Commercial Teleprompting

 

By, Michael Gonzalez Camera Teleprompter Operator for The American Movie Company and TeleprompterRental.com

 

Michael Gonzalez, Teleprompter Operator

Michael Gonzalez, Teleprompter & Interrotron Operator

 

This week I worked as teleprompter operator with a phenomenal crew for a national LG commercial and instructional LG video for the new LG store online. I worked closely with a producer named Mark Stetson and very important clients overseeing every detail for the LG Brand.

 

The shoot reminded me of when I was the production coordinator for a national Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles commercial. Bill Milling,  and the rest of the production team at American Movie Company worked closely with Bent Image Lab, who oversaw every detail of their client, which was Post Food Cereals.

 

Teleprompter with camera and long lens at TelepromperRental.com

Standard Teleprompter

 

This made it a nerve wracking shoot because the production crew for this LG commercial were on their toes about being consummate professionals as the top executives from Japan were literally watching over their every move. Regardless of the constant pressure I have been predisposed to, I teleprompted flawlessly for a 10 hour day. I used the standard 12 inch teleprompter unit for the talent. Her name was Mina Marie Mirkah and when we talked for a bit at lunch, we realized we have a lot of mutual friends in the business.

 

Teleprompter with professional camera and monitors

Standard Teleprompter   aka Autocue

 

It really is a small world sometimes! We both seperatley worked with one of the gaffers on set named Connor Lawson. I produced a horror film called Evil Alive, 3 years ago and he was the special effects editor and on set gaffer.

 

Mina had worked with Connor on a film of her own, which was an award winning short she showed me. After we established all we had in common, I realized how seamless it was working together. She had so much dialogue about the new LG Ultra 4K HD TV for the LG online store portion of the videos, that creating this friendly collaboration was so important.

 

What the talent and I had established during lunch changed the pace at which we were able to work and communicate together between takes. When the director would cut, she felt confident enough to call for me and ask if we could practice together for the next scene. It was so flawless with each additional portion of the videos we shot because of the rehearsal Mina and I did.

 

I would personally always like to do rehearsals with the talent prior to rolling the camera but unfortunaltey it is not always possible. Even though I was working closely with the producer Mark Stetson and the director on set, the clients for LG shoot were very strict and because they were overlooking the production, I had to act like more of an operator and less of a speech coach, until Mina called out for me to practice with her. It just shows how truly important and essential a good teleprompter operator is if you want to do less takes and finish a shoot with a more prestine final product and give your talent confidence to do a stellar job.

 

We shot a Windmill Studios, in Williamsburg Brooklyn. It was a bit of a drive and parking was difficult but I always arrive early and got to the location ahead of schedule. We had a nice catered breakfast and I was able to introduce myself to the crew I would be working very closely with for the next 10 hours. The A/C (assistant camera man) and I talked over logisitics of setting up the type of camera they were using with my teleprompter head. I was grateful to have spoken to him before our actual official in time and what we figured out made the set up smooth.

 

The DP (director of photography) was shooting on a professional Arri Alexa camera with very long zoom lenses so figuring out the counter balance with a 13 pound teleprompter head went as flawless as possible because of our preparation. Another successful day of teleprompting for the American Movie Company and TeleprompterRental.com. Look out for another blog coming soon, from Michael Gonzalez, Producer, Teleprompter and Interrotron operator.

Commercial Teleprompting

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