Magic Tricks

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.