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So i'm pretty certain on how he did this. The fact that he couldn't announce the results before the draw because of the bbc's 'exclusive right' was what first alerted me. The whole thing is filmed with a steady-cam which makes it much easier for someone in post to whack an image of the balls lying untouched over the left side of the screen. This makes it very easy for someone to place the balls on the mount and move out of shot before the live feed is unveiled. A trick so simple you might be led to assume it must be something more complex.
That's my theory anyway. I do this kind of thing all the time for the culture show so i'm sure this is no different. _________________ www.martinfalconer.co.uk
Joined: Mar 25, 2005 Posts: 256 Location: Wymondham
i read a theory, he said he has been preparing for this for a year. The theory is he could have been recording different combinations of numbers for the last year ready for it.
I read one theory which suggested he had stored the numbers on the back of the board he was holding and then 'dropped' them on the ping pong balls as he stood behind them. I dont believe this.
I think that the camera trickery thing is the most likely solution.
As to the whole BBC having the right to show results first thing ... well that may be true but surely at that stage it was just a prediction. He could have quite easily shown the numbers before the draw - that would have been real magic. (I don't mean 'real' as in supernatural but as in WOW that was a great trick)
I prefer Derren when he is working one on one with members of the public. The Russian Roulette thing was pretty good though.
Joined: Feb 19, 2005 Posts: 304 Location: Gorleston
The camera tricks seem most likely but is not Derren's Style and seems a bit too easy for him.
I think it's something more interesting. Whatever it is he has just done one of the best illusions in history.
EDIT: Ha, Derren just wrote on his twitter "Morning. Speculation this morning fantastic. Lasers, split screens, tiny LED readouts in the balls. I am loving today. Hope you are well."
Joined: Aug 23, 2005 Posts: 894 Location: Naaaaarwich....
liamcicada wrote:
The camera tricks seem most likely but is not Derren's Style and seems a bit too easy for him.
I think it's something more interesting. Whatever it is he has just done one of the best illusions in history.
EDIT: Ha, Derren just wrote on his twitter "Morning. Speculation this morning fantastic. Lasers, split screens, tiny LED readouts in the balls. I am loving today. Hope you are well."
Joined: Jun 08, 2005 Posts: 208 Location: Swaffham-ish, Norfolk
I agree with most of the theories.
What we KNOW is that there was an entirely unnecessary cutaway to a distant camera which we never saw again, and which pointedly showed that the first camera was handheld.
I suspect this little insert of Derren waving at the far camera was pre-recorded (hey, the whole thing could have been pre-recorded up to that point), to enable them to swap from the handheld camera which had been on him up til that point, to a rigid, static camera. (which it very definitely is, despite a bit of digital after-wobble). This we know.
So the question is, why would he need a static camera for the trick, but make us think it was handheld? The split-screen idea is as good an answer as any - after all, it's also an undeniable fact that the correct numbers could not have been on those six balls before the draw, but they were seemingly in view the whole time.
Another reasonable answer is, to throw in a nice juicy red herring - you know what he's like...
Joined: Apr 19, 2005 Posts: 5794 Location: At the bottom of the garden, amongst the birds and the bees
My guess was he'd spent the year creating a time machine, and this was his way of announcing it to the world.
It appears I was wrong.
For the record though, he's made a point on several occasions of saying that he doesn't use camera tricks (largely because he kept getting compared to David Blaine, who uses them extensively), so if that is process here it's new territory for him.
Eddie: the "digital after-wobble" can't have been added afterwards as it's not 2-dimensional shake - it doesn't move from side-to-side, it pans, which changes the perspective of everything in frame. That means 3-dimensionality, which you can't add after the fact to a 2D recording. The general consensus with that theory is that a computer-controlled rig would have been used on both takes to replicate the movements exactly. Live split-screening is almost never done, for exactly that reason - replicating exact camera shots live is incredibly difficult, even with non-manned anchored cameras.
The funny thing about it is that he has always revealed how he did it on every big act he's done up to this point - obviously the Wisdom of Crowds thing was bullshit, but he tacked on the "Fixing the Machine" bit right at the end, made a huge point of stressing he wouldn't have done that and wouldn't admit it if he had, but said exactly how to do it, showed a set of fake balls on the show, and made a huge point of overacting his innocence. The most obvious bit of misdirection on the whole show and no one has paid any attention to it.
EDIT: I just watched that video, and I know the bloody guy that made it! He makes some of the scariest, most twisted animations you'll ever see.
but he tacked on the "Fixing the Machine" bit right at the end, made a huge point of stressing he wouldn't have done that and wouldn't admit it if he had, but said exactly how to do it, showed a set of fake balls on the show, and made a huge point of overacting his innocence. The most obvious bit of misdirection on the whole show and no one has paid any attention to it.
this would require him to have access to the studio where the lottery is filmed or have a plant change the balls for him, either of which is very difficult not to mention very illegal. The Friday night show was a collection of red herrings along with an interesting experiment in which he convinced a crowd of people that they were correctly predicting a completely random set of results.
The split screen technique could be achieved by attaching a camera to a mechanised rig and playing the live footage seamlessly beside pre-recorded footage from the same camera. It would seem so many others have discounted the illusion to be split screen that announcing the truth behind the technique would prove its ultimate failure.
I'm looking forward to the next one in which he makes us unable to rise from our sofas. I can't help imagining he's gonna say ' if this doesn't work you're not doing it right' though. _________________ www.martinfalconer.co.uk
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