Comments on: Derren Brown Predicts the National Lottery

By: Identical Lottery Draw Was Coincidence - Affairs at the Jupiter Hotel

Identical Lottery Draw Was Coincidence - Affairs at the Jupiter Hotel — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:19:41 +0000

[...] The Atheist Blogger » Derren Brown Predicts the National Lottery [...]

By: The Atheist Blogger » YouTube Thursday – Faith, Derren Brown, & Bibleman

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:10:19 +0000

[...] of you are probably still trying to figure out how Derren Brown actually managed to predict the lottery, so here is a video laced with helpful hints and annotations (go to the YouTube site to view the [...]

By: The Atheist Blogger » How to Predict the National Lottery

The Atheist Blogger » How to Predict the National Lottery — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:49:23 +0000

[...] Wednesday, Derren Brown amazed the nation by predicting the National Lottery. On Friday night, he promised to reveal how to do the trick, and this resulted in an hour long show [...]

By: The Atheist Blogger » Derren Brown predicts the National Lottery 168888 Lottery

The Atheist Blogger » Derren Brown predicts the National Lottery 168888 Lottery — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:18:30 +0000

[...] is the original: The Atheist Blogger » Derren Brown predicts the National Lottery By admin | category: national lottery | tags: are-happy, famous-atheist, millions-mega, [...]

By: 3FINKA

3FINKA — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:18:49 +0000

That was definitely the technique used. As many have pointed out on Youtube etc, you can even see that one of the balls was not put into the tray properly and so appears to 'move' as the stactic image is replaced by the live one. To anyone who doubts this is possible, check this YouTube video, which as TheBertster says shows how easy an effect it is to achieve these days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqAt2akPHJ8 Face it guys, this was a cheap camera trick, although Derren Brown would never admit it because of course he 'never uses camera tricks'.

By: TheBertster

TheBertster — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:30:19 +0000

It is no problem if the camera is NOT being held by a guy…see my post above; I think the whole reason for the second camera that we briefly cut to is to allow a cut back to a THIRD camera which IS rigidly fixed. Applying real-time jitter and zoom effects as well as imperceptable split-screen is easily achievable with a home PC…provided, as you say, the camera is rigidly fixed.

By: The Bertster

The Bertster — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:28:05 +0000

Derren is first and foremost a showman; all that matters is the theatrical result of what he is doing. Using clever real-time video trickery is not really any different to "doing it with mirrors". The trick still has all the classic elements of misdirection and showmanship; ask yourself why there are two cameras present…He could have shown us that the room was empty by having the one camera man do a 360 turn; the reason for the second camera is that he needs to cut away from the first camera as he enters the stage to avoid him showing what is really in the room: a third rigidly-fixed high def camera (at a greater distance from the stage but with a similar field-of-view to the steadycam) which is used for the split-screen effect. It is this third camera that we cut back to and that is filming the remainder of the show.

People who say they would be disappointed by a split-screen solution fundamentally misunderstand magic. The solution is almost always mind-numbingly banal.

By: tony

tony — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:23:55 +0000

I go along with the light sensitive ink theory there are any number of technolgies that could paint the number as seen on a pig pong ball, i mean why didnt Darren just write the numbers on a blackboard or a piece of card ?

By: Adrian Hayter

Adrian Hayter — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:20:42 +0000

I did find the "I can't announce the lotto numbers before the BBC" thing a bit suspicious, given that he wasn't announcing them, he was making a prediction (which by definition could be wrong). I mean, is it against the rules to read out 6 numbers on TV before the national lottery…really? Then again, of course he couldn't read them out first; he isn't *really* predicting the lottery at all, it's an illusion.

The problem with the split-screen theory is that the camera is being held by a guy, and is visibly moving. Doing split screen with a moving camera is difficult enough, but broadcasting it LIVE as well??? Course there is the other general problem which is that Derren Brown doesn't do that kind of thing, and he would ruin his career if he announced on Friday night that he'd done it this way; it is far too easy, not to mention disappointing.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:12:25 +0000

DONT THINK OF A BLACK CAT

Now… the real test…DONT TYPE 'derren brown lottery' into the ebay search bar

This is where you will find my prediction for next wednesdays draw ONE day in advance of the draw.

Wish you the best of luck, oh and you did think about the black cat right?