DIY Teleprompter With a Tablet and Your Phone
· 6 min read
You don’t need a studio rig to read a script on camera. A tablet or laptop shows the text, your phone controls it, and a sheet of glass turns it into a proper beam-splitter teleprompter if you want perfect eye contact.
What you need
The basic setup uses things most people already have:
- A screen to read from: tablet, laptop or spare monitor.
- Your phone, as the remote control.
- A camera — your phone, a webcam or a dedicated camera.
- Optional, for a beam splitter: a picture-frame glass or a piece of acrylic, and a cardboard hood to block light.
Setup 1: screen under the camera (5 minutes)
Put the screen directly below the camera lens, as high as it will go, and keep the text column narrow. Open the teleprompter on the screen as the display and on your phone as the controller. This is enough for most talking-head videos, especially if you sit a little back from the camera.
Setup 2: beam-splitter glass (an afternoon)
For eye contact straight into the lens, lay the tablet flat, face up, under the camera. Hold the glass above it at 45°, with the camera behind the glass looking through it at you. The glass reflects the tablet’s screen towards you while the camera films straight through.
Because a reflection is reversed, turn on the teleprompter’s mirror mode so the text reads correctly. Use a dark cloth or cardboard around the glass so the room isn’t reflected in it.
Control it from your phone
Once you’re in front of the camera, you can’t reach the tablet. Use the phone as the remote: play, pause, speed and pages. With TeexFlow, sign in on both devices — choose Display on the tablet and Controller on the phone — and whatever you present on the phone appears on the tablet by itself.
Tips for a clean result
- Turn the tablet’s brightness up — glass loses a lot of light.
- Use large, high-contrast text and a black background.
- Lock the tablet’s auto-sleep and rotation before you start.
- Do a test recording to check the glass isn’t visible in the shot.