Sybilmagic: Directing a show with magic in appears from my perspective to have some difficult elements to it. In a live situation I expect that many directors have a nightmare when trying to cut up the shots for some performances. Obviously in a recording situation you have the advantage of doing it all again. From your perspective how should directors prepare their camera crew and also how should the director interact with the performer? i.e. What questions should be asked?

Peter Kessler: I can't really answer this question, as it's more technical than producerial. Not being a director myself, I can't advise on the use of multi-camera recording.

As far as interacting with the performer goes, my advice to the director is: leave that part to me!

Nigel Shelton: It is incredibly rare to find a television producer who is keen to visit Magic Bunny in the role of “Special Guest” and even less common to find one with an avid interest in magic too.

Currently, Peter is planning a new special on “Extreme Magic” and I hope that you may want to probe a little more about these plans. Over the past few days I have been in correspondence with Peter about this project and one of the subjects that has arisen is that of “inspiration.” I know that many members have different ideas regarding the direction that they would like the media to take in promoting magic or in providing general entertainment and I can recall many suggestions that members have made in the past regarding this subject. I did explain to Peter that I hope that this project could become a two-way process and that, as well as the membership gaining a great deal of knowledge from reading these threads, perhaps they may inspire some thoughts for him for the future.

I would like members to suggest ideas that they may have regarding new media projects involving the performing arts or the use of entertainment and perhaps Peter may like to provide some feedback on the replies. So this question is directed at the membership (for feedback by Peter) - if you were a television producer brainstorming new ideas, what would you like to see for the future?

Mouser: I'd personally like to see some kind of slot given to the up and rising performing arts stars of tomorrow. I do recall UK shows such as “Opportunity Knocks” from my distant youth. Although the time for these is well past, I'd certainly cringe if this returned to my screen, I would like to see a modern high-tech version for text voting and Internet feedback. Does this sound a good idea?

Shaun Robinson: I'd like to see a magician dropped in a foreign country and have to make his way home with nothing but his act!

Huw Collingbourne: One thing for which TV would be the perfect medium is an analysis of the techniques of deception. By that, I don't mean exposing magic tricks that has been done to death already and probably now bores the public as much as it annoys magicians. But what about those optical, verbal and psychological tricks which are used by all kinds of dubious people (politicians, advertisers, magicians, TV producers) who are involved in the arts of manipulation?

To give you an idea of what I mean:

1) Optical illusions. These are used not only by magicians but also by architects (the classic Grecian columns that are designed to look straight and even from ground level though they are not) to the military (camouflage) and fashion designers (vertical stripes to make people look thin).

A good TV example of this was BBC 2's "Science Shack" where they tried to make a car disappear (with 50/50 success, it has to be said).

2) Verbal manipulation. Much used to mentalists to lead participants and deceive audiences. But actually a part of our everyday life. How many news reports manipulate our responses by using loaded terms such as "the Government is coming under increasing pressure" rather than just stating plain fact such as "The Leader of the Opposition has criticised the Government" or "This story is in the national interest" rather than "people find this story interesting". Also used by advertisers "95 per cent fat free" rather than "5 per cent fat" etc. etc. It would be fascinating to compare how a good mentalist can use the techniques of politicians and advertisers to good effect.

I brief a kind of Derren Brown's Mind Control meets Melvyn Bragg's Roots of English....

3) Psychology. To some extent this overlaps with Verbal manipulation. However, it can also take in other forms of pressure - such as the effects of location, colour and social pressure.

A classic examples of powerful psychological manipulation is provided by Lad's Army (currently repeated in the early hours of Sunday night/Monday morning on ITV) where a bunch of present day teens/early twenty year old are put into a recreation of the 1950s army. Even though it isn't really 'real', it's intriguing to see how the psychological pressure applied by the corporals is proving to be massively effective in changing this bunch of individuals into a team. Frightening too, in a way...

In short, how about using magicians and mentalists to illustrate the magic and mentalism (visual and psychological) to which we are all subjected in everyday life?

Peter Kessler: Shaun, I suspect you're being facetious, but it might just work!

Huw, fascinating thought. I will check out whether anything has been done on the science of deception already. It might be better to use one appropriate magician (DB?) as figurehead for the programme, rather than a team. But the variety of subjects that could be covered is wide, fascinating and revealing.

Sybilmagic: How about a faking it style magic where the audience has to spot the magician that has only just took up the art and the compared to the Professionals? Oh now too much reality TV. Another idea involves a similar format to 'The Club' (the one with Donna Air and Samantha Fox, Dean Gaffney and Richard Blackwood) Rather than the bar format the magicians work in a team behind the their own bars and compete against each other in various ways.

Mix the magic in with another program type such as skating, BMXing and the tricks are performed by one of the group with the BMXers skaters etc.
So the Bikers show us their tricks and the magician shows us their tricks. Just some ideas Not all Good but may spark other Ideas

Shaun Robinson:

Deadly serious mate, and I'd be your first contestant!

Peter Kessler: Sybilmagic, thank you for the suggestions. The difficulty I think you'd face with them is that commissioning editors would object to the apparent derivativeness from existing formats. Having said that, TV's not noted for all that much originality. But the guys in charge like to have easy reasons to say 'No'.

Shaun,with a bit more work to make it distinct from the C4 series 'Lost' it might be great fun. At the moment too similar to that other series (but see remarks above). Maybe something where contestants are set a challenge of a different sort that has to be solved with magic?