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ouooga

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Everything posted by ouooga

  1. Bleh, no. Ever since I found drum corps, marching band became completely lost on me. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw any BOA show, taped or live, but it's definitely been more than a decade. But if some of this is being done in HS bands, is anything really innovative anymore? Honestly. Just from the numbers alone, plus where the design staffs mostly spend their day jobs, marching band has to be the catalyst for this stuff moreso than drum corps, right?
  2. How do you feel Phantom 08 modified the set? Or even Academy 16 for that matter, unless you're referring to the chairs/gravestones. What I mean by modifying the set is that the show starts with the fielding looking one way, and ends looking different, but the middle part doesn't have members pushing props around all the while to get there. So Boston enters the field, and there's a forest on one end, an empty fire pit at the bottom. By the end, the fire is going strong and the forest has been chopped down. The corps' story has modified what the field looked like. But those other ones you mentioned, those are all just props. Effective props, just like SCV's disappearing phantom prop in 88/89 was an effective prop, but props. BD moves props around the field to alter the visual element at the moment, which is a different format entirely IMO. Cadets, ya, I'll give you 11, but it's really just the big field tarps at the end, and arguably you could take/leave those and the show would be largely the same. Keep in mind, there's no rubric or definition of this stuff as far as I know, and everything I mentioned absolutely falls into that grey area. So this is definitely just my $.02.
  3. When I think 'innovative' I think 'something we've never seen before.' No one's really doing that this year. But if I had to pick a most, I'd actually go with Boston. For reference, Bluecoats '16 I would consider innovative - they didn't have 'props' as much as they had 'sets' that truly modified what the performers were able to do on the field. They've done the same in '17 and '18, and I really like '18, but it's just doing the same thing in a different way. As for their music this year, the program is basically really good/clean jazzy drum corps, which again, is awesome, but isn't new. Even the singer, while phenomenal and arguably the best use of voice in drum corps since we got microphones, is just using a tool more effectively. SCV this year is great, but I'm still not calling it innovative. It's great use of body movement/drill/sound/etc., but it's all just great drum corps. The props definitely fall into the set idea I mentioned above, but I don't think they add nearly as much as any Bluecoat set, the '16 edition of which raised the innovation bar. I'm sticking with Boston on this one because their show has a lot of things I've never really seen before. They use props like a set - basically the whole field is the set - and by the end of the show they have literally modified the set to reflect what's come to pass in the show. That's awesome. Also the story is simple, easy to follow, and dramatic, and that's saying something when I consider SCV 04 and Phantom 08 to be the pinnacles of storytelling in drum corps (and neither of which did the field/set modification concept). Add on top of that the use of letters in the drill - something we've definitely seen before, but never as clean, readable, frequent, or lacking the cheese that usually comes with it - and it's truly bordering on that never been seen before type of show. Side note: While I don't think 99% of BD's show is innovative at all, bringing Nighthawks to life on the field is the 1% definitely. There's no question what painting it is, and it's very cool. But aside from that single aspect of the show, it's just another BD show. A truly phenomenal product by a talented group of performers and designers, but extremely similar to most of what I've seen from them in the past two decades.
  4. I've known about the Conquest thing since 03, but I only learned about it being written as ••/•/••• this season, and only just now realized the B A C hidden inside it as of this thread!
  5. A lot of corps have moments where corps members are behind some sort of prop or stage, essentially out of view. Would a corps benefit from having water available to members mid show at these points? I know a lot of 5Ks give water out at a few checkpoints during the race, so I assume there's some value to it from a fatigue standpoint. Purely curious how this would play out in drum corps, now that there's occasionally the presence of a backstage.
  6. Does anyone know if any corps do a feedback survey to the members post tour? Not just to address any hazing with an opportunity to be anonymous, but to assess how well the member experience for the summer was in general. DCI as a whole might benefit from something like this. Edit: I conduct surveys and do marketing data analysis for a living. It'll be extremely rudimentary, but if any corps staff see this, I'm happy to facilitate something for any interested corps post season. No charge.
  7. There's a Reviews section? I'm a freelance writer, mostly for marketing/PR projects, but I'd love to get a 'writing about drum corps' gig someday, even if it were just volunteer stuff and reviews. What are people looking for? Individual corps' shows, or entire shows (ie. do you want a review of Session 44, Session 44 as it was performed at San Antonio, or the San Antonio show as a whole)? Problem is I go to one show per year at most, always in California, but if video reviews are allowed I'd totally jumping in!
  8. On the topic of 'we all like different shows', I'm not sure if this is a complement or an insult. I'm of the latter mindset.
  9. I'll even nod my hat toward Constantly Risking Absurdity. The right show won in 08, but Blue Devils are the one I go back to the most.
  10. Always too early to tell, even if it wins. There's some years that feel iconic in the moment, but almost never get a rewatch/listen after the fact (I'm looking at you 07!). Only time will tell on the legacy, but I will say, in the moment, 18 has been a lot of fun!
