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Misdirection well applied. Learn.
- Thread starter RDChopper
- Start date
Okay, I am just going to stop and say that I have already stated that yes, I believe it is miscoined term, there is that prefix again. I also stated that I was only expanding onto why I don't really like the terminology. Continuing, it isn't really a personal preference. Misdirection and Direction are two different things just as, interpret and misinterpret mean something different.
So there is a difference between the two words. The topic that I am trying to bring up currently is what is the difference between misdirecting your audience and directing your audience to do what you want.
Let me take the two videos I posted previously. Johnathan, put all the focus on the spoon and then used a flash pot to create "Misdirection" So that he could bend the spoon.
However, Michael Finney's act he controls his spectator with his words. If you listen to the clip you can notice that he goes from funny funny funny, to a commanding tone, before going back to being funny again. This break instill importance in the participant making him want to stand where he is positioned and not move from the spot. Whether, it was intentional or not I have no idea because I have not actually spoken with Mr. Finney before. Furthermore, he directs the spectator away from his own face by telling the participant to look through the deck. Then, he even adds more direction by taking a few cards with outstretched arms, directing the participant's focus forward and away from the forehead. Some call what I just described as misdirection. It isn't, it is direction and controlled direction for that matter.
Also I apologize RD if you feel I am hijacking your thread. But your thread has stimulated thought in my brain.
This is such a semantic aarguement that it doesnt really matter, but I feel the need to settle it anyways.
"Misdirection" vs "Direction" are actually essentially just named differently because they are focussing on 2 separate parts of the same thing. Misdirection/Direction are used to get someone's attention away from something, onto another thing. Clearly here we can see that "Misdirection" focusses on the fact that we are taking attention away from something, while "Direction" focusses on the fact that this attention must be directed elsewhere.
Misdirection is often used in magic because it is the fact that we are taking their attention away that is important. It doesnt really matter where we direct their attention, so long as its logical and it gets them away from the action.
Direction is used less often because it seems to denote that we are directing them to somewhere important.
Direction within itself is important, however just the term "direction" alone, ignores the other half of the move. Directing someone doesnt necessarilly mean youre taking their attention away from other stuff, and therefore doesnt necessarily imply misdirection. Whereas misdirection does imply direction to other places.
Also, were we to use "direction," sentences such as "Direct the audience to grab the deck" could become more confusing.
So yeah...
Cheers,
Lucas
"Misdirection" vs "Direction" are actually essentially just named differently because they are focussing on 2 separate parts of the same thing. Misdirection/Direction are used to get someone's attention away from something, onto another thing. Clearly here we can see that "Misdirection" focusses on the fact that we are taking attention away from something, while "Direction" focusses on the fact that this attention must be directed elsewhere.
Misdirection is often used in magic because it is the fact that we are taking their attention away that is important. It doesnt really matter where we direct their attention, so long as its logical and it gets them away from the action.
Direction is used less often because it seems to denote that we are directing them to somewhere important.
Direction within itself is important, however just the term "direction" alone, ignores the other half of the move. Directing someone doesnt necessarilly mean youre taking their attention away from other stuff, and therefore doesnt necessarily imply misdirection. Whereas misdirection does imply direction to other places.
Also, were we to use "direction," sentences such as "Direct the audience to grab the deck" could become more confusing.
So yeah...
Cheers,
Lucas
Without quoting...
We all agree the term itself, as it is widely used, is either incomplete or improperly coined.
When referring to them as 'the same' I merely meant that magicians (who understand the concept) mean the same thing when they say either misdirection or direction. The meaning behind the word is what makes it important. Just like English in America versus overseas. Lift vs. Elevator - Flat vs Apartment - Football vs Soccer...the words are different but mean the same thing, just as saying misdirection or direction can be the same thing.
The problem is when people teach misdirection to people who've never done it they miscall what is important, saying misdirection is calling attention away from X without explaining how to properly call attention to Y. This leads to misconceptions on the terms.
I agree with Lucas to some extent, both directing away from one area and to another are equally important, though not every treatise on the subject covers both ends.
We all agree the term itself, as it is widely used, is either incomplete or improperly coined.
When referring to them as 'the same' I merely meant that magicians (who understand the concept) mean the same thing when they say either misdirection or direction. The meaning behind the word is what makes it important. Just like English in America versus overseas. Lift vs. Elevator - Flat vs Apartment - Football vs Soccer...the words are different but mean the same thing, just as saying misdirection or direction can be the same thing.
