Wow, wow, wow!

The new #1 item on my 2014 to do list!

Pre-ordering now.

Rick, while I'm sure the ultimate deliverable will be up to Outlaw's usual standards, can you give us more info regarding what you mean by...

"The Case study book is color scans page by page of the Diary. The scans are of actual hand printed and hand drawn pictures. Each case book comes with an "actual" hand written page from the original diary."

What do you mean by "scans?" Will these pages be treated differently than the rest of the book? Will they purposely look like scans and work themselves into the storyline? Personally, I love the idea of having a book that is NOT original...and just scans of the diary. It makes it more credible, and of course, the spirits can still be present. Then, am I to understand that you will include a single page that is an "actual page" from the diary? If so, a book of scanned pages and one "real" page seems very realistic s far as presentations go, and super creepy.

In the other thread, it was said that some process was to be used to make the whole book look hand printed. I wonder what caused the change in plans.

I think something that looks like the real McCoy would be way creepier than a clinical case study. I wonder if purchasers will attempt to create their own hand written copies, in a larger-than-Luna scale.

If the book is supposedly a published case study (as opposed to some rare book), why make it a limited edition? Why not make it a PDF and tell buyers which color crayons they need to reproduce it (with the claim, perhaps, that the pages were obtained from the files a psychiatrist who worked on the case)?

I feel the same way as Oz. To me it's more credible as a case study instead of the entire actual artifact (cool as that would be)

Good points Mind Guerrila, but what I'm envisioning is a book that shows a more "modern" design, full of reproductions of a one-of-a-kind diary from years past, but also includes an "original" page from that very same document. And by original, I mean aged in the typical Outlaw way...which takes time and skill. So, that's what I was inquiring about. A PDF is fine, but a lot of us (well, let's just say "me") prefer having the work done for us. ('cause I'm lazy).

It could still be a limited edition for a number of reasons...limited distribution, limited audience (no one wants to hear about this kind of thing), or even a banned book which was shut down in production after a certain number of books. I'm guessing there's a best of both worlds here, I just want to know more.

Time, yes. As for skill, bear in mind that these are the crude drawings of a child.

How about a compromise: a limited edition PDF (with free crayons to the first 50 customers).

Holy Crap...what's next,they used a incorrect color of crayon in the 50's ?
Its an effect!
And,lets keep it all on one thread in the Spooky,and one thread in the Crypt!(when it gets there!)
I'm tired of looking 6 different places for everything,and someone always wanting to start a new thread! lol

Another reason why someone might not want to present it as a published study: specs who become so fascinated by your presentation that they are then inspired to research the case on their own after the show. Claiming your source to be from the private file of, say, a deceased psychiatrist friend, would head this off at the pass.

Oz I agree with you. The book is hand written. We will then do high Res. scans of the pages and compose it into the diary/case study.
It will include an actual page of the diary with each book.

For me it solved two issues. The first brought up by Mindguerrilla (can faking hand written be pulled off) spooked me, don't blame MG

A printed "hand written" book may look real to some people, and we think it could pass the test, but to be honest, I don't want even one person saying "I'm not sure it passes 100% as hand written" I don't want that to happen.

If its one page maybe it would be fine, but 160 pages and I don't know if it would hold up.

The other thing is "credible acquisition". It is more credible to have acquired one of 40 case study books printed by a University in the late 70's, than to have acquired this highly special and unusual actual diary.

(BTW the idea of making it a Case Study came from the very brilliant Vic Nadata)

That said, I met with my printer today and this book is more money to produce than I thought. Its a one up book and its double sided color printing (even though it has very limited color in it) with expensive paper.

It is close to the size of Ipswich.

The end result of my meeting with my printer today is this.

Until Jan. 5th it will stay $110 on pre-order.

From the 5th to the 15th it goes to $125 pre-order.

