The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will explore cinema's roots in stage magic and sleight of hand and show how visual deception drove the development of movie special effects, on Wednesday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. "Like Magic" will examine how some of the techniques used in the earliest "trick films," such as forced perspective, cuts, dissolves and multiple exposures are still used by filmmakers in the digital age. Hosted by sleight-of-hand artist Ricky Jay, special effects supervisor Shane Mahan, and stage and screen illusion designer Michael Weber, the program features clips from such pioneering films as Georges Méliès's "The Magician" (1898) and contemporary favorites like "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012). It also includes live demonstrations and conversations with some of the films' creative teams.
"I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians." - Francis Ford Coppola JFK"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." Not only are these principles just as important today, much of the early film technology that employed them remains just as effective as ever. Using scenes from films including Georges Méliès'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 Sanders's "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012), the program will show how some of the techniques used in the earliest "trick films," such as 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 these scenes were created.Videos