the page

This matters more than anything you do on the day.

• Short sentences. If you can't say it in one breath, split it.

• Contractions. "We're" not "we are". "It's" not "it is". Nobody talks like a press release.

• One idea per sentence. Commas and clauses that work on paper turn into a breathless ramble out loud.

• Read it out loud before you send it. Every place you stumble is a place you'll stumble on camera. Rewrite those lines.

• Spell out awkward words. Numbers, acronyms and tricky names, written the way you'll say them: "twenty twenty-seven", "H-M-R-C".

• Use line breaks for pauses. A new line tells you to breathe. It works far better than punctuation.

Send it before the day

Email the script as plain text or a PDF before your session. Loading text on the day takes about five minutes of your booked time, and last-minute edits are where typos sneak in. Plain text matters: tables, bullet points and formatting don't survive the trip onto a prompter screen.

Control the speed, don't chase it

On a standard booking you run the prompter yourself with a small handheld remote. That's better than it sounds, because the text moves at your pace, not someone else's guess at it.

Keep the line you're reading in the top third of the screen, so you can see what's coming. Scroll in small, regular nudges rather than big jumps. Spend a couple of minutes practising before you record anything that counts; it takes most people about that long to stop thinking about the remote.

On a crewed session, one of us operates the prompter and follows your delivery, speeding up and slowing down with you.

Stop your eyes giving you away

The giveaway on a prompter is the eyes sweeping left to right on every line. Keeping the text column narrow and the words fairly large reduces it. So does knowing the script well enough that you're glancing at the words rather than reading each one.

You don't need to memorise it. Read it aloud three or four times the day before. By the recording, the prompter is a safety net rather than a lifeline, and that's when people start to look natural.

Talk to one person

Picture someone specific just behind the lens: a colleague, a client, a friend who'd tell you if you sounded fake. Talk to them. Your voice drops into a conversational register, you start to smile in the right places, and your hands come back to life.

Let yourself move. Small nods, a hand gesture on the important line, a shift in your seat between paragraphs. Stillness reads as tension.

Do it in short takes

You don't have to get two minutes perfect in one go. Record a paragraph at a time. If you trip, pause, go back to the start of that paragraph and carry on. The edit joins them up, and on screen it reads as one smooth piece.

Reading questions in a conversation

If you're hosting an interview and want your questions in front of you, a prompter on the camera is the wrong place for them, because you'd be looking at the lens instead of your guest. We can put the second prompter on a stand just behind your guest instead. You read the question, and to the camera you're simply looking at the person you're talking to.

When not to use one

For a genuine conversation, don't. A prompter turns talk into recitation. The format we see work best for company content is a mix: scripted intro and outro on the prompter, a few key lines you have to get word-perfect, and everything in between unscripted.

Both teleprompters are included in every studio booking. If it's your first session, our guide to preparing for your first video podcast covers the rest of the day, and you can see everything that comes with a session on our pricing page.