Placing it near the lens is what keeps a read from looking like a read: eyes that travel down a page are visible to the viewer, eyes that hold one point are not. Its height is a trade — higher looks more like eye contact, lower gives more of the coming sentence to see.
Concept
Reading line
The fixed position on a prompter where the next words to say are held, so the eyes stay still and the text moves past them.
Related concepts
Guides mentioning this concept
How Much a Teleprompter Actually Cuts Retakes
A teleprompter cuts retakes by removing the memory slip that usually ruins a take. This is what actually changes when you read your script instead of recalling it from memory, and what still causes a retake even with a prompter running in front of you.
12 min
Why You Re-Record the Same Line on Camera (Retake Anxiety)
Retake anxiety is the reason a single flubbed word makes you scrap a whole minute of otherwise clean video. Here's why one mistake feels contaminating, how many takes creators actually need, and what changes when the problem is your script instead of your nerves.
12 min
Why Your Teleprompter Breaks When You Switch Languages
The moment you switch languages mid-sentence, voice recognition usually stops following you - not a bug, but a limit built into how it listens. This guide covers why it happens and how to script and record a bilingual video without losing your place.
11 min
How to Stop Looking Like You're Reading on Camera
Everyone can tell when you are reading, and it is not your acting. Research puts a number on it: eye contact breaks past 4.5 degrees above the lens. This guide turns that into centimetres at real filming distances, then sets your text, line width and camera so the tell goes away.
15 min
Write a Teleprompter Script Voice Recognition Can Follow
Voice recognition doesn't fail on your teleprompter script randomly - it fails on specific words: acronyms, homophones, numbers, mixed languages. Fix those five things before you record, and the app follows you instead of losing your place mid-sentence.
10 min
When Your Voice Teleprompter Falls Behind: What Actually Happens
Voice-controlled scrolling is sold as flawless. It isn't. Here's what a voice teleprompter actually does when recognition can't keep up - and what it should do instead, so a dropped word doesn't cost you the whole take.
8 min