Forget music videos: This S'porean marks SG50 with magic

Some Singaporeans are marking the country's 50th year of independence by making music videos.

The deluge made undergraduate Sng Ming Da, 24, decide he would do something different.

How? By paying tribute through magic.

The full-time Nanyang Technological University undergraduate has been performing magic for 10 years.

He said: "I wanted to show my love for Singapore by doing something I'm very passionate about."

The part-time magician said this project had been in the works for almost a year.

He first got the idea from a video that the Stockholm Tourism Board produced, where magician Charlie Kaper used close-up tricks to broadcast the Swedish city's achievements.

Our local magician said: "I was inspired by how he presented the facts and statistic in such an interesting way and that inspired me to do the same."

But it was no easy task.

To produce the six-minute long video, he spent about $200 on the props.

He wanted a unique deck of cards that featured some of Singapore's achievements like the Changi Airport and the Singapore Flyer.

Mr Sng said:

"I thought of what I wanted in the cards and my friend helped me with the design.

"I also just wanted a memento to keep — to remember that I did this maybe 50 years down the road at SG100."

He ended up spending about six months on the video.

First, he had to do his research and highlight relevant facts. 

"Then, I had to figure out how to use close-up magic to present these facts," he said.

"The choreography was the trickiest part because I had to make everything look very smooth."

He also practised the tricks every day for about two weeks to perfect them.

Guess what some of the harder tricks are? They're the ones involving bigger props like the miniature plane and the shot glass.

Here's the result.

It only took about three takes before he was satisfied with the final product.

All together now: Happy 50th Birthday, Singapore!