First Published – Friday 11th September 2009
Derren Brown's
lottery prediction illusion
broadcast live on Channel 4
Wednesday 9th September 2009
Derren Brown's Lottery Prediction — so how was it really done?
The first 60 seconds involved Derren entering the studio, with a cameraman following him using a hand-held camera. This was the first misdirection — most likely a pre-recorded video sequence played into the start of the programme.
Note that Derren approached the TV screen and lottery numbers racked on a stand and then immediately, the director instructed the vision mixer to cut to the extreme wide shot from the second cameraman at the rear of the studio and Derren made an obviously flamboyant wave to that camera — classic misdirection in magic.
This "cutaway" was the director's cue for the vision mixer to switch from video tape (VT) playback to live action using a feed from a fixed base remote control camera in exactly the same place as the first cameraman's final position before the suspicious wave gesture.
© Objective Productions / All 3 Media / Channel Four Television
director's cue to instruct the vision mixer to switch from the pre-recorded
hand-held camera video insert (first image above) to the live feed from the
computer controlled fixed-base remote control camera (second image above)
 |
The remote control camera was fitted with sophisticated computer mechanisms under state-of-the-art software control, which introduced random pans & tilts and slight zoom in / zoom out movements to mimic how a cameraman might operate without a tripod or studio dolly mount.
The screen was split left / right and at the crucial moment, just before the lottery draw started on the BBC Camelot Lottery HQ broadcast, the left hand segment was frozen to allow a stage hand to put fresh lottery balls – picked as the draw was made – onto the plinth.
At the moment the final ball was seen drawn for real at Lottery HQ, the unseen assistant exited "stage left", the left hand screen split was unfrozen, the split was removed and we returned to full screen live feed. Derren entered the left hand side of the camera frame to turnaround the rack on the plinth, revealing the "predicted" balls, which had presumably been blank ones to start with!
This is my best educated guess — even though Derren insisted on his "reveal" show, two nights later on Friday 11th September, that a year of studying higher mathematics was involved! But if the split screen, freeze frame, computer controlled camera and initial pre-recorded insert masked by misdirection is really how it happened, then will fans trust Derren in the future?
He will have "crossed the line" by using "camera tricks". Naughty!. He even gave a heavy hint at the "freeze frame" method in the trailer for the so-called final "reveal" show on the Friday night – a snowflake! Note how when comparing the lottery balls in the rack mounted on the stand before the lottery draw and immediately afterwards, shows a clumsy stage hand has not put the leftmost ball (the rightmost, "39", when turned around and revealed) quite as he found it while the split screen and freeze frame hid his hard work!
© Objective Productions / All 3 Media / Channel Four TelevisionDerren Brown Live Events throughout September 2009?
Try these curious websites:-
www.stucktomysofa.com www.retsehcnamdetinu.com
Alan Turnbull
