BDCorno Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Honestly? No, I do not believe there are many on this board that believe there is a corps with an outside chance of taking out BD as you so eloquently put it. And it's not even because everybody knows the judges feel indebted to BD because *gasp* I guess one of the judges didn't GET THE MEMO last year that said BD was supposed to win and "accidentally" scored Phantom Regiment a tenth of a point higher so now they feel indebted to them??... The reason is - After San Antonio, it appears the judges have clearly decided they want to introduce the element of concert band into DCI... Picture this....First day of BD training camp, instead of saying "OK guys, get your dot books out", the director says, "Guess what guys, this year. forget the dot books, we got something better! We are actually going to get to take our "dots" out on the field WITH us. Here is the plan. At the beginning of the show, you just take your dot (chair) right out and line it up in set-up (just like you would do a dot in practice) then presto!, when the show starts come back and sit or stand in your chair where ya placed it! Play a few ditties, cross your legs for the great GE effect, then move your chairs to your new dot, play a little more, etc." By the third day, the director says, "Sweet!! Didn't I tell ya! Easy right? Great few days of work gang, feel free to take the weekend off!" No reason we need to kill ourselves practicing when over half our show we can have clean as soon as we learn where to place our dots (chairs). And the best part is, nobody will even guess what the strategy is because they will be so in awe of how creative our show design is. Truth be told, I'm not sure any other corps would get credit for having such a "smart", "innovative" show or for sitting down to play (i.e. concert band). Mark my words, three years from now when DCI more closely resembles concert band then marching corps, we can thank the green shirts for feeling sorry that at least one of them didn't get the memo in '08 that said BD was supposed to win. So, by all means, yes, let's just hand it to them this year. Interesting and sarcastic post. I'm not buying your whining re/the chairs. I've seen plenty of comments to the effect of "they're on the chairs half the show", etc., which is just so far off base it defies logic. Let's examine your complaint by reviewing video. OK, sitting on the chairs and playing = 15 seconds. Is this somehow more shameful than standing in place and playing some super-extended impact note at the end of a tune? I don't think so. Is stepping up onto a chair and back down in the middle of a phrase more difficult than standing in place, or even marching? Yes, it is. I also can't think of any concert bands that stand on chairs and play, so please get off the "concert band" jag. I'd also like to address the "line it up in the setup" comment re/the chairs. Corps put equipment out all the time in preset spots, and I don't see you criticizing that practice. Don't cherry-pick to support your opinion. If you saw the San Antonio show, you'd have noticed that some of the files were not dressed near the 50, so the box of chairs was off. There was no chance to adjust the form (as you'd have with a box formed by humans) until the chairs were restaged. For me, it decreased the effect of the show (and it seemed to reflect in the score) because my eyes went to the aberration whenever they crossed that area. Every time you restage the chair, it needs to be in a clean form or you have to live with it until you move it. A corps without chairs can have a dirty form and walk away from it. It's quickly forgotten. BD restaging the chairs puts pressure on the members to produce a clean form with proper orientation of the prop, many times in the matter of a count or two. When it comes to finals, they might sink or swim based on how well they restage the chairs. One bad form could poison what might otherwise be a championship performance. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not a huge fan of the chairs but you have to look at the ups, downs, challenges and demands from both the designer's and members' standpoint. At the beginning of the season I was a bit concerned with the chairs being in the way. Since then, they've refined and limited their use to a point that they're seamless. Someone made the comment that BD "was devoid" of show design, but obviously you don't appreciate the difficulty of programming chairs into a show and making them an asset rather than a liability. The balance of the show is well crafted and competitive both in terms of design quality, exposure and difficulty. BD certainly has some areas of their show that need improvement (the closer, for example) but the chairs are NOT one of them. The corps moves in the "typical" drill style as much as the rest of the top contenders, with the exception of Crown, who move less than any of them by a wide margin. All things considered, they've done an exemplary job of staging and handling the chairs, and also weaving it into the fabric of a show that is championship caliber. All aspects of the ensemble, horns, drums and color guard - are competitive at the highest level. Whether they ultimately win the title is unsure, but criticism based on the horn line sitting down for fifteen seconds is quite ridiculous. Bottom line, the chair haters are just creating a "straw man" to complain about. If you don't like a corps, that's fine. Just don't spend your time bashing that which you obviously don't understand. This goes for the judges as well. They're professionals that do a difficult job well. If you've never done it, give it a shot. Maybe you'll appreciate what they are asked to do, and not call into question an obvious consensus. 