Merged Derren Brown - predicting lottery numbers

[dbalsdon]

Well he did touch the balls, I was wrong. So doesn't look projected from the stand either. Not sure how they got the numbers on the balls now.

The whole time I was watching the vid posted above, I was looking to the back of the stage area. theres something there with small panels that keep varying in colour, maybe caused by slight camera movements.

That seems to be too obvious, so.. if you watch careful, as he moves over to the balls after the draw, there is another object to the left of the screen, that looks like it could be a projector of some kind. That would seem to fit with 666's suggestion, that the balls were coated with a light sensitive paint/liquid, and the numbers were projected onto them.

 

[Capsid]

Im amazed nobody has has worked out the easiest way to do this yet.Anyone with any knowledge of adobe after effects could make this same video, not live of course but the result would be the same.With tv production tech with high powered computer rigs it would be easy to do in real time.

You simply film the balls blank from the same camera angle as broadcast at an earlier time in the day.Later once Derren has walked over to the tv you overlay the half of the screen with the balls with the footage you shot earlier of the balls sitting there untouched.This allows someone to simple walk on and place the balls on that half of the tv screen as they are read out then walk off once the ball is placed and then the mask on that half of the screen is removed to show the live feed of the balls.

The camera needs to be stationary to do this and he has cleverly mad the camera wobble to misdirect, however its not the camera wobbling PHYSICALLY itself but a digital wobble ADDED so the camera itself is actually stationary.Easiest way to do the trick and a tv editor could do it in his sleep.The following videos show how easy it is to do.

change xxx to www
xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=84Fm353GuQ8

xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=84Fm353GuQ8

It didn't look like a masking effect, watch the video above. DB actually moves and touches the balls and the numbers move on the balls as he does so. That wouldn't happen with a masking shot would it?

 

[db2431]

It didn't look like a masking effect, watch the video above. DB actually moves and touches the balls and the numbers move on the balls as he does so. That wouldn't happen with a masking shot would it?

Your misunderstanding me, the second Derren walks from the balls to watch the live broadcast on the TV, the left side of the screen had the earlier footage of the balls masked over, so while Derren is standing their watching the live draw theres simply some guy placing numbered balls on the rack on the left side covered by the earlier days footage of the balls from the same angle lol.Derren spends the whole time on right side of screen while the results are drawn then the left side mask is simply removed once last ball is placed to show the real live balls.Watch the following footage, the guy isnt really sitting next to a clone of himself, there could have been brad Pitt sitting there on his left with a pink dress on but we will never know cos it was masked off...

xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=bqLBE82nnxg

 

[Capsid]

Your misunderstanding me, the second Derren walks from the balls to watch the live broadcast on the TV, the left side of the screen had the earlier footage of the balls masked over, so while Derren is standing their watching the live draw theres simply some guy placing numbered balls on the rack on the left side covered by the earlier days footage of the balls from the same angle lol.Derren spends the whole time on right side of screen while the results are drawn then the left side mask is simply removed once last ball is placed to show the real live balls.Watch the following footage, the guy isnt really sitting next to a clone of himself, there could have been brad Pitt sitting there on his left with a pink dress on but we will never know cos it was masked off...

xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=bqLBE82nnxg

Cute, I like it.

 

[Kiosk]

Funny, that actually occurred to me while I was watching. I don't know enough about TV tech to know precisely how easy or difficult it would be to do live, but I figured it probably wouldn't be impossible.

 

[Kuko 4000]

That sounds like the most obvious way for me, although I don't know enough about tech to say how it would work in a situation like this. After the last number was announced Derren spent 25 seconds on the right side of the screen before moving to the left. Plenty of time for the final change.

It was ok entertainment for me, interesting because of the idea, but stuff like this is not why I like his act. Of course, this was only the first part of the event.

 

[Stray Cat]

The split screen seems the most likely to me too.

I'll have to watch a hi res replay to check but It seems that at the start all the balls rest on the stand equally, but at the end the one on the left (before he turns the stand round) is slightly higher than the others.

 

[Humphreys]

Im amazed nobody has has worked out the easiest way to do this yet.Anyone with any knowledge of adobe after effects could make this same video, not live of course but the result would be the same.With tv production tech with high powered computer rigs it would be easy to do in real time.

You simply film the balls blank from the same camera angle as broadcast at an earlier time in the day.Later once Derren has walked over to the tv you overlay the half of the screen with the balls with the footage you shot earlier of the balls sitting there untouched.This allows someone to simple walk on and place the balls on that half of the tv screen as they are read out then walk off once the last ball is placed and then the mask on that half of the screen is removed to show the live feed of the balls.

The camera needs to be stationary to do this and he has cleverly mad the camera wobble to misdirect, however its not the camera wobbling PHYSICALLY itself but a digital wobble ADDED so the camera itself is actually stationary.Easiest way to do the trick and a tv editor could do it in his sleep.The following videos show how easy it is to do.

change xxx to www
xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=bqLBE82nnxg

xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=84Fm353GuQ8

Well, I didn't quite say this, but I did allude to camera trickery:

Thanks.

Was the footage of Derren turning the balls around on the stand seamless?

Could the numbers on the balls be added by the camera itself, or is that too far fetched? I know I have seen live football footage before where they make it appear that the team badges are etched onto the pitch. Not having seen the footage or having knowledge of the limits of the technology, does this seem possible?

Does anyone else think the balls look wrong? Misshapen? Like perhaps the top of a ball had been placed over the actual ball?

I'm liking your camera trickery explanation though, db.

