I’ve started the preparations for my contributions to the Windless Kite Festival 2021 and in order to shoot an interview of myself I decided I could use a teleprompter.
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The 26th Nordic Kite Meeting
Blokhus Denmark
May 13th - 19th 2024
Blokhus Wind Festival
Blokhus Denmark
May 18th - 19th 2024

So I took too the internet to see what showed up after a few Google searches. Quite a bit actually! …and making one without spending a fortune should be pretty easy. So my goal at the kitchen table today is to make one, and off course you’re invited to the process!

So yesterday I put on my face mask and stopped at the local Biltema store and picked up a box of paper clips, a picture frame and a square piece of acrylic sheet for just a tiny bit over NOK 100,00, approximately $12. Not bad, and the rest of the stuff that’s required, sits in a kitchen drawer or similar at home. So let’s get started!

$12 worth of ... stuff
$12 worth of … stuff

…and by the way, here is some more required stuff.

A few more things, self explanatory
A few more things, self explanatory

Ok, first thing to do is to wrap the plastic covering the photo frame and take out the glass. The frame itself can be recycled into …. well … whatever.

Hard to see, but here's the glass from the frame
Hard to see, but here’s the glass from the frame

Now, remove the protective plastic film from the acrylic sheet.

Removing the protective plastic film
Removing the protective plastic film

Now align the edge of the glass (from the frame) to the edge of the acrylic sheet … and make a tiny mark on the acrylic sheet at where the opposite edge of the glass goes.

The put a piece of duct tape across the acrylic sheet making sure the centre of the tape fits the marking on the sheet.

The duct tape goes here
The duct tape goes here

Cut off any excess tape on both sides of the acrylic sheet.

Cutting off the excess tape
Cutting off the excess tape

Now align the edge of the glass once again to the edge of the acrylic sheet. The other edge of the glass should now align perfectly with the center line of the tape, just like in the photo below.

A little down and it's a perfect alignment!
A little down now and it’s a perfect alignment!

Now we’re ready for making the … “hinge” and off course we use some more duct tape!

Place the piece of tape across the glass/sheet just like in the photo below.

Looks pretty good!
Looks pretty good!

…and carefully cut off any excess tape on both sides.

Careful now!
Careful now!

Flip the glass over (using the tape as a hinge) and repeat the taping from the other side of the glass.

Flipped over!
Flipped over!

When done, make sure once again to carefully cut off any excess tape.

The “hinge” is now done and you can flip the glass back and forth.

The tape functions like a hinge
The tape functions like a hinge

Not it’s time for the two paper clips! Clip them to the corners of the glass like in the photo below.

One clip at each corner
One clip at each corner

These clips will function like stoppers a little later.

Now cut two pieces of a 2 or 3mm glass fibre rod in two different lengths. (You will need to experiment a little to determine the lengths.) The two lengths will make it easier to adjust the angle of the teleprompter’s reflective glass so it will suit your recording position.

Slide a trailing edge connector onto one end of each g.f. rods line in the closeup below.

Closeup
Closeup

Now tape a “stopper” like this…

A "stopper"
A “stopper”

….close to the corners of the acrylic sheet….

The two "stoppers"
The two “stoppers”

…and now everything is ready for testing the teleprompter. Just set it up like this using the g.f. rods.

Voilà! ?
Voilà! ?

The glass used for this DIY teleprompter is light enough that you can use one g.f. rod only to make it stay open. By having two rods of different lengths, it’s easy to adjust the glass’ angle to your likings.

…and this is what the teleprompter look like in action!

(This video is self hosted, so I reduced the quality somewhat.)

All that’s left to do now is to figure out a way to make it possible to mount the teleprompter on a tripod. I have a pretty good idea how, so stay tuned for another post going into details about the tripod mount!

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See you at the 26th
Nordic Kite Meeting!

Blokhus, Denmark

May 13th - 19th, 2023

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