skywhopper

Yeah the book was awesome. However, the web tool I'm using to make these GIFs only lets you do clips of 10 seconds or less, and I didn't try, but I'm pretty sure the book takes longer than than to reveal itself. Alas. I should probably, like, pay money for a real GIF tool.

A bonus move from Crown's battery (from the Allentown VOD, so not as high quality):

So yeah, here's some more. I think I've about exhausted what I can mine from the Crown Semis VOD (the battery drill is actually from the Allentown VOD):

I clearly have too much time on my hands...

Heh. I had seen them putting the rifles in and seen close ups showing the rifles but I've never actually caught them taking the things out!

I did too, until I was reviewing the shows to find those clips!

Yeah I think that even though the cube is "straight" on the field there, it looks tapered because of the perspective. Probably looks better from overhead. The pyramid was the right move then, since it's naturally tapered and you can use the natural perspective to your advantage.

Between the drum corps move towards more and more ballet movement and the running world's stance against heel-strike running, the toe-first-always style doesn't surprise me that someone would try it. I think it also evens out the appearance when you have rotations or changing directions, and if everyone is toe-first whether forward or backward that looks more uniform at the edge of the changeover. I think toe-first all the time in ballet is mostly a visual thing. They are trying to turn the ballerina's leg into a long, tapering spindle without the ugly foot attached. Plus you get more flexibility for kicks and leaps with your toe pointed. Of course, more modern dance style includes a lot of moves with feet at their natural angle, which ups the difficulty of the kicks and creates a jarring appearance for those used to watching ballet style.

Agreed about 2008. I also liked Blue Devils and Crown's Finis was pretty awesome. If we can forget about Cadets, then I'm on board with 2008.

Made this of Crown's 2012 3-D move by request from the Crown thread:

Also, here's an embiggened gif of the pyramid:

So I got to fooling around with making animated gifs out of the coolest drill moves from this year, and I decided I'd go all out and do all the finalists (plus Troopers). What other moves do you like from this season? Crown Blue Devils (I actually like the rotating box better but it wasn't shown at all in the Semis VOD.) Cadets Vanguard (The circles merging into a giant ellipse was my favorite, but these things have a 10 second limit when you make them at imgflip.com.) Bluecoats Phantom Cavaliers Boston Madison Blue Knights Spirit Blue Stars Troopers

I definitely agree with everything you say. Sibelius would be awesome!

I've re-read all the discussion since I posted those two clips and I honestly don't see what you're talking about. Can you clarify why you are upset?

Glass and Reich were featured this year and Adams has shown up a lot in the past few years. Obviously Stravinsky has been very popular. Shostakovich is not untouched. Copland has been almost overdone. We've had Barber, Bartok, and Debussy featured often in recent years. As for Berg... didn't BD use some 12-tone music in their 2009 show? I don't see any hint of it on CorpsReps, but there was definitely something very Webern-esque going on out there. Maybe Opus 22 from 1930? I'd love to see others as well. There's so much great material out there, it's always a little disappointing when corps go for the same old same old. That's one reason why Crown has been so exciting musically these past two years. Playing 21st century brass band compositions alongside 20th century works that have rarely been put on the field, if ever (Einstein on the Beach, of course, but also Fanfare for the Common Man, and Also Sprach Zarathustra, which have been used in drum corps but very rarely).

This is a great suggestion. Plus, it has a part for one of the first electronic instruments ever created, the Ondes Martenot. If they could put the real thing on the field that'd be amazing.

Worth mentioning in relation to is that Cadets are playing relatively difficult stuff very loud during their move, and Crown's and BD's are done with horns down. So I rate Cadets the most difficult of the three clips, BUT Crown and BD both had intricate pinwheel-type stuff similar to Cadets in difficulty (maybe not as quick of steps) going on elsewhere in their shows that they did while playing so... like you said, apples to oranges.

I assume the gap on the right is a hole... but as for the rest, check the lineup when the square first starts to expand, and then at the end of the cycle, check the topmost two rows of the square which are all just twerked a little to the left. Oh sure. That's part of the fun, though. Plus if they weren't a little bit dirty they would clearly not be trying hard enough. Definitely. That is my favorite visual from BD's show this year. That plus the minute or so lead up to it.

If you want to see the Blue Devils dirty check out the box from Allentown (the Semis recording on FN doesn't show this drill AT ALL or I would have used that instead).

For cleanliness comparison:

It's from the Fan Network, Semis. The two marchers that have to pass through around the rotating-up back baseline of the pyramid were never clean any time I saw them, I assume because they have impossible routes. Everything else about it looks good to me.

Enjoy.