The problem is when people teach misdirection to people who've never done it they miscall what is important, saying misdirection is calling attention away from X without explaining how to properly call attention to Y. This leads to misconceptions on the terms.
I agree with Lucas to some extent, both directing away from one area and to another are equally important, though not every treatise on the subject covers both ends.
Pay no attention to the, wolf behind the Curtain. For his posts are full of literary misdirection from the truth.
Agreed, the two work side by side. You misdirect someone by directing their attention somewhere else, you direct someone's attention by getting rid of all the misdirection.
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When it comes to the video ... can u really compare it to the misdirection we use in magic ? In the video, they ARE telling you to look somewhere, they are directing ALL your attention on the white guyz and the passes they are making. In magic, it would be like having someone pick a card, return it ... and the magician would say something like "Look at the weird penguins crossing the road" and while the specs. turns around to look at the weirdness of the penguins, you transfer the chosen card to your pocket. In the video, when you were asked "Did you see the moonwalking bear ?", most if not all of you knew you missed it/did not see it at all because you were directed somewhere else, the exact same thing will happen when you reveal the card in your pocket, people are not stupid ...
In magic, i would say getting someone's attention is more effective than "directing" their attention.Although they kinda mean the same thing, i believe they are different. Instead of directing their attention and say "look over there", why not get their attention by making eye contact with them.
OR
You can always use the penguin example above ...
And it seemed to have worked with one member of the forum.
Misdirection has three fundamental words under the umbrella of Misdirection. Time, Place and intent. The original video shown by RDC is an example of what a place misdirection is. The creators of the video asked you to watch the white players, to help hide the fact a bear was moon walking across the screen. The place in the video being the white shirted people passing the ball around.
Then of course there is time misdirection. You have an empty can of coke on the table and it supposedly has never been touched, yet it miraculously has restored itself. Of course what had actually happened was that the magicians briefly touched it and switched it out ten minutes prior. The gap between the switch and the reveal is the misdirection.
What I did in posts was basically intent. My intent was to try and convince a few that misdirection is different from direction. It worked, somewhat. To be honest, there is a difference between misdirection and direction word wise. But when applied to magic, literature, it is all the same deal. In the wizard of Oz, the Wizard turned out to be an old time stage magician. The misdirection was the giant headed wizard, his intent was to maintain a position of power. Mine was simply see how far I can take a slightly bs argument.
But I am sure most already knew that.
Misdirection has been in use since the beginning of man and there is no way I would be able to change that term haha! However, misdirection shouldn't be a spur of a moment kind of thing. Like everything in magic, it really should be planned well in advanced. Which is why I say direction.
Direction applies to everyone who is viewing the effect. The magician has a predetermined direction, an intent, and has something already predetermined to gain the brief bit of time that is called misdirection. It is his job to direct the audience to react a certain way, thus starting the bit of misdirection. The art of misdirection is a very hard skill to learn and it is much more then yelling at your participants, "Look over there!"
Misdirection is a dance number in a musical, if you were to throw a bunch of professional dancers onstage and told them to dance to Grease Lightning without any previous choreography, It will be a train wreck. But if it is carefully planned and choreographed and performed by amateur dancer, it will be much better then the professionals. It is much more then just directing your audience away from the dirty work, it is making the dirty work invisible, the amateur invisible.
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Nope, I disagree with your example.
The Video is presented as a "awareness test" you don't know that they are going to trick you. Further more, them presenting it as a "awareness test" is a justification to make you count the passes that the white team makes.
That's why they have the other team in black, to make you think "Oohhh I get it, there are two balls, and they are going to try to distract me so that I can't see how many passes the white team makes"
When they tested me, and they said " The answer was thirteen" I was like " hell yeah! I OWNED this test!"
Then they mentioned the moonwalking bear and I was like "no way" and BAM! the test pwned me
.This test is not made in the way that "dumb "people think. Au contraire, they take arrogant people like us who think "hell no! they cannot trick me!" and they take advantage of that arrogance to make us see something that is disguising something else.
I don't know if I made my point clear, but if there is any questions I'll be glad to clear it out
So yeah, I think that you example is kinda out of line for the video.
P.S I like the way in wich this thread is evolving
. Good clear and respectful debate
By the way, I do think that a magic routine should never create in the spectator the urge to catch you or to see the magic trick as a puzzle.
