Matt,
Can you comment on how this effect came to be?
What inspired you to create it?
Or, just some intesting tales of things that happened along the way.
Sure!
All of my life I have longed for the ability to move things with my thoughts. I loved things about this topic in the movies and books, and in Junior High School, I discovered the world of magic tricks/effects. Because the idea of telekinetics intrigued me I thought it may intrigue others so I jumped head first into that area of magic and others as well.
I have now been doing magic for 16 years, 4 years professionally. Throughout my experience with different illusions, I came across some favorites: Banachek's PK pen and Losander's floating table are two of those. The reason they intrigued me is because until I knew the method, they seemed to be absolutely real magic. They had a powerful impact on an audience. The second thing I loved about them was that when performing them, I felt as if I was actually doing real magic as well. It made the illusions fun for me to perform in and of themselves.
One day I was pondering what I wished for in an effect and zooming around the magic shops and internet shops attempting to find something in the PK arena that gave me total control of when an object would fall, was not too expensive, was something not many people had seen, and would feel like real magic. I found some things I liked but nothing that fit what I was exactly looking for.
I thought about the ideas I had for several days and then the idea of Power Word: Fall came to me. I tried the effect and was floored. It was exactly what I had been looking for. It had control, felt like real magic, and had opened the door to many applications. I began to perform it everywhere and for everyone. Slowly, it became refined and developed many effects using the principle of Power Word: Fall. Then I practiced, practiced, practiced.
Fast forward to the future. I was performing Power Word: Fall one day, and I thought. "You know, I bet people would like to do this too." I had nearly marketed an effect in the past but did not, due to the method being similar to another magician's work. I did not want to steal his work, so after calling and talking with him and discovering my method was in part the same as his, I halted my advancement toward marketing. Watch for Rich Ferguson's work coming soon. It will blow your mind.
I had been in contact with Paper Crane and sent them the demo of Power Word: Fall. I love the effects Paper Crane put out and the people at the company are amazing to work with. They are truly good people who live by their word, and they know their stuff. They connected me to Brandon Williams, who is an amazing Magician and helped me add a great addition to the effect, and discussed it with me helping me to refine it even more. I then shot the Instructional DVD.
The rest is almost here. People seem to be stoked about the effect as I hoped they would be. Power Word: Fall will be released in the next couple days, and I will be very happy that others will be able to do it and experience what I did.
That is the story of Power Word: Fall.
-Matt Sconce