What is with the snowflake at the end of the advert…..i mean is that supposed to mean something. There are 6 sides to a snowflake and there are 6 lotto balls……every snowflake is unique and potentially so is nearly every lotto draw. I really really want to know how he did it, the man is a genius and i will deffo be watching tomorrow night!!
Oh man, MORE Christmas stuff this early in the year?!
Derren has somehow gained access to the multiverse.
sweet
Why was the snowflake required? Perhaps it represented symmetry or uniqueness. Or perhaps this has all got me thinking too much. Damn you Derren I have work deadlines you know!!!?!!
Flakey!
I really hope that when we watch it, Derren plainly states “It was quite obviously magic”
He obviously colluded with the lottery company. You people need to wisen up to scams.
Snowflake?! symmetry? unique? Are you hinting that you didn’t just record millions of different versions? Or is it something else? Oh Derren and team, you make my head hurt. Cannot wait for Friday! I’m sure that absolutely every theory is wrong… except maybe the ‘Derren can time travel’ one…
omg, I’ve just seen this on the tv and nearly screamed, like I wasn’t non-stop thinking about it before this, what is the snowflake all about!? Please someone slightly cleverer than me help me lol
people are so gullible
I think it was done by freezying half the screen when the lotto numbers were anounced. The side with the balls was frozen and the isde with Derren and the lotto was not.
The camera doing the recording was then put on a tripod, then the camerman behind went to write the numbers on the balls after they were called out.
As Derren did not predict the bonus ball, but still watched it, this gave the cameraman enough time to get back in position.
Hmmmmmmmm. I reckon it’s impossible.
Sooo maybe the whole ‘wish me luck’ and ‘won’t let me buy a ticket’ stuff is obviously a performance. As was the ‘legally we can’t reveal the numbers predicted before the draw has been made’.
So, the question is how Derren wrote the drawn numbers on the balls without us seeing (or, obviously, selecting the 6 balls from a prepared catalogue). The question is one of misdirection, hopefully — not just a camera trick.
Is there a term for using the “scientific explanation” as misdirection? Brown did a spectacular job fooling audiences that they were in on the trick in Something Wicked This Way Comes, and he’s yet again reinventing misdirection. I can not stress this enough – it’s cerebral Slydini, “psychological” Vernon, and the resulting legend that approaches that of Houdini. Thanks, Derren, for finding the most perfect medium between style and substance, and thanks to his whole crew for pulling the Pixar-esque track record, that is “not one flop yet, and each one better than the next.”
I quite like Pete’s theory. I’ve heard a different version of this before but sounds more like it now…To be fair. I’m not even sure Derren will tell us how he did it. I think it’s going to be more how he MAY have done it….
Either way this guy is amazing so credit where it’s due. He had half of the UK’s jaws dropping last night…
Perhaps freezing is part of the “trick”.
Why does everyone hope it’s not a camera trick? Of course it’s a camera trick!
Pete (6.51pm) above is correct, half the screen was frozen. But there is no need to sneak a tripod in under the camera, the actual method is much more eligant than that…
Why do we assume that the events happen in an empty room, with only two cameramen present? Because of a couple of shots early on from the second distant camera (a camera that incidentally appears to serve no further purpose at all). The shots from the second camera were PRERECORDED, and interlaced into the live footage!! He was actually filmed by a computer-controlled camera (not hand-held) that follows a strict and exact path. There were probably lots of people in the studio behind the camera while it was filming!! Sussed 🙂
damn my post didnt post earlier! i said on twitter though, i reckon it meant freeze frame, as in half the screen frozen too
Is snowflake Cockney rhyming slang for fake?
However it was done, it was great telly!
I think the snowflake does indicate freezing of some sort. When the results are read out, Derren remains in the same position throughout, as though he is frozen. Not too sure of relevance of this – maybe the live lottery broadcast that we see on the screen isnt actually there, and his role is prerecorded and superimposed onto the shot?!?! This has been bugging me all day – Well done Derren! I love a challenge!
