Derren Brown Events (How to win the National Lottery)

[Nick dVl]

If it is a camera trick, it's a really good camera trick to be done so seamlessly in a live environment (with the exception of the suspicious rising ball on the left).

But like I said, I'd be more amazed if he actually showed his prediction a minute or two before they drew the balls. It's not like someone can buy a ticket within that time - don't they close about 30 minutes before the draw or something?

[LastoftheFraggles]

Originally Posted by Nick dVl

If it is a camera trick, it's a really good camera trick to be done so seamlessly in a live environment (with the exception of the suspicious rising ball on the left).

But like I said, I'd be more amazed if he actually showed his prediction a minute or two before they drew the balls. It's not like someone can buy a ticket within that time - don't they close about 30 minutes before the draw or something?

Think we'd all be amazed. That would be impossible though.

[zenza]

The fact that there was no audience points to some dodgy goings on on the left side of the stage where the balls where.

If there was a live audeince then that would have made it more interesting.

[glowingcactus]

There is no doubt in my mind that this was a split screen camera trick.

What is more interesting question is what will he claim on Friday?

[statto]

Originally Posted by w_n_s

I've changed my mind - after seeing him learn the london street guide the way he did, I believe he did every permutation of the lottery results and switched to that footage at the end. Failing that, they used a split screen.

First of all, he never learned the london a-z - he just said he did, and he lied about it.*

Secondly, there are over 14 million permutations of the lottery results. If he spent a whole year doing nothing but that he would have to film over 38000 versions every day, which is just under 1600 every hour, or just over 26 every minute.

Pretty much everything he says is a lie, and most of the time when he tells you how he did something he isn't telling you the real way. It's all part of his showmanship, and people falling for his tricks, then falling for his explanations, pretty much confirms his comments about how gullible people are and how willing they are to believe.



*I can let you know how he really did it if you want to know.

[maddogsuk]

Originally Posted by statto

*I can let you know how he really did it if you want to know.

Go on then, but use spoilers

[zenza]

Originally Posted by statto

*I can let you know how he really did it if you want to know.

Tell.

[cjanderson]

Originally Posted by Richie

Why would it be some kind of complicated wifi-laser-etch-a-sketching-cgi-device?
Occam's razor people! It'll be relatively simple.

i thought that was fairly simple numbers are drawn, someone writes them using "some modern tech" on the balls. no camera trickery involved.

[Sinbad the Sailor]

He DIDN'T predict the lottery result, that's the first part of the trick, the first misdirection. He showed the numbers AFTER they'd been picked. The second part of the trick is the misdirection to get those numbered balls showing the numbers that had already been picked - pretty difficult without camera tricks or ink jet printers.

Mind you much better then a guess the card, when the card has already been "forced" on the punter.

[DanWilde1966]

If this was for real, Brown would have bought a Lotto ticket with those numbers on, collected the prize money and then donated it to charity. Wouldn't a verifiably winning ticket be more potent evidence of "guessing" the numbers than this party trick?

[B0zza]

The moving left ball...

[TheFatBoy]

While I still think it's a camera trick, I don't think that movement proves it, not taken from a compressed stream over the net. Anybody kept the original? Is the movement there?

[Sneeka]

Even taken from a youtube vid, the movement's still as clear as day. Try lining up a ruler along the top of the balls throughout the vid (I suspect the camera wobble was meant to deter this).

[scoobyood]

Originally Posted by B0zza

The moving left ball...

That looks pretty convincing...

All that work, the person who did the switch must be kicking themselves. Aside from that it's flawless. Could have done with less camera shake though.

[Sneeka]

the ball's still raised when he turns them around as well..

[TheFatBoy]

Originally Posted by Sneeka

Even taken from a youtube vid, the movement's still as clear as day. Try lining up a ruler along the top of the balls throughout the vid (I suspect the camera wobble was meant to deter this).

Yes, movement is clear as day, but the combination of the camera zooming/panning plus the inherent Youtube crapness means I don't think you can say that the ball is actually moving - after all, it's only a few pixels, easily enough of a difference to be generated by the compression.

Not unless you've got it saved on Sky+ and can tell us differently.

EDIT: Sneeka's picture makes the video MUCH more convincing.

[LastoftheFraggles]

Originally Posted by DanWilde1966

If this was for real, Brown would have bought a Lotto ticket with those numbers on, collected the prize money and then donated it to charity. Wouldn't a verifiably winning ticket be more potent evidence of "guessing" the numbers than this party trick?

If magic was for real there would be a lot of women chopped in half and/or full of sword holes etc.

[glowingcactus]

You can watched it all again on c4 site.
link
More evidence:

Remember he always lies and for a reason.
So at the start he says there are just two camera men in here.
The hand-held camera filming him walking in and the one at the back.

A necessary Lie.

As soon as he says hello to the back this we cut to to this distant back camera, briefly showing the hand-held camera man filming DB.

We then cut back to what looks as if this is the hand-held camera again but in fact we don't. Its now a third camera in a precise location with simulated wobble set further back in the studio behind the orange chairs. The hand held guy is now legging it out of shot.

Proof? If you pause the C4 video at about 51s, take a screenshot and compare this to a scrrenshot at 54s (third camera) you will see it a different lens and a slightly different view.

1) the real hand held has lens distortion of a wider angle lens (eg vetical lines bent on edges of shot) and is positioned closer and to the leftish side, wobble is due to human camera hold

2) the 3rd camera has no such distortion as it is a zoomed in lens to make it look as if it was a similar distance to the TV and balls. It has a wobble that is artificial hand-held, psudo random about a fixed point.

[martinb]

[Sneeka]

Originally Posted by glowingcactus

Remember he always lies and for a reason.
So at the start he says there are just two camera men in here.
The hand-held camera filming him walking in and the one at the back.

A necessary Lie.

Did he say cameramen? If so, he's probably not lying. The third camera is probably computer controlled