What do you make of David Copperfield touching up/using a different method/cleverly editing his television special "Tornado of Fire".

I would not like to get into a discussion of specific effects, but rather the issue of "Making the effect better for TV..."

On one side, certain camera angles/effects are used to make the illusion look more "impossible" so even if layman put the video up on You Tube and watch it a thousand times, they would have difficulty figuring it out. The amazement they get from watching the clip over and over would have been about the same if they had seen it live once with the original method; this justifies camera trickery. At the end of the day, we are not talking about total fake-out effects like other magicians on TV. Wink, wink...nod,nod.

On the other hand, he is using camera deception. Is he drawing the line on a respectable plane?

Your thoughts.

I would draw the line at protecting secrets, just like Copperfield has done. Shoot certain angles separately to make it even more impossible. Especially with youtube providing the opportunity to analyze the effects frame by frame. I have done it myself and it worked just fine-with correct camera placement we eliminated a way of how it could have been done (and in reality was).

To achieve the effect solely with camera trickery is another thing. Sure, many things look good and I personally have had fun testing things, but I really don't like the approach. Things like that might generate interest towards magic amongst the laymen but it also might have a negative effect as people easily expect too much when seeing a magician live. Sure we can make a car appear on stage but really cant produce a hummer on a runway in bright daylight with nothing but a cloth at your disposal. Of course what we do is a form of special effects, but doing "tv magic" is in my opinion not different from recreating the Titanic on screen or flying to the death star.

I don't think there is anything wrong with using camera angles etc. to enhance the illusion, but there is indeed a fine line that should not be crossed. Unfortunately CA has crossed that line too many times, even DC has crossed it a few times with the Grand Canyon levitation, the outdoor coutch levetation on tornado of fire etc. You won't see that kind of thing on a World's greatest magic special! The Brett Daniels transportation illusion on WGM5 is still fine, becauce it was done with one continious camera shot and, ok a little misdeirection LOL....!

I draw the line when the Magician makes the illusion BETTER than it looks on stage (Copperfield doing his illusions in the round). I have no problem with not showing the move (so it can't be reconstruced with repeated viewings).

Personally, I find nothing wrong with changing angles, so that the secret is protected. As has been pointed out here, in a live performance you're only going to see it one time, so allowing it to be played on youtube as it would be seen in normal viewing could allow the layman an extra advantage he wouldn't have normally.