The idea that no two snowflakes are the same is actually a misconception; in the right conditions you can make two identical ones. I think the trick might be passed on that fact ‘impossibility’ and ‘improbability’ are very different things.
You can see the moment when the live film is replaced by an earlier recording.
Its close to when Derren switches off the TV.
The ball on the end (left) moves into a slightly raised position
Based on the “this is an initial production for the BBC and the lottery commission” disclaimer I think the whole thing was done with the full cooperation of the lottery commission. It’s a great publicity stunt for both The Events and the lottery.
Snowflakes? I’d guess fractals. no idea how, but it just seems like something that makes sense to me. It can’t be a camera trick, simply ’cause he’s making a show called “how to win the lottery”. it has to be something that can be done in time to by a ticket (i don’t know how the lotto works in the UK, but at least in Brazil you can’t buy a ticket like 5 minutes before the draw). I know he’s tricked us all before, like with the horse races, but i don’t think it’s quite that simple this time.
or maybe I’m just tripping, since I’ve no idea what fractals really are (or how they actually relate to snowflakes).
If the freezing theory is correct then of course the snowflake would fit in with that. Or it could just be another prediction of Derren’s and we’re going to get snow! 😀
Nice seeing Derren looking more relaxed.
LC x
or at least like to believe that he tricked us all into thinking that he actually did it instead of using a cheap camera trick (which i still don’t think is the case). like in some sort of mass “this is the ticket you want” thing.
Hi I’m a magician and this trick has taken over my life. Within 4 minutes of Derren performing the trick I had received 6 txts on how it was performed and 4 phone calls.
Tonight I did a show and in 3 hours I spent roughly 2 hours talking to the audience about Derren Brown – so it was an easy night for me.
On to the big question, how did he do it? Exceptionally well!
Looking forward to ‘the explaination’ on Friday.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Well that was exciting! Can’t wait for Wednesday even more now! 😀
Hmm, I think the snowflake may be a big clue here.
At the point where he’s watching the numbers, he’s turned at an angle. He covers his mouth with his left hand, and his right hand isn’t really visible. He thinks that this is where the setup is, Derren is pulling the numbers out of his pocket or somewhere, and attaching them somehow to the piece of card he later writes the numbers on. The piece of card has a black backing which seems odd, normally card is the same color all over, or it is just plain brown card, with one side covered in some color. His theory is that the numbers are actually kind of like fridge magnets, and once he’s got them prepped on or behind the card somehow, he later by sleight of hand drops them onto the balls.
Snowflakes ‘drop’?
Not Sure really how it was done. There are lots of possible solutions but only One is the actual correct one, much like the draw itself.
Eliminating the impossible things doesn’t leave you with much on this one, all we know is that Mr. Brown isn’t a fan of cheap tricks so it has to be something that requires a modicum of Skill.
The second camera is probably the ‘this is how it was done’ shots camera, not that the room was actually set out how we think it was from the primary shot we had. I didn’t re-watch it enough to catch all the Forced (nod nod) phrases but I got the impression that Double was important – no doubt these will be played back to show that the solution was actually told to us.
I’d love to see a commentary on this with other mentalists & DCOs discussing the effect. DVD?
My last post was a theory a friend of mine came up with… I think it’s more likely than camera trickery. It’s more like what a real magician would do in my mind. Camera trickery would be sneered at by a lot of people, whereas this method would be a show of skill of Derren. I’ve watched and watched, but can’t see a ‘drop’, but then, I’m not supposed to!
Dont you all see? Hes doing his usual thing. Hes implanting images and ideas into our subconsous. I have no idea what hes planning to do with us all, but he is planning something big! The lotto thing – even if he tells us how its done! is a damn good way off gettting most of us (40 million or so -hopefully lol) to be sat at the TV at the same time. Just the notion of us being able to predict the out come of the lotto is enough to get us to watch. He has an ability to make us think we have a choice – even tho hes allready made that choice for us – kinda like forcing a card in card tricks.. except he has taking things wayy beyond that. personally i hope he screws with ALL of our minds. jeez in the state the worlds in atm we at least do with a laugh. Whatever your planning derren good luck!
