Suspense, Twists... Mach 1, Engage.

[MitchellStafiej]

Once again, I was sitting in one of my film classes just chillin, illin, the same old thing. Then something struck my ear... my teacher stated "Film Makers are magicians." I've heard that way to many times, but every time that I do hear those words spoken, I immediately decide to take note to start a new thread on presentation and comparing aspects to film making. This thread is the birth of "Reel Politics". Yay.

A film must engage it's audience, therefore the director must create a film with suspense. Every film contains suspense, even if it is a romance, there will be suspense within the film. Why? One of the director's goals is not to have his/her audience know the ending half way through the film. If the audience is aware of the ending before the film ends, then the director failed at engaging his/her audience. This relates directly back to magic. If a magician's performance doesn't contain suspense and the audience pieces together the ending of an effect before it actually happens, the magician has failed. The magician will not engage the audience and they will likely become bored and give a much lousier reaction.

Let's elaborate. Imagine your favorite film, I will tell you one of mine as an example. Juno, a wonderful film. While this is a romantic comedy, it is still filled with suspense. It has to be or it will not engage the audience. Juno, the main character, struggles with her unplanned pregnancy and the option of giving up the baby for adoption. This film has two possible endings. One, she gives the baby up for adoption. Two, she doesn't give the baby up for adoption. Yet these are not the only things that engage the viewer. Twists and turns happen throughout the film to have the spectators engaged and to be filled with emotion throughout the movie. This is EXACTLY what has to be happening in a magician's performance. Twists and turns must happen, there must be excitement. Ever wonder why magicians gather huge crowds? It's because they ENGAGE their audience. Had they not engaged their audience with suspense, twists, turns, and emotion then either their audience would get bored, and walk away, or the reactions given by his/her spectators would be less than stellar.

These are just a few ideas that were running through my head.

Discus...

Mitchell

 

[ThrallMind]

Well, you can think of it as different genres. If you perform in the style of Jeff McBride, you are almost portraying fantasy. If you are performing in the style of Criss Angel, you are playing a thriller. Ed Solomon, a horror. Tom Mullica would be a comedy. So on and so fourth.

You need o figure out your style and make your act and performances for that. If you aren't a funny person, trying to throw in jokes during your routine may make you seem like you are trying too hard.

If you are always the center of attention, crack jokes, and have been told you have a warm personality, trying to act like you are a mysterious stranger wont work.

As far as twists and turns, as with any form of entertainment, you want to keep your audience on the edge of their seat. You don't want to make your performance predictable. The ACR is a good example. When you start off, the spectator has signed a card. They now expect something to happen with that card, but they don't know what. They will keep watching to fill their curiosity. You bury the card, and it suddenly appears back at the top. But you dont stop there, you continue to build suspense. You make the card pop to the top again. Now they believe they know what is going to happen. You know this, so you switch it up. You go to bury the card, but this time, it doesn't rise to the top, its found on the bottom. You take it and place it one more time in the deck. You turn over the top card, not it. You turn over the bottom card, not it. You spread the pack face up, showing the card is right where you placed it. They may feel you messed up. You then pull out the card, and flip it over. The card that they signed just so happens to have a different color back than all the other cards. They are surprised, and now have a sense of a clear beginning and end. And they are left with something to make them always remember that moment. Something a movie can't give ^^

So yes, I do believe twists and turns with your performance are necessary. If you want to keep your audience watching, and more so actually mesmerized with it, you need to keep changing things up.

-ThrallMind

 

[Close-Up Expert]

Thrallmind...

That different colored back is a pretty good idea for an ACR ending. A buddy of mine just started playing with the idea recently of having his business card printed on the back of a bunch of decks, that way he could end with that, being the odd-backed card.

But yea, I agree with both you and Mitchell. Some very good points made, and many more that can be made. I'll type some more when I get home today though....off to school ............

Talk soon!
Steve

 

[CDarklock]

I think you could use the standard three-act structure to build your routine. Introduce the situation, create a conflict, and then resolve it.

The key to something like this is to remember that the plot must remain simple enough for an audience to follow. We're magicians; that's a variety of geek, and like all geeks, we can handle an immense quantity of complex and difficult detail. The audience can't. I frequently start working on a routine, and around the time I've constructed the eighth or ninth twist in the performance, I say "wait a minute... I'm the only person that will be able to follow this".

A confused audience is an unhappy audience. Every twist increases tension, and requires a corresponding release. If you create too much tension, the audience gets all tangled up and the resolution provides no actual release.

I've been thinking about a routine that deals with racism, making use of an invisible deck. After setting the scene of cards representing people, you separate the red cards and the black cards in a deck - placing the red cards over here on "the reservation" and the black cards over here on "the plantation" - then show the jokers while saying "of course, this makes all you jokers uncomfortable". You place the jokers on top of the two piles to "oversee" the segregated communities, and later - picking up the two piles, one in each hand - you drop the jokers to the table and point out that with all their oversight, in the end these distinctions simply didn't exist... as you spread the two piles on the table to show they're the blank-faced cards of an invisible deck.

And boy, I'm betting once I start talking about reservations and plantations, you'll be able to cut the tension with a knife. Especially since I'm from Virginia, and while I don't normally use the accent, it's still there if I just let it come out.

The routine needs rounding out, i.e. with more tricks to further establish the metaphor of cards as people and race as the central theme, but I think it's a strong unifying trick. There needs to be a solid denouement to lighten the tone at the end, though.