How to look at the camera while reading a script
On video, looking at the lens feels like looking at the viewer. Reading a script pulls your eyes away from it. The fix is not a trick. It is a mix of where you put the camera, where you put the text and how much you practise. This guide covers all three. It will not promise to hide your eyes, because no tool does that, and Telepromptia does not track or change where you look.
Key takeaways
- Put the lens at eye level or a little above, and keep the phone steady.
- Put the text as close to the lens as you can, in a narrow column, and keep it as small as you can read without leaning.
- Telepromptia does not track your eyes and does not correct them in the video. It only keeps the text close to the camera.
- Look straight into the lens for the first and last sentences, and glance away on purpose at natural breaks.
- Practise for five minutes a day. Eye contact is a habit.
Why your eyes drift
The camera lens is a small dot. The words are somewhere else. The greater the distance between them, the more your eyes have to travel, and viewers notice that travel as a sideways sweep or a steady downward glance. Even people who read well drift when the text is far from the lens, the type is large or the lines are long. So the goal is simple: shrink the distance.
Camera placement
Height and distance
Place the lens at eye level or slightly above. Looking up into the camera is flattering and looking down at it is not. Sit about an arm's length away or a little more, so that your face fills a good part of the frame without feeling crowded. Keep the phone on a stand or a stack of books, because a hand-held phone moves.
Which camera
Use the front camera, since then you can see the script. On many iPhones the front camera sits near the top of the screen in portrait mode, and the position varies from model to model. In landscape it moves to one side. Look at your own device so you know exactly where your eyes should go.
Light and reflections
Face a window or lamp so your eyes are lit. If you wear glasses, check for reflections of the screen and tilt the phone a few degrees if you see them.
Text position
Move the words toward the lens
The closer the text is to the camera, the smaller the glance. Telepromptia can place the script on a black panel right under the front camera and shows 1, 2 or 3 lines, as you choose. The panel and the text are never part of your recording. Try one or two lines first, since fewer lines mean less eye movement.
Narrow and small
A narrow column with a few words per line lets you take in a phrase without scanning. Keep the type at the smallest size you can read without leaning forward. The font size and speed guide explains how to find it.
Avoid watching yourself
The preview of your own face is a magnet for the eyes. Try not to look at it. Keep your attention on the lens and the words just under it.
A five-minute practice routine
Do this on a few days before the real recording, and once more before a session.
- Lens only, one minute. Without a script, tell the camera about your day. Do not look away.
- Sentence by sentence, two minutes. Read one sentence from the panel, then look at the lens and say it again from memory. Repeat for a paragraph.
- Open and close, one minute. Learn the first and last sentences of your script and say them to the lens without reading.
- Review, one minute. Watch ten seconds with the sound off. Check where your eyes go.
After a week you will probably find that you glance down less often. Results differ from person to person.
Glance away on purpose
A steady stare is unnatural. A short glance at the end of a thought looks like thinking. Do it between ideas, not in the middle of a sentence, and return to the lens before you speak. This is the same advice as in our guide to reading a script to camera naturally.
iPad and landscape
The lens is in a different place on an iPad, and on any device it moves when you turn it. Before you record, find the lens on your own device in the orientation you will use. Put the text as near to it as the layout allows, and sit a little farther back with a larger screen so that you do not have to turn your head.
Check your progress
Record the same 30-second passage once a week and watch it with the sound off. Ask a friend whether you seem to be looking at them. Judge by the video, not by how it felt.
Common problems
- Your eyes sweep sideways. The lines are too wide. Narrow the column.
- You nod down with each line. The text is too far below the lens, or too large.
- You freeze. You are trying not to blink or move. Relax your shoulders, breathe out and let yourself blink.
- You watch your face. Cover or ignore the preview and look at the lens.
Where Telepromptia fits
The black panel, known in the app as EyeLock, is a layout, nothing more. It puts the words nearer the lens so you have less distance to cover. Sentence highlight helps you find your place after a glance away, and the script is never in the recording. See features and pricing.