Hello everyone!
I recently just had my first creation published through the Amazon CreateSpace program. This is awesome for me because I get to control the product and set it's price point. It was my first ever creation, and now that I have finally finished all the bugs with it, I want to journal my knowledge gained from this experience and share it with you guys.
This is the process for creating magic that I learned:
Step 1: Brainstorm
The first step that I found that helped me was coming up with ideas of what to create. In this step, you want to dream as big as possible. What I would recommend is coming up with an original plot, and figure out the method later but sometimes the method comes before the plot and that's okay too. You could come up with an idea that you think everyone would find is cool, a trick that is made for a specific skill level, or a specific genre of magic.
I actually came up with Doubting Thomas(the project I just released) out of necessity. It was one of the first times I had gone out to perform and I opened with a coin through the hand trick that utilized a second coin hidden in one of the skin pockets of my hand to visually illustrate the story of Doubting Thomas. Unfortunately, I didn't account for the angle that my hand was to the children's eye sight and everyone caught it. So I needed a coin through hand trick that was easy to do, I could show my hands empty before and after the trick is over, and my hands and coin could be examined. The coin also had to visually pass through the hand as if a hole were in it. I couldn't find a trick that didn't use sleight of hand to pull off this effect so I decided perhaps I could make it.
Step 2: Research and Development
Now that you have your idea, the next part is to do some research. Is your trick original? Is there a simpler way of doing the plot? Has someone attempted something similar to it before and how did it turn out? If you feel the effect is original enough, now you have to do some research into some possible methods that can pull this off. Research into what kind of illusions and trickery can help make this effect look believable to a laymen.
After enough research, go out and buy supplies to experiment with your new idea and possible methods. Develop as much as you can through the research that you found. I invested about $30 into the materials that would help me to discover the best method to pull off Doubting Thomas. I refined it many times throughout the course of a year, developing the best methods and adding more ideas that can be done with my idea.
Step 3: Testing
It's one thing to develop a cool visual effect and method, but it's another thing entirely if it's actually practical. I think far too often we watch a really awesome trailer that makes an effect look like it's the end all to be all and it often falls way too short and is not practical at all in a real performance situation. Sure these effects look great on camera and you can impress people through platforms such as YouTube but you wouldn't want to try these kinds of effects on stage or on the streets.
So what I think a creator should do is always test their newly developed method on a random laymen audience. I went out to the mall and tested my new method on multiple people seeing what worked and didn't work. This also helped me develop the best line of dialogue to perform this trick and I also learned how to include the spectator into my effect that makes them understand the effect as well as feel comfortable when it happens.
By testing your new effect out on an actual audience, you will better understand your method and you can market it better to people. It is true that as magicians we are supposed to deceive our audiences but it is such a dirty practice to deceive potential customers of our ideas by making it appear that a trick can be performed anywhere when in all reality, it's not practical at all.
Step 4: Feedback
Okay so now that you have fully tested and developed your new creation so you think you are done and ready to distribute right? Wrong! You are definitely going to want feedback from other magicians. Laymen will think you are the coolest thing ever because maybe they have never even seen a live magic performance before but magicians are your fellow performers and they can give you more honest feedback. Plus, they may have more knowledge that you do and can actually inform you more than some of the research you looked into. Many other creators show their new ideas to other magicians all the time because they know that they can not only get feedback but possibly new ideas to perform with their creation as well.
When I thought I was done with Doubting Thomas I showed it to a couple of magicians and they gave me feedback to where I realized I was far from done. To justify the uniqueness of my effect and make it worth it's price point, I need to add more and go back to the drawing board. So I added new methods and plots such as an Invisible Deck plot with a borrowed regular deck, the only catch is the spectator does 75% of the work. I also added a string through the hand routine because many people did not like the speed of my effect because it happens too quickly so I added string through the hand to have sort of a "slow-burn" effect on a spectator.
Step 5: Marketing and Distribution
This next step can be one of the most fun and stressful parts of the creation process but at the same time!
At this step you will want to film your tutorial as well as develop a trailer for what you are making. I absolutely love this step for one simple part which is making the trailer. I had so much fun going downtown and showing off my new creation to a bunch of laymen and getting their reactions.
My friends and I worked thirteen hours straight in developing the trailer alone. Our final version can be seen here:
You also really want to research your market during this time. Should your trailer garner more towards novices to magic, to the pros, or to everyone? Who is more likely to buy your tutorial? Where is the best place to sell this effect? These are all questions you want to be asking yourself when you are making your trailer as well as deciding where to distribute your effect.
I will fully admit that I did not do enough market research into my effect. My effect is catered far more to people that are novices or have never even touched a magic trick before. I would re-do my trailer where I can sell it to a person that maybe didn't have interest in performing magic and say something like "Hey do you want to be the next YouTube sensation like Stuart Edge? Then learn this new effect and go out and perform today!" or something along those lines.
You also might want to send the finished version out to reviewers. I had a couple of people agree to review it and one of them has published his review on YouTube which you can find here:
You can try to distribute it through a number of means. I decided to self-publish my effect through the Amazon CreateSpace program but there are a number of different sites that might be willing to distribute your effect. You can also try selling it privately on your own website or make DVDs of it and sell it physically or distribute it at local magic shops.
Bonus tips:
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Best wishes,
Tyler
I recently just had my first creation published through the Amazon CreateSpace program. This is awesome for me because I get to control the product and set it's price point. It was my first ever creation, and now that I have finally finished all the bugs with it, I want to journal my knowledge gained from this experience and share it with you guys.
