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I was wondering if any of you guys have any info whatsoever on how do ppl like David Blain and Chris Angel levitate in front of ppl on the street. I know it's impossible but how the hell do they do it.
Sub-question: Do you think that US millitary investigates this sort-a thing
It's an optical illusian, I used to be able to do it when I was interested in magic, though not as good as blain... You stand in a way where your audiance is at a certain angle... it's hard to explain, if you go to blain's website he tells you how he does it and it works, though you need a lot of practice to do it like he does... Though I don't know if he still has the secret on his site... If you must absolutly know I guess I will type out the explination later... but before you want me to do that try searching his site.
What if theres somebody all around you....can you make it appear in a certain angle to everyone ?Quote:
You stand in a way where your audiance is at a certain angle..
http://www.ellusionist.com/david-blaine.htm
David Blaine Street Magic — Levitation Technique
There's something a tad crazy about that.. I think it's all an illusion, BUT.. I don't care WHAT angle your looking at all that from. If you see a man's feet leave the ground and he isn't touching anything, it doesn't matter WHAT angle your looking at it from.
Exactly. It doesn't matter the angle your looking at it from: the man's feet are off the ground.Quote:
What if theres somebody all around you....can you make it appear in a certain angle to everyone ?
What you see on TV is fake. I can't remember where I read it, but what he does is use the technique where he leaves one foot on the ground. The camera records the peoples' reactions because they really think he is levitating. Then, he is hooked up to a crain and lifted farther up. They plug in the people being suprised, and bam! You have yourself an instant "magic" trick.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/philadelphia.html
In answer to:
I think that they investigate all sorts of stuff. Some of the published works make interesting reading. Optical illusions, camoflage, psychology & auto-suggestion..................Quote:
Sub-question: Do you think that US millitary investigates this sort-a thing
:)
Cache: Are you sure they do that? I highly doubt it.. there have been live people see David Blaine do it LIVE in NYC and yeah.. Maybe with the TV Show Criss Angel dude.. but David Blaine has done it LIVE.
Hey Hey,
My roommate and I used to be huge into magic... I've also worked back-stage on a few magic shows... While I've signed waivers on the tricks used in those... there are others that I haven't.
The way the trick works is to get the person back and to one side of you.. The better you are at the trick the more variance you have in how you do it. The idea is to have great balance and as sad as it sounds strength in your toes with a flexible piece of footwear. You lift one foot completely (the one closest to the onlookers) and the other foot is lifted in the back, the foot is bent and you balance on one toe... That's why at times you can see that it looks like David is falling... he's lost his balance. When the tricks are performed on stage, there are other aspects (similar to theatre performances where people fly with rigging and "flies").. As for the scenes that are cut in where you see both of his feet off the ground, those are usually edited in afterwards. A friend of mine once made a video of himself levitating... He filmed himself jumping in the air and then slowed it down and duplicated frames while dubbing sound over top.
Remember there's no such thing as magic.. it's all illusions that rely on misdirection of some sort or another.
Peace,
HT
Quote:
What if theres somebody all around you....can you make it appear in a certain angle to everyone ?
Yes it does matter which angle the audiance is looking from, not once in his shows do you see the audiance behind him, to the side of him, etc. It's always from the same general angle... But if you want to argue and keep suggesting that he's this magical man that can fly, then there's something wrong with you.Quote:
Exactly. It doesn't matter the angle your looking at it from: the man's feet are off the ground
And I wouldn't doubt what cache has to say either... magic is definitly not magic... It's cleverness.
HTRegz explained the technique perfectly, that's how he does it, I was just to lazy to type it all out...
Anybody remember when David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear...it's all misdirection and optical illusion with maybe a little of Krezkin's ability to cause mass hallucination/hypnosis...he could make a whole audience believe they were outside on the beach or being chased by bears.
Eg ;)
That reminds me of the time I saw someone make the sphinx disapear on television, though I can't remember the magicians name :(.
I am very certain it was David Blaine and that is what they said he did. The reactions are towards the "foot trick" that HTRegz had mentioned and then they put clips of him being completely lifted. I'm not saying people didn't think he was levitating, I'm just saying I doubt it was that high above the ground.Quote:
Originally posted here by Spyder32
Cache: Are you sure they do that? I highly doubt it.. there have been live people see David Blaine do it LIVE in NYC and yeah.. Maybe with the TV Show Criss Angel dude.. but David Blaine has done it LIVE.
I found what Cache refers to. Seems alot of magicians resent Blaine for this kind of this. This is what one of them says :
Quote:
For the television special, Blaine performed the Balducci levitation in front of several hundred different groups of people, and the camera was angled only to catch their reactions. The method he used for this is the Balducci method, described above. While taping all the hundreds of performances, the producers keyed in on the audience members with the most visual reaction. 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.magiclearn.50megs.com/photo2.htmlQuote:
It was said, in the television special, that no strings or wires were used to perform Blaine's levitation and there are no camera tricks. This is a lie, his show is basically based on camera tricks, editing and production. DAVID BLAIN IS A LUCKY, AMATEUR MAGICIAN THAT WAS IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME! Nothing more, mabey less.
The rest of the site is about how the trick is done.
Thanks hesperus. You helped by showing people I wasn't crazy ;)
I still think your crazy
CRAZY, CRAZY i sayy....
where u from in Ohio anyways ? I'm in a suburb near Cleveland called Mentor....
if you notice in all of Blains shows, the people stand behind him at an angle, as has been said before.
I have done it several times, and I assure you, as an overweight female, I have NO special powers. It is merely an optical illusion, and a very good one at that!
It has pretty much been explained. If you find someone who can do it and is willing to show you from all angles, then you will understand.
Some of Blains levitations are done using camera tricks and wires, though. With those levitations, he can rise up to a foot off the ground. The other trick only gives you 4-6 inches.
Google this:
Balducci Levitation
Thats how he does it apparently.
EDIT:
Or, I can just give you the answer: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=28391