I hardly think it is likely to be a camera trick! Come on, have any of you actually watched any of Derrens shows? Derren is not a trickster he is a magician, an illusionist and a mentalist… why would he make a show and then tell us all ‘Oh it was just a half frozen screen’?? He has the whole world guessing — there was even a report in the Telegraph, cxan you imagine everyones dissapointment if he really did turn round and tell us thats all it was.
Ridicolous. Whatever it is behind it it is going to be much better than a camera trick I can assure you of that!
Easy, having available technology. This is my explanation:
In practice, while the illusionist was aimed at the camera with his left hand, hidden from the public, operate a wireless device that allowed him to post numbers that gradually were mined to the balls, and these, in essence, hiding inside a sophisticated mechanism that allows you to display on their surfaces the numbers sent by the wireless device. The numbers on the balls appear printed but in reality are part of the mechanism of the ball. Example: TV out as the first number is 2, the illusionist, sends the ball first ball number 2, the number will appear on this extract, and gradually the others.
Sorry for my English, I’m Italian!
Craig Jones is correct. The first two shots led us to believe that the camera was handheld, and that the studio was empty. But the second shot cut to Derren finishing his rather awkward wave, an easy position for him to be standing in when the prerecorded segment switched to live. He wasn’t talking at that moment, which makes the transition even easier.
The camera was on a tripod for the trick. It never moved laterally, or changed height. It didn’t even rotate until after the balls were in place, because it needed to be pointed at precisely the right angle for the split screen to disappear seamlessly. The camera shake was added digitally.
I’m inclined to think that he’s done something a bit more complicated than:
– colluding with camelot;
– freezing half of the screen (whilst someone places the correct prediction balls on the stand);
– computer-rendering the balls live. etc.
Even ignoring the fact that Derren’s ‘explanation’ show is an hour long on Friday (it doesn’t take an hour to say “we froze half the screen and replaced the balls” or “a computer did it”) – there is simply no achievement or benefit in it for Derren.
It’d be a huge anti-climax, would do nothing for his reputation, and would cut the viewing figures of his next three ‘events’.
Derren is reknowned for amazing acts of memory, trickery and manipulation – I’m fully expecting a more unexpected and impressive method… I just wish I could guess what it was!
How can ten minutes of television become so famous in the space of less than 24 hours??? The blog has been stampeded, theories have been flying all over the place, and every second person I have talked to today has said, “Oh my God, did you see Derren Brown last night?!” DB has officially taken over the world!
Of course, if the split-screen camera shot theory IS correct, then that means that the whole thing about Derren being excruciatingly nervous before the show was just an act………And let me tell you, I was completely taken in! Damn you, Derren!!!
I don’t know how exactly but I think the setup for this really did start a year ago, and this would also explain the snowflake decoration….
Friday won’t bring the real explanation, but it will be entertaining non-the-less!!
at first I thought it had something to do with the balls themselves, because nothing was said about them, it was just accepted that they were standard balls with numbers printed on them, i thought that when he wrote on the card it somehow transmitted to a device that could change the reading on the balls…. but logically, its even easier… the split screen technique seems to make so much sense… you can actually see it on the recording, after the last number comes up… and of course… the second cameraman… we are introduced to him… but we never see what he sees… until tomorrow?? will we see a different view of someone actually putting the right balls into place when the viewers on the live stream were watching a pre-recording?!… fantastic illusion though, just brilliant!
I really dont think it was a split screen.
the camerman was shaking the camera abit and both sides of the screen move in co-ordination with each other which wouldent happen if it was a split screen.
also as Derren watches the lottery balls being announced you can see his facial expression changing underneath his hand so that wasnt frozen either.
