Out of the Box

This documentary film showcases the fascinating world of “cardistry”. The focus is on this niche art form of card manipulation and skilled card shuffling.

It highlights cardistry’s beginning, development, and vibrant community. Its boundaries, origins, and similarities to card magic, are explored as well.
Some shots were planned beforehand. However, most were captured spontaneously to capture events’ candidness.
Presenting different interviewees’ views was key to achieving and showcasing a variety of thoughts on cardistry.

Section 01/05

/Concept

The movie breaks down the significant impact of two individuals on the world of cardistry. Dan and Dave Buck, who are widely considered to be pioneers of this unique art form. They developed a passion for cards at a young age and continued to hone their skills over the years. In the early 2000s, they popularized the term “cardistry,” which has since become a recognized and celebrated art form. Integrating cardistry in commercials and movies such as Now You See Me, and organizing global events like Cardistry Con their insights and experiences will be critical to telling the story of cardistry and its evolution. Their story will be told by their best friend Brad Fulton. He’s an internationally recognized playing cards designer, who started emerging in the world of cards at a young age alongside Dan and Dave when they first started popularizing cardistry to a wider audience.

Dan Buck (left) and Dave Buck (right)

Brad Fulton

In the early 2000s, more and more people picked up cardistry as a hobby. Nowadays there are people from all around the globe performing cardistry. Although its community is still minute compared to other skilledbased hobbies such as skateboarding, kendama, or yo-yo-ing, a diverse set of cardistry community members will elaborate further on this topic. Therefore the film is produced in English and includes interviews with people who have had and continue to have a major impact on the innovation and expansion of cardistry, as well as other members of the community who practice and develop cardistry as a hobby. The interviewees and locations represent a wide variety from around the world. The interviews take place both online and in-person to ensure a diverse and comprehensive perspective on the topic.

Entrance Cardistry Con 2023 in London

Jesse Eisenberg performing “Worm” by Dan & Dave

Section 02/05

/the goal

This film aims to arouse initial interest among people who know little or nothing about cardistry as well as fill the knowledge gaps of people who are already doing cardistry but are interested in learning more. It is intended to create a basis for future, more in-depth films aimed at an audience that would like to engage more intensively with the topic. After watching the movie viewers should feel educated and intrigued to pick up a deck of cards to try out cardistry for themselves.

Section 03/05

/the approach

//01

Diversity

Showing the international intertwining and collaboration of community members of cardistry was one of the biggest goals I wanted to achieve with the documentary. Featuring diverse interview perspectives from people from over 10+ different countries was key to achieving that, as well as visiting various events and locations. These events included the Cardistry Experience and the Misch Mania, both in Germany. Besides that, the documentary was shot in London, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Austin.

//02

Nimble & flexible setup

Due to the vast amount of scenery changes the equipment needed to set up shots was kept small and nimble to allow for maximum flexibility, faster set-up time, and smooth mobility when traveling. Also, the people working on this project had to be managably small. One of the biggest budget expenses way travelling to all different locations.

Section 04/05