The DCI.org Fan Network Discussion Thread

[MikeN]

Madison will be live, and *both* will be on-demand on Sunday, according to the schedule.

Mike

[MikeN]

http://fannetwork.dci.org/support/?corps_id=0

[sdstar]

I must say that I am getting a bit burned out with not seeing 2008 performances or run thru's... Nice to see the behind the scenes stuff, but how about some lot vids or something to bite into!

Blue Star percussion lot vid now up (2008 Blue Stars in Motion #5), #2 has real horn rehearsal/show, and #3 has some vis ensemble work.

[GoFanGo]

I know "If I don't like it, I don't have to watch it." But in all seriousness, I'm going to start ignoring the crown minute videos altogether.

I have to agree>>> such a waste of time.

[FTNK]

When does the Madison webcast begin?

[JustABandMom]

As the Scouts' videographer I'll make a few comments.

1. To get about 2-3 minutes of decent presentation quality video, it takes about 2-3 hours of prep, capture and production time. A lot of that time is actually finding and extracting the pieces of video you want to use.

2. I'm doing this for free (and I think most corps have a volunteer doing this as well), although we'll have some Box 5 content this summer as well. It's fun, but I can see how it can be daunting for a smaller corps to take on this burden as well. My goal is to get about one video a week online. Some corps are being even more aggressive in their content. It's a challenge to find that balance, but I'll think it will work its way out through the season.

3. I'm trying to keep the production value at a reasonable level. Best comment I heard at a Fan Network meeting....."Not up to the level of Tom Blair, but not down to the level of Blair Witch".

4. Internet connections are pretty spotty at most of the housing sites we are at. Often times it is at a school, they often don't have wireless or even an IT guy around during the summer who can make a connection available. Then when you get a connection, you often find many things "blocked" (e.g. an external video feed from the Fan Network), making it difficult to fully work. Plus, I like to edit video on a large screen, so piecing it together on a laptop is a challenge. I opted to check into a hotel last Friday to get the uniform video completed. It helps to have a consistent connection and a workspace that's uninterrupted by the day-to-day chaos of drum corps.

5. I try to be respectful of the corps and its presentation. When you are up close to the corps at a rehearsal site you are bound to catch bad performance moments, fracks, tears, missteps, dropped tosses, etc. I'm trying to not use that footage. First, I don't want to embarrass one of the members. Plus, the DCP community can be pretty hard on things like that. I was amazed at the scrutiny of stick heights being discussed in a photo I took at camp rehearsal. (keeping in mind it was taken at 1/3000 of a second) Watching people project finals placements off of observations like that is a both humorous and disappointing.

I think the Fan Network is a fantastic avenue for DCI to pursue. It was pretty impressive how it was all conceived and implemented in a relatively short amount of time. As someone who works in the development and delivery of multi-media content, I can tell you that this is a nice systems and cost-effective in its implementation. It does push some burden out to the corps to develop the content, but that's also the beauty of it. Don't be too hard on any corps for minimal participation. Despite the YouTube comparison, it's not that easy to get reasonable level content captured and produced that quickly.

I think what all the corps are doing is awesome, and wanted to express my appreciation to yourself and the other videographers and audiographers. I think this is an awesome venture. It certainly was nice seeing tidbits from the corps during spring training and as the season approached. I can appreciate the challenges you have at the different venues you go to.

I'm sure it will take some corps a little while to find their stride with what works and what doesn't, and that will come in time. I understand everybody wants to hear more music, but like a couple people have mentioned already - that will be available soon with the on-demand playback.

So anyway, thanks to yourself and your counterparts among the different corps. I think you're doing a great job - and we get the enjoy the results!

[JustABandMom]

Dear BariSteve,

When you are a parent, paying for your kid to be in a drum corps and away from home all summer,

even seeing them sitting under a tree eating lunch is...nice.

Dear Crown,

Yes, someone cares!

I second that.

[Jeff DeMello]

As the Scouts' videographer I'll make a few comments.

As one of the Blue Devils videographers ... I feel your pain!

