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David Copperfield
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David Copperfield and Great Wall, did he use any tricks to walk through it?
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Okay, here goes. The first thing to remember, is that it was remarkably easy for David to get permission from the Chinese government to go forward with the illusion. It was a great P.R. move for the Communist Chinese regime of the 80�s. It was certainly much easier that it was for him to get permission from the American government for that Liberty Island Stunt. That in mind, it�s easy to assume that with intense privacy and national pride surrounding the project, it would have been relatively easy for Team Copperfield to gain clearence to bore a small tunnel UNDER the wall at the site of the illusion. The entrance and exit for the tunnel would have been placed well beyond camera range, so he would be able to use it with relative ease.
With the logistical problem out of the way, now came the hard part of convincing people he �walked through� the wall. (Apologizies to those without a tape of the illusion for reference) David had two rolling platforms designed, each complete with a large �cage� and stairs affixed, and these were each lined with white sheets and a lamp to cast David�s shadow during the �walking� part of the illusion. Pay careful attention to the base of each platform. It�s interesting to note that they are not flat, but are constructed from seperate �plates� laid one atop the other, and painted black. David would refer to this as a �bevel base�, an industry term for a platform that conveys the optical illusion of being thinner than it actually is. �Stacking� each platform has the effect of distracting the eye away from the height of the base, and towards the shape and �futuristic� design of each platform. In fact, each platform base was probably large enough for a 6-foot-tall performer from Meteuchen, New Jersey.
But he couldn�t slip himself into the floor without some form of misdirection. Here�s where the shadow box comes into play. The lamp in the cage wall was not aimed at the Great wall, but at the other side of the cage. The �cone of lighting� would have missed the far inside corners of the box. While inside the box, David stretches his arm and points his hand at the wall before �passing into� it. He was probably just walking out of the light, into the tiny corner between the lamp and the wall. As the t.v. music reaches a crescendo, and the stagehands begin untying the string-holds on sheets, David has enough time to lift the black canvas floor of the platform and slip himself into the base, which is promptly rolled off-camera.
The camera travels over the wall in a continuous shot, we see hundreds of excited/frightened Chinese people race from one side of the wall to the other, and then the other platform is rolled into place (why wasn�t it already positioned for David�s return?). Then two large Aryan stage hands in white jumpsuits race up to the wall and hold a towel to the site of �departure�, to �catch� David in his travel. Miraculously two hands and a face emerge through the cloth. Pay close attention to the stagehand on the right. Where did his right arm go? And isn�t he leaning awfullllllly close between the wall and the towel? And hey, the same goes for the other guy too! In all likelihood, those aren�t David�s arms, and we�re staring at a Mask on a rod sewn into a towel that is immediately YANKED down after David�s heartbeat �flatlines�. Oh yeah, the radar. David�s progress during the illusion is monitored by two female stagehands holding miniature radar dishes pointed at the wall. No doubt David�s �heartbeat� kept many t.v. viewers distracted from where he may have actually gone during his travelling. A prerecorded �beep� and a taped EKG meter displayed in the corner of the t.v. screen don�t fall within the category of �camera tricks�, so David�s claims remain Kosher. The rest is just good-ol-fashioned pomp and fanfare. David�s heart resumes a healthy pulse, the stagehands pull the sheets down on the cage, David�s shadow �struggles� to pull itself from the wall, the t.v. music reaches one final crescendo, the sheets come up, and a very relieved David Copperfield jumps from the platform to the welcoming cheers of 200 Chinese spectators. That was David Copperfield in the 1980s. Shadow boxes, and music, and lighting, and fake radar.
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