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Championship Shows - Defining Moments vs. Real Substance


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What really defines a championship show? They all have what we consider defining moments that we talk about 20 years later, but oftentimes it is all the other substantive "stuff" consistently in the show that puts them over the top. For example I was listening to Cadets play Appalachian Spring this morning and though every talks about the disappearing/reappearing company front during the Simple Gifts hit but to me the section that puts the entire show over the top was the fast section starting at about the 6:30 part. The next two minutes are just heaven to listen to! Plus that is where all the real "box 5" content is being achieved at a ridiculous level musically...there's still some visual fuzz on direction changes on the high camera shots but musically there was nothing else like that on the field!

In the end it's a combination of the defining moments and the real substance but how to balance that combination? Sure Phantom killed a lot of people in '08 but there was an awful lot of serious content in between. Blue Devils this year just kept rolling out moment after moment along with being strong across every caption. Star '91 was the cross-to-cross at the end, but the hornline was the moment for the entire show.

Discuss....

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I remember the critic Gene Siskel liked to quote the filmmaker Howard Hawks (director of Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep, and Red River, among many others) about what made for a good movie: "Three great scenes, no bad ones". A dictum which applies equally well to drum corps?

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In the end it's a combination of the defining moments and the real substance but how to balance that combination? Sure Phantom killed a lot of people in '08 but there was an awful lot of serious content in between. Blue Devils this year just kept rolling out moment after moment along with being strong across every caption. Star '91 was the cross-to-cross at the end, but the hornline was the moment for the entire show.

Discuss....

I'm not sure what you mean as far as "how to balance the combination of defining moments + real substance:" do you mean in conversation, when consuming a show as a fan, when evaluating/critiquing a show, etc?

For me, the cross-to-cross visual move in Star 91 is the equivalent to a sound bite or movie trailer shot or cool scene from a great film. For example, a lot is said about the shower scene in PSYCHO, and while that scene is a tour de force from a technical standpoint it just just one scene in a legendarily great film with strong acting, beautiful shot composition and legendary score. When I think of great shows (and Championship shows in particular), there are seemingly always "signature" moments but also solid playing and/or marching from top-to-bottom. Some Champion shows might have a weak spot, or maybe even had captions that weren't truly the greatest of that season (like BD's percussion this year was great, just not quite as great as SCV). But generally each Champion has a few signature moments, be it music or visual, while being solidly great throughout.

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If we're discussing "championship shows", for me its that drill/musical/guard moment that the entire audience is waiting for that causes an eruption of the senses. That obviously combined with proficiency in all captions. Cavies during their dominance had this, Cadets 2011 had this, Crown 2013 had this, Star 91 had this. Its that wait, here it comes moment that really pops a great corps into the top spot.

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What defines a championship show?

It depends on the year. It depends on the shows each year, and how the design stacks up with the other shows. The show must pass the eye test after seeing the other shows to see which one is most complete & being performed the best. Sometimes, there's one championship calibre show in a year (2009, 1991). Other times, there are more. 1993 comes to mind for me. You had Star with their Barber and Bartok show versus The Cadets' 2nd Holsinger show. Both were worthy designs.

So, for me it's the design. The performance level is going to have to be high too, but if the design isn't there, I don't care about the performance.

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Pretty easy concept here: the show that scores the highest on Finals night: the show where all the caption scores add up to be the highest score closest to 100

You had to be "that guy", huh?

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