I really think he just studied the lottery alot and figured out which balls were mostly likely to come up… with all know Derren is cleves like that and plus when the man was announcing the lottery balls he was talking about how often some of the balls had come up lately.
how he got them in the right order though does confuse me!
but if it was just a trick surely he would go all the way and not stop before the bonus ball?
Derren said his aim was to predict 5 of the 6 numbers. The chance of winning with 5 balls is 1 in 54200.
That’s significantly less than the 14 million for all 6. He must have filmed 54200 combinations over the past year (that’s only 6 per hour).
Clearly 😐
Fach me, you’re up and running – well done! Time for my beddie though. I know I’ll be tempted to read through everything now and I kinda hate you for that.
Ultimately I know we will be stunned and feel like berks. Can’t wait to find out all the details tomorrow. Please feel free to fling this post elsewhere if it gets in the way of the theories.
Oh, I said cock a snoop earlier and I meant snook and it has irked me that I couldn’t get back on to fix it. I must remember the OCD meds. Hand me the whisky. Aaaaahhhh.
I guess it seems all a bit odd. The shaky camera that goes totally still at one point; the moving ball; Derren standing completely still in one position with his hidden hand; the two cameras; the empty room. Maybe everything was executed so that people would come up with all sorts of theories instead of the real one. Or maybe I’m just grasping at straws as I don’t want to believe it was a camera trick. Come on Derren you have more style than that! x
Everyone (except Pete) is making this way way to complicated – the answer is always the simplest thing. It was a camera trick, think about how he was carefullly positioned to one side of the screen. Also, for those who say Derren doesn’t do cheap tricks, think back to the horse racing thing – that was a pretty cheap trick (except for the sleight of hand at the end).
I like the theory that he is setting us up for something else, hence the multi channel broadcast to get as many of us as possible – also the random queues dropped into the trailers. Perhaps Derren is finally starting on his world domination plan 🙂
ARGH!!…….. Friday seems so far away. That snowflake is going to bug me until then….
“Rosebud….”
but the guy is a genius of misdirection and illusion, thats all he ever claims to be, he has created a huge hype about his work and it all adds to the effect, the showmanship makes it so intense and real… if he just walked onto our tv’s saying “im going to show you the lottery results moments after bbc1 does” how many of us would be impressed or even bother to watch? but essentially that is what he did, the bloke is bloomin brilliant… but it has to be that simple, theres no way that the 6 most likely numbers to come up, would actually come up… on a given day… what makes them more likely arise than the equally likely 1,2,3,4,5,6??
SNOWFLAKE: Freezing Half The Screen
SNOWFLAKE: Fibonacci Number (Recurrence Relation)
The balls were square onto the camera and could very well be obscuring a small part of the fake rear wall (did you notice?). Behind the balls which are coated with a thermally sensitive solution used on receipt printers, is a laser which in a matter of a second, can project it’s supertight focussed beam onto the back of the balls in reverse order after all numbers were declared. When you turn the stand round, they are in ascending order and PERFECT…….. Note that during the presentation, the camera moves about a bit but never moves the whole scene keeping the minute laser emitters behind the balls, always hidden.
Has anyone checked that the Lottery was real even? I’m sure I’ve gone slightly bonkers this week with all the changes being made to headings etc on the site and I thought the lottery draw was actually earlier – but then I never play the lottery, so Iya knowa nawthing. I put on more this week than I’ve put on in the entire time it’s been running – but don’t worry, it wasn’t loads. And is it a coincidence that no one won this week so no one’s really lost anything (unless some punters bet their houses on the lamp post numbers) if it went tits up – which of course it didn’t? There was a mass hysteria this week on a par with Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. We believed it and we stampeded! And we know from the paintings that Derren likes Orson… I’m still up. Help.
@ Mitch – Now that sounds more like it!!!