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MikeN Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Please keep posts on-topic, and take personal disputes to PM or e-mail. Thanks, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skajerk Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I like BD's show this year. Chairs and all. I like other shows more than theirs but still, I like their show and could give a rip whether they use chairs or not. Signed, Not a BD honk/homer or whatever clever names you can come up with and waiting for some rude comments to come my way because I like their show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skajerk Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 (edited) Oooh! I'll add that one to the list! Edited July 20, 2009 by skajerk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 The webcast was PERFECT here. It was a beautifully clear picture, even when zoomed to full screen, and the sound was great. I thought it was the best broadcast so far, by far! I agree; I only watched it High Cam, but it was the first time in a LONG time that it ran glitch-free from first corps to last. I first tried it on multi-cam, but there were some minor glitches. I quickly switched it to high cam, and had no problems the rest of the (long) night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDCorno Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I agree; I only watched it High Cam, but it was the first time in a LONG time that it ran glitch-free from first corps to last. I first tried it on multi-cam, but there were some minor glitches. I quickly switched it to high cam, and had no problems the rest of the (long) night The webcasts have been good for me. Few if any glitches, and you could tell they were internal problems at the show site. Wish they could broadcast in a higher resolution (full HD would be too much bandwidth), but the picture was more than acceptable, even on my 50" bigscreen. Didn't care at all for the multi-camera view, as the producer/director missed a lot of big visuals. It was quite a bit better than the Denver webcast - perhaps they had better input from the corps as to "what to watch for". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pags Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 The webcasts have been good for me. Few if any glitches, and you could tell they were internal problems at the show site. Wish they could broadcast in a higher resolution (full HD would be too much bandwidth), but the picture was more than acceptable, even on my 50" bigscreen. Didn't care at all for the multi-camera view, as the producer/director missed a lot of big visuals. It was quite a bit better than the Denver webcast - perhaps they had better input from the corps as to "what to watch for". I agree. Better, but not "there" yet, in my opinion. Obviously, one person's opinion doesn't amount to a whole lot when thousands are watching, but I do feel like they're missing big impact moments. For both Denver and San Antonio they would come in close on the colorguard when I feel they should have panned out for a wide shot of what everyone was doing, or focusing on a non-playing block of brass while a drum feature was going on, or focusing on the whole corps when the design dictated highlighting one section or individual. But, this may all just be prep-work for the Quarterfinals and Finals broadcasts. Ad if if helps them come away with better editing and shots for the DVD's, then I'm all for it. I feel they suffered a little in the shot-selection quality for the 2008 DVD's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldsoprano Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 (edited) If you had seen the housing site we had, you might feel differently. The place was a huge construction zone with no rehearsal space. Carolina Crown shared the housing site with us, but they have had their share of opportunities to rehearse at the show site this season. I think it's fair for us to get a bone thrown our way from time to time. I certainly understand how housing issues can come up, but being allowed to practice in the air conditioned Dome while everyone else is out in nearly 100-degree heat goes a little beyond just an opportunity to rehearse at the show site. If it had been any other show, it wouldn't have been that big of a competitive advantage, but for this show, whether it was intentional or a last-minute thing because of a bad housing situation, you've got to admit it did give them an advantage. How could they not be fresher when they did their show than any of the other corps who spent much of the day rehearsing in the heat? I know, for instance, that Spirit had one guard member that was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance because of the heat. After getting a couple of bags of IV fluids, she made it to the AlamoDome in time for step-off, but had only recovered enough to march a small portion of the show where she had a weapons solo. That left a guard hole the rest of the show. Bottom line is, whether planned or not, it was still a competitive advantage. Edited July 20, 2009 by oldsoprano Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I certainly understand how housing issues can come up, but being allowed to practice in the air conditioned Dome while everyone else is out in nearly 100-degree heat goes a little beyond just an opportunity to rehearse at the show site. If it had been any other show, it wouldn't have been that big of a competitive advantage, but for this show, whether it was intentional or a last-minute thing because of a bad housing situation, you've got to admit it did give them an advantage. How could they not be fresher when they did their show than any of the other corps who spent much of the day rehearsing in the heat? I know, for instance, that Spirit had one guard member that was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance because of the heat. After getting a couple of bags of IV fluids, she made it to the AlamoDome in time for step-off, but had only recovered enough to march a small portion of the show where she had a weapons solo. That left a guard hole the rest of the show. Bottom line is, whether planned or not, it was still a competitive advantage. If we had been forced to attempt to practice at a housing site with no fields, there would have been no public outcry about our situation. The corps administration was offered a gift horse; they chose not to look it in the mouth. Any other corps would have made the same decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinwiz Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I agree. Better, but not "there" yet, in my opinion. Obviously, one person's opinion doesn't amount to a whole lot when thousands are watching, but I do feel like they're missing big impact moments. For both Denver and San Antonio they would come in close on the colorguard when I feel they should have panned out for a wide shot of what everyone was doing, or focusing on a non-playing block of brass while a drum feature was going on, or focusing on the whole corps when the design dictated highlighting one section or individual. But, this may all just be prep-work for the Quarterfinals and Finals broadcasts. Ad if if helps them come away with better editing and shots for the DVD's, then I'm all for it. I feel they suffered a little in the shot-selection quality for the 2008 DVD's. The shot decisions always disappoint people. It's impossible to make an edit that will satisfy everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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