MikeRapp

I don't know how DCI would judge this caption unless all the other WC corps participated. Which won't happen any time soon, if ever. I would hope and expect that electronics would NOT be judged unless MM kids were doing it. It's not congruous with any aspect of the spirit of judging.

Very smart indeed. I wonder if these outtakes were shot by BD and Cadets videographers. The style, pacing and content is a lot more like BD360.

I'd try AppleTV.

I guarantee you the show is editing this together to trump up the "arrogance" factor. I have asked who signed the contracts and no one has yet answered. I assume it was George and Scott. Regardless, I know from experience working on similar shows that the show is in charge of who they cast, and they purposefully look for controversy and big personalities. And they purposefully set up situations where those people will say things that, out of context, look a lot bigger and more aggressive than they were intended. So take what you see here with at least a dozen grains of salt, so to speak. It isn't reality, except that it happened. How it is edited together is where they tell the story THEY want to tell.

I personally thought the extras were better than a lot of the show itself. Again, JMHO. It speaks to what they decided to focus on in the show, as opposed to the out takes. The girls talking about the struggle to raise funds was heart wrenchingly real and powerful. The fact that the BD instructors paid for some of the color guards' fees was powerful to say the least. It made me really proud of the activity as a whole, and I know that for many of you this is the reality we don't see as outsiders. I understand better why criticisms sting a little more for those who went through that experience.

I watched a couple of the outtakes on other sites last night. They were excellent, very powerful, very revealing—especially the one about the girls trying to work enough to raise funds. But I realized after watching these outtakes that I like the documentary style of filming (which is the style of the outtakes), rather than the direction the show is taking. That's just me, obviously—nothing wrong with that. They went to a more fast-cut, energy and excitement theme of editing rather than a slower focus on interaction between characters. Perhaps that changes as the season evolves. Even compared to other super successful docu-dramas, the style of the editing for Clash is very different. Many more edits, a lot more "shaky cam" and quick rack focus shots. Compare this to Orange County Choppers, Deadliest Catch, Fast and Loud and even Undercover Boss. I bet there are three times as many edits in COTC than any of those series. It could be that they believe the younger market will like this style of editing. But it also may be because they really were not prepared for the challenge of a 100 yard football field. It takes time to adjust to the scale and speed of drum corps, and it appears as though they had to edit the first two episodes together with whatever stuff they got—therefore, a lot more very short shots, a lot more random than you (or they) might have wanted, and a lot more disjointed at this stage of the season. I know from shooting college football that it takes time to adjust to "how" to shoot on a stage that large with that many people running around. It took me a full football season to begin to get it. You waste so many shots shooting on a football field. You have to figure out how to pick out things to shoot before they happen, and you have to know the game well enough to anticipate where the action will take place. Otherwise you are out of focus and two seconds late. I have a close friend who shot the Nashville show for (I believe) Marching Magazine. He had never seen the BC show before that night, and I warned him to watch it online before shooting it, because there was no way he would catch the moments he would want to catch if he couldn't anticipate the staging. Afterwards, he told me that watching it beforehand was the only reason he got anything of note for Bluecoats. If this is the first time this crew has shot drum corps, I can tell you, it is head spinning. If you haven't watched the outtakes, I really encourage you to do so. Very well done, very revealing and meaningful.

George, I wouldn't disagree with almost anything you post about Cadets or George H. As far as the CG incident, I assumed there was more there than what was shown. Wasn't assuming otherwise. I'm not going to get into a discussion of GH. It's the offseason, and 2016 is behind us. There really isn't anything to unearth that we haven't discussed ad nauseum previously. I watched the show, I watched the 2016 season, I understand what I am looking at. Cadets has a history that stretches well beyond the birth date of anyone marching in Cadets today. They are, in my opinion anyway, probably more seminal to the development of drum corps than any other corps. Including BD. But I think we can all agree that things have changed dramatically since Cadets stormed onto the scene, and most notably "in the last seven years." Already we have seen George struggle in the first two episodes with how to adjust to a more dramatic style of production, versus the old school Cadets/Cavaliers style of marching faster and playing louder. This is not news to you, me, or anyone else on this forum. There are a lot of very smart, very experienced staffers in Allentown who can size things up quickly and shift focus. Obviously 2016 became the stage where we saw just how difficult that will be—but Cadets will adjust, I have no doubt. I loved watching the show, and I am sure I will love watching the rest of it. I am "enjoying the ride."

What is the average rating for a show on that network? Do they have any shows that break a one or even a to share?

I have a sneaking suspicion that they are already setting up the story line for Cadets...

No doubt it is great for the activity, but especially if it leads to a 2017 series that is much more serious about the content.

They don't need permission to mention other corps. They might need permission to SHOW other corps. But I think I've read that all members of DCI signed a release before the season began.

I'm beginning to wonder if they will even mention Bluecoats or Crown. But the much bigger issue is whether they are going to show performances at all. If they couldn't get sync rights for performance, HUGE FAIL.