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What is with the snowflake at the end of the advert…..i mean is that supposed to mean something. There are 6 sides to a snowflake and there are 6 lotto balls……every snowflake is unique and potentially so is nearly every lotto draw. I really really want to know how he did it, the man is a genius and i will deffo be watching tomorrow night!!
Oh man, MORE Christmas stuff this early in the year?!
Derren has somehow gained access to the multiverse.
sweet
Why was the snowflake required? Perhaps it represented symmetry or uniqueness. Or perhaps this has all got me thinking too much. Damn you Derren I have work deadlines you know!!!?!!
Flakey!
I really hope that when we watch it, Derren plainly states “It was quite obviously magic”
He obviously colluded with the lottery company. You people need to wisen up to scams.
Snowflake?! symmetry? unique? Are you hinting that you didn’t just record millions of different versions? Or is it something else? Oh Derren and team, you make my head hurt. Cannot wait for Friday! I’m sure that absolutely every theory is wrong… except maybe the ‘Derren can time travel’ one…
omg, I’ve just seen this on the tv and nearly screamed, like I wasn’t non-stop thinking about it before this, what is the snowflake all about!? Please someone slightly cleverer than me help me lol
people are so gullible
I think it was done by freezying half the screen when the lotto numbers were anounced. The side with the balls was frozen and the isde with Derren and the lotto was not.
The camera doing the recording was then put on a tripod, then the camerman behind went to write the numbers on the balls after they were called out.
As Derren did not predict the bonus ball, but still watched it, this gave the cameraman enough time to get back in position.
Hmmmmmmmm. I reckon it’s impossible.
Sooo maybe the whole ‘wish me luck’ and ‘won’t let me buy a ticket’ stuff is obviously a performance. As was the ‘legally we can’t reveal the numbers predicted before the draw has been made’.
So, the question is how Derren wrote the drawn numbers on the balls without us seeing (or, obviously, selecting the 6 balls from a prepared catalogue). The question is one of misdirection, hopefully — not just a camera trick.
Is there a term for using the “scientific explanation” as misdirection? Brown did a spectacular job fooling audiences that they were in on the trick in Something Wicked This Way Comes, and he’s yet again reinventing misdirection. I can not stress this enough – it’s cerebral Slydini, “psychological” Vernon, and the resulting legend that approaches that of Houdini. Thanks, Derren, for finding the most perfect medium between style and substance, and thanks to his whole crew for pulling the Pixar-esque track record, that is “not one flop yet, and each one better than the next.”
I quite like Pete’s theory. I’ve heard a different version of this before but sounds more like it now…To be fair. I’m not even sure Derren will tell us how he did it. I think it’s going to be more how he MAY have done it….
Either way this guy is amazing so credit where it’s due. He had half of the UK’s jaws dropping last night…
Perhaps freezing is part of the “trick”.
Why does everyone hope it’s not a camera trick? Of course it’s a camera trick!
Pete (6.51pm) above is correct, half the screen was frozen. But there is no need to sneak a tripod in under the camera, the actual method is much more eligant than that…
Why do we assume that the events happen in an empty room, with only two cameramen present? Because of a couple of shots early on from the second distant camera (a camera that incidentally appears to serve no further purpose at all). The shots from the second camera were PRERECORDED, and interlaced into the live footage!! He was actually filmed by a computer-controlled camera (not hand-held) that follows a strict and exact path. There were probably lots of people in the studio behind the camera while it was filming!! Sussed 🙂
damn my post didnt post earlier! i said on twitter though, i reckon it meant freeze frame, as in half the screen frozen too
Is snowflake Cockney rhyming slang for fake?
However it was done, it was great telly!
I think the snowflake does indicate freezing of some sort. When the results are read out, Derren remains in the same position throughout, as though he is frozen. Not too sure of relevance of this – maybe the live lottery broadcast that we see on the screen isnt actually there, and his role is prerecorded and superimposed onto the shot?!?! This has been bugging me all day – Well done Derren! I love a challenge!