<rant on>

I put up over 130 historical videos from the BD archives, ranging from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours (broken up into 20-ish minute segments, for ease of download. For each video, I had to capture it from it's source tape (VHS, 8mm, Film, BetaMax, and even 1/2" professional video tape) to MiniDV (for archival purposes), and THEN I imported each MiniDV (over 300) into my trusty Mac. Then I had to edit every single clip, trimming off the "bad stuff" at the beginning and the ends. And for some of the very bad videos I had to do color correction and even some filtering, so that they were "watchable". Finally I added fade-ins and fade outs to make it more appealing, and the "bumper" (The "Blue Devils Historical Videos" clip in the beginning). Then I exported it to a .mov format.

THEN, I had to compress each of the 130 clips for Flash format for Brightcove, and upload each clip, and give it some title information. After that, Dave Gibbs took the title information and put them in a logical order for displays. FINALLY I had to compress each of the 130 clips for QuickTime format so we can potentially sell the higher resolution clips (pending the legal copyright paperwork), and upload them to the DCI Fan Network server.

Also, I have just finished importing 200+ judges and misc. cassette tapes I received from Mel Stratton. For each of those tapes I first made a CD backup, then I had to import it into the computer, where I had to trim the ends, and make into an .mp3 file, making sure I can identify each file for reference. I just finished uploading those to the DCI FN, but they STILL need further processing (again, by Dave Gibbs) to put them up for sale (again, after the legal paperwork is done).

That's just my part,

Then there's the heroic effort of John Christensen at RawTV who's been working the day-to-day issues with Ricky at DCI ... making sure the compression settings that we use are correct. John did an EXCELLENT job of getting the Concord show up on the web minutes after the show ... an effort not yet matched by any other corps. Along with that, John has done all the BlueViews since it's inception ... THAT'S a LOT of work. (Oh yes, he's also doing video for SCV, Phantom, and many others!). John also employs a couple of videographers to shoot each show ... and as my Madison collegue has correctly stated, it's at LEAST one hour of work for each minute of final video ... including the simple "Member Cams". I edited one 5 minute BlueView and it took me over 8 hours.

And, at the high end, there's all the work done by Mike Zapanta and Dave Gibbs, ensuring the high concept, top quality productions are continuously setting new standards.

We at BD have at least 3 professional videographers working very hard to put up content for our fans. Some of the smaller corps are finding out that it is a big job. Anything they put up (including kids eating) is something that wasn't available before this year, and is part of the "life of drum corps", which should be cherished, not chided.

The thing that has been yanking my chain on this forum is that fans are getting WAY more content than they ever had, and it's being professionally done ... way better than the "stuff" you see on YouTube ... it's current, and in some cases, live! And yet people still complain. Go figure.

DCI, and a lot of corps, have spent many many 10's of thousands of dollars and thousands of man-hours to make this happen. Sure, it's not perfect ... but it's a giant leap in benefits for the fans. And it can only get better, with more content being generated at each show and rehearsal. And it's all being done because, why? Because we want to keep our fans happy! A happy fan 1) stays involved with the activity, 2) promotes the activity by bringing in others, and (yes) 3) buys more stuff from their favorite corps (hopefully).

But, we've spent many hundreds and hundreds of hours individually to make sure that there is "fresh content" for the FANS.

<rant off>

The fortunate part of being part of this process is that we are finally getting to the spot where we can creatively capture the past history and the current "new history" of drum corps in a digital format which will never degrade in quality, and in a "new medium" ... internet video ... which is available almost instantaneously to everyone in the world with an internet connection, from "Podunk, Iowa", to my drum corps friends fighting in Iraq, to my drum corps friends in Japan, and Belgium, and South Africa and ...

Now THAT"S impressive!

[GoFanGo]

I second that.

I wonder if Fan Network has a lot of parents subscribling. That could be at least 150 for each corps! I doubt it though.

[DKW]

I'm going to a phantom rehearsal pretty soon and I'm wondering if it's okay to record the rehearsal and sectionals... Will they try to taze me if I pull out my camcorder??