Incredibly frustrating are the words that come to mind when I think of Stone X. I am a huge David
Stone fan as his other DVDs have great material and the quality of the filming and explanation have
been fantastic. The material on this is very good; however, the filming and editing is absolutely
horrendous for the English version from Blackpool.
Firstly, there is no excuse for poor
picture quality with how cheap HD cameras are now. The picture is quite pixelated even when you
watch this full screen on a computer, let alone a television. Secondly, the camera shots are awful.
They cut away to ridiculous shots of nothing at the most important parts when David is explaining
the moves or showing the most important part of the routine. That combined with the poor quality of
the picture and lack of close up shots makes it very difficult to learn moves from this DVD. On top
of that, the sounds cuts out ever so often so you can't hear anything he is saying. This acclaimed
director they tout on the cover seems to have no clue how to film a magic DVD and should get tips
from the Penguin folk on how to film during a live lecture.
The Blackpool lecture and
explanations were also very rushed because he had only a small amount of time. In the end, it
feels like you are just watching a dealer demonstration DVD as for the majority of effects in the
second half, you need to buy an expensive gimmick like Rewind, Tool, or the Splash bottle holder.
Some like the Misdirection Deck are not even available to purchase yet.
I don't speak
French, but this version seems to be of much higher quality in terms of the video production and it
also seems a lot less rushed. I think it also has additional effects not shown in the Blackpool
lecture.
Overall very, very, very disappointing and not really worth the $35. With the poor
quality of video production and the DVD having no indexing you will find it difficult to learn
anything from this. If you don't have them, spend your money on the Real Secrets DVD's instead.
They are incredible. If you speak French, then maybe you will be able to get something from this
DVD.
3 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
very disappointing dont buy it!!! It says 3 hours but its only 1,5 hours bad filmed and poor
explanation. besides its already material that you find on previous dvd of him.
2 of 3 magicians found this helpful.