The idea that no two snowflakes are the same is actually a misconception; in the right conditions you can make two identical ones. I think the trick might be passed on that fact ‘impossibility’ and ‘improbability’ are very different things.
You can see the moment when the live film is replaced by an earlier recording.
Its close to when Derren switches off the TV.
The ball on the end (left) moves into a slightly raised position
Based on the “this is an initial production for the BBC and the lottery commission” disclaimer I think the whole thing was done with the full cooperation of the lottery commission. It’s a great publicity stunt for both The Events and the lottery.
Snowflakes? I’d guess fractals. no idea how, but it just seems like something that makes sense to me. It can’t be a camera trick, simply ’cause he’s making a show called “how to win the lottery”. it has to be something that can be done in time to by a ticket (i don’t know how the lotto works in the UK, but at least in Brazil you can’t buy a ticket like 5 minutes before the draw). I know he’s tricked us all before, like with the horse races, but i don’t think it’s quite that simple this time.
or maybe I’m just tripping, since I’ve no idea what fractals really are (or how they actually relate to snowflakes).
If the freezing theory is correct then of course the snowflake would fit in with that. Or it could just be another prediction of Derren’s and we’re going to get snow! 😀
Nice seeing Derren looking more relaxed.
LC x
or at least like to believe that he tricked us all into thinking that he actually did it instead of using a cheap camera trick (which i still don’t think is the case). like in some sort of mass “this is the ticket you want” thing.
Hi I’m a magician and this trick has taken over my life. Within 4 minutes of Derren performing the trick I had received 6 txts on how it was performed and 4 phone calls.
Tonight I did a show and in 3 hours I spent roughly 2 hours talking to the audience about Derren Brown – so it was an easy night for me.
On to the big question, how did he do it? Exceptionally well!
Looking forward to ‘the explaination’ on Friday.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Well that was exciting! Can’t wait for Wednesday even more now! 😀
Hmm, I think the snowflake may be a big clue here.
At the point where he’s watching the numbers, he’s turned at an angle. He covers his mouth with his left hand, and his right hand isn’t really visible. He thinks that this is where the setup is, Derren is pulling the numbers out of his pocket or somewhere, and attaching them somehow to the piece of card he later writes the numbers on. The piece of card has a black backing which seems odd, normally card is the same color all over, or it is just plain brown card, with one side covered in some color. His theory is that the numbers are actually kind of like fridge magnets, and once he’s got them prepped on or behind the card somehow, he later by sleight of hand drops them onto the balls.
Snowflakes ‘drop’?
Not Sure really how it was done. There are lots of possible solutions but only One is the actual correct one, much like the draw itself.
Eliminating the impossible things doesn’t leave you with much on this one, all we know is that Mr. Brown isn’t a fan of cheap tricks so it has to be something that requires a modicum of Skill.
The second camera is probably the ‘this is how it was done’ shots camera, not that the room was actually set out how we think it was from the primary shot we had. I didn’t re-watch it enough to catch all the Forced (nod nod) phrases but I got the impression that Double was important – no doubt these will be played back to show that the solution was actually told to us.
I’d love to see a commentary on this with other mentalists & DCOs discussing the effect. DVD?
My last post was a theory a friend of mine came up with… I think it’s more likely than camera trickery. It’s more like what a real magician would do in my mind. Camera trickery would be sneered at by a lot of people, whereas this method would be a show of skill of Derren. I’ve watched and watched, but can’t see a ‘drop’, but then, I’m not supposed to!
Dont you all see? Hes doing his usual thing. Hes implanting images and ideas into our subconsous. I have no idea what hes planning to do with us all, but he is planning something big! The lotto thing – even if he tells us how its done! is a damn good way off gettting most of us (40 million or so -hopefully lol) to be sat at the TV at the same time. Just the notion of us being able to predict the out come of the lotto is enough to get us to watch. He has an ability to make us think we have a choice – even tho hes allready made that choice for us – kinda like forcing a card in card tricks.. except he has taking things wayy beyond that. personally i hope he screws with ALL of our minds. jeez in the state the worlds in atm we at least do with a laugh. Whatever your planning derren good luck!