Because of the low budget nature of the pilot, the fact that there is no background footage on any of the characters or corps is a major problem and downfall for the show. Personally, I would have spent a good 15 minutes learning about BD and Cadets from a historic standpoint, letting Scott and George talk about what makes their respective organizations different and unique. Without that, you just don't have a clue about the stakes. Also, personally, the fact that they are clearly ignoring ALL of the other corps is really sad to me. I saw a Bluecoats T shirt on a MM last night...and that's literally all I have seen of DCI. There is just no context to this show right now.

There are still a lot of band kids who grew up idolizing Cadets. Does the experience match their expectations? For some, clearly, yes. For others, no, but that's true everywhere. This is a tough gig. Expectations are so high at almost every WC corps.

The fact that a CG captain could walk out and come back a week later...that's pretty shocking to me. Fortunately or unfortunately, we've already seen the different style of leadership between Cadets and BD. BD has a plan, led by planners. Cadets has George "making it up as we go," which is almost exactly what he said in the second show. I found that to be absolutely nuts. I know that probably isn't accurate in reality, but the fact that George saw a show this large and this complex as, fundamentally, a work in process says why George should not be the show director. You can already see how unfair that is to the kids, who already look a little like lambs thrown to the wolves. Hate to say it, but to me, I can already see why BD has won so many titles in a row, and Cadets has been in such disarray. Based on what you've seen already, who would you rather work for, Scott or George?

I would like to know what limitations were placed on them filming actually marching and playing. I am beginning to wonder if maybe the sync rights didn't cover this show, and as a result we're never going to actually see the corps perform anything. If so, that's a shame. These kids are killing themselves to do what exactly? Hopefully the show producers are committed to some sort of musical payoff for those who actually care about the performances. There's only so much I am going to care about individuals. I want to see why the pressure is so high. You can only say "it's darned near impossible to do this" so many times without show and tell.

I am what would be called an insider, and even I want more context than what they've presented. I have no clue what a show director does watching this. Therefore, when Hopkins is fretting over the mess, I don't really know what he sees or what his options are. When someone yells to one of the MMs about being on his mark, I don't even know what that mark is—therefore, I am left to assume either he gets it or he doesn't get it... My guess is, the guys filming this were clueless about what actually was going on and didn't know what to shoot. It seems totally random.

I hope you are wrong. Otherwise this is going to get old really fast for the insiders, and irrelevant to the outsiders. They have gone way out of their way to position drum corps as something amazingly difficult, and if they don't explain why that is, all the conflict is irrelevant. I've never fished the arctic, but I get a ###### good idea of what the context is for the conflict watching Deadliest Catch. The environment is the main character in that show.

Yeah, the only thing I guess I get is the whole "two teams competing against each other." No mention or even reference to the 15 other "teams" also competing. It gives the outsider a pretty inaccurate look at what's going on. Neither BD nor Cadets are creating their shows to compete against each other. The show gives a totally inaccurate look at what the drum corps CIRCUIT is all about. I have to guess this is intentional. They don't want to make the show about drum corps outside of the "competition" between BD and Cadets. Not the way I would do it, but its their money.

Obviously, that stood out in light of how we know the season went. What I noticed was that leadership knew it was "a visual mess" four days before the first show. I really wish they had included Bluecoats in the show. Would have been fascinating to compare and contrast those two seasons. My main issue with the show is that they spend no time explaining what we are looking at. As an example, people don't understand what "guard" is, and even more what the big deal is with what they are being asked to do. No explanation of the music they are performing, it's challenge, etc. I'm left sort of wondering what exactly is going on here.

FWIW, based on my experience with similar shows, I would be shocked if BD or Cadets "share" in any revenue from the show whatsoever. They get the exposure, that's it. And they absolutely would not get any say in what content made the show.

But is that what George is speaking to? I got the impression he was speaking about show style and subject matter—but I realize they cut this stuff up any way they want to make a point.

Someone will look at these numbers and ask, how big would this be if we promoted the show during and on the DCI tour?

Did anyone else find Hopkins' comment about Cadets and BD being as different from each other as possible sort of...I don't know... Do you know what he means by that?

I thought the show was OK, considering how awful I was prepared for it to potentially be. That said, it's sort of felt like they weren't really sure who their potential audience was. If you're going after band kids and parents, I'm not sure that what they showed or maybe what they didn't show is going to appeal to that audience. If they're going for a broader audience that might be interested mostly in personalities and conflict, I'm not sure the show will ultimately succeed. This is an activity that is very focused on musical performance, and relegating that aspect to a side story is likely a very bad mistake. If you look at other very successful similar shows, like fast and loud, there is an equal amount of personality and the technical aspect. You are into the personalities, but you still see them build a car. If all we get to see is how four or five personalities evolve during the season, even I am going to lose interest quickly.