This is the process for creating magic that I learned:
Step 1: Brainstorm
The first step that I found that helped me was coming up with ideas of what to create. In this step, you want to dream as big as possible. What I would recommend is coming up with an original plot, and figure out the method later but sometimes the method comes before the plot and that's okay too. You could come up with an idea that you think everyone would find is cool, a trick that is made for a specific skill level, or a specific genre of magic.
I actually came up with Doubting Thomas(the project I just released) out of necessity. It was one of the first times I had gone out to perform and I opened with a coin through the hand trick that utilized a second coin hidden in one of the skin pockets of my hand to visually illustrate the story of Doubting Thomas. Unfortunately, I didn't account for the angle that my hand was to the children's eye sight and everyone caught it. So I needed a coin through hand trick that was easy to do, I could show my hands empty before and after the trick is over, and my hands and coin could be examined. The coin also had to visually pass through the hand as if a hole were in it. I couldn't find a trick that didn't use sleight of hand to pull off this effect so I decided perhaps I could make it.
Step 2: Research and Development
Now that you have your idea, the next part is to do some research. Is your trick original? Is there a simpler way of doing the plot? Has someone attempted something similar to it before and how did it turn out? If you feel the effect is original enough, now you have to do some research into some possible methods that can pull this off. Research into what kind of illusions and trickery can help make this effect look believable to a laymen.
After enough research, go out and buy supplies to experiment with your new idea and possible methods. Develop as much as you can through the research that you found. I invested about $30 into the materials that would help me to discover the best method to pull off Doubting Thomas. I refined it many times throughout the course of a year, developing the best methods and adding more ideas that can be done with my idea.
Step 3: Testing
It's one thing to develop a cool visual effect and method, but it's another thing entirely if it's actually practical. I think far too often we watch a really awesome trailer that makes an effect look like it's the end all to be all and it often falls way too short and is not practical at all in a real performance situation. Sure these effects look great on camera and you can impress people through platforms such as YouTube but you wouldn't want to try these kinds of effects on stage or on the streets.
So what I think a creator should do is always test their newly developed method on a random laymen audience. I went out to the mall and tested my new method on multiple people seeing what worked and didn't work. This also helped me develop the best line of dialogue to perform this trick and I also learned how to include the spectator into my effect that makes them understand the effect as well as feel comfortable when it happens.
By testing your new effect out on an actual audience, you will better understand your method and you can market it better to people. It is true that as magicians we are supposed to deceive our audiences but it is such a dirty practice to deceive potential customers of our ideas by making it appear that a trick can be performed anywhere when in all reality, it's not practical at all.
Step 4: Feedback
Okay so now that you have fully tested and developed your new creation so you think you are done and ready to distribute right? Wrong! You are definitely going to want feedback from other magicians. Laymen will think you are the coolest thing ever because maybe they have never even seen a live magic performance before but magicians are your fellow performers and they can give you more honest feedback. Plus, they may have more knowledge that you do and can actually inform you more than some of the research you looked into. Many other creators show their new ideas to other magicians all the time because they know that they can not only get feedback but possibly new ideas to perform with their creation as well.
When I thought I was done with Doubting Thomas I showed it to a couple of magicians and they gave me feedback to where I realized I was far from done. To justify the uniqueness of my effect and make it worth it's price point, I need to add more and go back to the drawing board. So I added new methods and plots such as an Invisible Deck plot with a borrowed regular deck, the only catch is the spectator does 75% of the work. I also added a string through the hand routine because many people did not like the speed of my effect because it happens too quickly so I added string through the hand to have sort of a "slow-burn" effect on a spectator.
Step 5: Marketing and Distribution
This next step can be one of the most fun and stressful parts of the creation process but at the same time!
At this step you will want to film your tutorial as well as develop a trailer for what you are making. I absolutely love this step for one simple part which is making the trailer. I had so much fun going downtown and showing off my new creation to a bunch of laymen and getting their reactions.
My friends and I worked thirteen hours straight in developing the trailer alone. Our final version can be seen here:
You also really want to research your market during this time. Should your trailer garner more towards novices to magic, to the pros, or to everyone? Who is more likely to buy your tutorial? Where is the best place to sell this effect? These are all questions you want to be asking yourself when you are making your trailer as well as deciding where to distribute your effect.
I will fully admit that I did not do enough market research into my effect. My effect is catered far more to people that are novices or have never even touched a magic trick before. I would re-do my trailer where I can sell it to a person that maybe didn't have interest in performing magic and say something like "Hey do you want to be the next YouTube sensation like Stuart Edge? Then learn this new effect and go out and perform today!" or something along those lines.
You also might want to send the finished version out to reviewers. I had a couple of people agree to review it and one of them has published his review on YouTube which you can find here:
You can try to distribute it through a number of means. I decided to self-publish my effect through the Amazon CreateSpace program but there are a number of different sites that might be willing to distribute your effect. You can also try selling it privately on your own website or make DVDs of it and sell it physically or distribute it at local magic shops.
Bonus tips:
- Have fun! The full process of creating a new magic effect is very taxing and can be very stressful. Remember to have fun with it to keep you enthusiastic and optimistic when performing.
- Don't give up! People may hate your effect the first time you show it off or maybe it won't work the same way you thought it would. Keep at it and keep working. Revisit some steps in this process and work through them again and refine them.
- Really work on your camera and editing skills. Part of my issue with distributing the Doubting Thomas trailer is we did not film it in a visually appealing way. We should have filmed it from the spectator's POV and then showed their reactions. But hey lessons learned right?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Best wishes,
Tyler
