How Not To Make A Magic Video

I dont think youve chosen a nice song but i dont mind... I mean, I think that the most important thing is the performance, and to be honest yours is really poor. Practice more!

Same here, I didn't worry about the music I was just watching you perform. I'm sure it was a quick clip of magic but there was a flash of the twenty next to the ten when you turn the bill into a ten. Anyway, I don't quite think it is really the music that is the most important thing obviously. I know you are not saying it is. You do have a good point though. I have seen videos that are good with rap, though I hate rap apart from a few songs. It is just if the music goes with the magic. Like the music goes to the chorus right when you do a cool slight and produce a card etc. Have a good one, –Anna

I was struck on how you performed this. Not the music.

I am of the school of thought that you should not use music that people know. No recent top 40 hits. The problem is people will be singing along to the music, or trying to remember who did it or the lyrics and not paying attention to you. Older music can work so long as it wasn't wildly popular to the general public unless it absolutely fits what you are doing. I prefer to go the route of instrumentals personally. In this case Metallica might have been a bit much for a bill change, but we still go the idea. Problem is, you want to use something that is either innocuous to the observer or accepted by most everyone. Metallica is still (was) metal. These ideas do not hold true for pre-show music, but that is a whole other animal.

I made this video because I was kind of sick of seeing people doing really cool magic tricks to some over-mellow Plain White Tees song. This video was just meant to be fun and connect my three passions, magic, music and film. The song has to fit the video as everyone knows, and a lot of people don't really take the necessary care to pick the right song.

dude why do you even bring up this kind of subject?It is all about one persons taste that is why there is all those cind of music and styles.If it fits your style it will lok great no mater what!I am sorry to say but i think you are ignorant and you should think more about this video.WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME!If you are a magician you should see potencial in every thing even thins you do not like!Look at Chris Angel man, thats his style and metal fits him!

i hate the techno crap people use for their magic vids -_-

Ive always worked extremely hard on making the song fit the trick in my videos. And I think that the people saying that music doesnt work in magic, or that you should just go perform are extremely narrow minded. Technical efficiency and trying things out and practicing stuff in front of camera is important as well. Thats not to say that its ok to only do this, we should perform also, but there's a time and place for webcamming it. In order to make the magic match well with the music, I ALWAYS film while listening to the song and just overdub it again later by the way. I was talking to Rafael Benetar about the use of music in my videos, and he said this: "The patter is not really necessary when the magic speaks for itself." If you wanna check out my stuff, AngelsOnBikes on youtube btw. Not to plug myself or anyhting, just to give an example of what I'm talking about.

I'm not sure any music works with close-up magic.

Or you could actually go out and perform the effect for REAL people, not your webcam, and have to use your voice! Shocking, I know! And you know, you might pick up some performance skills while you're out there. (These comments aren't necessarily directed at the magician in the video, but rather every webcam magician out there that substitutes an annoying song for their voice.)

I dot get it XD

I would agree with the previously posted comments, but add that music choice depends on a variety of factors: the content of the video, the pacing of the video, the persona of the performer, and the style of the editing. That said, there are really no hard and fast rules as to what music WILL or will NOT work - it just depends on what is a natural fit. As a general rule, though, you want the music to complement your video, not distract from it.

ehhhh. I agree but at the same time, I don't. Saying what music doesn't work with magic videos is like saying is Rock better than rap. They're both opinions and there isn't a "correct" answer. I think the only "incorrect" music choice would be choice of tempo. Not to mention the way you editing things makes a difference, in how the music fits into a video. And obviously if you're performing an effect that's performed slow, a fast paced death metal wouldn't really fit. It's not the genre that's the problem, it's the tempo.

I didn't think the last choice of music fit either...but that's just my opinion.