combia1

The plan for a newbie judge is don’t #### off BD otherwise you’ll be getting a call from the judge admin team the next day.

I’ve also noticed that DCI tends to assign a lot of newer and “not on the finals panel” judges to more of the early season shows, and oftentimes we don’t see the “big name” judges on panels until later in the season. My takeaway? Put the newbie judges out there to take the heat, and then once every corps has gotten some exposure and score and rankings are settling in, then it’s safe to have the “all star” judges start making the calls. Can’t risk any of those “big name” judges looking like outliers or being independent in their thinking early in the season.

In both of my experiences with two different corps, I think it was just called “talent night.” I honestly don’t remember if it was called “rookie talent night.” And in both instances, it wasn’t on buses. Always in the gym on a free evening and I recall all instructional staff and support staff/volunteers were invited to watch and have fun.

Totally voluntary. Solos, duets, and group skits allowed. Some vets took defending their crowns very seriously. If I recall, one kid told some jokes in the Richard Pryor/George Carlin vein and that’s as racy as it got.

I’m not sure what they are called, but there are different requirements for broadcasting or streaming a live event vs “after the fact” viewing like DVD, VHS, the Fan Network, etc. The “live” rights do allow for a single re-broadcast on a 24-hour delay. That is why you can always watch BOA, DCI, and WGI finals the next day. But only the next day.

Rookie talent night can be done safely. I marched in two different corps. Each had rules basically saying the skits had to be PG-13 or safer. All of the skits were clever and hilarious. Some were actually “real” talents. The ones that did best were always the funny ones riffing on certain staff members, the activity, etc. And in both cases, nobody was forced to do it, and vets could also participate. And the age-outs are the ones who voted on the winners. I won twice.

In the past, each corps was responsible for securing the Permission to Arrange and PERFORM the music. This does not give permission to record and distribute. DCI would secure those recording and distribution licenses. Now, if each corps wants to be able to distribute an AV recording of their show on physical or streaming media, they can secure those synch rights to do so.

An individual corps obtaining synch rights for their show is easier than DCI getting the synch rights for the entire Top 12 for a DVD or any other AV product. This all because of a “favored nations” clause. I’ll explain. For the sake of easy math, let’s say every Top 12 corps uses 5 compositions in their show. That’s a total of 60 synch rights that DCI has to obtain, vs the 5 that an individual corps would have to obtain. Now, let’s say one composer or rights holder wants $.50 per DVD or stream, and another wants $.45, and another wants $.47, and so on. Let’s say 59 of those 60 rights holders ask for between $.45 and $.60 but there is one rights holder (let’s say the Beatles) and they request $2.00 for that one song that was used. The Favored Nations clause stipulates that ALL rights holders get paid the same, and it’s whatever the highest amount is. So now all 60 of those rights holders will get $2.00 instead of the $.45 they had asked for. So you can see how expensive the licensing for DVDs can get for DCI. It becomes cost prohibitive and in a lot of cases in the past where audio has been blocked out, it wasn’t because DCI couldn’t get the synch license, it’s because the financial demands of a single rights holder would make it financially unworkable. This is also a nightmare because there is often a lot of back and forth negotiation. Imagine DCI working with 60 different rights holders and their lawyers? Pretty sure Dante would agree that’s one entire layer of hell! Now, since each corps only has to negotiate with the five rights holders for the songs they used, you can see it’s technically easier to do since you arent dealing with 60 songs. Negotiations and finances are just easier to work through.

Synchronization rights aren’t needed for audio-only recordings. They aren’t needed for live broadcasts. They are only needed for the production of not-live recordings where the audio is synchronized with visual content.

Yeah, I saw that. Excellent video from Funliner. This latest clip licensing scheme from TS sounds sketchy AF. And it sure sounds like BOA wasn’t thrilled with TS throwing them under the bus.

Go over to YouTube and search for KPop Demon Hunters reaction videos. Thousands upon thousands of them with millions of views. If Netflix and Sony Animation can't take them down, then Tim Snyder's threats are hollow. Unless of course he has access to better lawyers and more money to pay said lawyers then Netflix and Sony? I've successfully worked with a school district to fight Tresona's BS, so I do have some experience with copyright trolls. We specifically claimed Fair Use and Tresona caved the moment we pushed back. Tim's claims and threats are no different.

Tim Snyder does not understand fair use. And he proves once again that he has zero tact. He’s an ######## and a bully. Always has been. Always will be.

We’ve got enough corps giving us intellectual, conceptual shows. I’d like Cavaliers to get back to the character-driven shows like Wrong Side of the Tracks.

This is also what I have heard about Scouts. CK leads the staffing discussion and has final say when it comes to design staff and decisions, caption heads, etc. Lofy is responsible for logistics, the day-to-day running of the corps, camps, member experience, food, transportation, etc. So does CK just sit back and micromanage the big picture design and high-profile staffing decisions, and Lofy just deals with practical operations?

Agreed. The corps would be wise to keep David Lofy around.