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- What Are 'Live Edits' & Why Do Magicians Use Them?
What Are 'Live Edits' & Why Do Magicians Use Them?
A live edit refers to any time a magician performs a magic trick with the edit already in mind. Don’t confuse live editing with pre-show (something I’ve discussed before). Live edits can take place before, during, or after a performance. They take place while the camera is rolling.
Unlike a mic check, the contributors on set will not be able to distinguish a live edit from the rest of a performance. This is because live edits flow effortlessly within the routine. They’re often baked into the script. They need to be in the script and often rehearsed to work.
Often, you’ll shoot a magic trick with three cameras. Two cameras cover the performer and the contributor, and the third covers a mix of wide establishing shots and close-ups. You do this to provide the editor with everything they need to cut between them however they wish in the edit.
A live edit is, in fact, just editing done live. Because of this, the final cut is decided upon before you reach the editing room. So, it would be best if you were super careful about how you write, rehearse, and sometimes even storyboard.
It won't be easy to fix in the edit if you get this wrong.
Let’s look at the two most popular versions of a live edit…
1. The Cut Out
The magician might produce a deck of cards and hold it in their right hand. They’ll then remove the cards and force a specific card upon their spectator. This card, they say, will forever be the spectator’s favorite playing card. After doing so, they return the cards to the box and hold them in their right hand. The magician then asks the spectator if they have a favorite card, before removing the cards from the box and beginning their trick.
The live cut happens between the two moments when the magician holds the closed box of cards in their right hand. As you can imagine, a cut removes a section of the performance from the audience. But time doesn't need to be lost. We might know that we’ll be cutting to a spectator during the live edit.
This means the audience at home will only see this:
The magician might produce a deck of cards and hold it in their right hand. The magician then asks the spectator if they have a favorite card, before removing the cards from the box and beginning their trick.
2. The Pick-Up
The magician takes a piece of cloth and stuffs it into their left fist. When the cloth is fully enclosed, they open their right hand to show it’s completely empty beford lowing it to their side. Then they bring it back and repeat the action once more. They stuff the cloth into their left fist and drop their right hand to their side. Suddenly the cloth vanishes completely from within their fist.
Pic-up shots or drop-in shots are usually filmed before or after a shoot. I find these almost always suck. As someone who watches a ton of television, a pick-up shot will always be super apparent to me. Seeing one gives me the same alerting chill as the sound of chalk on a chalkboard. I can sense that they recorded the shot earlier or later. The lighting might not be correct, or the camera angle could be wrong.
Suppose a magician wishes to shoot a pick-up shot, cheated or otherwise, filming it within the performance guarantees that the lighting and angles will match the rest of the performance. A cheated shot would be as in this example when the magician genuinely shows an empty hand the first time and palms away from the cloth the second time.
Not all pick-up shots are “cheated;” often, they’re used when the camera angle conflicts with the sightlines of the viewer or when a sleight needs to be performed flawlessly to fool a camera rather than the human eye. This example will end up looking like this after the final edit:
The magician takes a piece of cloth and stuffs it into their left fist. When the cloth is fully enclosed, they open their right hand to show it’s completely empty beford lowing it to their side. Suddenly the cloth vanishes completely from within their fist.
I’ll be honest; I’m not one to suggest using a live edit. I will, however, almost always consider using them. There’s something about working with live edits that automatically cleans up your entire routine. When you’re forced to come to terms with the idea that you can not rescue a routine in the edit, you suddenly spend much more time refining it.
Considering the edit before you get there means you produce a better script, camera blocking, and overall performance. I think my recommendation is to consider using a live edit even if you will never do so. When you use a live edit, take the time to block out both versions. That’s the full version and the final edited version. Walk it through with stand-in spectators and camera operators to confirm it will all make sense for the live spectators and the audience at home.
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