“Hey there everyone,” Drake said as the video began, “I hope things are going well for you. We’re still busy at work getting things ready for the season,” Drake gestured around the busy production studio he was standing in. Several PAs were busy scrambling with various props or camera equipment in their hands. In the background, a stage was being constructed, the center piece of which had the bottom half of a massive globe finished, a painter going over it with some blue spray paint.
“We’ve got a couple more things heading your way before the season proper starts, like the Martin AMA and revealing the contestants that were selected for this year’s season, but I thought it would be a fun idea to go over some of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ magic that we’ve got planned for this season, now that we’ve got some major funding,” Drake practically looked like a kid in a candy store at the mention of the season’s funding, but managed to compose himself slightly as he walked off towards the right side of the screen.
As the screen panned to the right, a table came into view. On the table were a handful of blue spheres and strange, joystick like contraptions that had a large screen attached. Standing behind the table was a portly, tanned man with a small, curly-hair afro wearing jeans and a gray polo shirt.
“So, one of the most common questions we’ve received in the past is how exactly we’re able to get the shots we show, especially considering the bulky nature of a Reality TV Show production. Well, it’s all thanks to our amazing production staff, like Benny,” Drake put a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“Thanks, Drake.” The man said slightly stilted. He seemed slightly uncomfortable being on camera.
“Benny here is our Key Gummage on set, and has been gracious enough to show off our camera set up. So go ahead,” Drake bowed out of frame, the focus of the camera moving to Benny.
“T-Thanks Drake,” Benny did his best to smile, and took a deep breath before continuing. “So, for those of you who don’t know what a gummage is, it it it’s sort of like gaffers and grips. It basically means we’re responsible for helping with lighting and filming, except that we work form the more magical side of the spectrum.”
Benny reached down, picking up one of the blue spheres and one of the joysticks. “So, these things are basically cameras. But sort of like a super camera.” He pressed an unseen button on the camera, and the orb lit up and made a cute little start up sound (For you music nerds out there, it was ascending C-E♭-F). He let go of the orb, and it began hovering in place, a shutter opening up on the front giving it the impression of a floating eyeball.
“Most people in the business call them Orbs based on how they look but this is just an industry standard model E33426 Quiriche Magic Camera.” Benny, now held the joystick with both hands, and with some button presses, the orb vanished, In the corner of the screen, a picture-in-picture was added, showing off the view of what the orb was seeing.
The view of the picture-in-picture was still of the chaotic film set, but with significantly more people sitting in chairs or snacking at a table with food on it. The strange thing (although not all that strange given the tech that was being shown off) was that there was no camera in the view from the Orb.
“So,” Benny continued, his excitement for talking about tech clearly overcoming his dislike for being on camera, “The Orb has a number of features to it. Chief among them is that each one is fitted with invisibility enchantments and flight capabilities so that Actors can perform without having to worry about the glaring eye of the camera.”
Benny began moving the joystick, and the image in the corner of the screen began to move around. The movements were incredibly smooth, as though the orb was on a set of rails as the camera moved up, down, left, and right. “It also has a screen to show the operator exactly what the camera can see, and a variety of built-in lenses and filters to use.
The image began to cycle through some of them, hitting the classics like night-vision, heat-vision, x-ray vision, black-and-white, but also some of the more interesting ones like magic-vision, which looked like heat vision but gave off a stronger purple signal on items and people that had stronger magical auras (which conveniently also picked up the camera that was filming Benny).
“It also has a number of features that are really helpful for gummages. For instance, it has a built in Beacon that makes it really easy to generate dynamic light sources while filming in non-standard situations. It’s also really helpful when we have to focus on making the orbs incorporeal.”
Benny awkwardly moved his hand around until it came into the field of view in the picture-in-picture. He then began moving his hand closer, until suddenly his hand completely passed through the view (the image black-screening for a brief moment before the lens completely passed through).
“But yeah. There’s a lot more that I could talk about when it comes to these things, but I think that should give you all a good taste of how we get the shots for the show,” Benny seemed relieved that his section. The orb’s invisibility was turned off, and Benny plucked the camera out of the air, turning it off with a satisfying off jingle (F-E♭-C).
The camera that was filming Benny turned around, showing off Drake with a cup of coffee in his hand. “Thanks so much for the presentation Benny.
“Now, last year our contestants raised the valid concern that if they were to go out and explore, they likely would be mobbed by fans of the show and unable to do anything. Since travel and exploration is a big theme for this season, we knew that we were going to have to find a way to fix that,” with a sly grin, Drake snapped his fingers, and suddenly the video jump-cut to a completely different scene.
Drake stood in the center of the busy sidewalk. Despite his pedigree, the mob moved on, almost seeming to avoid him, leaving him a little pocket of space to continue his demonstration.
“This,” Drake held up a small golden coin that the camera zoomed in on. It had a decorative looking design displaying the ANGA logo on one side, and the World Magic Organization on the other. “Is a very special coin. You see, since ANGA is partnering with the World Magic Organization this year, we were able to commission these with a very complicated series of enchantments crafted by some of the most talented minds in the WMO.”
