talkmagic.co.uk

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0742939906

my second attempt, i will post my first one later.


this one was hard as heck. i was actually getting worried at parts.
it was a party for me graduating, my cousin graduating, and a friend graduating. they tied me up after one round of beer pond. thus the camera movement and the slowness of the video. but it was fun and a great challenge.

not sure if this was the right place, if not please tell me.

David, first of all congratulations on your escape and yes this is the right place to post a link to your performance.

As I have never attempted any type of escape in my life I will offer my personal opinion regarding the entertainment value of your video. I watched the whole eleven or twelve minutes of you’re video and I contemplated switching it off several times because I was getting quite bored to be honest. I am sorry to say that, but I believe if your are going to post such a long video you must make it entertaining for people so they do not switch off. I acknowledge that escapes can take a while but this is where you have to be creative. Here is a few ideas that you might wish to incorporate for future performances:

1) You should have had a time limit, which would have added more suspense to your escape.

2) I was going to say to make it a little more life threatening like doing it under water or something but I don’t like to encourage people to put their lives at risk for entertainment purposes. Possibly you could have performed this escape at a place where if you were caught out it would be highly embarrassing (I would avoid making it illegal). One place that comes to mind is the female toilets in a public place (obviously while they are empty and assuming you can’t be arrested for this... actually that’s probably a bad example! I just couldn’t think of anything else on the spot.)

3) As you were being tied up we should have been informed of what your goal was and what your last record was.

4) The patter from the cameraman should have been engaging and maybe a little informative of how you got into being an escape artist.

5) The music in the background was a good thing and it suited the mood.

6) The camera work (as you stated) could have been far better.

7) Since the camera moved away from you; you may as well have edited the video and compressed it so we could view the most crucial moments (unfortunately you would not have the luxury of this in a live performance)

Sorry I do not mean to be rude; I just want to offer some friendly advice to you so other people - especially those who are not members of your family or even fellow escape artists – to be entertained, completely intrigued and giving your hard work the attention it deserves.

I will be curious to see what our fellow member Flash has to say about this as I am aware that he is big into the escaping thing!

no no, thanks you for your inpt. i am always open for advice. and your right, usually i do all those things. but this was a spur of the moment escape. it was late, at a party. so we were all a little buzzed, the camera man a little more than the rest of us. So i was very fucoused on escaping. so yes its usually alot better. Thanks you again for your advice, it does help, especially, since you dont perform escapes. when at a family and close friend party at the middle of the night, we are just there for fun.

and some of what you said has helped. so thanks again.
hope this made sense,and didnt offend you.

i am open for more.

Nice one mate! Good escape, wish I'd been at the party sounds like fun (I especially liked the kid's comments)

Ok now for the critique (remember this is only my opinion), as a live escape at a party this is very cool, but as a video with a bit of lighting, judicial editing, suspense building music/commentary it'd be a whole lot better.

If it was a performance piece for paying punters I'd recommend a couple of things. Firstly get the punters to tie your arms into the jacket and strap you in. Although this is time consuming, slipping into it the way you do makes it appear easier to escape from (I used to do the same thing and the reactions were never as good imho).

I personally would probably make a bit more out of it as well, I know this is difficult to do when you're concentrating on getting out and you don't want to increase the escape's length, but a few grimaces, rolls on the ground, grunts and panting pauses add to the suspense (you want people to think your not going to make it). Maybe even a bit of commentary from yourself would help too, anything to maintain our interest in you as the performer ("I think if I twist my wrist to the left I'll be able to get the chain a bit looser, no that didn't work").

That said, I really did enjoy it and can see how challenging it was! So really just keep up the good work mate.

Hope that helps...

yes it did thanks, and i do plan on acting a lot more when i perform for paying people, and yes i dont like to put the jacket on myself usually, but i dont really trust people that have been drinking to put it on correctly, it would be too much for them.

but yeah, your commentary helped. i will work on editing a good version to post.

i am glade you enjoyed it, my pain and struggle can bring joy to the world.

i will post my first attempt in an hour or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPqOi-fvBio

yeah i know the vidoe is squashed, i had to turn it over and it came out screwy, i will try to fix it later. to see how i was chained up, just check out my myspace or tagworld.

To quote an escapologist (ie. you) "Killer"!

Nice one mate, I much prefer that version.

thanks. i will most likely be posting a new one after this weekend sine i will be at a gradutation party on the lake.

here is an edited version. only 7 minutes. its a little blurry though.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3720937404