I hardly think it is likely to be a camera trick! Come on, have any of you actually watched any of Derrens shows? Derren is not a trickster he is a magician, an illusionist and a mentalist… why would he make a show and then tell us all ‘Oh it was just a half frozen screen’?? He has the whole world guessing — there was even a report in the Telegraph, cxan you imagine everyones dissapointment if he really did turn round and tell us thats all it was.
Ridicolous. Whatever it is behind it it is going to be much better than a camera trick I can assure you of that!
Easy, having available technology. This is my explanation:
In practice, while the illusionist was aimed at the camera with his left hand, hidden from the public, operate a wireless device that allowed him to post numbers that gradually were mined to the balls, and these, in essence, hiding inside a sophisticated mechanism that allows you to display on their surfaces the numbers sent by the wireless device. The numbers on the balls appear printed but in reality are part of the mechanism of the ball. Example: TV out as the first number is 2, the illusionist, sends the ball first ball number 2, the number will appear on this extract, and gradually the others.
Sorry for my English, I’m Italian!
Craig Jones is correct. The first two shots led us to believe that the camera was handheld, and that the studio was empty. But the second shot cut to Derren finishing his rather awkward wave, an easy position for him to be standing in when the prerecorded segment switched to live. He wasn’t talking at that moment, which makes the transition even easier.
The camera was on a tripod for the trick. It never moved laterally, or changed height. It didn’t even rotate until after the balls were in place, because it needed to be pointed at precisely the right angle for the split screen to disappear seamlessly. The camera shake was added digitally.
Watch this proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqAt2akPHJ
I’m sure we’ll hear a wonderfully plausible lie when he “explains” the trick, as usual. 😉
I’m inclined to think that he’s done something a bit more complicated than:
– colluding with camelot;
– freezing half of the screen (whilst someone places the correct prediction balls on the stand);
– computer-rendering the balls live. etc.
Even ignoring the fact that Derren’s ‘explanation’ show is an hour long on Friday (it doesn’t take an hour to say “we froze half the screen and replaced the balls” or “a computer did it”) – there is simply no achievement or benefit in it for Derren.
It’d be a huge anti-climax, would do nothing for his reputation, and would cut the viewing figures of his next three ‘events’.
Derren is reknowned for amazing acts of memory, trickery and manipulation – I’m fully expecting a more unexpected and impressive method… I just wish I could guess what it was!
How can ten minutes of television become so famous in the space of less than 24 hours??? The blog has been stampeded, theories have been flying all over the place, and every second person I have talked to today has said, “Oh my God, did you see Derren Brown last night?!” DB has officially taken over the world!
Of course, if the split-screen camera shot theory IS correct, then that means that the whole thing about Derren being excruciatingly nervous before the show was just an act………And let me tell you, I was completely taken in! Damn you, Derren!!!
I don’t know how exactly but I think the setup for this really did start a year ago, and this would also explain the snowflake decoration….
http://derrenbrown.co.uk/on-a-bus-me/
Friday won’t bring the real explanation, but it will be entertaining non-the-less!!
at first I thought it had something to do with the balls themselves, because nothing was said about them, it was just accepted that they were standard balls with numbers printed on them, i thought that when he wrote on the card it somehow transmitted to a device that could change the reading on the balls…. but logically, its even easier… the split screen technique seems to make so much sense… you can actually see it on the recording, after the last number comes up… and of course… the second cameraman… we are introduced to him… but we never see what he sees… until tomorrow?? will we see a different view of someone actually putting the right balls into place when the viewers on the live stream were watching a pre-recording?!… fantastic illusion though, just brilliant!
I really dont think it was a split screen.
the camerman was shaking the camera abit and both sides of the screen move in co-ordination with each other which wouldent happen if it was a split screen.
also as Derren watches the lottery balls being announced you can see his facial expression changing underneath his hand so that wasnt frozen either.
