Man I agree with Harley. Picking a lock has nothing to do with a good escape in fact I am constantly let down by the modern movement of some who do escapes that put the focus on magically at the end being able to undo the lock in full view of the audience. Personally its not for me. I much prefer trying to pull the audience into the story and hopefully them feeling the struggle of the escape which the trick parts arent seen, this way to me at least, the magic, the effect is built in their own minds. I love horror movies, yet bored off my ass (no I'm not watching them while on a donkey) with gore slasher movies because there is no suspense at all, its all visual and nothing there to trip my imagination, whereas you watch a classic like Psycho or Halloween and wow, no gore, all suspense and terror in your mind.

I believe escapes to be effective should be like that,,,,I explain everything to you, the nature of the challenge, I get put into said device or fastened with it. I struggle many times in open view just hidding with bigger motion or misdirection the secret move hopefully done well so the audience has a good experience,,,,how stupid would it be if in card magic you say hey look Im putting your card in the middle of the deck and with this move I get it on top and if you watch closely Im taking 2 cards off the top as 1 now they change Viola! yeah, stupid.....Escapes or the effect of escapes are quite magical and can be visceral on the audience but you gotta work on the psychology, the gimick is the least important part most of the time.....ask any Hollywood Director what makes a great movie experience? THE STORY.....

Ian, I wonder if you understand that when I say "story", it has little to do with "Once upon a time"?

When you said suspense I knew you were going to mention Psycho - the shower scene where each shot contains either shower head, drain, knife, blood or skin - but never knife touching skin or even knife and blood. ALl in the head ... which makes it so so so much nastier! It's like the ear scene in Reservoir Dogs... we are not shown it happening - yet my memory of it is "clear as day!" All because the directors know how to tell a good story.





I happen toknow that Ian quite likes the modern classics like the Ladibird police book...