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Notes on recording to camera.
I build a Mac teleprompter, which means I spend a lot of time in front of my own camera. These are the things I keep running into, written down so I stop relearning them.
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A small prompter, right under your camera
At a desk, distance is not an option. Bring the script to the lens: two or three short lines, the first one at the top, nothing on top of the words.
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Recording to camera in your second language
In a second language the script is a safety net you really need, and reading it is harder to hide.
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You speak to your prompter
Your hands are the wrong tool when you record alone. Tell the prompter where to go instead.
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Read your script over the app you are demoing
A demo has two things on screen: the app and your script. Float the script over the app, let the clicks through, and keep it out of the take.
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Check your framing without leaving the script
The best spot to check your framing is the one already showing your script. Put the camera there, check, and press C to hide it.
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Go off script without losing your place
The best line in the take is often not in the script. Say it, and come back to the page without hunting for your place.
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Open the prompter on the right screen, every time
Decide once where the prompter goes, make the app remember it, and stop walking back to the desk to drag windows.
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Let an AI assistant run your teleprompter
The take is the short part. An assistant can write the script, load it and move chapters for you, and it cannot record or delete a thing.
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How to format a script for a teleprompter
A document and a prompter script are different objects. Short lines, real section breaks, marked pauses, and less on the page than you think.
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Using your phone as a teleprompter remote
Every trip back to the keyboard is a retake. A remote needs four controls, not forty, and the phone in your pocket can be it.
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Presenting slides on camera when nobody is clicking for you
Alone with a deck, the slide always lands a beat late or early. Tie each change to a word in the script and the clicker stops being a job.
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Reading notes on a video call without looking like it
Notes in a window beside the call are the worst place for them. Where the text should sit, and how little of it you need.
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How to film yourself without a crew
Filming alone means doing four jobs at once, plus a fifth nobody names: running the prompter.
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Stop losing eye contact while reading a script
Shifty eyes on camera are mostly geometry, not nerves — where the text sits decides more than confidence does.
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Stop memorising your script
Learning your lines costs hours per video and buys less than you think. What to memorise instead.
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A weekly recording routine for one person
Publishing on a schedule alone is a throughput problem, not a talent problem.
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How to stop sounding like you're reading
The tell is not in your voice, it is in your timing — and a fixed-speed scroll is usually what breaks it.
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Why a three-minute video takes all evening
Eight unglamorous reasons the take count climbs, and what actually fixes each one.
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Recording scripts you cannot upload
If the script names a client, a patient or an unannounced product, the question is where the text and the audio actually go.