First, thanks to all the people who wrote in with tips and ideas (listed below). The version I now use is created by taping two open cd cases together and using binder clips to keep the box bent in a rhombus so that the window is 45 degrees to the laptop screen. The image below should help.
To make the imaged text more readable, I put paper on top of the contraption to keep out ambient light and a card in front of the webcam.
Below is a close up of the text as it appear on the cd case.
I can now say I have no difficulty scrolling and reading the text.
For the script, as in teleprompter script, I now use HTML, thanks to Dan Browder of Blizzle. I use this style and put the text in a table of 300 width. Of course, you can’t edit it easily from a monitor so I put a “z” in front of body and table; that is, temporarily rename them in the style section while I’m editing. Before I open the page on the screen for the teleprompter I remove them.
<style>
body {
progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=1);
background-color : Black;
}
table {
filter:fliph;
color="white"
}
To recap where I’m at. I bought two work lamps from Walmart for $29.95 each. For the webcam I use the Logitech 400 Pro, about $100. Sometimes I capture with Logitech software, sometimes Virtualdub (an amazing piece of software). An old Fujitsu laptop serves as the teleprompter projector. I capture the video on a Pentium 2.4, nothing fancy. The green screen is now a $100 professional fabric from Elsdon FX. Editing is done with Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio, less than $100. The flash movie conversion is done using Swishflash, about $50. On the flash conversion, I tried them all. Quicktime is better, I realize, but my goal is to reach the most browsers possible and flash is the most prevalent.