Thursday, January 19, 2012

WMF Trailers

FUUUUUUUUUCK..... Get to the fucking point. More and more magic trailer nowadays, do way too much "atmospheric introduction" Most recent example: Five by Daniel Garcia and Marcus Eddie.



Oh no, its not a trailer. It's a preview video. What's the fucking difference? More than 40 seconds to get to the magic. And it's not even seen at all. Stop teasing you bloody Fuckers. Show the routines and be done with it. 40 seconds, it sure feels a lot longer. I'm not interested in seeing blurry images of cars and streets.

I could give a rat's ass about audience reactions to tricks I don't get to see. In fact I don't even give a flying fuck about any audience reactions.

I would get all pissed off if it wasn't Daniel Garcia and Marcus Eddie. I actually think they are talented and good. So I'm interested in what they got to offer. Instead I get out of focus slow motion shit.

Man, get a tripod, a decent camera guy and be interesting! I like it old school. Speaking of horrible trailers for magic effects. Peter Loughran's Body Swap Illusion is a masterpiece of lazy ass boredom. Almost 50 seconds (that's nearly a minute) before we get a SLIDESHOW.



By the way: What a weird ass illusion is that? I can see only one application where this would be cool. At an erotic fair and trade show. Because then you could have the participants prove that their body parts got swapped. Finally transsexuals can shine, bringing hope and a positive message about being whoever you want to be.

Back to the topic... Wanna see a good magic trailer? Check out pretty much everything by Axel Hecklau.



The intro is minimal, it even shows the trick, and then, without cuts and fancy editing the routine is demonstrated.

Bravo Herr Hecklau, you are doing it well.

To all the other... LEARN FROM IT!

15 comments:

The Smiling Mule said...

With you on this one. Not many things are more annoying.

Now how about a WMF for Genii on account of their recent flagrant censorship?

Roland said...

How so? Missed it!

The Smiling Mule said...

here

Pulled a whole thread complaining about L&L rehashing Revelations (no personal attacks or nastiness) and then the same again about lybrary.com releasing ebooks with no permission...

Anonymous said...

I also dislike how they call themselves "artists" . Why do magicians always feel that need to call themselves artists, their tricks "effects" and their sleights their "arsenal"??

Tensai said...

Mr Erdnase, because Magic is an art form :D

Should be anyway.

As for the original topic, I mostly agree on this one. My opinion is that ya should let the effect sell itself.

darkstar said...

Today I had a sandwich artist make me a grilled chicken. Then I watced a skateboard artist do some tricks on a curb. After that I visited my hair artist friend and we had a smoke.

True story.

BathTub said...

Hah, have you seen the hilarious trailers for Heptagon and Pentagon by Patrick Redford yet? Those are quite bad.

Tensai said...

Wait, does this mean you all DON'T treat magic as an art form? o.O

darkstar said...

I don't no. When use to say such when I was younger...or in casual conversation I may say "our art' or something.

But no. Art is way wishy washy, and seems directed at the ego. Don't get me wrong I have the highest regards for card magic...I just feel "art" is a bad representing word. Insecure if you will.

Tensai said...

I can see where you're coming from. I just choose to think of it as an art form because it has roots in theater and it has visual aspects.

It also depends on the person too. For example, a person selling hot dogs on the street doesn't think food is 'art', but a high class chef might regard the food he creates as art.

Those are just my thoughts. :D

Anonymous said...

I see magic as an craft, not as an art. When i see most magicians perform, it only reassures my vision that magic is not an artform..

In fact, magicians are the only ones who consider and insist that magic is an artform. Food for thought

The Smiling Mule said...

Of course it is an art form.

There is just a distinct lack of artists.

If music devolved like magic has (and who says it's not on its way) and 99% of it's practitioners are out performing in public after reading a beginners book on music and taking one piano lesson, it wouldn't cease to be an art.

Modern magicians have, through perpetual mediocrity, merely redefined the public perception of what magic is.

Some people have more natural talent than others in every field, true, but an artistic temperament combined with incessant practice and study is the only formula, in my opinion, capable of bridging that gap for those of us not blessed with "that something special."

Summary? Even if you don't think magic is an art form, you could do a lot worse than to treat it like one anyway.

Anonymous said...

and if that specifically is the case, then everything can considered an "artform",

Make up artist
Sandwich artist (when you work at Subways)
Hamburger/fast food artist (when working at MCDonalds)

etc. etc.

The Smiling Mule said...

I have no problem agreeing with that sentiment. As Vernon said, even chimney sweeping can be an art in the right hands.

The Smiling Mule said...

Though I pretty much agree with your initial comments. I would never call myself an artist, and I wouldn't suggest that any magician should. Leave that for other people to judge. My point is in approaching your study of magic as if it were an art.

Regarding the word "effect" - yes, I've written about this before, it's totally ridiculous and makes you sound like a git.

Vernon, again, had it right. An "effect" is a ball disappearing or a card changing. Tricks are made up of one or more effects... most magicians don't know what an effect is...

Even Erdnase didn't use it as a noun to denote a trick, he said "in effect" because it's more elegant than saying "here's what the audience sees..."

/rant.