He moves before the last number is drawn? Coincidently, this is the lowest number of the draw, so in order to get the balls in numerical order they'd have had to have waited to see them all no?

Good point, yes. Remember there were two cameras in the room, the second one filming for Friday's show presumably. I just expected him on Friday to reveal this footage showing how he changed positions quickly, but your point blows that out of the water.

It's just strange why the camera wasn't on a stand and was suspiciously shaky.

Peter.

I noticed the camera shake. I just thought they were doing it to build the tension. It's something that annoys me about his current show, it's really really over-done.

If you'd seen it from the very beginning (not sure if you have or not) you'd have seen that he walked into the hall followed by two cameramen, both with the cameras shoulder-mounted.

Another theory is that the balls were clever electronic ones which could be remotely altered, so someone could have entered the numbers whilst he was talking

Peter.

WTF it was written in pen! LMAO.

I did see it from the beginning, yes, but I'm still not sure why they weren't on stands. Surely it would have been easier and less shaky for them to be mounted on wheeled stands?


How do you know it was written in any kind of ink? They look as though they were printed, but nobody knows for sure.

Peter.

Hmm... I'm sure there will be lots of theories before Friday arrives.

One thing I am almost certain of though is that Derren didn't predict the numbers.

I'm sure that Friday will reveal some ridiculous set up that took them months (or even a year - "This is the result of a year's work") to set up.

I wouldn't be surprised if they filmed the section from where they zoomed out of the numbers board for every possible outcome and pressed a switch changing to it at the last minute before he switched the balls around.

Although, even over a year working 24 / 7 with no breaks they would need to film that last 15 second shot once every 2 seconds in order to get all the possible outcomes.

ROFL!

He wrote down the numbers on the card in pen, the numbers on the balls in his studio looked to be pre-printed. In fact it's very likely to be a form of the old magicians trick. You're not actually seeing the balls in the frame at the moment of the reveal, you're seeing a mirror that is reflecting the image of the balls in a frame out of shot and in fact those balls were loaded into the frame (with the numbers reversed) as they were drawn int he lottery show. The balls that you saw in the frame before the reveal are still there, but they never had any numbers on them anyway, and were hidden behind the mirror.

You couldn't use video trickery to 'fake' the balls that were drawn, because obviously people could check the actual numbers.The only part of the trick which is available to be faked/fixed are the balls in the frame in the studio - some form of manipulation was applied to them to get them to show the numbers necessary.

Well I enjoyed that.
Not entirely convinced by the 'It's all down with mirrors' argument, however. I think the rotation of the stand wouldn't hold the reflection as neatly as required for the effect to work, but I may be wrong.
I'm 90% certain he's the Antichrist.

After he announces his method on Friday, how many more lottery tickets do you think will be sold for the Saturday???

I could be though. Remember:

• This is TV. Nothing is real.

• What you see is 100% controlled. If you can make Robbie Coltrane look like a giant in a Harry Potter film just by using clever sets and camera positioning, think how easy it must be to make a pedestal holding 6 ping pong balls look real.

The moving camera work was there to persuade you that it’s all done “for real” however, remember that this kind of effect can be done outside of the camera - ie the feed can be manipulated too. A typical TV camera shoots far more picture that you can see on your screen due to overscan and other manufacturing considerations. Subtle camera movements can be faked without borking perspective. The fact that this was done in an empty space means that there were very few cues around that would indicate this could be happening. It is likely that the picture was composited as the live action was fed through. People could put the balls in the rack with the numbers on as you watched without you seeing it as previously shot footage of the prop balls was overlaid.

It’s a fascinating thing to watch, and I’ve always enjoyed watching illusionists. To me, they have never been magicians - what they do is not magic in the way they want you believe. They are performers with a special effects team behind them. I always like knowing how these are done - it does not detract from the mystery. So on Friday, I’ll be keen to learn how this is done. I suspect that it is far, far simpler than you can imagine. Possibly far simpler than my idea above. I do know that TV offers a unique chance for illusionists to really work the on screen imagery.

That's the one thing that I like about Derren Brown. The fact that he quite clearly states that he is not psychic or magic or anything like that.

But then that seems to be a sticking point for people who don't like him when they say "Yeah, but it was all set up" (or whatever). They seem to miss the point that THAT IS the point.

It will be interesting to see the long shot feed tomorrow.

Was it transmitted in HD? I reckon illusionists must be working hard to get their tricks to work at a higher resolution. Regular telly signals let them get away with a whole lot.

http://derrenbrownlotteryprediction.wordpress.com/

Lots there to mull over.

I'm a believer of theory number 6, personally. Hail the new master.