Forget Woodwinds – Beware of WGI

[MikeRapp]

4 hours ago, bluesman said:

I completely agree.  We see corps using stages and props more and more.  Those things limit the amount of field that corps members cover during the performance.  This season we saw corps that spent most of their show performing on the right side of the 50 yard line.   If we continue to see less and less of the field utilized we will end of up with shows that could fit entirely on a WGI sized stage.  

155 marching members on a WGI sized stage?! Come on folks.

[Fred Windish]

11 hours ago, garfield said:

This was very prescient.  Controlled conditions - check.  But check with some good benefits to fans, too.  Lighting, large pieces, hi-tech but with audio and not so much visual.

Your second paragraph was, and still is, the most pressing question.  Again, can it be said that, 10 years on, the change in direction has brought more BITS resulting in more $$ for the corps?  I'm not seeing it.

I think DCI attendance is already at capacity, and has been so for several years.  I’m not referring to total season attendance, but ‘individual event” capacity.

In-person attendance at Saturday Indy Finals is not going to increase significantly. Our events are what I call “venue limited.”  to the amount of good/decent seats available between the front hundred yards.  No matter what production enhancements are introduced, live, in-person audience capacity is pre-determined at every venue on the schedule.

Simply raising ticket prices each year is problematic. 

Because entertainment needs to remain attractive to prospective fans who replace fans who drop out, the current enhancements were necessary to keep-up. A little like Country Music taking on a Rock Concert persona.  

Revenue growth will be found outside of in-person ticket sales. It is essential to have a showcase like Flo Marching Arts channel. But, Flo has made some bad decisions that are not helpful to the cause. Bumbling Marching Arts’ main event is inexcusable.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Fred Windish

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, MikeRapp said:

That may be true, but you cannot assume that the alternative direction would have resulted in better outcomes. In my opinion they would have been worse. Look at the evolution of BOA. High school bands are leading much of these changes.

band and Wgi is where the experimentation takes place.

[N.E. Brigand]

4 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

band and Wgi is where the experimentation takes place.

Is that just because there are more groups?

If, say, one percent of participating organizations are willing to do something wildly experimental, that means fewer than one DCI corps per year, but it means a few dozen BOA bands per year.

[MikeRapp]

30 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Is that just because there are more groups?

If, say, one percent of participating organizations are willing to do something wildly experimental, that means fewer than one DCI corps per year, but it means a few dozen BOA bands per year.

You have a much greater disparity in capabilities and time constraints in high school, some schools treat band like Open Class; others treat it as an in-school activity with very little after school requirements.

[xandandl]

9 hours ago, Fred Windish said:

I think DCI attendance is already at capacity, and has been so for several years.  I’m not referring to total season attendance, but ‘individual event” capacity.

In-person attendance at Saturday Indy Finals is not going to increase significantly. Our events are what I call “venue limited.”  to the amount of good/decent seats available between the front hundred yards.  No matter what production enhancements are introduced, live, in-person audience capacity is pre-determined at every venue on the schedule.

Simply raising ticket prices each year is problematic. 

Because entertainment needs to remain attractive to prospective fans who replace fans who drop out, the current enhancements were necessary to keep-up. A little like Country Music taking on a Rock Concert persona.  

Revenue growth will be found outside of in-person ticket sales. It is essential to have a showcase like Flo Marching Arts channel. But, Flo has made some bad decisions that are not helpful to the cause. Bumbling Marching Arts’ main event is inexcusable.

100 per cent as emboldened.  Flo is but the latest version of what PBS served for DCI.

[cixelsyd]

On 8/19/2019 at 3:39 PM, xandandl said:

When DCI started after the '71 season and the Rules Congress's that immediately followed, the number 128 was agreed upon at the intervention of and plea of Bob Holton, at that time the director of the then St. Andrew's CYO Bridgemen of Bayonne, NJ. (At that time the St. Andrew's Bridgemen wore cadet-style white jackets and shako, gold trim, and black pants.) 

The idea of the Congress was to maintain a clear but full marching, manuvering, and musical activity in which as many kids as possible could participate. At the time, the usual corps was much smaller but Bob said his corps actually had two hundred members if he did not audition and place limits on participation. Don Warren, Jim Jones, Rick Maas (a judge from the Central States Judging Association) and various corps directors debated the point for a half hour.  At that time, insurance also required adult supervision (read adult chaperones) on each bus of minors.  Bob Holton showed that in 3 buses with chaperones and mms, 128 mms could be accomodated. The drill writers liked the number because of the way it could be subdivided evenly. The vote in favor was almost unanimous with some objection from a few smaller corps who have since faded away from my memory. I was present for this meeting and for the subcommittee, full committee, and voting sessions for the first five congresses; I voted in favor of the motion. 

Memory is a tricky thing.

I am not going to trust my memory, so I went through some publications from back in the day.  Evidently, 135 was the maximum size in 1975, and the change to 128 was made at some point prior to the 1976 season, most likely the rules congress held in November of 1975.

Consider this excerpt from a Jerry Seawright interview by Steve Fain in Drum Corps World, vol. 5 no. 1 (April 1976), p. 11-12:

Quote

 

JS:  I personally didn't like limiting the size of the corps to 128, however the majority believed it was in the best interest of all corps.

DCW:  I agree with you... I liked the previous size.

JS:  I think we should have stayed with at least the 135.  I feel that large corps... 135-140... provides what it's all about.  The name of the game is sell.  Right?  And that's what a large corps does... SELL.  Madison, with their large corps, provided the audience with that WOW feeling.  As in the Binaca commercials, they provided the energy to blow peoples' hair back and open their eyes in amazement.  Sixty-five horns pointing toward the stands blowing the audience's hair back.  One of my new parents told me he prefers drum corps over band because he feels the music, physically feels the music, physically feels the percussion from the drums and the horns.  The moment a large hornline turns formation and plays at a doube forte... that's emotional.

DCW:  That's true and it does seem conservative doesn't it, to drop it back to 128?

JS:  Yes, definitely.

 

 

[Fran Haring]

12 hours ago, Fred Windish said:

I think DCI attendance is already at capacity, and has been so for several years.  I’m not referring to total season attendance, but ‘individual event” capacity.

In-person attendance at Saturday Indy Finals is not going to increase significantly. Our events are what I call “venue limited.”  to the amount of good/decent seats available between the front hundred yards.  No matter what production enhancements are introduced, live, in-person audience capacity is pre-determined at every venue on the schedule.

Brenda and I went to the Saturday show at DCI East in 2017... she was in Allentown for the Crossmen Alumni event, and we got tickets with the BOGO deal in the local newspaper. 

Our seats were out near the goal line... and honestly, it was not a good experience. The way shows are designed these days, it seems that "between the 30s"... perhaps even the 35s... provides the best bang for the buck. 

[Jeff Ream]

7 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Is that just because there are more groups?

If, say, one percent of participating organizations are willing to do something wildly experimental, that means fewer than one DCI corps per year, but it means a few dozen BOA bands per year.

safer. risk is rewarded more there too. failure means a lot more on the DCI stage

[Terri Schehr]

53 minutes ago, Fran Haring said:

Brenda and I went to the Saturday show at DCI East in 2017... she was in Allentown for the Crossmen Alumni event, and we got tickets with the BOGO deal in the local newspaper. 

Our seats were out near the goal line... and honestly, it was not a good experience. The way shows are designed these days, it seems that "between the 30s"... perhaps even the 35s... provides the best bang for the buck. 

Blast zone 50.  😂