Chapter 60: Visual Magic

-----

Could you drop some reviews? It helps to get this fic a rating.

------

"The key distinction between movies and real-life scenes lies in their discontinuity," Sheldon confidently began explaining popular science to Emily and Leonard.

"Just like discrete particles can combine to form a complete object, a movie is a sequence of similar frames, one after the other. Due to the persistence of human vision, when we witness 24 frames rapidly playing within a single second, our eyes seamlessly connect them to create a continuous image, which is what we see as a movie"

"So, that's why movies are often called '24-frame art' " Emily sighed.

"But how does this relate to the female ghost?" Emily asked.

Sheldon appeared quite certain and assumed the role of an instructor for Emily and Leonard.

"Think about it. In one second, we have 24 frames of pictures, and our eyes string them together to create a continuous image. But what if the ghost appears in just 8 frames, and not in the other 16 frames?"

As Leonard and Emily contemplated this, Sheldon provided the answer.

"The image of the female ghost gets obscured by the other frames, and eventually, we can't see it."

"But, in the end, we still perceive the image of the female ghost, even if it's subconscious," Leonard chimed in.

"That's why, the first time we watched it, something felt off," he realized.

"Those moments were the instances when the female ghost appeared," Emily suddenly grasped but soon had more questions.

"But, even so, it only explains why it felt off the first time. What about the second viewing?"

Sheldon was momentarily stumped.

********************

On the way home, Christian also elucidated the final technical mystery to Charlize.

"The first time I watched it, people couldn't see Alexis's picture. Although it's a bit unusual, it's not fundamentally a difficult technique. Many TV stations sometimes insert a few frames of landscape paintings when airing a sports game. These frames, limited in number, are invisible to everyone but help calm the restless fans."

"Conversely, the trickiest part is for the second-time viewers to spot Alexis' scenes."

At this point, Christian shrugged.

"From what I know, with conventional technology, it's impossible for people to see entirely different images while watching the projection of the same film"

"Unless they use two different film sets" Charlize offered her conjecture, having been curious about this for a while.

"In that scenario, both first-time and second-time viewers would see it"

Christian smiled and playfully wagged his finger.

"In this case, a touch of magic is at play."

"Magic?" Charlize was now deeply intrigued.

"More precisely, it's hypnotism, but your run-of-the-mill hypnotist can't use film to hypnotize people."

Christian shrugged.

"So, we can call it a spell."

"Are you saying you hypnotize the audience through the movie screen?" Charlize's curiosity was fully piqued.

"Of course."

Christian had no intention of concealing anything.

"Although I know spells, I'm no expert in hypnotism. But I have the knack for using hypnosis to make people believe that sound and video memories are more vivid and real."

Only with this kind of hypnosis can I leave a lasting impression when I recite those made-up spells to deceive people, making them believe these spells possess genuine magic.

What's even more remarkable is that if they believe it, the spell genuinely acquires magical powers, amplifying the effectiveness of my spells."

Christian lamented the enigmatic and idealistic nature of his magic system but refrained from explaining it to Charlize.

"In 'Wrong Turn', I simply hypnotize the audience, ingraining the image of the female ghost specifically, the scenes where Alexis appears—deep within their brains. Even during their initial viewing, their eyes might not consciously perceive these frames at all."

"What's the purpose of this?" Charlize inquired, her confusion deepening.

"It certainly has a purpose. Imagine having a vivid memory of a particular shot from a movie. This means that when you watch it again, you'll anticipate that specific scene before it appears."

Charlize pondered this for a moment with her head tilted. "It does seem to make sense!"

"Under my hypnosis, those who've already seen the film once may not consciously notice Alexis's scenes, but their brains, their subconscious minds, remember these images deeply. When they watch it a second time, the subconscious memories surface, intertwining with the on-screen images, eventually forming a visible picture of Alexis."

"Intertwining?" Charlize appeared perplexed.

"You can think of it as taking the original 12-page comic and adding a duplicate copy, then interweaving them page by page, effectively doubling the number of pages," Christian illustrated with a simple analogy.

"In the original 24 frames displayed per second, Alexis only appears within frames 8 to 12. Since these frames are too few, they're overshadowed by other images, making them imperceptible to the naked eye."

"But when viewers who've already seen it once watch it again, the images from their subconscious memory combine with the new viewing, creating a sequence of 16 to 24 frames per second in which Alexis appears. Now, the picture becomes visible, gradually within the human eye's perceptible range."

"In essence, it's an illusion-like image formed by merging the image in people's memory with the one in front of them," Charlize attempted to summarize, adding, "This seems like a form of cognitive supplementation, doesn't it?"

Christian readily accepted Charlize's characterization. "It's fair to call it cognitive supplementation."

"In reality, this phenomenon is quite common. Sometimes, we preconceive what something looks like, and after we visually inspect it, we often feel that it closely resembles our initial notion. This is the result of the combined effect of our vision and subconscious memory—much like what I do."

Charlize suddenly had an epiphany. "I see. It's like a magician's technique"