New gambling demo video!

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
That text in the middle of the screen. Is that from a demo version of the video editing software or am I supposed to be able to read that? It's super small and very distracting.

Your opening production is competently executed, but your pacing and such is just .. odd. I don't know how to describe it other than it seems like you're hesitant and not really confident in the moves you're doing. Like you're going through a checklist in your head as you do them. It's also very slow and repetitive. It would be better to break up the repetition with different cuts, shuffles and productions instead of essentially doing the same thing over and over, slowly.

The bottom deal needs work. You pause before each BD and you flash the knuckle severely. Madison teaches how not to do that in Mechanic.

The Gambler's cop is, quite frankly, painfully obvious. You're not reloading a shotgun, you're secretly stealing a card. Again, I think Madison is the best resource for this, though Jason England's video is very good, too. You are clearly putting a card into your hand, then putting the deck down. Your hand position while holding out is very unnatural. Everything about this segment needs work.

The Zarrow shuffle is twitchily executed and mildly obvious. You can't see exactly what's happening, but you can see that something is happening. You clearly stop and 'get ready' to do the move, then try to flash through the move which makes you fumble a bit, then clean up. Smooth all that out.

Somewhat the same deal with the Push Through shuffle. You do the interweave smooth, then pause, then push them through, then pause, then 'square', then pause, then flash through the strip out. You're also using the same false cut over and over. It doesn't look good. You need to vary which false cuts you're doing a bit, or at least not repeat so much.

A camera cut just before showing a deck is in new deck order completely invalidates that 'proof' that you executed false shuffles. Also, all the camera cuts from left to right do the same thing. As far as I am concerned (I don't speak for everyone watching the video), every cut means you've started over.

This palm was a bit better, but your pinky flutters and your thumb sticks straight out oddly as you're moving your hand. Try to remember to keep that thumb in a natural position and don't let your pinky flare out. It draws attention to the hand doing the dirty work and then when something else is up it will just be assumed you're palming a card.

The Ace control sequence is just too chunky. You look like you're going through the deck and looking for the aces. Everything is, "Pick up the cards, pause, riffle slowly through the cards, pause, cut the deck, pause" etc. You are clearly doing something fishy every time you have to stop, or slowly go through the deck. Also, your hands are hiding almost the entire deck during this and that looks shady, too.

Another shotgun loading gambler's cop.

The second looks clean to me. You've got a couple hangers, so you need to fine tune some more, but that's just a matter of more practice. It looks to me like you're doing strikes the whole time, but there's a couple moments that could be a push off. In either case, they are fairly solid so I think you just need the fine tuning I mentioned.

That deck switch .. don't do that. No shade, completely unnatural movements. It looks like you're switching a deck and that's the last thing you want.

Overall I think you've got a solid start here. I know I'm harsh when I look at these videos, but I think with practice you can refine all of these things. The important part is to look at the video with a critical eye and look for anything that seems unnatural or out of place. Remember - Gambling demos require the utmost skill. No one wants to watch someone fumble through techniques. They want to see you pull these moves off right in front of them, they don't want any flashes or oddball hand positions.

Good luck! Keep at it!
 
Jul 13, 2010
526
34
I would also strive for something with a patter. Not just productions without context.

This is a gambling demonstration I really like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjcVwBUnLA

When demoing moves for criticism, I wouldn`t go with borderless decks as even weak executed moves look "better" than they really are. With a normal deck you can better evaluate what to improve. Especially false deals.

Maybe you want to look at Jason Englands Foundations, Steve Forte`s GPS and anything by Richard Turner.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Aug 26, 2012
36
0
29
Bloomfield, Iowa
This is exactly what I wanted someone to do and I am really thankful that you took your time to give me so much advise. The beginning is because I don't have the money right now to buy editing software. I was not going to include the ace control because I have only practiced it for maybe a week but for some reason I included it anyways. Also the jumping from left to right was two different clips that I cut and put together. This was the before half of a before and after of mechanic which I am hoping will help with these things. Also would you know where I could find a good deck switch? This was one I made up which in retrospect does look pretty obvious. I really do appreciate you taking all this time to give me some advise.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
The beginning is because I don't have the money right now to buy editing software.

There's a stickied thread in the General forum I wrote last Spring about improving your videos. I included a link to a list of the best freeware editing programs.
 
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results