Some thoughts on The Wire submissions...
As someone that has seen dozens of submissions to the Wire, some that have been chosen and some that have not, I’d like to provide some thoughts to those considering submitting an item for consideration.
They’re not in any particular order with the possible exception of the first one. Here then, is my list of things to consider.
1. Go beyond the raw idea. Except for submitting something that isn’t yours, this is probably the most common reason I’ve seen so far that gets an item denied. If you have a raw idea and it’s unquestionably a miracle, then it’s probably okay to submit it to the Wire as a raw idea and it will do well. But if your idea is a small one, even if it’s original, then you should attempt to flesh it out as much as possible before submitting.
Keep in mind that some ideas aren’t worth charging anyone any money to know or use them. Before the Wire, ideas like these were commonly submitted to magic magazines or included in YouTube videos for free – because that’s what they’re worth – nothing. Most raw ideas are a dime a dozen. Give them away.
Of course, really good ideas can have value and there’s nothing wrong with selling them. But make sure you’ve made a genuine contribution before you ask people to fork over their hard-earned cash. Just because a platform exists now making it possible to sell little tips and ideas doesn’t mean you should sell little tips and idea. If you have a giant step forward in terms of method, plot, presentation or technique, then I’ll pay money for it. If all you have is a tiny step sideways, I’m not interested and neither is anyone else. Think bigger.
2. Real performances. I can’t tell you how much more respect I have for a performer that videos a live performance than one that performs only for the camera. It’s not a minor point; it’s huge. Magic is a performance art and one of the best ways to judge the value of an item is to see it done for an audience instead of a static camera.
Many of you are submitting effects that almost certainly won’t work for real audiences (they tend to move around, grab things, and insist on examining items) but will work fine for a camera on a tripod or for your very cooperative videographer. If you’re crystal clear about what you’re selling and what you’re doing, then performing only for the camera is fine. If your move depends on your audience standing exactly 5 ½ feet away looking through a hole in a piece of paper to get the right angle then you may be trying to sell a pipedream move that few people will ever be able to do. That’s fine if you’re up front about the angle sensitivity with potential buyers. But don’t think we can’t tell when you submit something and make it look perfect from the camera angle only to find out it’s highly angle sensitive in real life. Buyers don’t like to be conned into buying something that way.
3. Production quality. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to have superior production quality to get accepted to the Wire. If you submit a genuine miracle, I don’t care if you film it with a potato. On the other hand, if you submit a “ho hum” effect, don’t be surprised if it gets kicked back to you with a request to reshoot. The magic buying community can tolerate a lot when they’re getting fantastic information quality for their money. If they’re only getting “okay” information for their money then they’re going to start grumbling about production quality. Of course, if you have a miracle and it’s shot and edited properly, you have the best of both worlds.
With regard to live performances, we tend to cut you some slack in this department, as it’s not often possible to control audio and other parameters when you’re performing for a real audience. When it comes time to shoot your explanations, you don’t get as much wiggle room. Take the time to put up a backdrop (a plain sheet or blank wall can suffice). The living room, your computer and desk, and the cat in the background are all distractions. The couch is generally not an acceptable and artistic place to teach us your latest minor variation on a 100-year-old move.
Light is your friend. Although the perfect amount of light can be difficult to achieve, when in doubt, use more rather than less. It’s rather simple to darken a shot with video editing software. Making a shot lighter is more difficult.
Be cognizant of shadows. A single light source will invariably create shadows. Use more than one source to help prevent or “fill in” these shadows.
Think about what you’re wearing. One person submitted a video filmed on his couch that had his bare foot in the shot the entire time. Thanks but no thanks.
4. How to teach your move. Let’s get something out of the way up front. None of you are Homer Liwag. Homer’s Coin One DVD used text on screen in an unbelievably beautiful and artful way. If you’re going to go the text on screen route, at least do it right. Have a friend or relative read the words on the screen checking only for spelling and grammar mistakes. Remember, these are not YouTube clips. You’re asking people to pay money for this stuff.
Again, if you have a miracle that’s going to revolutionize magic, we’ll look the other way on the spelling and grammar. For the other 99.9% of you, this stuff matters because it makes you look like you know what you’re doing. I don’t want to learn from someone that can’t be bothered to read his own words to see if something is misspelled, and neither do many other potential customers.
If English is not your first language, we’ll cut you some slack of course. Americans are the worst at learning, speaking and writing foreign languages, so I give a lot of latitude to those of you brave enough to try. Having said that, not being lazy isn’t an excuse in any language. Anyone can use an online dictionary to double-check the spelling of words that they aren’t sure of. Grammar is tougher, but good websites for grammar in English are very common. It all boils down to how much you care and that spills over into all areas of your videos. Or at least, it should.
The best thing to do is to outline your instructional section and practice it a few times before you film it. It’s okay to film your practice sessions, just in case you nail it the first time around, but generally speaking you’ll want a few attempts to get it right.