I really think he just studied the lottery alot and figured out which balls were mostly likely to come up… with all know Derren is cleves like that and plus when the man was announcing the lottery balls he was talking about how often some of the balls had come up lately.
how he got them in the right order though does confuse me!
but if it was just a trick surely he would go all the way and not stop before the bonus ball?
Derren said his aim was to predict 5 of the 6 numbers. The chance of winning with 5 balls is 1 in 54200.
That’s significantly less than the 14 million for all 6. He must have filmed 54200 combinations over the past year (that’s only 6 per hour).
Clearly 😐
Fach me, you’re up and running – well done! Time for my beddie though. I know I’ll be tempted to read through everything now and I kinda hate you for that.
Ultimately I know we will be stunned and feel like berks. Can’t wait to find out all the details tomorrow. Please feel free to fling this post elsewhere if it gets in the way of the theories.
Oh, I said cock a snoop earlier and I meant snook and it has irked me that I couldn’t get back on to fix it. I must remember the OCD meds. Hand me the whisky. Aaaaahhhh.
I guess it seems all a bit odd. The shaky camera that goes totally still at one point; the moving ball; Derren standing completely still in one position with his hidden hand; the two cameras; the empty room. Maybe everything was executed so that people would come up with all sorts of theories instead of the real one. Or maybe I’m just grasping at straws as I don’t want to believe it was a camera trick. Come on Derren you have more style than that! x
Everyone (except Pete) is making this way way to complicated – the answer is always the simplest thing. It was a camera trick, think about how he was carefullly positioned to one side of the screen. Also, for those who say Derren doesn’t do cheap tricks, think back to the horse racing thing – that was a pretty cheap trick (except for the sleight of hand at the end).
I like the theory that he is setting us up for something else, hence the multi channel broadcast to get as many of us as possible – also the random queues dropped into the trailers. Perhaps Derren is finally starting on his world domination plan 🙂
ARGH!!…….. Friday seems so far away. That snowflake is going to bug me until then….
“Rosebud….”
but the guy is a genius of misdirection and illusion, thats all he ever claims to be, he has created a huge hype about his work and it all adds to the effect, the showmanship makes it so intense and real… if he just walked onto our tv’s saying “im going to show you the lottery results moments after bbc1 does” how many of us would be impressed or even bother to watch? but essentially that is what he did, the bloke is bloomin brilliant… but it has to be that simple, theres no way that the 6 most likely numbers to come up, would actually come up… on a given day… what makes them more likely arise than the equally likely 1,2,3,4,5,6??
SNOWFLAKE: Freezing Half The Screen
SNOWFLAKE: Fibonacci Number (Recurrence Relation)
The balls were square onto the camera and could very well be obscuring a small part of the fake rear wall (did you notice?). Behind the balls which are coated with a thermally sensitive solution used on receipt printers, is a laser which in a matter of a second, can project it’s supertight focussed beam onto the back of the balls in reverse order after all numbers were declared. When you turn the stand round, they are in ascending order and PERFECT…….. Note that during the presentation, the camera moves about a bit but never moves the whole scene keeping the minute laser emitters behind the balls, always hidden.
Has anyone checked that the Lottery was real even? I’m sure I’ve gone slightly bonkers this week with all the changes being made to headings etc on the site and I thought the lottery draw was actually earlier – but then I never play the lottery, so Iya knowa nawthing. I put on more this week than I’ve put on in the entire time it’s been running – but don’t worry, it wasn’t loads. And is it a coincidence that no one won this week so no one’s really lost anything (unless some punters bet their houses on the lamp post numbers) if it went tits up – which of course it didn’t? There was a mass hysteria this week on a par with Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. We believed it and we stampeded! And we know from the paintings that Derren likes Orson… I’m still up. Help.
@ Mitch – Now that sounds more like it!!!