In true Darwin Ortiz Fashion
In true Darwin Ortiz Fashion
Nope, I disagree with your example.
The Video is presented as a "awareness test" you don't know that they are going to trick you. Further more, them presenting it as a "awareness test" is a justification to make you count the passes that the white team makes.
That's why they have the other team in black, to make you think "Oohhh I get it, there are two balls, and they are going to try to distract me so that I can't see how many passes the white team makes"
When they tested me, and they said " The answer was thirteen" I was like " hell yeah! I OWNED this test!"
Then they mentioned the moonwalking bear and I was like "no way" and BAM! the test pwned me
This test is not made in the way that "dumb "people think. Au contraire, they take arrogant people like us who think "hell no! they cannot trick me!" and they take advantage of that arrogance to make us see something that is disguising something else.
I don't know if I made my point clear, but if there is any questions I'll be glad to clear it out
So yeah, I think that you example is kinda out of line for the video.
P.S I like the way in wich this thread is evolving
I must admit that I did see the guy dressed like a bear...
I thought..."why the hell is that guy dress like that? and dancing around...whatever oh hell no!! I miss some passes.."
and it`s because I am a very visual person...
some people are like that, the human eyes has a 180º visual range, and some people can either be looking at your eyes, and detect movement in your hands, it`s hard to find somebody like that..but it happens from time to time
you can`t hope to misdirect everybody in an audience let`s say you misdirect 9 out of 10 people each 5 performances, so it`s 1 people out of 50..don`t feel bad about that...it`s not because your misdirection is bad....it`s just that 1 person is very visual...that has happened to me before...
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Well i agree with the 180 degree visual range but you can only pay attention to one thing. Maybe they are pretending to look at your eyes while all their attention is at your hands ... If that's the case, then they caught u trying to misdirect them
I agree...somehow..they can`t pretend to look at your eyes...sometime ago I got this spectator, everything was fine, then he look at my eyes while I was saying something...and he said, and he never looked down and he was paying me attention..."you just did something with you hand" and I was like WTF?!!
I would like a cookie too...wait...oh! damn!! I remember now..I am diabetic!!
Okay, so we all seen the example of the bear .
We are not told or we are made to think that the only thing that is going to happen, is that some guys are going to pass the ball around. We don't see the bear coming.
So.... How can we apply this to magic?
Taking the little paragrapgh above, Let's imagine, that you are doing a poker demonstration, and you are going to do a deck steal as the climax of the routine, but they don't see it coming, they just know and they are just aware that you are doing a poker demonstration.... If that's your first trick of their evening, and they don't know you, they will not expect anything else, because their whole attention (if you are a good performer) will be in your poker demonstration.
Now this is a really poor example, and not a practical one, because you would need some heavy "Direction", to steal de deck of cards while they are enjoying the poker demnostration.
But I'm sure there are other ways to try to use this "Change Blindnesss"
Any ideas?
.We are not told or we are made to think that the only thing that is going to happen, is that some guys are going to pass the ball around. We don't see the bear coming.
So.... How can we apply this to magic?
Taking the little paragrapgh above, Let's imagine, that you are doing a poker demonstration, and you are going to do a deck steal as the climax of the routine, but they don't see it coming, they just know and they are just aware that you are doing a poker demonstration.... If that's your first trick of their evening, and they don't know you, they will not expect anything else, because their whole attention (if you are a good performer) will be in your poker demonstration.
Now this is a really poor example, and not a practical one, because you would need some heavy "Direction"
, to steal de deck of cards while they are enjoying the poker demnostration.But I'm sure there are other ways to try to use this "Change Blindnesss"
Any ideas?
I mentioned misdirection to a layman today after I performed for him, and he understood what I meant, and we talked about it. I think it is a term that has, at least to some extent, permeated the external society.
I found this video to be very interesting, but unfortunately, I saw the bear..
In the second one, I didn't notice the color changing curtain until near the very end, but I saw the black team person walk off around the same time the bear came in.
That is very cool though, most people I showed it to were literally like this:
"How the F*CK DID I MISS THAT?"
In the second one, I didn't notice the color changing curtain until near the very end, but I saw the black team person walk off around the same time the bear came in.
That is very cool though, most people I showed it to were literally like this:
"How the F*CK DID I MISS THAT?"
I forgot to say thank you to Raul for my delicious and ginormous cookie. Thank you very much!
-Casey
-Casey