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Yif article and "digital sweetening"

Posted: November 25th, 2014, 10:44 pm
by ejay1118
I would like to put in my two cents worth on the "digital sweetening" issue that was brought up in your article on Yif, the magician from China.

Mark Wilson mentioned that the biggest hurdle he had in getting people to take magic on television seriously was the feeling that it was all "camera tricks," and now we have people claiming that "digital editing" should be an accepted tool in the magician's toolbox.
I don't agree, when I watch magic on television (or on the computer screen) I want to know that what I'm seeing is what was going on in front of the camera. I accept that the edges of the screen can be used to hide certain things, but the medium itself should not be the method.

I think Yif is a better magician than this and I hope he doesn't continue in this vein in his magic. Stuff done in the camera is not magic, it's special effect. One doesn't consider Jeanie or Samatha to be "magicians" no matter what the special effects technicans arrange for them to do.

In a little nit-pick to Mr. Belamy, there is no such thing as "Japanese anime comics," anime is the term for animation from Japan, comics are called "manga."

Re: Yif article and "digital sweetening"

Posted: November 26th, 2014, 10:45 am
by Richard Kaufman
I printed the article exactly to elicit this type of discussion. But don't get the impression that everything Yif does requires this. If you watch the videos embedded in the digital edition you can see that he does a lot of good magic with no outside help required.