Dan & Dave filming Time Warp for Discovery Channel

Earlier this week I was reading an interesting and potentially controversial article at Online Visions, the general gist of which was to tell people not to film their close-up magic performances because it allows anybody anywhere to watch and rewatch the performance as many times as they want in order to work them out, and nuances that would have passed someone by the first time – were it live – would eventually be seen. The author considered filming magic in this way as exposure.

He made an interesting point. I’m not entirely sure it is a valid one though. While, yes, there are some absolutely hopeless videos out there on YouTube, filmed on ten dollar web cams which never move and are basically a shot of the performer’s hands – just like those annoying spectators who will not relax and enjoy the performance but instead watch you like a hawk and even refuse to blink. But I don’t think that not filming magic at all is the way forward.

We are living in the information revolution. This is a very exciting time in history and the only time to date when you could send the complete works of Shakespeare from here to Australia in the blink of an eye. Information, and the ability to share it, is what is making the human species cleverer by the day. And it isn’t going to go away.

So I don’t say, don’t film. I just say film better.

Having had a bit of film school training myself, I’m about to share with you some of the secrets of Lo-To-No Budget Film Making that you can use in your own magic videos to fake a big budget and just make it look more professional and less pathetic.

1. Use Multiple Angles

Yes, I appreciate that we are not all made of money and that the majority of you cannot afford expensive camera equipment or maybe you don’t have a friend kind enough (or skilled enough) to hold the camera while you perform, but we can do better than a continuous shot of your hands while you do a card routine.

The truth is, video camera technology is just too easily available now for single shot videos to be acceptable. I’ll bet most of you have video recording technology built into your mobile phones.

2. Perform to a Person!

Magic is meant to be seen by people. In your video, perform to somebody. It gives the viewing audience somebody in the video to associate with. It allows you to interact with your spectator. In all, it allows you to actual entertain rather than to simply present a puzzle – as you are effectively doing with the one shot hands videos.

When the person reacts, you have a form of social proof of your magic.

People are easily available. All you need is the guts to ask them, and the streets fill with people every weekend.

3. Edit Wisely

Use an inexpensive editing suite like CyberLink Power Director to put your video together. You can add simple after effects which will make your video look professional (if you’re careful, and cheesy if you’re not).

Also, you can switch angles every time a “dirty move” comes along – and not ONLY when a dirty move comes along, tell the story too – and your magic will be harder for persistent audiences to figure out.

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I think if you stick to those 3 simple rules then, for little more effort, you can have much better videos which are both more entertaining, more interesting to watch and simple don’t wreak amateurville!

Enjoy!