High-Speed Cardistry Shot in Slow-Mo. No CGI, Strings, or Magnets | RISE | Cardistry by Virtuoso

A note from The Virts about "RISE":

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from shuffling cards over the past 14 years, it’s that you only get better at Cardistry as you repeatedly push yourself beyond your limits. The byproduct of that, of course, is dropping cards - again, and again, and again.

Today, after 14 years... we still drop our cards all the time. Sure, we now drop our cards less frequently; but no matter how much better we’ve gotten, bending to the floor and repeatedly picking cards up covered in dust (and hair) never gets any less frustrating.

Over the years, we’ve come to establish a bit of a love-hate relationship with failure. We still don’t like it, yet we’ve also come to recognize that if we’re not dropping our cards enough, we’re also not going to get any better at Cardistry. And in that sense, we’ve come to find failure rather beautiful.

RISE was birthed from a vision of ours to capture this intriguing beauty of failure.

Envisioning a juxtaposition between clean forms and abstract swirls, we pictured cards being manipulated with impeccable technique - abruptly interrupted and exploding out of the very hands that shuffled them.

We imagined them rising from the ground; the cards fluttering through the air in slow motion, dancing like the leaves in the Fall... and returning to our hands - perhaps forming imperfectly at first, then progressing with each step taken, and finally, displayed in all their glory.

Yet our stubbornness as Cardists doubling as filmmakers resulted in a few interesting restrictions that we imposed upon ourselves:

If this “Fall” vision were to be captured, it would have to be done with no CGI. Everything had to be filmed in-camera and performed by ourselves with with a real deck of cards.

Next, there would be no use of green screen, compositing, or other camera trickery. The furthest we agreed upon was the reversal of several scenes - and only if they genuinely added to the story we wanted to tell.

And finally, the cards used could not be gimmicked in anyway - no strings, magnets or anything of the sort. If what we envisioned could not be accomplished by our technique, then the idea was scrapped.

Thankfully, after months of planning, testing, and of course...failing, we finally had the opportunity to transform our vision into a reality.

Through the use of a Phantom high-speed camera mounted on a Bolt Cinebot (thank you Shooting Gallery Asia), and the help of a leaf blower or two... Rise was born.

We truly hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it for you.

- The Virts

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RISE feat. the FW17 Virtuoso deck
Credits:

Cardistry Credits:
Cardistry performed by Virtuoso (The Virts):
Huron Low (Black Zip Jacket, Dark Green Sweater)
Daren Yeow (Black Buttoned Jacket, Grey Polo Tee)
Kevin Ho (Black Trench Coat, Blue Denim Shirt)

Cardistry and Card flourish move list (in order shown):

Indice Fans (classic)
Anaconda by Bone Ho
Stairmaster by Kevin Ho (credit to Birger Karlsson and Kenneth Aidan Foo)
Ninja Spring Grab + Replacement by Virtuoso
Flicker by Huron Low + Rev 2 Twirl by Daren Yeow
Flicker Shot Behind the Back by Huron Low
V Cascade by Daren Yeow
Aerial Combo Sequence by Huron Low (Kick Cut Flip, V Flip, by Huron Low, Railslide Flip, Aerial Cut by Dan and Dave Buck)
Buzzsaw by Brendan Conner
Anaconda by Bone Ho
Mind Eraser by Kevin Ho (credit to Chris Kenner and Huron Low)
Satellite by Kevin Ho
Tornado Deck Split by Kevin Ho (credit to Bone Ho)
Piano Cuts by Andrew Avila
Yo! variation by Daren Yeow (credit to Lee Asher)
Waterwheel by Huron Low, Daren Yeow, and Elijah Cai
Indice Fans (classic)

Video credits:
Video concept by: Huron Low, Daren Yeow, Kevin Ho, Jeremy Tan, Joshua Tan of Virtuoso
Director: Huron Low of Virtuoso
Director of Photography: Jeremy Tan of Virtuoso
Video Editor: Daren Yeow of Virtuoso
Lighting by: Jeremy Tan of Virtuoso
Color Grading by: Jeremy Tan of Virtuoso
Crew: The Shooting Gallery Asia
Wardrobe Styling by: Shu Juang

Music Credits:
Music: "Rise" by Virtuoso
Music composed and produced by: Roland Lim of Virtuoso
Audio Post and Sound Design by: Roland Lim of Virtuoso
Audio samples from Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins"

Special Thanks to:
The Shooting Gallery Asia: Seb Tan and his amazing team (shout out to Ahmad Rafa'ie!) for making this #Cardistry shoot possible.

