How To Master The Magic Pick-Up Shot

It’s a problem as old as time cameras — how do you simultaneously perform magic for people and cameras? Well, surprisingly often, you don’t. Frequently, TV magicians will opt to perform for people and shoot a “pick-up” shot separately to drop into the edit.

So, what is a pick-up shot?

It’s a shot that is “picked up” later but presented as if it took place during the original recording. This is standard practice across the TV industry. An interviewer might repeat a question to ensure the cameras capture it. A participant might re-send a message to record a pick-up shot of their phone.

Usually, a pick-up shot gets used because a shot was “missed.” Perhaps the action happened too fast, or there were not enough cameras to capture everything in one go. It’s standard practice for these reasons. It’s a bit different in the magic world.

In most magic productions, you’ll often hear about “magic eyes.” This is a term for a magician or member of the team who knows the secret. As a consultant, you’ll be radioed in to be the magic eyes for the next shoot. After a take, the director and their team might step aside to let magic eyes confirm the take.

It’s your job as the magic eyes to ensure a clean magic take is recorded. While the director keeps their eyes on multiple things like lighting, reactions, camera shots, etc., you’re only on the magic. It’s a similar role to that of a script supervisor, whose only role is to protect continuity and the script.

Being the magic eyes can be pretty stressful. There’s usually no time to playback or slow down a take. With confidence, you must watch the monitors and immediately decide if the team can move on or must record a “magic safety.” Most of the time, you’re not asked if magic eyes are happy. So, you’re sitting in a room full of important people, calculating in your head if you must halt the production, incurring many costs in the process.

And you’re not just looking for “flashes.” That’s when the method is exposed and visible to the camera. You’re looking for much more than that. Magic eyes might want to ensure you capture the whole trick in one take. Maybe the magician magically makes a coin go inside a bottle and immediately hands it out. Some magicians will be upset if the bottle exits the shot between the moment of magic and when the spectator examines it.

One time, my role as magic eyes involved me halting the performance when I recognised a spectator was a magician. It will always shock me when magicians volunteer to participate in magic tricks; it’s insulting when it is a recorded TV performance. The fact that you are a magician will end up in the press or the YouTube comments, which will discredit the performance.

One time, when we didn’t get a magic shot in one take, I was forced to decide that all of the crew needed to stay another two hours to reset and go again. It was 1 AM. We’d already waited hours for the rain to stop. Everyone was being paid overtime, It was an expensive decision, and I was twenty-one. Now, as a more experienced consultant, I think I would have spent more time trying to work out if we could have fixed it in the edit using some editing tricks instead. That’s the truth.

On shows with large budgets, we will often record a “safety.” This shot gets recorded as a backup in case the magic is not captured perfectly later. A safety shot is usually recorded before the main shoot — perhaps during the rehearsal.

I always recommend recording a safety shot if you are rehearsing any magic trick with cameras. It’s a much calmer time to ensure you capture the magic perfectly. It will put your performer at ease later and save you money and time recording pick-up shots.

My general advice for pick-ups is to avoid needing them for magic reasons. Yes, sometimes a camera operator is in the wrong place. Sometimes you don’t have many cameras, and you must prioritise capturing the reaction and not the trick. But, please do not rely on pick-up shots to justify using a method that cannot fool humans and cameras simultaneously. It’s tough to shoot a good pick-up. Most great directors do this poorly; pick-up shots do not experience the same scrutiny on shows outside of magic.

If you must record a pick-up shot, here is some crucial advice.

Record it straight away.

The sound, lighting and shots will be recognisably different if you do not immediately record the pick-up. Some magicians are incredible surgical about how they do this. They’ll repeat specific movements without thinking before moving on with a shot. The more time passes, the more time you must spend checking everything will match up perfectly. Are the people in the background still there? Has the lighting changed? Has the sound of traffic nearby been reduced? Has the energy of the spectator shifted?

Record more than the trick.

You’ll need to cut in and out of the magic trick in the edit. It’s challenging to plan your cut points ahead of time. You must record a good twenty or so seconds leading up to the magic moment and leading away from it. More than time, record more angles. You’ll need to hide the cut within the edit by cutting to other camera angles, so record more angles.

Keep the spectator.

You’ll notice that even in huge movies, film stars will be there with their shoulder in the corner of shots they’re not featured in. They do this to ground the shot within the scene. Your spectator must be there for the “pick-up” shot. Prepare them beforehand and have a team member tell them you’ll sometimes need to reshoot tricks for the cameras. Some magicians prefer to do the opposite, and pretend camera issues are the reason for pick-up shots (especially when the pick-up is due to a method flash).

A spectator seeing a trick more than once is not usually an issue. But your options are limited if you’re performing an angle-sensitive trick for the camera that will now flash for the spectator. I’ve even heard magicians asking the spectator to close their eyes for the pick-up shot.

Only perfect the magic.

I’ve seen directors get carried away with the opportunity to pick up and perfect a shot. They’ve taken the chance to shift the camera angle and enhance the lighting. I’ve also seen magicians use the opportunity to perfect their dialogue or their positioning. Don’t do this. You’re making your edit much harder. A randomly beautifully shot and perfected section will massively stand pit. Perfect the magic and nothing else.

Use the same shot.

The shot you use for the pick-up should be a well-established shot into the sequence. It will look weird if we see the shot for the first time during the pick-up. So, if you decide to change your shot for the pick-up, you should reshoot the entire sequence with the new shot. In the edit, you can introduce this shot earlier in the sequence.

It’s worth noting that a close-up pick-up shot is often easier to drop into the edit. You can worry less about matching audio and background elements if your pick-up shot cuts closer to the magic trick. However, the wider the shot, the more satisfying and grounded it will feel in the final edit.