MikeRapp

When you saw the Blue Devils marcher tear up about what the "whirlpool" imagery meant to her, and then watched that oh so painful series of Cadets interviews where one marcher after another couldn't tell you what Awakening was about—that sort of summed up the differences for me. I love how George admits that the new theatrical approach is something he's neither familiar nor comfortable with. But he has to trust his new staff to deliver. Aungst is certainly capable.

I hope the new leadership convinces George that cheese is not necessary to make a connection with the audience. And I will add, if there is one thing Clash of the Corps showed is that if you don't first connect with your own kids, then you cannot connect with the audience. The kids have to get it and buy in emotionally. It doesn't work if you just play louder and march faster. Very excited about Cadets 2017!

Assume it's all about attendance. By all accounts, having the show at Vandy, in the heart of Nashville, has dramatically improved attendance. The Nashville show is now among the best attended non-regionals on tour, maybe even THE best attended. The entire western stands were sold out this past season, attendance was likely over 20,000. Never seen more high school buses in my life. I've shot games at Vanderbilt Stadium for over a decade, and I know all the shortcomings of that venue. But Floyd Stadium is nothing more than an erector set shell with cold metal seats. It's cool that you are about six feet lower to the field level, but other than that, there's nothing about MTSU that is attractive other than probably the availability of the dorms. It does suck that they shortened the show by one corps. Don't get that at all unless it's a money grab. Would be an awesome opportunity to showcase an up and comer.

I'm not freaking out, just asking a question. I don't know what Cadets have done in the past to recruit.

Is this unprecedented for Cadets? Does this concern anyone?

Baked.

So the Nashville show is back at Vandy, but with one less performing corps. Knights come back but Scouts do not. I wonder if the new Alabama show on the same night will balance the Nashville show and feature the other likely finalists.

https://www.ebth.com/items/4521081?show=

This is the obvious down side to positioning the show as a battle between two "teams." Unless you air the episodes the week of recording, which I believe would get HUGE ratings (and no corps director would agree to be a part of it) I don't see how this angle works.No doubt the producers have learned a lot during the season that would change how they approach production. But in an activity so uniquely focused on live performance, I don't see how you produce a successful series if you can't show performance. I will say that my initial feelings about the series were confirmed at the end. They really should have focused more on the set up for the season, including the show design concepts. Everyone was worried there would be too much watching the sausage being made and in the end, there was so little I almost didn't care about the result. I never really felt any of the pressure that the kids kept saying they felt, because I knew nothing about the behind the scenes. Sorry but showing 30 Seconds of performance in each episode of the show, often overdubbed over generic marching footage, just felt so fake. It was like, Uh, ok, what was so hard about that?!

Would love it if they moved the southeastern championship to Nashville, at Nissan Stadium. Flip the Friday and Saturday shows, have Atlanta be Friday at a smaller venue.

It's a very unique activity, one that attracts a certain type of kid, instructor and fan. In short, it attracts perfectionists. Probably the people who will dissect a show like this and recognize every misstep. In the end, I come away not really sure who the show is for. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't tell a friend who doesn't know anything about dci to watch it, because it contained so little performance. And I probably wouldn't refer a hard core band kid to it because, well, they would see so little performance. So who do you have left? People who don't know much about drum corps, don't care that much about band, and are attracted to the drama...which was largely injuries based around performances you never saw. And the train wreck that was cadets. In retrospect, this needed to be one hour shows. Which we all know ain't gonna happen.

There was a show in the series where they just didn't get the results right, and scv was totally missing.

Thank you for this, Jeff.

Well, the series is done. For those of us who follow dci closely, there are no doubt a lot of things we liked and didn't like. Personally, I didn't appreciate the way the producers handled scores, meaning, very inconsistently. Not even having SCV in the top five at the Rose Bowl was very unprofessional, and they didn't even correct it on reruns. Not naming the winner of the San Antonio show was very bush league. And then not naming Bluecoats' score at finals, what was the point of that? At least they did show some bluecoats performance footage, albeit with non-Bluecoats music. Again, I get it, but wow, that would really sort of insult me were I marching Bluecoats. I realize it is very difficult if not impossible to truly show the activity in a way that fits what it is all about in a 30 minute show with 15 minutes of commercials. And, being hamstrung at not being able to show much music. But still, the entire activity is about performance, and we saw almost no performances. And even when we did, the music was dubbed over generic marching footage. It just seemed like fingernails on a chalk board to me. I did appreciate how George handled himself, he came off experienced but genuine. I personally did not feel the same about the guard instructor, she seemed like the type of instructor you hated marching for. Still, the very end with the corps song was very powerful. Great job overall, this was probably a lot harder than the production crew ever could have imagined going into it. Kudos to BD and Cadets, and Johnson for taking a chance.

It's weird how uneventful the series is.

It appears as though the show was sold based on a "two teams competing for the prize" idea, which is what many if not most reality TV shows are based around. In theory, it made sense, but in practice, not so much. The motivations of the kids and the instructors is quite different than that, as those of you who marched know so well. I do think there's a great show in there somewhere, but the show right now seems to not really be able to get traction on anything they are focusing on. I like these kids, but I don't really feel any of the tension that I know is there...and even moreso.

It feels like the production crew just didn't really understand why this activity is so popular. Their entire diatribe of "two teams" just isn't accurate.

They don't owe Cadets anything but a true representation of what happened—and many would even argue against that. Cadets were their own worst enemy.

Few love drum corps as much as I do, and honestly I am getting almost nothing out of this series. I even forgot to watch it the last two weeks. I don't know what is missing, but there just seems to be no "there" there for some reason. I really don't feel like I am missing anything by not watching. I think it's that drum corps is all about the live performance of the show. To make it about anything other than that is a let down. Most of the "drama" has little to do with the actual music or performance. And all the angst about performance leads to, wait for it, no actual showing of performance. I truly appreciate what they have been trying to do, but BD360 is a million times more interesting and compelling to me.

I believe Franklin High here in Nashville made Finals this year, with their show titled Mastermind. They are directed by a Cavaliers alum and assisted by a Phantom alum.

I'm with 27th Lancers...

There's no doubt that's true, and it's a good reason to renew for Season 2. With footage to show, and an idea of what "good drum corps content" is, they could really blow out a second season. I am sure they wish they had chosen Bluecoats as one of the corps, but of course hindsight is 20/20. For a second season, I would think they would have learned their lesson and not signed contracts without knowing the landscape a little better. (Not that the Coats team would have told them anything anyway!) Again, kudos to the Cadets and BD video teams as well.

Thanks, barigirl78. Appreciate your insights!

To be fair, Brandon isn't young anymore, he's just shorter than his drumline peers. His first season in DCI was spent at Academy and I think he's marched with BD for three years now.

I agree, seems like an obvious way to add another level to the "clash."