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Tele Prompter


Marco Dardari

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  • 6 months later...
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Here is what I came up with. It is light, easy to read and I have no complaints. The xenarc monitor i'm using has two inputs, so i'm using 1 for prompter, and 2 for program. you can see the power cord i made on the camera handle.

~anthony

 

Nice pics Anthoney.

------------------------

Hey Erik,

Long time no talk . . . . .are you still flying for the Rat, Oh I'm sorry I mean ESPN, oh I'm sorry ABC, Oh I'm sorry Disney . . . LOL . . .

 

I haven't talked to you since I was doing Super Slow Motion at X-Games standing under motorcycles and snowmobiles flying at my head . . .LOL . .

 

Are you looking for a steadicam prompter? I fly one pretty much on every show I am on so if you need one let me know I can hook you up.

 

All the best

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Hey Rob!!!! Where the hell you been haven't seen you at X lately. Good to Hear from you. Oh to stay on topic here is a pic of the Prompter I used at Winter X last year.

---------

Hey Eric,

I'll go into detail about X-Games off the forum, these guys don't need to know about ESPN and their shortcomings . . . .!

 

Glad to see your still flying unfortunately it's still for the Rat!

 

Call some time we'll catch up, Oh and Blaagth on your prompter, I have a way better solution that will make you more money and it weighs 1/8 of the weight of that thing.

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Here's Some more pic. These were taken at the top of the Super Pipe at last years Winter X.

Messeage me the info on the prompter or better yet get in touch with Mike Shurlis as they are looking for him to secure a prompter for Winter. But it has to be a thru the glass style because the producers don't like the sight line issue we get with a little LCD mounted above the lens.

Email me you digits as well

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Here's Some more pic. These were taken at the top of the Super Pipe at last years Winter X.

Messeage me the info on the prompter or better yet get in touch with Mike Shurlis as they are looking for him to secure a prompter for Winter. But it has to be a thru the glass style because the producers don't like the sight line issue we get with a little LCD mounted above the lens.

Email me you digits as well

Hey Eric,

Talked to Mike about the prompter I think he's got it worked out for Winter X.

 

My digits are

310-993-0667

Robvski@aol.com

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You might wanna check out the Proprompter, made by Bodelin. The screen mounts easily to the front of the lens and the system uses a pocket PC to control the script. Wireless mouse controls the pocket PC. Works like a charm. I've owned two (at two different universities...) and have had no problems. Weighs less than 2 pounds on the front of the lens. Very cool system..

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  • 1 month later...
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After 20 years flying, I did my first prompter gig last month. I had successfully avoided it until now. I like the idea of a small monitor on an arm over the lens, but the Director was concerned about the eyeline, because we were going to be 4 - 5 feet away with a 20mm lens. I agreed that a mirror was the best way to insure a good eyeline.

 

We ended up with the 9" LCD rig from PC Prompter in LA. The weight was no problem, as it was only a few pounds living on a light HD camera (Sony HDC-950) with a fiber feed that carried prompter video as well.

 

Here's the problem. I told the vendor how I planned on powering the prompter LCD, via a spare PRO output feeding 12v from my Dionics. What the vendor didn't tell me, because he didn't know his own equipment, is that the backlight section of his LCD only operated between 11 & 13 volts DC. Of course, when I fed it 12v from my freshly charged batteries, it was receiving 14.8 volts DC.

 

Within 1/2 hour of rehearsals, the prompter LCD crapped out. When it fried, it created a ground loop that fed back into my sled via the PRO power cable, and the loose ground found a home in my video DA mod, blowing the ground in my video DA. This effectively took my sled down, loosing the video path. Luckily, it was only a set up day, and I rented another sled to get through the next day's shooting.

 

The moral of the story is to always ask what the operating voltage range is of ANY item that you power off your sled. I assumed that an LCD prompter monitor would have an operating range comparable to any other device designed to run off of Anton Bauer batteries. I was wrong.

