Ok, you have to understand a few things about me. I love good break dancing and I love good card flourishing. I will refer to card flourishing as “cardistry” for the rest of this post. People that take flourishing seriously call it cardistry. That is the politically correct phrase.
I just saw the break dancing movie Step-up 3 and I almost hate to admit how much I liked it. By no means do I think it is a good movie in any way shape or form. I learned a lot about cardistry while watching this movie. Step-up 3 succeeded where almost all break dance movies or demonstrations fail even with dancers that have the same skill sets as the dancers from Step-up 3.
Let’s face it in either cardistry or break dancing no mater how skilled or original the person or group is, after a few minutes you are looking at your watch. Trust me, I LOVE both art forms but too much of a good thing is just that : TOO MUCH.
Think about eating cheesecake. The first 30 seconds you think, “Wow, this is amazing, rich and delicious. I’d like some more of this.” After another minute you think, “Man I could get used to this. Still delicious, a little sweet, but I like it.” During the third minute, all of a sudden the sugar is getting to be a little much. You think, “I don’t know how many more of this I can take. I am starting to feel sick.” On the fourth or fifth minute you wonder why you ordered it at all in the first place. Now it’s just gross. You just stare at the unfinished slice wondering why anyone would cheesecake at all. That pretty much sums up most cardistry and Break dancing.
(That metaphor about cheesecake was used by a critic to describe Shrek 4, but I think it fits here perfect.)
Back to my point. Step-up 3 did a great job of mixing the right amount of well-choreographed dance with the right amount of cheesy plot. The plot was cliché and typical “Hollywood” but they did not make a movie thinking that the story was anything more then a break from the dancing. Each Dance number was not too long and highlighted different elements of break dancing. Not too much of the same thing all the time. At the end I did not feel like I was force fed an entire cheesecake.
Cardistry can even be a harder sell then break dancing. First off, most cardistry people use flourishing as the personality of the piece or video they are making. There is no human element other then their hands and the cards. No real personality. Sometimes, you don’t even see the artists face at all. I am not saying that this cannot work but it is much harder then most think.
If you are an aspiring cardistry person that likes to film themselves and post it on youtube my biggest piece of advice would be to make many short clips instead of making 3 and 4 minute clips. No matter what your friends say, or how great you think every move is, very few guys out there can keep the viewer interested for more then 30 seconds to a minute. Just because the song that you have chosen is 4 minutes does not mean you have to use it all.
In almost every amateur video production people make the same mistake. They make it too long. I love film and have made many short films and video projects. Every time I am finished I go back and take out the fat. I have done projects before and thought they were finished then the first time I showed it to someone I could sense that they were losing interest. I would then go back and shorten the project until it felt right.
Now if I do a project that is 5 minutes long when I am finished I also make a 4 minute and 3 minute version and see if still works. Most of the time I end up using one of the shorter cuts as the finished product.
Almost all art forms that are based on visual skilled demonstrations have this problem. If you are serious about being noticed and want to showcase your skills work on giving your presentation some personality and remember that it is better to leave them wanting more then having them wanting to leave or turn off your clip.
Till next time.