  11. I'm not saying your student didn't try to talk to them too, but could it be possible the staff was waiting for him to open up? I'm big into organizational psychology, and something big in that industry and the hiring process at most companies is culture matching. Businesses give current employees a personality test, and as part of the hiring process, applicants must take the same personality test. They're looking for people that will 'jive' well with the rest of the team, not just the most qualified in general. I say this because there's a parallel that might really benefit drum corps. Like your student, there's an actual chance they wanted him to integrate himself (ie make the same jokes, listen when everyone listens, talk when everyone talks, etc.) and that's part of their evaluation process. But more specifically to drum corps, a lot of what we're talking about here is a difference in how members want to be treated/treat each other, how they want to receive feedback, how they want to practice in terms of intensity, etc. A culture-testing program as part of the audition process, or maybe even a universal DCI one that everyone fills out before they audition anywhere, would be a cool thing to implement.
  12. Am I the only one that wants picture in picture? Closeup shots have their purpose but I want to be able to see from the box at all times too.
  13. See the bolded section you wrote. The No. 1 thing I realize when people say "I didn't have a good experience in drum corps" is that they experienced members and a culture that didn't realize that kind of crudeness cuts people to the bone. There's something glorious to be said about the freedoms from political correctness that drum corps provides, but drum corps is still composed of young people and a lot of drum corps people forget that.
  14. I realize that's a common sentiment on here, but man, I definitely find myself much more often thinking 'the older I get the more I want to make the activity better.' I mean this 100% from the management side of things, from the top to the bottom.
  15. The last year I marched, I had a brass tech who was absurdly antisemitic. It's drum corps though, so it was just mostly taken in good humor. It started out kind of funny at first, and by the end of the season you just became deaf to it. In the end, it highlights 99% of my memories of the tech. I'll also always remember that antisemitism worked its way into the (always good natured) lexicon of my section that season. I'm now nearly a decade and a half removed from the activity as anything but a fan, and have had a long time to reflect on that situation. When I think back to that tech, I realize now he was a mid-20s kid leading a bunch of teenagers. He grew up in drum corps (aged out of the same corps only a few seasons before) and was just continuing the crude sense of humor his own techs and sections had probably done. Staffs set the tone. If members are doing well, they'll get praise from the staff, and if that staff is crass then those strong members will be crass too. Suddenly you have members critiquing other members with the same crassness, except kids are dumb and make the jokes even more crass, and suddenly you have a toxic culture for any rookies or members who are struggling. The problem with all of this is that many of these staff members are so young. Sure, when I was marching, mid 20s sounded old, but looking back now I realize that I'm hoping for a level of maturity among staff that just isn't there yet at that age, added on by the fact that much of this culture is just 'a part of drum corps.' As far as I know, techs receive no training in terms of motivation, communication, teaching (unless they're already teachers) or sensitivity training, all of which are core assets to most management programs at normal companies. Some of those staff members move on, and new ones take their place, or others stick with the activity for a long time, and suddenly you have a tenured individual with 40 years of experience and multiple titles who sees it as ok to harass female staff members because 'it's just drum corps'. But nothing in the process, as far as I see, transitions members into staff roles that same way we would do it in any other industry.
  16. Actual question, did DCI implement a rule that you can't change the ending after Quarters? I seem to remember Finals Night being the night that shows got their final finish, like BD only marched off the field in 04 at Finals. I don't think I've seen that in a long time. I also seem to remember shots from Semis being used in the video editing when needed, and wondered if that might be the reason for the rule, if it exists.
  17. BK was going to add a bunch of water features and fans to keep them cool on the field, but it turned out to be a pyramid scheme.
  18. I think so. After BD's undefeated season was cracked by Cavies in Allentown, that seemed to be the discussion leading into Finals since they'd been proven beatable. Phantom was already going into that season with some magic, 05/06 had started their climb (no one really seemed phase by 07), and then the magic of "Phantom's playing Spartacus again!!" (followed by high-pitched squeel!!!) added to it. Now we were looking at a magical Phantom going up against the corps they tied with for their then-only championship, and the same corps that they just so happened to have topped on Finals night just two years earlier. I mean, everyone 'saw' it happening the same way you see how a great novel's going to end by the time you're only in the middle. I don't know if everyone knew it would happen, but the story definitely played out how we all saw it going in our heads.
  19. Phantom actually came into Quarters in 4th in 08, right? They performed before Crown, Cavies and Devils and took 3rd at the Thursday show, unless I'm remembering it wrong.
  20. Scalable drill is a line with "clarinets" written above it, rather than dots for each clarinet. So, time/space/movement are all accounted for with spacing. It's not 16 to 64 though, it's written for band size (ie. 25-50 members, 50-100 members, etc.). Buy the program that fits your band size, adjust spacing, march and play. To your point, agreed, protecting music and drill (if the latter is possible) are completely different. I'm just trying to come up with a solution to music that doesn't result in 'the best we can do is mute the shows when they're on demand' and wholly-owned music is the best I can come up with. I'm definitely open to suggestions if you have them.
  21. Academy is the wild card, and I'm not counting them out yet.
  22. If I have the means to go to 100 drum corps shows, it's always worth it. If you have the means to go to multiple, by all means, go to multiple!
  23. Bad photo, but here's Lehigh Valley Knights in 2002. https://www.dci.org/news/cool-in-the-pool
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