If you’re a movie buff and you live in LA, don’t miss the Academy’s special screening of Like Magic, with Ricky Jay, Shane Mahan and Michael Weber. “I think cinema, movies and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made films were magicians” – Francis Ford Coppola.
Like Magic will explore cinema’s roots in stage magic and sleight of hand, examining how the basic principles of visual deception were critical to the development of special effects-driven ‘movie magic’. Much of the early film technology remains as effective as ever today.
Using scenes from George Melies’s The Magician (1898), Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946), Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Neil Burger’s The Illusionist (2006) and Rupert Sander’s Snow White and The Huntsman (2012), the program will show how some of the techniques used in the earliest ‘trick films’ – trick perspective, cuts, dissolves and multiple exposures – are still used by filmmakers in the digital age. The night will include live demonstrations and conversations with some of the films’ creative teams who will reveal how many of the scenes were created.
Ricky Jay, one of the world’s greatest sleight of hand artists, has appeared in scores of films, and with his partner Michael Weber he has lent his expertise to such films as The Escape Artist, House of Games, The Prestige, and Ocean’s Thirteen.
Shane Mahan has created, coordinated, and supervised effects on such films as Aliens, Jurassic Park, and Galaxy Quest. He earned an Oscar nomination for his work on the physical suits for Iron Man and has contributed effects to such films as Real Steel, Life of Pi, and Pacific Rim.
Michael Weber has engineered illusions for both stage and screen. His work can be seen in Serpent and the Rainbow, Forrest Gump, Congo and The Illusionist. Along with his partner, Ricky Jay, he is currently working on the upcoming Broadway musical HOUDINI, starring Hugh Jackman.
The event is live, November 20th, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA. Tickets can be purchased online at www.oscars.org. $5.00 general admission, $3.00 for Academy members and students with I.D. Doors open at 6:30.
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