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Derren Brown: The Events #4: How to beat a Casino
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Very much so. I also find the near instant hypnosis trick utterly fearsome, and I simply do not believe there are enough stooges in the world for him to always be using them - especially as some of his 'victims' were celebreties (who, lets face it, couldn't have kept that shit a secret).
My issue with the split screen is the way the ball gradually moves up - if it were simply cutting a loop then it would be one and then instantly another...
As for the explanation - bullshit ofc. He is definitely working towards a big payoff at the end, if the seat sticking thing works that alone would be enough to make me start a new religion. He has said too many times that these are a career breaking showpiece.
Awesome.
Edit
Fri 02/10/09 9pm: Derren attempts to beat the odds at roulette, but there is a twist. Someone in the UK is about to get a big surprise as, live on television, they become the unwitting accomplice in Derren's mission to take down a casino.
Someone mentioned the prevalence of red in this show - I am merely suggesting it could be linked?
He's actually a really interesting writer and thinker on the subject.
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:ggI9MCm4UysJ:derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2009/08/events/+derren+brown+bus+children&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
But that's not really the point, of course - the point is Derren Brown most likely got the majority of the country to believe that the National Lottery could be beaten, by hook or by crook. Which is incredible. And it was great telly.
I cannot see the balls that the children are supposed to be holding...
:winky:
I just feel the whole thing is really odd. A simple camera trick leaves me feeling cheated a little and it's something I'd think is beneath Derren. That and the fact it was coupled with such an easy to see through lie, usually when he lies about a trick he does it in a way that you're not 100% sure on (at least for me anyways).
I hope so too. He is possibly my favorite magician.
Also, oh man, terrifying cold reading clown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btP_vy5cQq4
I really hope the next show is better, as this is a little dent in his reputation for me.
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Sure, it could be, but I'd say that unless he wants it to be a split-screen for a specific reason, to prove some point for the whole show, that it's not. Like someone said, Derren's got a philosophy behind magic, and this just doesn't jibe with it. Most of the methodology behind his stuff, like most mentalism, is incredibly simple, and if you're trying to figure out the "how," you have to shed all the laser projectors and e-inks and think a lot, lot simpler.
You can watch it on 4OD if you're in the UK. If not, see below
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
Part 7:
The thing with this, and in particular this series, is that he's making it clear it's a trick on the nation. Next week he wants to show how to control the nation. As such, everything we see is a part of the trick until he chooses to reveal the strings.
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There's this show called Goldmind here on one of the canadian networks here where the host does exactly what you're talking about. He'll go up to random people or set up some situation with random participants, completely screw with them, and then half the time explain exactly how he just ninjaed their mind and played them like a puppet.
One situation that I can remember had him pull 5 people off the street into a room. On the wall were 5 identical mazes, and he asked everybody to go up and complete it, encouraging them to not really think about it at all, to just go draw randomly until they reach the end. After they're done, it turns out that all 5 people traced the exact same path through their maze. He then explains how he did it. On the wall was some abstract line art that was the exact path through the maze, and during the explaination he also subtley gestured out the route with his hands. And just to rub it in, he takes a closer look at the maze and shows them that had they really looked and thought about it for a second, they would have seen a much simpler path through.
There was also one involving 3 boxes and about 100 bucks in cash on the line. I forget the details, but it was something like, if you can pick the right box, you keep the money. You can see him totally pointing and showing, and at one point flat out telling one person which box had the money in it. Nobody picked the right one.
It's a really facinating show. The guy calls himself a "mentalist". Pretty easy to see why.
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Or he really did fix the lottery. Which would be hilarious.
I concur.
It would be smoother to do a semi-gradual fade-in to re-join the footage.
There's a couple of videos about this technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV8tciBFpCI
:^:
I'm going to try and get Friday's show recorded so I can watch it over the weekend, and hopefully not have things spoiled for me.
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Didn't get stuck either.
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I think the first one was a girl in like a victorian dress on a seat, whilst the second looked like a man on a seat.
Overall its just one of those things, it all seemed very fake, theres no explanation why that guys arms raised in the thing for instance and yet this didnt happen to anyone in the theatre. I know thats part of being an illusionist but I assume part of it is tomorrow people will be saying "oh yeah it totally worked on me" even htough it didnt and thus people think it worked really well.
I was brought out of it straight away because I realised he kept saying stuck and variations thereof before the video even came on to influence you.
He did say he was testing different versions of the film. I actually think that's part of the set-up, to get people primed for what type of response they should have.
edit: oh that total BS bit about the framerate and resolution being needed and putting the video up online won't work, that's the bit that kinda gave it away for me that it's nothing real.
Yeah, it was really IN YOUR FACE that bit. He basically wound you all up and got you really primed, and the flashing images of the man stuck to the chair really just blew this case wide open.
I just turned over as the thing started as I simply wasn't comfortable doing it, so I dunno if it would've worked on me.
This is one of the few times that Twitter is actually quite useful. There's hardly anyone saying it did work. Although Derren's own twitter thinks slightly differently.
http://twitter.com/Derrenbrown
edit: to be honest, if it "worked" on 5,000 people it would be mind bogglingly impressive.
But compare that to the massive success rate in the studio. I know its in the studio but I think we both agree that the video doesnt actually do anything or doesnt do much, i felt more disorientated during his monologue before the video which I think is the point since youre expecting the video and thus prepared for it.
Contra zoom shots always look weird and they're rarely used in films so I expect most people are probably fairly unfamiliar with them.
edit:
image in the show
What I thought was interesting was how prior to the video, the intent of the speech seemed to be to make us want to be stuck to the chair, that being stuck to the chair would be an achievement, something uniquely interesting and something to be proud of. This was then reinforced by the post-video messages against the coloured backgrounds, which started off being all "Relax" and had an increasing emphasis on messages like "Congratulations" and "Well done". I can't shake the suspicion that the messages video was far more important than the supposed sticking video, and again we've got an event where the event itself is a red herring.
I'm fairly sure you can actually do 60fps in flash fine as people have put up 60fps videos on youtube. But I think my point was that was a bit of a hint that the video isn't really anything to do with it.