Eyeline is really important for through-the-lens teleprompting where the talent is meant to be looking directly at the camera.
That sounds obvious, but it is actually one of the most delicate parts of the whole setup. The person reading is looking at words reflected in glass. Behind that glass is the camera lens. The whole illusion depends on the reader appearing to look directly into the camera while still reading the script.
When it works, it feels natural. The speaker seems to be looking right into your eyes. The viewer feels addressed directly.
When it does not work, the whole shot can feel ‘off’.
The speaker may be reading well. The words may be right. The speed may be good. But if the eyeline is a little high, a little low, or slightly off to one side, the connection breaks. It can look as if the speaker is looking past the viewer instead of at the viewer. In a close-up, this becomes especially noticeable. A small eyeline problem can make the performance feel less direct and less convincing.
This is the problem EyeLine Focus is designed to solve.
EyeLine Focus is a small visual target that appears over the teleprompter text. Its purpose is to show the reader where the camera lens is, or more specifically, where their eyes should naturally land while they are reading.
In a through-the-lens setup, the lens may be centered behind the glass, or it may be slightly left, right, high, or low depending on the camera, the rig, the lens height, and the way the prompter is set up. Even if everything is technically centered, it can still be hard for the reader to know exactly where to look.
The reader sees the text. They see the glass. They may see some vague darkness behind the glass. But they do not always have a precise sense of where the lens is. So they read the words, but their eyes may drift. They may scan across the screen, or they may naturally settle in a place that is close to the lens but not exactly where the lens is.
It is not meant to dominate the screen. It is not meant to become another thing the reader has to stare at. It is just a tool. A visual guide. A small indicator that says, in effect: this is the area where your eyes should return.
In Promptosaurus, the feature is turned on in the settings, and a small indicator appears in the prompt window over the text. The operator can resize it by grabbing the edges. If the target needs to be larger, it can be made larger. If it should be smaller and less noticeable, it can be made smaller. There are also settings for color and transparency, so the indicator can be made visible enough to help but not so visible that it gets in the way of reading.
That adjustability is important. The target should not cover the text or distract the speaker. It should sit lightly over the prompt, giving the reader a sense of where to aim their eyeline without making the teleprompter harder to use.
This is normally be set up before the take. The operator turns on EyeLine Focus, positions the indicator, adjusts the size, color, and transparency, and then leaves it in place during the read. If it is no longer needed, the operator clicks the button again and the indicator goes away.
This is not a feature for every kind of teleprompting.
EyeLine Focus is specifically for through-the-lens prompting. It is not for presidential prompters. It is not for back-of-house monitors, downstage monitors, or confidence monitors. In those situations, the reader is not trying to look through teleprompter glass into a camera lens. They are using the prompter as a reference or a stage display.
EyeLine Focus matters when the camera is behind the glass and the reader needs to appear to be looking directly into the lens.
The value of this feature is subtle, but the effect can be very real. The viewer may not know why the shot feels better. They may not know that the speaker had a small target on the teleprompter screen. They will only feel that the speaker is looking at them more directly.
That is often the difference between a read that feels like someone is reciting words and a read that feels like someone is speaking to you.
A lot of teleprompter work is like this. The important features are not always flashy. They are small tools that solve small problems before those problems become visible to everyone.
EyeLine Focus helps with one of the most important of those problems: where the reader’s eyes go.
