Be part of YouTube's best magical Collaboration.

Sep 1, 2007
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Still not enough to convince me.

15 seconds apiece of teenagers demo-ing Dan and Dave material for however many minutes. I call that a sleeping aid, not an exciting collaboration.
 
Sep 1, 2007
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Did you watch my other collab videos?

I have not watched a magic video on YouTube in about a year, barring people who asked specifically asked for criticism. They make my brain hurt for two reasons.

1. The magic generally sucks and is self-indulgent to the point of being pasteboard based pornography.
2. 99% of the people on YouTube have no god damn clue how to frame a shot, light a scene, or edit.
 
Jan 28, 2009
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Yeah whilst I thought that was pretty entertaining.....Its really just a compilation of exactly the kind of videos that Streepike hates, but with you stroking your chin in between them. It's just a collection of tricks devoid of any artisitc message or any power.....when it could in fact so easily have had both. As I said, I thought it was neat, but then I'm not an artiste, lol.
 
Sep 1, 2007
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www.timury.net
Well, it sure was more than a collection of tricks. It was a collection of tricks connected by a storyline, telling a, yes, story. What's wrong with that?
 
Sep 1, 2007
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Well, it sure was more than a collection of tricks. It was a collection of tricks connected by a storyline, telling a, yes, story. What's wrong with that?

Haven't watched the videos yet, partly out of laziness.

That said, can you sum up this alleged storyline for me in one sentence and make it sound good? Warning bells go off for me when I hear people talking about stories now since the phenomena of self-publishing and inexplicably popular garbage like Twilight has dramatically lowered the bar for what people today consider to be good storytelling.

Keep in mind, I'm not asking for Stephen King, Fyodor Dostyovski, or even Jim Butcher. Just something that I can react to with something more positive than apathy.
 
Sep 1, 2007
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www.timury.net
That said, can you sum up this alleged storyline for me in one sentence and make it sound good?

Okay, why not.

Magicians Unite!: Magicians perform tricks with a specific card and pass it on to the next magician to help me find the card for the trick I'm performing.

Magicians Reunited!: This time, the magicians steal this specific card, I'll try to retrieve it by travelling in a far away land while they perform tricks with it.
 
Jan 28, 2009
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And that's my problem.

Lets look at what kind of artistic points you could have made without even a shred of originality in your body.

Maybe something around magic's ability to inspire? You know, maybe a card with a simple message scribed on it, passed around the world?

Maybe something spectator centric? You know that card being forced and then used in a trick, and then a film of their reactions, showing magic's ability to generate you know....'magic moments'?

Maybe something around a political or cultural message? i.e. magic in a variety of places performed by different races in different cultures to show the unity?

Instead you post a video called magicians unite, and its a bunch of 13 year olds performing simple magic, but of course....its a short film.....because it's about you looking for a card?

Wow.....if the idea of you looking for a card isn't the most inspirational use of magic in a video that I've ever seen then I don't know what is. (That was irony btw....in case you missed it.)

Basically...your premise that these videos are anything more than a bunch of kids performing badly filmed youmagic around a ridiculous and barely discernible plot (which makes absolutely -no- statement at all in either an artistic, or even in a banal sense) is just NOT supported by the facts.

So yeah. As I said, I thought it was neat, I really did, but it is what it is, and it is what Steerpike said it was.

All anyone that's not into magic would get from watching these videos is the sense that magicians are just self absorbed show offs that revel in making videos about themselves.

Whilst this may be sadly reflective of the young magic community, it's I believe (at least) not the sort of community that we -want- the magic community to be.


So basically on the merit of these videos....I have three words for you.....delusions of grandeur.
 
Feb 27, 2008
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Grand prairie TX
Card tricks..endless card tricks...it wouldnt be much of a problem if half the people who performed had a real character or personality..or at least looked the spectator in the eye.jesus
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
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Okay, why not.

Magicians Unite!: Magicians perform tricks with a specific card and pass it on to the next magician to help me find the card for the trick I'm performing.

Magicians Reunited!: This time, the magicians steal this specific card, I'll try to retrieve it by travelling in a far away land while they perform tricks with it.

And you lost me.

The internet is a fresh and exciting new medium, and it's potential to cross over with magic to raise awareness of the art and create new artistic statements is almost completely untapped.

And this is what you do with it?

Everyone take note that once again I was right. These videos are nothing more than self-indulgent whacking material for magicians. There is no audience outside of other amateur magicians who would give a damn about this.
 
Jan 28, 2009
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Your experience amongst 13 year old magicians? I don't see many pros saying..."WOW!!!! Way to move the art forward!"

This is total tosh and an absolute waste of a collaboration.

You have the level of organizational prowess to put this together and its just self indulgeant magic porn.....bleagh.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
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My experience was entirely different. Well, to each his own I guess.

I'm sorry but "to each his own" is not an acceptable answer when you have the gigantic balls it takes to call your work the best.

Am I far off in saying that this is the first time anyone has been this openly critical of the entire concept of these videos? Because I guarantee you're not getting any real critique from YouTube. YouTube, MySpace, deviantArt, Keenspot, and all the other sites in a similar vein suffer from the exact same problem that getting real, honest and informed criticism is like trying to weld ice cubes because of a user base with no sense of quality control and the delusion that indiscriminate praise will get them a reciprocation when they churn out their own amateurish work. Simply put, it's a massive circle jerk.

If you want to be taken seriously among all this, "We am da best!" malarky, you need to find the most vicious and brutal critics of magic, show them these videos, let them rip the whole thing to shreds, and then listen to their advice. None of this "to each his own" ****.
 
Sep 1, 2007
64
0
www.timury.net
Wow.....if the idea of you looking for a card isn't the most inspirational use of magic in a video that I've ever seen then I don't know what is. (That was irony btw....in case you missed it.)

I've never said it was good, very original or inspiring. But it was entertaining. Maybe not for you, but for a whole bunch of other people. You definitely cannot please everybody.
I'm sorry but "to each his own" is not an acceptable answer when you have the gigantic balls it takes to call your work the best.
I'm sorry if you take a title like that seriously.
 
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Sep 1, 2007
3,786
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I've never said it was good, very original or inspiring.

You called it "YouTube's best magical collaboration." Granted, that's like being the best at combing your hair, but it's still a little late to claim humility.

But it was entertaining. Maybe not for you, but for a whole bunch of other people. And sometimes, that's enough.

Glad to know the bar is set so high.

(goes looking for that bottle of dark rum)
 
Aug 10, 2008
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In a rock concert
I've never said it was good, very original or inspiring. But it was entertaining. Maybe not for you, but for a whole bunch of other people. And sometimes, that's enough.

= Mediocrity.


Don't take me wrong, I would gladly participate, but steerpike touched a point none of us realised in the past pages, we just said "Yes we want to be part" just because it's something we rarely see around here and the idea of working all toguether to make a single video, well, it sounded ok for most of us, but now that steer made his point, I suggest you try to come for a REAL motivation for the video, or a good storyline, instead of keeping justifying youself.

Thanks.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
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I'm sorry if you take a title like that seriously.

Oh, so it's my fault for reading "best magical collaboration" and having a part of my brain going, "The best collaboration of magicians online? Sounds exciting! Maybe I should look into this!" Granted, my expectations were pretty low because I know what YouTube magic typically looks like, but the part of my soul that hasn't been extinguished and fermented yet held out some measure of hope.

But I guess it really is my fault for thinking that a YouTube guttersnipe would have any concept of truth in advertising or even a rudimentary knowledge of Marketing 101.
 
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