So I have worked in Film and TV for about 8 years now, and figured it was about time to start producing my own films. I wanted to start with a couple of shorts and one of them has to do with the art of magic. The idea that I want to explore in this short is how some of the methods in magic are so incredible that it almost is borderline real magic. When you think about some of the tricks that use things like the Gilbreath Principle, Undue Influence, and even some of the effects that rely on more chemical scientific properties,.. you begin to get into an area that explores some very bizarre and mysterious aspects of math and science.

When I perform card tricks that use math principles like the ones mentioned above I almost feel like I am tapping into some crazy math voodoo that is making the impossible possible without me having to do much work at all. Now the tricky part of all this is too somehow convey this almost borderline real magic aspect in the context of a short film without giving away any real methods. I figured I could fabricate my own methods and make them a tad bit more unbelievable and just talk about how math and science is being used to create modern day wizards that can do things that shouldn't be possible.

In a way this is a combination of my love for magic and science. When you study subjects like physics you see things that are completely impossible and bizarre. Things like the double slit experiment or entanglement, or dark matter/energy. Things that even our top minds get overwhelmed by. So I woud love to develop a story that encompasses these mysteries, but I also don't want to become scorned by the magic community for revealing too much.

So I would love some input from some people about where they think the line should be drawn when discussing such things and perhaps some creative ways of getting the idea across but without revealing too much.

Ultimately my goal is help uplift the magic community by showing how incredible it really is and even perhaps add a little extra real world mystery too it.

Why not select the topics or categories that you find interesting, offer an explanation from the scientific perspective and then use a magic trick to demonstrate the principle without revealing the trick itself.

For example, you could talk about "Topology" and then use the Afghan Bands or one of many others to demonstrate a topology effect, and then move on to another principle. For math you could talk about the Fibonacci series and then demonstrate it with a trick, etc.

There are also several "teaching" books on the market in various categories that teach a subject and then demonstrate it with a magic trick (particularly math based ones). This approach is used to keep up the students interest and generate enthusiasm. Steve Spangler's web site combines science and magic in all of his literature, vidoes and experiments and a lot are free or reasonably priced.

John

You might want to research the thousands of articles by Martin Gardner in Scientific American. He was also a magician and many of his articles were right up your alley.

It's still unclear just what part of Magic/Physics is your passion.
Go with your passion for your first film.
It will come through the screen.