Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Bridge and tunnel magicians...

"The creation of content is not a hobby. It is a profession." - Jean-Claude Junker

I found this quote while reading an article about the creators of Spinal Tap seeking remuneration for their work in the extremely shady industry of film and music.

For those of us who take it very seriously, creating magic is indeed a profession that borders on the obsessive. There are a number of things that take away what some of us spend a lot of time on.

  • FAKE! - A lot of the younger and unlearned magi apparently just assume something is camera edits when it's "too good" and they can't figure it out. When you do this you belittle the hard work many of us do to make it look that good. 
  • Actual Fakes - They have good reason to yell fake tho'. There are people like Zack King who (obviously) use video editing tricks to make magical things happen. However there are also people who more subtly use After Effects to create seemingly impossible tricks and don't own up to it. Those people are jag offs who will never escape their instagram account.
  • Weekend Warriors - Then there's THESE assholes. People who create magic for the sake of magic... and a paycheck. They are not making magic for the art. Oh I am sure they THINK they are but what they really are doing is looking for a way to get paid because A: they are terrible with money and 2: don't actually perform for real people and couldn't entertain a thought let alone a group of people.
It's these last ones that make me the most mad. They want money and notoriety and think releasing magic tricks will accomplish that because a few other slugs managed to do it. Every time they put out some piece of  lackluster crap tied together with elastic and magnets, they cover up the good stuff other real creators and performers have released.

Obviously the ones who dig through the mire to find the gold are the ones who will likely triumph but it's getting harder and harder every day because of these "creators" foisting their hobbies on the actual professionals. It also discourages better stuff from being produced as it's not monetarily worth the effort because a gem will soon be obscured by shit.

Fuckin' tourists...

2 comments:

  1. Speaking of digging through a mire of magic products. I came across this product today and it reminded me of non toxic.
    http://www.razamatazzmagic.com/magicshop_001/products.php?Product=743&Title=Squeezy_Paint_Illusion_%28Blue%29
    Is this a bizzaro product? Hypothetically if this was the first time you saw this product, would you consider it far enough removed from non toxic. If not would there be anything you could do about it? As someone who would like to one day put an effect or prop on the market I worry about these things. I see products copied and ripped off all the time, just wanted to know what you think about it. I figured this post was the best place to bring this up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The original owners of Razzamatazz reached out to me and did the right thing and asked my permission for them to make it. (I even provided them with some bottles early on)

      The method for Non-Toxic isn't unique to me and their product is for a different "liquid" and thus not really a competitor.

      I['d be more worried about DIRECT knock offs than anything. Especially if the product is good/popular.

      Delete

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