5. Credits. The overwhelming majority of moves with cards and coins that we see have been done before in some way, shape or form. We get many, many submissions that are little more than “touches” or variants of existing moves. In my opinion, these aren’t generally worth selling. They’re like the raw ideas from the first item on this list. A few years ago, they would have been magazine submissions or something thrown into a lecture in between other, more impressive items. They’re still “give aways” today in my opinion. It bears repeating, just because you can sell it doesn’t mean you should.
But, let’s assume you’re going to go forward with your minor fingering position variant and publish. At the very least, you need to credit the inventors that have come before you. This means that you may have to dig through many old books and ask other experts ahead of time if your move is original and has merit. Research isn’t easy and can be very time consuming. If you make a mistake but made an honest effort, the magic community will go easy on you. If it’s painfully obvious you didn’t make a genuine effort, you’ll probably get denied and won’t get an explanation as to why.
If you’re publishing a variant and the inventor of the original is still alive, then it’s imperative that you get permission. As my friend Brad Henderson is fond of pointing out, getting permission from a living inventor is not the same as giving credit. Publishing your variant of the Elmsley count is one thing. Publishing a variant of something a living magician invented is entirely something else. Occasionally it happens that a living inventor’s move or idea is so widespread that it doesn’t matter if you get permission from him. The Elmsley count achieved this status while Alex was still alive. The “Card Warp” principle might be a good example for a living artist now. But if I were you, I’d always get permission from living inventors. It’s the safest and most ethical way to move forward.
6. I’m quite fond of the telling people to “figure out what the idiots are doing, and then do something else!” Watch the best (and worst) YouTube videos you can find on any subject, not just magic. Although there are professionally filmed clips on there of course, pay the most attention to the really great amateur videos you find. Many of them are shot in people’s homes using little more than a cell phone camera or inexpensive video camera and most are not produced using sophisticated editing software. In other words, they have the same resources as most of you. These people usually succeed in creating good videos because they’re smart, take the time to do it right, and really know their subject matter. That’s what you want to emulate.
On the other hand, it doesn’t take a genius to spot a terrible video on just about any subject matter. But the next time you run across one, don’t just dismiss it and click away. Ask yourself what the other guy could have done to improve his video to the point where you would actually have watched it and enjoyed it. In many cases it’s simple to figure this out, but in others it may be tougher. The point is to figure out what the idiots are doing, and do something else. The “something else” will vary depending on the idiot(s) in question, but you’ll figure it out if you care enough to do so.
Thanks for your time.
Jason
As someone that has seen dozens of submissions to the Wire, some that have been chosen and some that have not, I’d like to provide some thoughts to those considering submitting an item for consideration.
They’re not in any particular order with the possible exception of the first one. Here then, is my list of things to consider.
1. Go beyond the raw idea. Except for submitting something that isn’t yours, this is probably the most common reason I’ve seen so far that gets an item denied. If you have a raw idea and it’s unquestionably a miracle, then it’s probably okay to submit it to the Wire as a raw idea and it will do well. But if your idea is a small one, even if it’s original, then you should attempt to flesh it out as much as possible before submitting.
Keep in mind that some ideas aren’t worth charging anyone any money to know or use them. Before the Wire, ideas like these were commonly submitted to magic magazines or included in YouTube videos for free – because that’s what they’re worth – nothing. Most raw ideas are a dime a dozen. Give them away.
Of course, really good ideas can have value and there’s nothing wrong with selling them. But make sure you’ve made a genuine contribution before you ask people to fork over their hard-earned cash. Just because a platform exists now making it possible to sell little tips and ideas doesn’t mean you should sell little tips and idea. If you have a giant step forward in terms of method, plot, presentation or technique, then I’ll pay money for it. If all you have is a tiny step sideways, I’m not interested and neither is anyone else. Think bigger.
2. Real performances. I can’t tell you how much more respect I have for a performer that videos a live performance than one that performs only for the camera. It’s not a minor point; it’s huge. Magic is a performance art and one of the best ways to judge the value of an item is to see it done for an audience instead of a static camera.
Many of you are submitting effects that almost certainly won’t work for real audiences (they tend to move around, grab things, and insist on examining items) but will work fine for a camera on a tripod or for your very cooperative videographer. If you’re crystal clear about what you’re selling and what you’re doing, then performing only for the camera is fine. If your move depends on your audience standing exactly 5 ½ feet away looking through a hole in a piece of paper to get the right angle then you may be trying to sell a pipedream move that few people will ever be able to do. That’s fine if you’re up front about the angle sensitivity with potential buyers. But don’t think we can’t tell when you submit something and make it look perfect from the camera angle only to find out it’s highly angle sensitive in real life. Buyers don’t like to be conned into buying something that way.