 

We ended up making a 4 pin to 4 pin power cable with a 12v regulator in line so we wouldn't blow up the spare prompter monitor or the rental sled, so the shoot went fine. I blame the manufacturer of the prompter monitor for not designing a field monitor with proper voltage range, then not notifying (or even knowing himself) us of that small operating range. It was the only time in 20 years that my sled did not make it through the day. So much for a perfect record, but we did save the shoot.

 

Mark

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  • 2 months later...

Well it been a couple of monthes since X. But we ended up using the same set up from the year before. But this year we were HD and the cable runs were so long that that prompter signal was not making from the truck to my positions all over the mountain. So the boys from 3G Wireless ( a great bunch of guys) came to the rescue and gave me a RF reciever that I mounted to the camera and fed the prompter. And the reciever was not very heavy at all. I just made a slight adjustment and all was well.

 

I was asked to write a story about my trip for a work newsletter here it is:

 

X-tremely Steadi

 

?Welcome X Games? was the sign that

greeted me as I walked through the Aspen

Airport to claim my luggage. Once I got my

equipment together I headed outside to catch

the hotel shuttle. The walk got me slightly

winded. Ah yes altitude?.nice thin alpine air. I

was back in Aspen to operate Steadicam at

the Winter X Games.

This year the production team wanted to go

with a ?man in the middle of the action? style

of shooting our host, Sal Masakela. All of our

coverage was live, so that mistakes had to be

kept in check. This meant I had to shoot

through a glass style prompter, similar to

what we use in studio. My prompter was not

as big as the studio prompters. I used an 8

inch LCD for a monitor. This style of

prompter on the steadi presented a few added

?challenges? that normally I wouldn?t have to deal with. The added weight on the sled was more for me to

carry up and down all of the X games venues such as the Big Air, Snow Cross, and Superpipe. Did I mention

the thin air? The weight also effected how I had to set up the rig. Normally I would lengthen the post of the

sled to counter the added weight up top. This made the sled too long for my comfort, so I added more trim

weights to the base of the sled to keep the rig at a comfortable length. The other challenge was that the

hood of the prompter acted like a sail outside and any gust of wind sent my shot off kilter. I always had to

keep a tighter grip on the rig when landing my final shot.

This year I was also used as a ?shared asset?. This meant that when I wasn?t shooting the host I would be

working with the venue director helping to cover the event. This was a great experience because I would be

right there in the action getting some really cool shots. It also meant that breaks would be few and far

between, making for long stretches of time working in a pretty heavy rig. I did mention the thin air, right?

The first couple of days were used for rig set up and rehearsal time. Since I was outside in an alpine

environment, and the weather can change at the drop of a hat, I needed to make sure that all my rain

covers were in good shape. This year I didn?t have a cover for my monitor so I made one out of 2 gallon

food storage bags and gaffer tape. I was impressed with how it came out. During this time I went through a

?walk though? with the director and the rest of the Host production team.

 

We were dubbed Sal?s SWAT team. We went to all the sites we planned to shoot. Visiting each site let us figure out what needed to be done to make

this work such as cables runs, lighting positions, as well as where the best footing was for me to walk. It was also at this time we discovered that the

cable runs were too long to get a prompter signal. To fix this we added an RF receiver to the camera so that I could feed the prompter with out having

to run a dedicated coax line. It was nice not having to run more cable, but adding the receiver on the camera meant I had to, you guessed it, add more

trim weights to the bottom the rig to act as a counter balance. Did I tell you the air was thin up in Aspen? But luckily it was minimal and I got away with

a minor adjustment.

Our first night of coverage was the Skier Superpipe. We boarded our Sno-Cat, which we

dubbed the party bus, and went up the hill. Now to say it was awkward getting in and out

of the cat with the rig on is an understatement. It was better than riding up the very

bumpy trail on the back of a snowmobile. Our standup position was on the start ramp of

the Super Piper, which had a 30 to 35 degree incline to it. I had to put on my crampons to

keep from sliding down the pipe in front the hundreds of fans who had turned out for the

first night of events. We dug a platform into the ramp for Sal to stand on. My shot had me

walk backwards up the ramp to reveal him for his lead in then spin off and go to the first

skier dropping in. The shot came out great and was a good way to start of the Games.

