Raising Awareness Productions Blog

The iprompter

I have been using an autocue on productions for years.  In my professional opinion the cheaper equipment has either been a pain to use and operate, or, the more expensive models have required a high budget on a production because they require an operator.  I have been looking for a cost-effective and good practical solution to this issue for several years.

Last week I tried a new product from Datavision after coming across these guys when I wanted to purchased some new fluorescent, affordable lighting.

Yes, I have an iphone.  It’s really helpful because I have my showreel on my phone to show clients!  So, I was fascinated to learn about the iprompter from Datavision www.datavision.co.uk.  I tried it on a shoot this week and it is simply brilliant.

I can fix the iprompter hood on my lens ring quickly and easily, and cut and paste a long document into i-prompt in a few seconds.  The remote means an assistant (who doesn’t need to be an auto cue techy) can operate and control the scrolling text, but to be honest all I am needing to do is start the scrolling text myself really with a 5-10 second ‘action’ run in time.  The i-prompt settings as an app I have found make it easy to scroll text at a pace and size easy to read for clients.

A few Producers and Directors have said to me, surely the iphone is too small to be a good autocue?  This hasn’t been my experience this week with clients.  It is perfect for filming at distances of 1-3 metres.  Actually, I would be bold enough to say it is BETTER than a regular size prompter.  The reason is the iphone is obviously smaller and so when subjects are reading text, and looking into the camera lens eye movements are smaller and so less visible.

This product is an asset to any cameraman or directors tool kit.  Thank god for new products like this appearing in the marketplace!  Thank-you Datavision!