3. Production quality. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to have superior production quality to get accepted to the Wire. If you submit a genuine miracle, I don’t care if you film it with a potato. On the other hand, if you submit a “ho hum” effect, don’t be surprised if it gets kicked back to you with a request to reshoot. The magic buying community can tolerate a lot when they’re getting fantastic information quality for their money. If they’re only getting “okay” information for their money then they’re going to start grumbling about production quality. Of course, if you have a miracle and it’s shot and edited properly, you have the best of both worlds.
With regard to live performances, we tend to cut you some slack in this department, as it’s not often possible to control audio and other parameters when you’re performing for a real audience. When it comes time to shoot your explanations, you don’t get as much wiggle room. Take the time to put up a backdrop (a plain sheet or blank wall can suffice). The living room, your computer and desk, and the cat in the background are all distractions. The couch is generally not an acceptable and artistic place to teach us your latest minor variation on a 100-year-old move.
Light is your friend. Although the perfect amount of light can be difficult to achieve, when in doubt, use more rather than less. It’s rather simple to darken a shot with video editing software. Making a shot lighter is more difficult.
Be cognizant of shadows. A single light source will invariably create shadows. Use more than one source to help prevent or “fill in” these shadows.
Think about what you’re wearing. One person submitted a video filmed on his couch that had his bare foot in the shot the entire time. Thanks but no thanks.
4. How to teach your move. Let’s get something out of the way up front. None of you are Homer Liwag. Homer’s Coin One DVD used text on screen in an unbelievably beautiful and artful way. If you’re going to go the text on screen route, at least do it right. Have a friend or relative read the words on the screen checking only for spelling and grammar mistakes. Remember, these are not YouTube clips. You’re asking people to pay money for this stuff.
Again, if you have a miracle that’s going to revolutionize magic, we’ll look the other way on the spelling and grammar. For the other 99.9% of you, this stuff matters because it makes you look like you know what you’re doing. I don’t want to learn from someone that can’t be bothered to read his own words to see if something is misspelled, and neither do many other potential customers.
If English is not your first language, we’ll cut you some slack of course. Americans are the worst at learning, speaking and writing foreign languages, so I give a lot of latitude to those of you brave enough to try. Having said that, not being lazy isn’t an excuse in any language. Anyone can use an online dictionary to double-check the spelling of words that they aren’t sure of. Grammar is tougher, but good websites for grammar in English are very common. It all boils down to how much you care and that spills over into all areas of your videos. Or at least, it should.
The best thing to do is to outline your instructional section and practice it a few times before you film it. It’s okay to film your practice sessions, just in case you nail it the first time around, but generally speaking you’ll want a few attempts to get it right.
5. Credits. The overwhelming majority of moves with cards and coins that we see have been done before in some way, shape or form. We get many, many submissions that are little more than “touches” or variants of existing moves. In my opinion, these aren’t generally worth selling. They’re like the raw ideas from the first item on this list. A few years ago, they would have been magazine submissions or something thrown into a lecture in between other, more impressive items. They’re still “give aways” today in my opinion. It bears repeating, just because you can sell it doesn’t mean you should.
But, let’s assume you’re going to go forward with your minor fingering position variant and publish. At the very least, you need to credit the inventors that have come before you. This means that you may have to dig through many old books and ask other experts ahead of time if your move is original and has merit. Research isn’t easy and can be very time consuming. If you make a mistake but made an honest effort, the magic community will go easy on you. If it’s painfully obvious you didn’t make a genuine effort, you’ll probably get denied and won’t get an explanation as to why.
If you’re publishing a variant and the inventor of the original is still alive, then it’s imperative that you get permission. As my friend Brad Henderson is fond of pointing out, getting permission from a living inventor is not the same as giving credit. Publishing your variant of the Elmsley count is one thing. Publishing a variant of something a living magician invented is entirely something else. Occasionally it happens that a living inventor’s move or idea is so widespread that it doesn’t matter if you get permission from him. The Elmsley count achieved this status while Alex was still alive. The “Card Warp” principle might be a good example for a living artist now. But if I were you, I’d always get permission from living inventors. It’s the safest and most ethical way to move forward.
6. I’m quite fond of the telling people to “figure out what the idiots are doing, and then do something else!” Watch the best (and worst) YouTube videos you can find on any subject, not just magic. Although there are professionally filmed clips on there of course, pay the most attention to the really great amateur videos you find. Many of them are shot in people’s homes using little more than a cell phone camera or inexpensive video camera and most are not produced using sophisticated editing software. In other words, they have the same resources as most of you. These people usually succeed in creating good videos because they’re smart, take the time to do it right, and really know their subject matter. That’s what you want to emulate.
On the other hand, it doesn’t take a genius to spot a terrible video on just about any subject matter. But the next time you run across one, don’t just dismiss it and click away. Ask yourself what the other guy could have done to improve his video to the point where you would actually have watched it and enjoyed it. In many cases it’s simple to figure this out, but in others it may be tougher. The point is to figure out what the idiots are doing, and do something else. The “something else” will vary depending on the idiot(s) in question, but you’ll figure it out if you care enough to do so.
Thanks for your time.
Jason
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