RISE feat. the FW17 Virtuoso deck by #thevirts

#cardistry
#thevirts
#cards
#decks
#virtuoso

[thevirts]

Everything in this video was done with a real deck of cards. There are no strings, magnets, or CG. :)
Read about the video, deck, music & moves in the description!

[ChrisRamsay]

Beautifully put together! Love seeing you guys push cardistry to new levels in cinematography!

[SupremeChief]

When it’s your turn to shuffle the deck in the game of UNO

[DecemberBoys]

Brilliant cardistry and cinematography

[kumakumafilms]

Damn, everything about this video was amazing! I've always wanted to shoot with a bolt, all those shots were unreal! Great job dudes...I'll just leave my jaw on the floor for now.

[anoldflame]

Its obvious that the man with the most skill is..





The Camera Man.

[AboutThings_byTarif]

2:46 I've mastered this one in 3
seconds this morning #easy

[ryaneng]

The most impressive part of this video is how he slows down time and reverses it. I’ve never seen that before in cardistry.

[ATOMVISUAL]

jesus ... best cardistry video ever ! the use of the robot for the camera move is very well done ! love it !

[VZAAGE]

The production in this video is second to none. Very well done.

[gokhanayvazoglu]

0:32 Indice Fans (classic)
0:36 Anaconda by Bone Ho
0:48 Stairmaster by Kevin Ho (credit to Birger Karlsson and Kenneth Aidan Foo)
0:55 Ninja Spring Grab + Replacement by Virtuoso
1:00 Flicker by Huron Low + Rev 2 Twirl by Daren Yeow
1:04 Flicker Shot Behind the Back by Huron Low
1:11 V Cascade by Daren Yeow
1:22 Aerial Combo Sequence by Huron Low (Kick Cut Flip, V Flip, by Huron Low, Railslide Flip, Aerial Cut by Dan and Dave Buck)
1:39 Buzzsaw by Brendan Conner
1:43 Anaconda by Bone Ho
2:14 Five Faces of Sybil by Chris Kenner
2:17 Satellite by Kevin Ho
2:20 Tornado Deck Split by Kevin Ho (credit to Bone Ho)
2:25 Piano Cuts by Andrew Avila
2:31 Yo! variation by Daren Yeow (credit to Lee Asher)
2:33 Waterwheel by Huron Low, Daren Yeow, and Elijah Cai
2:44 Indice Fans (classic)

[kummer]

Let me reiterate. The video editing and music tempo is a work of pure dexterity like the cardistry shown in this video. They are equally important.

Outstanding video as usual.

[TomCHunter]

What a video ! What a deck ! What an edit ! Just WOW

[iffyk]

This is one of the most beautiful videos I have ever seen

[BaptisteBlomme]

i don't know what to say guys, honestly, I wanna scream at everybody saying "LOOK AT THIS IT'S SO FUCKING COOL" but instead I'll go with a simple Thank You.
Every year, you release a new movie, I won't call this a video, it's just too small for what it is, to me this is like a hollywood blockbuster, the way it's filmed, written, edited, ... Every year you release a new film and it gives me so much motivation, hope, so much things I can't express.
And thank you, without you, cardistry wouldn't be the same, and without you, I won't be the person I am today, so thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

[D.I.G.I.T.A.L.]

Who did this edit?? My god did yall kill it.... hands down my favorite cardestry video EVER

[jasknihuang]

What is The Virts? Always pushing the boundaries. You just made it again. And this is the reason why I love you guys soooo much! This video is just gorgeous, these details and thoughts are just incredible. Extremely perfect!

[jdjsjcjdn]

“Alright I think I’ve shuffled the deck good now”

[teyzgaming]

The virts never failed to impress me since the day I started shuffling cards. Thank you so much guys for the inspiration. Keep on inspiring other young cardists like me. More power to you guys!

[bhartisinghal]

Love the beauty of the cards in your hands guys…just speechless after seeing this 👏🏻👏🏻