How to read a script on camera

You wrote the words. Now you have to say them to the lens without it showing. The fix is mostly setup: put the text close to the lens, make the lines short, and look up at the lens when a sentence ends. Rehearse out loud before you record, and the rest gets easier.

Reading fails when your eyes travel too far

The camera sees your eyes. When the text sits far below or beside the lens, your gaze swings across that gap on every line, and the viewer sees a person looking at something else.

The cure is distance. The closer the words are to the lens, the less your eyes move. Narrow lines help too, because a short line needs a small sweep from left to right. The eye contact guide shows the arithmetic with example numbers.

Studio teleprompters solve this with a pane of angled glass in front of the lens. The script reflects off the glass while the camera sees through it (Adorama). A phone does the same job with less hardware: the text sits on the screen right beside the lens.

Five steps that work for any script

1. Read the script aloud once before you record. Mark the places you trip. Fix those lines in the script, not in the take.
2. Set the text close to the lens. Phone on a stand at eye height, text at the top of the screen, directly under the camera.
3. Keep lines short and big. One idea per line. Make the type large enough to read without leaning in. Leaning in tells the viewer you are reading.
4. Pick a pace you can talk at. Start at your normal speaking pace, record ten seconds, and adjust. Professional audiobook narrators average about 9,300 words an hour, roughly 155 words a minute (ACX). Use that as a reference point, not a target.
5. Look at the lens when a sentence ends. Read each sentence, then look up and finish it to the lens. The pause is where the viewer feels you are talking to them.

Example: a 150-word script at 155 words a minute runs just under one minute. The script timer does that sum for any script and pace.

Judge your first take with the sound off

Before you record the real thing, film ten seconds and watch it muted. The mute removes the words, so you see only what a viewer sees: where your eyes go, whether your head dips, whether your face is still when you pause.

Three things to look for. Do your eyes sweep along each line? Do you lean toward the screen? Do you freeze between sentences? Each has a fix. A sweep means shorter lines or text closer to the lens. Leaning means bigger type. Freezing means you need a rehearsal pass, so you know what comes next before you see it.

Repeat the ten-second test after each change, one change at a time. That way you know which change did the work.

Memorize, read, or mix: the choice depends on the script

Memorizing and reading are both normal ways to deliver words on camera. Neither is a shortcut or a flaw. They suit different scripts:

Your situation	Good fit
Short talk, 30 to 60 seconds, you will repeat it	Memorize
Long script, or exact wording matters	Read
A weekly video with a new script each time	Read, or memorize the opening and close
A script with numbers, names or quotes	Read those parts

Writing and timing have their own guides

Still working on the words themselves? Start with how to write a video script. For how long a script will run at a given pace, see words per minute when speaking.