Portal.
Kinda long, but the gist is that he has a bunch of random people from the audience write and draw a bunch of stuff. Then he takes a polaroid of it. His assistant and he go into a curtain and are magically transported to “Hawaii” which can be seen on a “video feed” where he shows the polaroid and many other things.
My thought is that the only realy trick is the disappearance, whereas the other stuff is either real time greenscreen, prerecorded video, and/or a sound stage nearby.
Well, it’s pretty obvious the beach scene where they arrived to was recorded earlier and the guy he took with him was a plant (not even a very good actor the way he hugged his dad). I’m guessing the couple things he took with him, a polaroid and his arm markings, were some quick video editing onto the exsisting video.
Still an effective stage disappearance.
I agree with this. The stuff that supposedly happens in Hawaii is prerecordered, with some green screening (when they’re showing the arm, the photo). You can see where camera cutaways make this possible, even though it’s all one continuous shot. So, the only real trick is the disappearence. I have no idea how magicians do this, but it always amazes me.
We know it’s an illusion yet we are presented with evidence that appears to be true and factual. The apparent " transport" of two persons to Hawaii and only one is to convince us that it really happened and yet we know it didn’t. All the participants, photos, markings etc aslo just window dressing/diversions.
An old advertisement read, “It’s fun to be fooled, it’s more fun to know.”
When you, we get to be ‘master magicians’ perhaps David will share the secret(s) with us. In the mean time …
I’ve watched it a few times now. To elaborate Donut’s post, the video seems to work like this:
The scene where they pop out of the curtain is prerecorded. As the “recorded” guy runs to the beach, when he arrives back “live” David is standing in front of a greenscreen. He shows his arm with the “TS” on it. Then the “live” plant, also in front of a greenscreen, hands him the photo. He then hands the “live” plant the camera. Cut away to Dad, then the “recorded” plant goes to meet the Dad. All carefully choreographed.
Very clever. Part of the trick is that he wrote the initials on a concealed part of his body. The trick wouldn’t work if he has the initials on his forehead, for example.
I haven’t worked out how they talk to the guy on the beach.
I think all the people in at least two sections of the audience had to have been plants. That’s the only way they could have ensured that the steel ball landed on someone who would profess T.S. to be his initials.
I doubt this, considering the lost potential revenue and the number of people who would need to be in on the trick.
Apart from the greenscreen bit where he shows his arm, the only other time the initials themselves are important is when the guy on the beach repeats them (04:27). This could either be greenscreen or some other computer trickery. Or maybe as simple as the guy standing backstage and “dubbing” the voice.
I’m pretty sure snorlax got it right; it’s a combination of prerecorded segments of Copperfield and his assistant, combined very artfully with live segments of them, showing initials and the photo and whatnot. Although the video is described as continuous, it’s not a continuous shot of Copperfield and the assistant. They both appear at around 8:11, the camera leaves Copperfield almost immediately to watch the black guy run down to the water, then the black guy is out of frame at 8:36 when we see the close-up of Copperfield’s arm. The black guy is visible again to hand the photo to Copperfield and accept the camera, then both of them fall out of frame when the camera pans left to the father. The timeline, I figure, is roughly like:
8:11 Prerecorded DC and Black Guy (BG)
8:15 Prerecorded BG alone.
8:32 Prerecorded BG runs back and stands “next” to live DC. Note that they do not touch, nor can you see DC’s feet, which would spoil the greenscreen effect.
8:35 Closeup of live DC’s arm.
8:40 Zoom out to live DC and live BG. Now there’s physical contact, as BG hands over the Polaroid and accepts the camera.
9:03 Camera pans left, leaving both DC and BG.
9:10 Prerecorded BG enters frame for the hug.
9:22 Prerecorded DC appears in frame. Note that now you can see his feet. He disappears at 9:36.
As a nice extra touch, note the muffled voice that says “David! It’s starting to rain!” followed by the audience being rained on.
Extremely clever, with a lot of rehearsal. I’m impressed, though not really awed.
With the luxury of watching it over and over, it’s easy to pick apart. It must be impressive to see live.
On a slight hijack, I haven’t seen or heard much of David Copperfield for some time; he seems to have adopted a more informal and jokey stage persona. I always remembered him as being really intense and serious, wearing glittery outfits, and spouting on about “the world of illuuuusion” with one eyebrow cocked. Or do I have him confused with Doug Henning?
I’ve heard him on some radio interviews over the years and the guys got a pretty good sense of humor. He’s even the first one to admit his tricks are just tricks and illusions and that ‘no’ he doesn’t have any magic power because there is no such thing.
David Copperfield is a lot like Houdini, an honest, no nonsense guy. He keeps his techniques close to the vest to intrigue the public and further his career.
Houdini made exposing fraudulent mediums, fortune tellers and such an important part of his life. He would have made mince meat of the charlatans that abounded after his death.
David’s tricks are always a great show!
Bryan Ekers has it exactly right. The only thing I would add is that the assistant in Hawaii is also greenscreened in to the footage during the early stages of the trick so that he can say ‘Hi Andy’, repeat ‘TS’ and comment on volleyball. The cameras are computer controlled, recreating exactly the same pans and zooms that were used when filming the pre-recorded Hawaii footage.
Nice trick- I wonder how many times they rehearsed it. Probably hundreds.
More than that I would imagine. Coppperfield is a perfectionist and makes sure that every illusion he does is done properly and that all is “assistants” do everything correct. The end result is a great show, but it does mean that his shows are almost always late in starting.
Okay, so we’ve got a pretty good idea about everything but the disappearance itself. Any idea how he did that (and the reappearance, for that matter)?
All in all, it was a pretty good illusion. I found myself moved, despite the cheesy factor of the son being reunited with his father and the bad acting skills of both of them.
I have seem him perform this trick live as well as the one where he “impregnates” a woman on stage. The transportation trick was very impressive. The pregnancy one was wrong and bad. There should be a new, stronger word for that trick like badwrong or badong. YES, that trick was badong.
Well my guess is that, like many tricks of this type, the actual disappearance has already taken place by the time the visual disappearance happens. Thus, I think they slip out the back along the curiously walkway-like platform. The “mirror to show you behind” is just a ruse.