The biggest thing for me the next day was coverage of Skier Big Air. We had a cool set

which consisted of 2 couches made out of logs and a big plasma monitor with its stand

buried in the snow. It faced the monster ramp that the athletes would land on after clear

a 40ft gap. I was the main camera covering the set. I had to shoot this with my back to the

ramp. This could have been a bit hazardous if one of the riders lost control on his landing.

I came up with a plan to keep the athletes

and myself safe. As soon as the director

took the camera at the top of the start ramp I would quickly move behind the set till the rider landed. I

then came back out front to shoot the talent and judges comments. A steadi assist, a lighting director

along with two more assists holding big LED light panels, and stage manager moved with me. It was

pretty funny seeing all of us move around like one big group after every jump. The next night we did

Snowboard Big Air with the same set up.

This story wouldn?t have been complete without mentioning the snow. It seemed every day at some

point the heavens would cloud over and the white stuff would start falling. Being a snowboarder and fan of

winter I would normally welcome it. But when you are wearing 70 lbs of gear, it wasn?t a comfortable

feeling. The falling snow meant that I had to throw the

rain covers on to protect the rig. The covers added to

the sail effect that I got from the prompter so I

needed to use a tighter grip. Now at time the snow

was dumping in biblical sense. I remembered seeing

old footage the former Vikings coach Budd Grant on

the sideline with about four inches of snow on the bill

of his ball cap and thought man that?s crazy?.well

now I saw it first hand. It was very cool and made for some great HD shots. It made a mess of my

prompter glass. I would have to clean it off every couple of minutes. If any snow melted on the glass

it froze almost instantly. I used the edge of my credentials as an ice scraper. The people in the production

truck had a good laugh seeing me scrape the glass clear through my camera. In think I heard

?you missed a spot!? more than once.

The X games had a couple of great highlights for me. One was shooting a stand up on top of the Big

Air landing ramp. While I was up there I got a new appreciation for the mental strength of the athletes.

Throwing yourself across a 40ft gap, 30 feet in the air takes a certain level of confidence that

few have. Another highlight was shooting Shawn White after his historic 3rd run in Snowboard Superpipe

during which he landed a 1260 spin. This had never been done before. Shawn won the gold with

that maneuver. It was very cool being right there in the middle of all the high fives and hugs. The best part for me was that I had the first and last shot

of Winter X 12. Not a bad day at the office even with the thin air, even with all the added aspects of the job, I was very excited to be part of the greatest winter sports event short of the Olympics.

 

That is all,

Erik

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  • 6 months later...
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Need a prompter for an upcoming gig, want to revive this old thread to see if anyone has any suggestions for rigs that will work out of the box, tested and working with Steadicam (Mark's story below about frying the unit was well-taken, I had a similar experience with such a setup a few years ago and I don't want to repeat it).

 

If anyone ended up buying a rig and they rent it, please let me know also. It would be for a couple of days the week of Oct. 13th in LA.

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Need a prompter for an upcoming gig, want to revive this old thread to see if anyone has any suggestions for rigs that will work out of the box, tested and working with Steadicam (Mark's story below about frying the unit was well-taken, I had a similar experience with such a setup a few years ago and I don't want to repeat it).

 

If anyone ended up buying a rig and they rent it, please let me know also. It would be for a couple of days the week of Oct. 13th in LA.

 

Ya No worries Charles,

I have an extra 7" one you can use . . .

 

Call me

310-993-0667

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Here is the link to the lcd rob turned me onto

 

http://lcd4video.com/products.php?product=7?-TFT-LCD-Monitor

 

I'm powering off my Ultra2 sled. No problems to date. It stays powered up for an hour to an hour and a half each night. bought a viewfinder wedge plate from ikegami and mount it there. Have not had eye line issues. Supplied cable sucks but its a common din connector and an easy solder job.

 

Kris

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