Drake absentmindedly started flipping the coin, explaining to the camera, “You see, when the coin detects that the person closest in proximity is a part of ANGA, it begins emitting a very weak persuasive signal that causes non-ANGA people to ignore and avoid the holder.”
“You may actually already know of these sort of enchantments if you’ve ever watched the prank program, ‘Blissfully Unaware.’”
The video feed cut to some B-Roll footage from Blissfully Unaware. In the first shot, the host demonstrated on a PA a small patch that when applied, was quickly absorbed into the skin and caused the PA’s arm to fall off. This was followed by a second shot, as the host would do this on unsuspecting people. After their arms had fallen off, he would point it out to them, and they would pick it up confused. In some cases, they would start waving them in the air, asking if anyone had accidentally lost an arm, not realizing that it was their own arm.
“Or maybe on ‘WWYD?’”
The video once again cut to some B-Roll footage of the show. In this one, a famous actress and child star were playing a Mother-Daughter team. The Mother was acting up in a restaurant, questioning her child’s poor grades, to which she loudly rebuked her Mom. The Mother then reached over, removing her child’s head and vanishing her body, placing her head on the table and telling her that she could have her body back when they get home and only after she had finished studying.
The program then showed some of the reactions from the regular people around them, and typically after someone spoke up to the mom or there was some sort of altercation, the host would come out, disabling the enchantment and explaining that they were on ‘WWYD?’.
“Well, unlike both of those shows, the enchantment in these coins has been specifically crafted to adhere to the various strict laws regarding mental magic in the areas we’re filming in,” Drake continued flipping the coin, until suddenly catching it. He then proceeded to chuck it as far as he could, the camera following it briefly as it soared into the crowd of passersby before turning back to Drake.
Drake gave a massive grin, as he revealed his empty hand, briefly covering with his other before revealing the coin had miraculously returned, “It’s also got a proximity enchantment so that the user won’t be able to lose it,” Drake continued to flip the coin absentmindedly, “And of course, the coin is equipped with multiple kill switches set to activate after ANGA is done production. As nice as it would be to give something this powerful as a gift, it’s a little too powerful to just be free for anyone of our staff to use.”
Drake laughed, as he stopped flipping the coin, putting it in his pocket, “Each coin is also designed so that if the user wants to be noticed by others,” Drake gave a grin as he winked.
Suddenly, the people around Drake suddenly became acutely aware of his presence. One woman who had a direct view of him shouted out, “Oh My God! Is that Drake Bordignon?!”
Just as the crowd began to mob him, the camera cut again, and Drake now found himself in a familiar looking Alleyway. “Well, it’s time for the final piece of behind-the-scenes production I’ve got for you today. I’m certain that there are still tons of questions you might have about our production process, but those will have to be saved for another ‘Behind-the-scenes’ featurette. Maybe if ANGA ever gets a DVD release,” Drake chuckled.
“Anyways, I mentioned on my appearance on ‘Waking Up Late’ that I had picked up practicing a bit of magic. Well, I’m afraid to admit, but I didn’t pick up the hobby completely for myself.
You see when it came to light that we were going to filming at the amazing Weiss Hotel, a lot of you came out to come see if you could catch a glimpse of the contestants- and that’s really cool,” Drake held up his hands defensively, “To have such a fanbase for our show is awesome. However, because we’re trying to maintain the privacy of our contestants when their off-camera, we had to come up with some solutions this season on how we can best protect them while we travel the globe. While the coins might act as a good deterrent, we know that there are probably still some super fans who may be able to track down the hotels we’d plan on using and trying to camp them out.
So, we were trying to figure out where best to have our contestants stay that would, not necessarily completely stop the fans, but at least minimize the amount of fans that may be able to find us, and hopefully I’ll be able to show it all to you.”
Drake looked nervous as he approached the brick wall of the alley way. He began to run his hand against the brick, clearly trying to search for something. He started to look disheartened as his search continue, until all of a sudden his hand hit against something, his face brightening up as his hand sunk into the wall.
The brick wall parted like a doorway, and soon enough, Drake found himself standing on an impressive looking boardwalk attached to a beautiful white-sand beach. Drake looked like he was on top of the world, muttering under his breath, “Wow. David wasn’t kidding about how powerful this place makes you feel.”
He turned and addressed the camera once more, his smile still plastered across his face, “For this Season of ANGA, the contestants and crew will be staying in some of the Magic World’s most famous Wellsprings!”
The video cut to some overhead shops of the Hollywood Wellspring, as Drake explained, “For those of you not aware of what a Wellspring is, they’re basically sort of like a magic hotspot. To quote someone who has a much better grasp of what they are than me, they’re ‘little pocket dimensions of magic, so densely packed, that even a pureblooded non-human would be able to produce some magical effects’. And have the unique advantage that they are typically selective about who is actually able to enter them.”
Drake looked at his watch, “And I’m afraid that that’s all the time I’ve got. I hope that you found this video informative, and are looking forwards to Season 3! Now if you’ll excuse me,” Drake looked around, smiling back at the camera, “I’ve got a Wellspring to check out.” Drake turned around, walking down the board walk as the credits of the short video rolled.