For many people, being a wizard is something that only happens in dreams. For 30-year-old Kevin Parry, he’s made it happen in real life. Kind of.
The stop-motion animator from Canada has built up quite an Instagram following with his mind-bending trickery videos – like this one, where he seemingly lights candles and makes other things move from a distance.
So how does he do it?
Parry let us in on some of the tricks of the faux-magic trade: “So the footage is basically made out of several takes stitched together in editing software (very non-magical).
“I would first film myself acting, and then film the candles and objects separately. The fire is created with some old practical stage techniques, and not in a computer.
“Any time an object needed to move ‘on its own’, I would just hit it with a stick and then erase myself out of the footage.”
Parry adopted his wizarding online persona a few years ago after being inspired by other trick shot videos of people making long-distance throws of basketball or frisbee, and wondering what that kind of thing would look like with a wizard doing it.
Perhaps unusually for a magic-style trick, Parry’s main focus was on actually making sure the viewer can follow what’s going on: “The most difficult part is staging and performing the shot to read clearly.
“I didn’t want to add any ‘sparkle’ effect as the spell moves through the air – the challenge was to get the viewer to be able to clearly follow the invisible spell bouncing around.
“I’m an animator and big fan of silent comedies, so I really value clarity in visual storytelling.”
And if you were wondering what Hogwarts house a wizard like Parry would be in (of course you were), it’s Hufflepuff.
In his own words, “I’ve always thought of it as the nicest, yet under-the-radar, house. Gryffindor is a bit too heroic for me.”
You can check out Parry’s Instagram here.