The 15th it goes to full price of $175 shipped. Yes I said $150 originally, but it would not be worth it to produce and sell at that price. My margin is not big and of course its all original art and it is hand written. Huge amount of time producing it.

As far as limited edition goes 10 have sold so I should probably stick with the Limited edition

I feel 150 units is a good run.

An interesting entry here.

Hello,

Seems like a perfect time to get this gem after a long Outlaw break.

Looking forward to receiving it.

Cheers.

Always a good business practice to stick to your promises. Besides mail order fraud is a Federal offense.

Oh, they like to blame me for everything. You can't stop them. I am probably more sensitive to these issues because, in my former job with the government, my duties included the detection of fraudulent documents. So, I may not be the best person to ask regarding what would pass muster with Joe Public.

Simulated handwriting is difficult to pull off due to the lack of impressions/indentations typically made by the pressure of pen (or hard pencil) on paper. These can create a change in the paper's texture and reflectivity.

A recent mainstream effort to carry off simulated handwriting is the book "S" by JJ Abrams, discussed in this other thread:
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......um=14&20

In "S," I think they tried to get around the impressions/indentations issue by making many of the notations appear to be from colored markers, instead of ballpoint pens. This, however, created another issue i.e. the lack of bleed-through on the other side of the thin paper used. If thicker paper had been used, or if the notations looked like they had been produced by soft, colored pencils, the effect may have been more convincing.

This type of effect involving a journal of an unfortunate person led me to a thought which I am sure has been discussed before. Such people, especially children, often exhibit external manifestations of their psychopathology. On of these manifests as psychokinesis; in other words, poltergeist activity. I would make a great deal of sense from a parapsychology persective therefore to present macro-PK as poltergeist activity during the performance. Any of the devices available could be used as methods. This would work especially well in a darker than lighter setting (both of context and illumination) although it could be played well on stage as well. The book establishes the story, the story the context, and the context the opportunity. We can thank the ghost hunting community for providing some credibility to the backstory which can be effectively leveraged using this and similar props.

Lills D1ary does a great job with the handwriting look. It is more than adequate to fool a spec in a dimly lit room. Not right for this effect maybe but my point being hand written will pass. You could always trace over the images with crayon or pencils (I think someone mentioned this already) but it is definitely believable as a case study.

Ordered and excited!

I agree with Roth's analysis. Presenting this item as a scanned reproduction of the original works for me. It is more likely that I would have such a copy in my possession than the original diary. As for the limited number of copies, it could very well be that the psychiatrist in question had them privately printed (for a small number of close colleagues) after the University rejected the study for publication. Too bizarre or sensational perhaps. This would also eliminate the possibility of an inquisitive spec trying to locate the published study online.

....and since it deals with a child it is highly believable that the copies would be limited to a professional circle. Any copies that got out would certainly not be legal to sell. A child's medical records not being out there for anyone to buy is very believable no matter how old. Maybe you got it at an estate sale in a box of books or cleaning out the attic at a parents house after they had passed away etc. I use estate sale a lot as most times the family comes in and knows nothing about the books so they make boxes of them and sell um in lots. I like books to look old but taken care of but depending on how this is aged it works either way. Maybe you saw it in the trash at the estate sale and asked about it. They said you could have that nasty ol thing if you wanted it - etc.

I also think the case study is a very cool way to present this and it can be done both as straight mentalism and bizarre!

I bought the book after PMing Roth,after the first post was made,and getting some more skinny!
The book has some blank pages in the front and back,that should be used for making "annotations" by one of the people that studied the case.

This will also add credibility of the books origin,and have real writing in it.

I'm ready to see what's on her mind !

The look maybe but not the feel. We'll have to agree to disagree on how adequate this effect is to fool a spec. A room can only be so dim if you want someone to read a book. Handling the book is another issue. If you have someone leaf through it, I don't think it unlikely that they'd notice how unusually smooth/flat the pages are for a personal diary. Just because the spec doesn't point this out doesn't necessarily mean s/he was fooled.