The reason that I didn't write a new year post (reflections, resolutions and all that) is because I've been working on a video project of my own. So I'll leave that to my next post.
Anyways, it's 2011. It's a new year. It's a new start. And I thought why not try something new? So here you go guys, my first card flourish video. For those who haven't heard of the term card flourish or cardistry, let me break it down for you. In the art of playing cards. There are mainly 3 main genre. We have card magic, card cheating skills, and card flourishes. Card flourish is basically.. um... well.... it's like uhh... ah here's wikipedia.
Card flourishes are the magic jargon term for visual displays of skill performed with playing cards designed to show the skill or manual dexterity of a magician. Card flourishes are more akin to juggling than magic, as they are primarily intended to be visually fascinating and to appear difficult to do.
Card flourishes for magicians can be divided into many genres: one-handed cuts, spreads, two-handed cuts, fanning, aerials, and springs. Card flourishes are performed both as part of magic performances and on their own.
The great names in cardistry are mainly Dan and Dave Buck, they pretty much popularise card flourishes, and Virtuoso, world class flourishing team from Singapore. This art form has become so popular in the world of playing cards that it's starting to become a sport on its own. Look up youtube and you can see tons of card flourishing videos featuring crazy cuts, mad skills, totally unbelievable dexterity.
For your information, I'm not a card flourisher. That's why this is something new for me. I have been doing 90% magic and 10% flourishing with cards. So it's not that I know nothing about them, I do know a flourish or two, I just don't specialise in them. The moves I know are extremely limited. And as complicated as they make look, they're just amateur stuff. Though they do require constant practice.
Anyway, I figured it would be challenging for me to make a flourish video based only on what I know. And if anyone who were amazed it would be you guys. If a card flourisher sees this video, he wouldn't be impressed at all. Not one single tiny wee bit. I emphasized on the editing rather than the card skill itself. I do wish that you appreciate my work.
To me, good card flourishing has to fulfil three criteria. Smooth. Clean. Visual. That's what I've been trying to achieve in my video. In my practice of card magic too. I hope I did it right. I call this Eyeris. I actually have a list of names that I will use for my future videos. Iris was one of them, though I changed the spelling to Eyeris hoping that someone would pronounce it as E-ye-ris so I could laugh at him. Haha nah I just thought Eyeris sounds cooler. This 1 minute 20 seconds clip took me about 3 hours to shoot and another 5 hours to edit. I pretty much sacrificed my new year's eve for this, so you better like it!
Haha yea I did throw in a footage of a failed deck twirl. Ah well, it's always fun to have a laugh. And for those out there who doesn't believe that it was me in the video, you can see my face at the very end. Take that skeptics!
Oh the music was Ghostwriter by RJD2. Sick beat right. Told you so that I listen to all kinds of music. I first heard this song in a video of Jordan Lapping's. That was also a card flourish video. Ever since I've been wanting to make a video with that piece. Finally after 3 months, I got to do it. It took serious work to sync every moment of the video with the beat of the music. I had to adjust every frame by milliseconds to achieve perfection. I won't settle for anything less than that. Not that I'm a perfectionist. Just that I know for a fact that it could be done. So why not do it ? =)
*That deck was a birthday present from May. Thanks again! I owe you!*
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