Teleprompter Software for Mac

[Heiko Saele]

I'm looking for a simple teleprompter software for Mac.
I have a display that automatically mirrors the text, so the software doesn't need to do that.
Well, actually it must be able to display non-mirrored text because you can't turn off the mirroring in the prompter display...

It doesn't need a lot of features, I'd rather have something simple and not too expensive.

Any suggestions?

[Les Wilson]

I use Presentation Prompter:
NextForce Software

I like the simplicity of this package. Also, you can control it with keystrokes. That opens it up to remote control operation.

[Heiko Saele]

Thanks Les, I checked it out and it seems to be a really good piece of software!

[Ed Roo]

With an Intel Mac running OS 10.7 Lion or a Windows computer, you can download the free app "Splashtop" [splashtop.com/streamer] and Splashtop Remote for the iPad and control and view any app on the Mac or Windows machine with the iPad.

[Bill Davis]

I use FlipQ - but I think more important than the particular piece of software is to figure out where you are in he industry and use software that matches both your current needs and the future you see for yourself.

If you're just a casual user doing unpaid projects for yourself - then free or cheap software - or an inexpensive iPad app makes HUGE sense. You're risking little, so there's absolutely no need to invest in serious professional software.

If, on the other hand, you're serious about video as a career - it's important to invest both your money AND your brain into buying pro software that will grow and adapt as your career advances.

The "expensive" software model hopefully buys you into a company with a serious enough cash flow that they need to protect that business by growing, protecting, enhancing and expanding their product.

If you're just in it for "now" then it doesn't really matter if a "free" product works for 10 gigs, but fails on the 11th due to some temporary glitch.

That's unacceptable when you have a crew of 5 and 4 talent and you're burning money minute by minute and everyone is sitting around waiting for you to fix the prompter.

Only you can determine the level of comfort you need to achieve.

Good luck.

[Robert Turchick]

I think that's a bit over-dramatic. Even though I'm a Mac-head, I chose to buy a cheap windows laptop and PromptDog which is $40.
There's plenty of Mac solutions for way under $100. Here's one I've used a couple of times that worked well..

http://www.movieclip.biz/prompt.html

Been doing those complex shoots with 4-5 actors, director, producer and often the client in the room without a glitch for years. The most expensive part of my TelePrompTer was the glass which is the true one way mirrored front made for this purpose. I chose to build mine using an old LCD monitor, a couple of pieces from Manfrotto and some homemade brackets and frame for the glass. No reason to spend a couple of grand on something that isnt rocket science. Never once has a client or talent had to wait on the teleprompter gear. Now last minute script changes....that's another story! Ha ha!

[Bill Davis]

It may be "over dramatic" in your thinking Robert, but I've directed many a large scale corporate shoot where both the corporate CEO and the company President (not to mention half-a-dozen other EVPs and Dept heads were using my teleprompter rig to do their annual 'message to the troops.) At the combined salaries represented, I'd estimate that we were burning up anywhere between $25,000 and $50,000 an hour in time-value for these "big-wigs".

You want to hang the success or failure of your overall effort on "$50" software - go right ahead.
I agree there's nothing inherently wrong with a product at that price point, I also believe that unless that software achieves widespread adoption (particularly in a niche as narrow as tele-prompting) market forces may mean at some point that it's orphaned or can't keep up with the rapid advance of the wider world of OS capabilities or hardware revisions.

Hey, perhaps your strategy will win every time and you'll never have a problem with prompting through your entire career. Which would be wonderful.

But the risk is that if someone loses just ONCE in a situation like mine - one can lose their reputation - which, to me, is everything.

In my thinking, it's just too too much risk for the reward of saving a couple of hundred bucks on software - or even a thousand bucks plus on "roll your own" hardware.

Your mileage (and everyone else's reading here) will most certainly vary on this.

[Neil McClure]

I tend to agree with Bill. I've been using Teleprompter+ with an IPAD setup. Right at the end of the shoot with just a few lines to go all the scripts simply disappeared from the IPAD, I had been mucking about trying to sync the Ipad to a iPhone... Anyway, the last few lines were short so the Presenter did them off the script.
But had that happened 30 minutes or an hour earlier I would have been stuffed. So now I'm looking at other options and/or backup solutions.