Narration -- Do designers think audiences are now more accepting?

[GUARDLING]

maybe use "sticks and stones" as a visual metaphor!

love it!!!!!!!!

[jjeffeory]

The peanut gallery ( aka ticket purchasers to the DCI shows ) are essentially irrelevent to whether or not narration is needed, wanted, essential to a DCI Corps show performance. The peanut gallery is a complete non factor in the judging of these shows. As such, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks on here about narration in shows... or frankly about anything at all that a Corps does in DCI. The audience does not matter in the judging, so naturally it is the 2 dozen or so current DC judges that all these DCI Corps Show Designers take their counsel from... not you ( or me, or others ) eating our peanuts up in the stands that bought a ticket.( and the peanuts )

Agreed, as SAD as that is... Still we are talking about it. I had to take a break for a couple of weeks, but here I am again; still in love with an idea and sharing my feelings to the DCP crowd even though I do not matter,

It's just my chance to bond with my fellow dcp posters and learn a thing or two and pass some time.

[jjeffeory]

exactly.

voice is used a heck of lot more over in the guard world. sometimes it distracts. sometimes it props up. sometimes i ask "why?"

and sometimes it is powerfully effective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWQJo3OOQ6M

the whole idea that it's a valueless addition which requires no talent is far out of step with reality -- it's just plain fantasyland! inflection, pacing, clarity and tone can combine to make the voice/narration a true art form.

if it's an integral part of the entire conceptual design, it can really yank you around emotionally and intellectually. because words --presented properly -- can set you off in an entirely different directiion than what otherwise would be case.

do i enjoy shows where the music is the only voice? absolutely. but it doesn't mean there aren't other choices, other possibilities, other approaches i might enjoy as well.

Yowza, Yowza, YOWZA!

That's some effective art right there...

Around :47

Edited May 2, 2014 by jjeffeory

[lindap]

Drum corps and winter guard have explored narration. One moreso than the other. Success in a gym exceeds a field with microphones. If a voice projects conviction and passion with their words, it's good. Since when did we add drama to drum corps? I thought it was about motion and music? In the past it was about music and emotion ;)

Edited May 2, 2014 by lindap

[MikeD]

That doesn't mean that drum corps are relying ONLY on the use of voice to help tell the story or explain thematic aspect of the material. They do so in numerous non-vocal ways as well (costuming, color guard, body movement, sometimes props, music, etc) and voice is intended to be just another level of depth. Sometimes it works better than others, this is true. BUT sometimes those other non-vocal techniques work better than others as well in shows which don't utilize voice at all. It's a difficult balancing act for any corps or show designer.

The same goes in movies. "Don't tell it, show it" is fine, and if you show it well, your story will come across. But there are also filmmakers who like to employ a narrator and they do that extremely well, too. Scorsese comes immediately to mind. Citizen Kane had several narrators. It's probably easier to get away with that in film because the characters are also speaking and dialogue is part of what movies are generally all about. In drum corps, we've been used to just music and visual interpretation and the use of voice can be jarring to our expectations. Understandable. Will it be so in ten or twenty years when people will have grown more accustomed to it? I have no idea.

And one of MY favorites films..."The Christmas Story".

[MikeD]

well they tried without it a few times and didn't quite get there...

I believe they think the narration helped them win (aka, helped them do something they had never done before without it)

Would Crown have won without it? That's something we will never know...

I would rather hear more Crown hornline and less Crown vocals... but I acknowledge that other people might well feel differently. Maybe they buy DCI tickets to hear Crown's vocals?

It may have been that the corps ahead of them before were just that much better.

2011 - Crown was 5th in Vlsual Effect and 4th in Music Effect, 5th in overall Visual performance, including guard, and 6th in percussion.

2012 - 2nd in Visual Effect, 3rd in Visual Analysis, 3rd in guard and 6th in percussion....

[Fran Haring]

And one of MY favorites films..."The Christmas Story".

Jean Shepherd!!!!

Mike, remember when he was a radio personality in NYC? A master storyteller.

[quietcity]

It should be noted here that narration is not the same thing as vocal effects.

Best example is Crown 2013: The first half of the show used vocal effects (harmonic chanting, counting). While I was ambivalent about it upon first hearing, I eventually decided that these effects really did enhance and deepen the minimalist music of Glass, and the frenetic visual production. Kudos to Crown for being this daring, and pulling it off.

The second half of their show, however, is just straight-on narration, and worse, narration of a sappy and generic love story. All turgid prose and Hallmark sentiment, no poetry. After repeated hearings, I still find this narration intrusive and unmusical, lacking any artistic merit. Worse, it distracts from the gorgeous sounds of that amazing horn line. If I were the narration judge that night, I would have spanked Crown for this section. I am guessing that Crown felt they had to add some vocals to the second half of the show, to balance it with the first half, which incorporated vocals so thoroughly.

So, moral of story: vocal effects = good, narration = bad. Thoughts?

[HornTeacher]

(Deleted)

Edited May 2, 2014 by HornTeacher

[perc2100]

I find these strained attempts to build narration up into something it isn't, for example, a true art form, hilarious. Narration is widely panned, and that sticks in your craw because your fave corps used narration conspicuously. There is no special talent in talking into a microphone as it is done in drum corps.

I find your strained attempts obtuse, lacking in legit educational value, and not adding to intelligent discourse of World Class DCI drum and bugle corps. Your super-broad brush strokes are impossibly applied "one-size-fits-all" as you seem to want to do, and upon doing so it reeeeaaaaly coems off as eye-rolling naive.

I was originally in the process of typing up a more thought-out, intelligent reply talking about how narration is at times a part of the actual original composition (Lincoln Portrait, Einstein on the Beach, etc) that corps are just adapting for the field. Or talking about how there obviously is special talent needed to "talking in a mic" otherwise there wouldn't be people who seemingly struggle with it, as evident in some drum corps productions we've seen (which says nothing about the myriad of pro "narrators" and voice talents who work commercials and animated productions). Have corps sucked at performing/designing narration? Of course. Have corps sucked at performing/designing percussion? Of course. Drill, brass, guard, etc? Of course. Design is hit or miss, as is performance, and that applies to ALL captions of a design. On the flip side, there has been great design in all of those named captions as well. Including narration.

If you willfully want to ignore that, that's your problem. If you don't LIKE narration, that's your choice and I don't care either way. Claiming there's no talent involved, or that there is zero added benefit EVER in narration is flat out wrong, and if you can't recognize that then you're just being naive or stubborn.