David Blaine at it again

"Izo Mezzo" wrote in message
...
Meanwhile lurking by a stone in the mud, two eyes looked to see
what I was and then Vince spoke and this is what they said to me.......


"Dan Brusca" wrote

Bloody hell - even Paul Daniels would never use camera trickery; There's
no
skill at all (except from the editor).

Are you sure about Paul Daniels? IIRC he made en elephant 'disappear'
once in a tent or such. I'm sure that involves camera trickery (moving
the whole camera rig to a duplicate set next to the original).

If that was before he teamed up with The Lovely Debbie McGee and was working
with Lisa Reilly, I think I can guess where the elephant went.

--
Brian
"There's a lot of stuff going on that we don't understand." - MC57

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 16:28:10 +0100, "MichaelJP"
wrote:

"David Blaine is to spend six weeks without food in a clear-plexi glass
box by the River Thames.

Couldn't that be "in the River Thames" ? At least then we wouldn't have to
look at the stupid idiot for six weeks.

After his tower "feat" he said his next one would be to recreate
Houdini's trick where he was cuffed/chained/bagged and locked in a box
and thrown in the Thames and escaped after a couple of minutes.

When I heard what he was now going to do I must say I was disappointed
- he must have thought this was easier or less risky.

The previous two feats are easily possible by anybody with suffient
fitness and willpower, yet this one seems somewhat more risky if it
were done genuinely. Considering the scale of trickery involved in his
"Street Magic" I think this one will be an illusion. It will be
interesting to see exactly how it will be performed, how closely the
cameras can examine the "cell", and how well it is lit at night. Right
now I can imagine that liquid food is fed down the centre of the cable
suspening the cell, and he has a port where he can eat if when
instructed by a hidden radio. Where it ends up is a good question!

I would probably schedule a trip to London around that time and have a
look for myself!

Gareth

Gareth wrote:

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 20:55:00 GMT, (Ant)
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 17:23:58 +0100, Dan Brusca
wrote:

Plenty wrong with using a camera edit to achieve levitation.

Such as?

A good trick is fun to watch, even if you know how it's done.

Seeing David Blaine waving his hands about and then jump-cutting to
the hysterical reaction of the onlookers - while not showing any
actual "trick" at all - is just crap.

No, they do show the levitation but apparently they ask the people to
watch again and see "how it could have been done" - then shoot the
scene from behind them so the camera can show a convincing shot. All
the second shots I have seen are from elbow height, so it could have
been re-shot with actors anyway.

It *is* reshot with actors, and a big crane to hoist him up on cables.

MattLB

Dan Brusca wrote in message ...
From Ananova:

snip

At the end, he'll get a female assistant to release him. "Can you feel
that? Can you feel the magic? It's coming. Can you feel the magic
coming? Here it comes... oh there it is...." Either that, or he'll
battle Jesus....

Nadia

On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 13:10:38 +0100, MattLB
wrote:

No, they do show the levitation but apparently they ask the people to
watch again and see "how it could have been done" - then shoot the
scene from behind them so the camera can show a convincing shot. All
the second shots I have seen are from elbow height, so it could have
been re-shot with actors anyway.

It *is* reshot with actors, and a big crane to hoist him up on cables.

I thought it was done with real people, reacting to him doing the
Balducci levitation (they are *very* carefully positioned behind him,
so that he really does appear to levitate a few inches off the
ground). They then film him being hoisted up by a crane, on the same
street. Finally they splice the crane shot with the reaction shot
from the original folks on the street. That's how I'd heard it,
anyway.

Thanatos wrote:

On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 13:10:38 +0100, MattLB
wrote:

No, they do show the levitation but apparently they ask the people to
watch again and see "how it could have been done" - then shoot the
scene from behind them so the camera can show a convincing shot. All
the second shots I have seen are from elbow height, so it could have
been re-shot with actors anyway.

It *is* reshot with actors, and a big crane to hoist him up on cables.

I thought it was done with real people, reacting to him doing the
Balducci levitation (they are *very* carefully positioned behind him,
so that he really does appear to levitate a few inches off the
ground).

That's true, but the camera doesn't show his feet when he's doing it.
They then cut to the reaction shot, but you don't see what they're
reacting to - a bit like those I can't believe it's not butter ads.

They then film him being hoisted up by a crane, on the same
street.

The key thing is that they dress someone in the same colour top as one
of the original observers and shoot from behind them, but with their
arm, or part of their torso in shot. This way it looks like it's the
same people watching him get 3 feet off the ground (with a crane) as saw
him appear to rise about 1 foot off the ground.

MattLB

"MattLB" wrote in message
...


Thanatos wrote:

On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 13:10:38 +0100, MattLB
wrote:

No, they do show the levitation but apparently they ask the people to
watch again and see "how it could have been done" - then shoot the
scene from behind them so the camera can show a convincing shot. All
the second shots I have seen are from elbow height, so it could have
been re-shot with actors anyway.

It *is* reshot with actors, and a big crane to hoist him up on cables.

I thought it was done with real people, reacting to him doing the
Balducci levitation (they are *very* carefully positioned behind him,
so that he really does appear to levitate a few inches off the
ground).

That's true, but the camera doesn't show his feet when he's doing it.
They then cut to the reaction shot, but you don't see what they're
reacting to - a bit like those I can't believe it's not butter ads.

They then film him being hoisted up by a crane, on the same
street.

The key thing is that they dress someone in the same colour top as one
of the original observers and shoot from behind them, but with their
arm, or part of their torso in shot. This way it looks like it's the
same people watching him get 3 feet off the ground (with a crane) as saw
him appear to rise about 1 foot off the ground.

MattLB

How do you know? And don't say you read it somewhere! It's bizarre how half
this newsgroup has turned into self appointed experts on the life and work
of David Blaine, and the intricacies of TV shooting techniques.

Izo Mezzo said this:

At the end, he'll get a female assistant to release him. "Can you
feel that? Can you feel the magic? It's coming. Can you feel the
magic coming? Here it comes... oh there it is...." Either that, or
he'll battle Jesus....

Nadia

Maybe his next trick will be getting hammered onto a crucifix and left
there for a few days.

I'd pay to see that.

"MattLB" wrote in message
...

That's true, but the camera doesn't show his feet when he's doing it.
They then cut to the reaction shot, but you don't see what they're
reacting to - a bit like those I can't believe it's not butter ads.

They then film him being hoisted up by a crane, on the same
street.

The key thing is that they dress someone in the same colour top as one
of the original observers and shoot from behind them, but with their
arm, or part of their torso in shot. This way it looks like it's the
same people watching him get 3 feet off the ground (with a crane) as
saw
him appear to rise about 1 foot off the ground.

MattLB

Apparently they just use the same people as befo

"...After the Balducci levitation, the producers of the show had these
same people stand by for another taping of the illusion - this time the
camera would shoot from behind the audience members to get a clear view
of Blaine in action. The audience members were told that this second
performance was to show them how magicians could use wires to levitate.
And this is exactly what happened. A small harness and rig (just out of
camera view) was set up and Blaine performed a standard
wire-suspension."
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/St.../balducci.html

"Doug Ellison" wrote in message
...

Yeah, well done Sky. Streaming a guy sat in a box for 6 weeks, great TV


Dont believe it for one minutes. His ice trick was a fake - this will be a
fake as well

Doug

Jean Claude Shazam.....
The magic's coming - it's nearly there


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