Derren Brown: The Events

There's a mini DV camera in my room somewhere, my vision mixer is at work (I can't pick it up till tomorrow), and my house is in an old warehouse (complete with old brick walls). Does this mean I can do it if we have worked out the whole trick?

The funny thing is that post has made you look like just that.

Thanks to the Broken TV blog, here's More4 and BBC1 in split screen as they went out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmxua_V1AcM

I'd have thought that there'd be a slight delay on Derren's TV screen due to it coming off air and then being re-broadcast, but it's absolutely spot on

Maybe that machine on the left emits an invisible laser beam which burns the numbers onto the balls.

Of course not! Here is how you can predict The National Lottery Lotto numbers.

Step one - Convince viewer that they are watching through a handheld camera.
Use handheld camera then change to another pre-recorded shot to give time to change to a steady-cam with tri-pod attached with added shake effect. Done.

Step two - Convince viewer that the balls are not changed during the draw.
Using pan and scan select a good lock off point then use split screen to produce a still picture on the left so that the production crew can change the balls as the draw goes on. To buy extra time also write down the numbers on a piece of hard board. WARNING: Be careful that the balls are in the same position they were in before the fade into split screen! Still convince the viewer is watching through a handheld camera by adding a rather odd shake effect.

Step three - Make sure it is all clear.
Always wait for the all clear before moving to the left side of the screen after the draw. Do not make it obvious you are waiting for a cue. Still using a bad shake effect, pan, scan and zoom to change shots to still make sure it looks like a handheld camera to the viewer.

Follow these three simple steps and you can predict The National Lottery Lotto numbers to!

Came across this FAQ on the lottery website...
"Lotto ticket sales close at 7.30pm Wednesdays, and from 7.30pm to 9pm Saturdays, for the draw itself."
...makes me think the Wednesday draw is recorded 'as live' earlier in the evening.
http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/help/aboutlotto.ftl#anchor5

I think the camera trickery theory isn't all what it's cracked up to be. I went to his live shows, and he got a member of the audience to say 5 or 6 numbers, and then reveled them on his badge, same concept, but with the lottery? Ahh I dunno, lets wait till Friday!

The performance of Jodie Prenger on the midweek draws would seem to disprove that theory.

Given the brick wall, I reckon this was filmed at Riverside Studios, fact fans, which has a brick wall in Studio 1.

I thought that too.

The stage thing can often be the result of incredibly powerful suggestion - you can basically force people to say the numbers you want them to. You can't do that with the lottery...

Yep - I had a feeling it was Riverside as well.

It looked as if the "TV" in Derren's studio was being fed BBC One analogue (it didn't quite look the right shape) - which is not delayed by digital encoding and decoding and will thus be "ahead" of all digital outlets.

If the split screen is between BBC One Digital and More 4 - then the route taken by the BBC one image to get to your home via both routes is likely to have had similar delays. (The delay introduced by routing BBC One analogue via a display Riverside and back to C4/Red Bee is likely to be only the order of around five or so frames I'd expect - as uncompressed or low latency compressed fibre links will be used to get the studio to the playout area)

I watched BBC One London Freeview split screen with C4 London DSat and they were pretty much in-sync.