 

[Humphreys]

The split screen seems the most likely to me too.

I'll have to watch a hi res replay to check but It seems that at the start all the balls rest on the stand equally, but at the end the one on the left (before he turns the stand round) is slightly higher than the others.

The balls defintely do not look right to me. The one on the end looks misshapen, and not quite right. I was thinking maybe Derren had 6 hollow ball tops which he writes on as he writes the numbers, but watching the footage I can see no way Derren can drop these tops onto the actual balls.

Okay, that FIRST ball is definitely raised, and I swear it gets more raised for no apparent reason in one or two frames.

Edit: The split screen explanation is good, but I don't think it's Derren like. I think, somehow, he is transferring that ink, whether it is a ball top, or a sticker, or...something, but he is somehow managing to get it on those balls in the moments before he gets to the stand, and before he turns it, and I think he is using the board with the numbers on it as a tool too.

He says "we might want to try this too", I doubt that would refer to camera trickery, it refers to some sleight of hand more like.

 

[David Wong]

Funny, that actually occurred to me while I was watching. I don't know enough about TV tech to know precisely how easy or difficult it would be to do live

As easy as flipping a lever in the control room.

Hearing the explanation for this one actually depressed me. If it's any than the aforementioned still shot brought up to mask the left hand side of the screen, he'd be a fool. That's so simple and easy, it could be done with minutes of preparation. You just have to make sure the ball stand is in exactly the right spot, and the lighting is the same, or else it's not seamless. As simple as marking the floor to make sure he rotates the stand correctly.

 

[Big Les]

Except that he said he'll explain on Friday, and it will be a method that the viewer could use. Allegedly.

 

[Stray Cat]

Dead easy.... he phoned Uri Geller and asked him for the numbers... Geller phoned Sylvia Browne (who already knew he'd be phoning and had them prepared), Geller then phoned Derren back and gave him the numbers which he then had printed onto some ping pong balls with the dye submilation press he bought on ESP Bay (because he had a funny feeling it would come in handy some day).

Amongst all the fuss of phoning around and printing his balls, he didn't have time to nip out to the newsagents and buy himself a ticket... Doh!!!!

 

[Stray Cat]

Except that he said he'll explain on Friday, and it will be a method that the viewer could use. Allegedly.

The explanations he gives are rarely the methods he uses.

And he didn't say the viewers could "use" it... he said they could "try" it.
I'm betting if they try the method he reveals, they will not be so successful.

 

[David Wong]

The explanations he gives are rarely the methods he uses.

Correct, the explanation will be some complicated pseudoscience affair that makes him sound like a superhuman genius. That, also will be part of the trick.

That's Derren Brown's thing.

 

[db2431]

The change from old earlier days footage to current numbers just laid out as read out happens at 2:04 in this clip, watch the far left ball suddenly raise up higher than the others as it was placed in higher than the others by mistake.Watch in HD for more clarity

replace xxx with www

xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=kMIzR6GNAXw

 

[Stray Cat]

The change from old earlier days footage to current numbers just laid out as read out happens at 2:04 in this clip, watch the far left ball suddenly raise up higher than the others as it was placed in higher than the others by mistake.Watch in HD for more clarity

replace xxx with www

xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=kMIzR6GNAXw

Yes, I've taken a few stills and overlayed them in Photoshop... but not from the Hi Res so they're not really good enough to see clearly.

 

[db2431]

Yes, I've taken a few stills and overlayed them in Photoshop... but not from the Hi Res so they're not really good enough to see clearly.

Here, this about sums it up, cant post images yet so have to copy and paste in to browser.Rules out everything but splitscreen imho.

http://img.waffleimages.com/787c48641030d3bdc01997fe9b97dc52c15f07f8/ehmzvp.gif

 

[Pup]

Correct, the explanation will be some complicated pseudoscience affair that makes him sound like a superhuman genius. That, also will be part of the trick.

That's Derren Brown's thing.

That's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping this part of the show was just a build-up to the real "trick" of making up a bizarre explanation that almost sounds believable. He implied it took a year of his life, so I want to hear something really involved, convoluted and wacky.

There were just too many ways of adding the numbers to the balls, from a low-tech pen-on-a-stick coming out of the wall directly behind the balls, worked by an assistant, to the higher-tech camera editing and projecting possibilities.

 

[Kiosk]

To everyone who seems disappointed that the trick's so simple (assuming this is indeed how it was done), isn't this just the hi-tech equivalent of putting your glamorous assistant in a cabinet, drawing the curtain and making her vanish? In the sense that it's a trick performed by objects rather than the magician himself? I think people tend to feel cheated not so much when they realise how simple the trick was, but when they realise that anyone could have done it with the right bit of kit. But that's just the way it goes.

Strikes me as risky, though, if this is how it was done. The slightest technical hitch and Derren's career is over.

 

[db2431]

To everyone who seems disappointed that the trick's so simple (assuming this is indeed how it was done), isn't this just the hi-tech equivalent of putting your glamorous assistant in a cabinet, drawing the curtain and making her vanish? In the sense that it's a trick performed by objects rather than the magician himself? I think people tend to feel cheated not so much when they realise how simple the trick was, but when they realise that anyone could have done it with the right bit of kit. But that's just the way it goes.

Strikes me as risky, though, if this is how it was done. The slightest technical hitch and Derren's career is over.

Well there was a hitch, the ball being placed higher doesnt leave room for much doubt, Ill be disappointed if he gives another explanation.If anyone is interested in how to pull this trick off in non realtime then this is how I taught myself.

www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/time_freeze/