James, while you can usually figure out various elements of how an effect is done from a performance, you'll NEVER get the full story.
I had a guy today asking for advice with Shudder as he was having problems, he doesn't have the DVD though, he just figured it out....
Any one who has the Shudder DVD on here will know that there is a fundamental principle which is not possible to guess from the preview as it's completely inviz.
The same applies with Torn. If I sat down with the preview for a bit I could prob work out what's going down, but I bought the DVD because I can appreciate that you simply CAN'T guess every single element.
You are having trouble because you don't know the effect, you haven't learnt the effect.
Buy the DVD and check it out, you won't regret it.
Best,
D.