What is an ear prompter? A beginner’s guide

An ear prompter supplies spoken words through an earpiece or headphones while you deliver a script. With recorded ear prompting, you prepare a guide track, play it back and speak a little behind it. The recording gives you the next words while your eyes are available for the person or camera you are addressing.

You still have to decide what those words mean and how to say them. A guide can supply a sentence; your delivery supplies the intention.

What do you hear through an ear prompter?

In an own-voice setup, you hear a recording you made earlier. You read the script aloud, leave pauses where you need them and use that recording as a cue during rehearsal.

Try this original example:

I brought the umbrella. I left it on the train. So technically, I planned for rain.

The guide might contain a pause after each sentence. As you listen, you deliver the words in your own performance. You could say the final sentence as a cheerful defence of your planning, or as an embarrassed admission. The same wording allows different choices.

For a first attempt, listen to the whole passage before speaking. Then follow just the first sentence. If the next sentence arrives before you are ready, give it more space in a new recording.

That small experiment tells you more than trying to follow a long script immediately. You can hear where the guide helps and where its timing gets in your way.

Recorded ear prompting and live IFB

An earpiece does not tell you what kind of audio system someone is using. It might carry a prepared script, a live production feed or instructions from another person.

IFB means interruptible foldback. In a production IFB system, programme audio can be interrupted by cue audio from a control position. Clear-Com describes the programme feed, interrupt audio and level control as parts of that system. Clear-Com’s IFB explanation.

Recorded ear prompting gives you prepared wording. IFB provides a live communication arrangement. Ear Prompter’s own-voice rehearsal workflow does not supply a production IFB system.

If a job asks for an earpiece, establish what you will hear, who controls it and what you are expected to do with it. The equipment’s appearance is not enough to answer those questions.

When is recorded prompting worth trying?

Solo commercial copy, a short introduction or a scripted explanation gives you a contained passage to practise. You can record the wording, try a delivery and revise the guide when a pause feels wrong.

It is especially easy to evaluate with a passage that has a clear start and finish. For example, rehearse an introduction to a video before attempting a whole demonstration with actions and interruptions.

Choose the method around the task. If you need to know lines from memory, include an attempt with the guide switched off. If the scene requires another character’s responses, arrange the reader or scene partner it needs. For a live conversation, prepare for the other person to change the timing.

What do you need for a first rehearsal?

Begin with a short script, a way to record and play your guide, and headphones you can listen through comfortably. Ear Prompter uses a guide recorded in your own voice on iPhone or iPad.

Keep the first task small:

1. Choose a few sentences you understand.
2. Record them with clear spaces between ideas.
3. Listen once and check every word is audible.
4. Follow one phrase, then attempt the passage.
5. Note the exact point where you lose your place.

If the guide runs ahead, change its pace or shorten the passage. Raising the volume will not add a missing pause.

Before recording a performance, test the complete setup. Check where playback goes and listen to the resulting video for any unwanted guide audio.

Can you use an ear prompter in an audition?

Follow the casting instructions for that audition. A tool you use privately to rehearse does not automatically belong in the submitted take. Check any requirements about prompting, visible equipment and readers before filming.

Does following the guide mean you have learnt the script?

Following a recording and recalling words independently are different checks. Turn the guide off and attempt the passage if memorisation is your goal. Mark the words you can retrieve and the places where you need help.

For an actor’s starting point, see Ear Prompter for solo-copy rehearsal. Choose one short passage and decide what you want that rehearsal to test.

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