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

[perc2100]

It has never been as simple as "loud music + fast drill = awesome!". If it was, both the recent Blue Devils and the stereotypical Malaguena corps would be universally loved by all.

But I guess where I register my most substantive objection with what you just described is the use of the word "challenged". If you are correct (and I suspect you are), there is a tendency among judges to reserve the highest intellectual credit for shows that appear to "challenge" the mind, either by flouting convention or by injecting some sort of thematic plotline.

Of course, these tacks are hardly intellectual. It takes only a few minutes of thinking outside the box to come up with ways to flout convention. A theme may require a couple of hours to flesh out (and an overdose of recreational substances to produce something like Cadets 2006). I imagine some designers spend far more time - maybe it took many tweaks to make the Sarah Jones dialogue precisely as vapid as the NPR program it sought to mimic. If so, mission accomplished. Maybe judges get off on details like this, understanding what the designer was attempting by virtue of numerous interviews with them (critiques). But for the viewer, does this type of material really work your intellect?

For me, my intellect is impacted far more deeply by the music and the motion. Dynamics, tempo, pacing. Melody, harmony, chord structures. Coordination of visual to the music. So many subtleties. The true intellectual challenge is in how you assemble all those components, using the language of music and the vocabulary of visual to speak to us. Tell us a story that way. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a well done drum corps show is worth a million words.

This is a good point, and obviously not all corps are successful at conveying their ideas, or bringing their subtleties to the audience (I judge winter percussion, and it's not uncommon to have an instructor describe stuff to me in critique that doesn't come across in any way whatsoever in their actual performance). You're right that there are a plethora of subtleties coordinating vis to music design, and the designers who do that best are a joy to watch.

That being said, most of the top corps have good visual coordination, and what separates good from great, or great from Championship caliber are the subtleties and added nuances. I don't always pick up on that stuff on a first or second read as a casual audience member, but I do get that stuff eventually. Watching videos after the season I can look for even more stuff.

I personally dig that type of design, especially when done well: narration too (as I attempt to bring the discussion back on topic). As an example, Cadets 2005 probably could've worked just as well with out the Bjork-speak. But that stuff worked REALLY well in context of Cadets "weird," pseudo-disorienting show: especially if you know the context of the Bjork speak from the source material (DANCER IN THE DARK is an incredible film, albeit a not-uplifting one). That type of design, when done well, really can set a performance apart from, say, a Cavalier show that has brilliant visual & music coordination but not much else.

[perc2100]

There has has always been Corps doing shows for all tastes....even BITD Corps were never all the same. The key thing now is to grow an audience.... or die

See, I would disagree, especially looking at corps reps show listings. A lot of that stuff, IMO, is same ol, same ol even with years of Top 12 corps doing the same source material (like 1993 with Madison and Devs both doing "Strawberry Soup".

On the flip side, I think corps now do not always feel the same (some years they do). I thought last year was a pretty wildly diverse Top 12 thematically.

[perc2100]

The difference, though (between drum corps and Hollywood), is that each movie is an entirely separate product, brought to market by itself. The shows of various drum corps are combined in joint products, marketed by a circuit like DCI or DCA. We have the equivalent of "academy awards" courtesy of our own academy of green shirted people, but we do not have the audience accountability that the box office provides in the world of film.

That's true, but there are ways for the audience to flex their financial muscle via souvies, show attendance, etc. It's harder to quantify obviously, but I think staffers/designers know if a show is "working" as far as judges + audience connection, and know if course-correction is needed after a few years (I think BD did this when they changed their show designs up a bit a decade ago in order to 'break-up' the Cavalier dynasty of show designs).

[cixelsyd]

That's true, but there are ways for the audience to flex their financial muscle via souvies, show attendance, etc. It's harder to quantify obviously, but I think staffers/designers know if a show is "working" as far as judges + audience connection, and know if course-correction is needed after a few years (I think BD did this when they changed their show designs up a bit a decade ago in order to 'break-up' the Cavalier dynasty of show designs).

Judges - yes. Audience - not so sure.

Based on the discourse we have had here over the past few years, I am not convinced that designers (or corps directors) have a firm grasp on where their audience stands. How exactly do they know?

[Jeff Ream]

Ridiculous.

Are there agreed upon norms for color palette selection?

Are there agreed upon norms for rifle choreography?

Are there agreed upon norms for drill design?

And yet -- somehow -- without academic support -- judges manage to adjudicate all these things in band, drum corps, guard, and percussion shows all year long.

How DO they do that?

ok, ok i'll spill the secret.

they gather at Uncle Dan's house.

they pick straws. now 7 corps get 2 straws to the others straws. occasionaly to be funny, Dan does this with another corps just to see if they crack the top 7.

after they play pick up, then they see which corps is to be put where, but then they figure out how to do it and still shake the captions up a little but just for drama

[Jeff Ream]

There doesn't have to be specific mention of narration...that is all part of what judged already evaluate. You don't see specuial mention of the mellophones on the sheets, or the cowbell. These are all part of the audio presentation. If a brass chart is muddy and indistinct in how it is arranged...in what the chart is trying to communicate to the audience, it is scored low...if a narration is muddy and indistinct in how it is written and performed...in what that moment is trying to communicate to the audience, it is scored low...see Cadets 2008 for an example of narration that just never worked on the field, either as written (and the rewrote the entire story completely, IMO making it worse) or the performance...due in part to the visual choice of staging the set waaaay backfield.

it's criminal that cowbell isn't on the sheets. absolutely criminal

[Jeff Ream]

Um yes.

You know that the entire GE caption for DCI in its early 70's was written by a solitary ( not done collaboratively) middle school math teacher, right ?. And that this fine gentleman was involved heavily in its updating of these captions recently, and that he still judges Finals Week in World Class, right ?

yes.

and did you know...gasp...while many drum corps percussion sections play flams....flams arent on the sheets right?

[Jeff Ream]

Perhaps there needs to be another judge... one with a background in radio/media announcing and voice work.

I know this guy in Baltimore....

never pass the dress code

[Jeff Ream]

I hear you. Its not" the morons" that speak that gives me much concern however.. its the high and mighty that want to silence" the morons". THAT crowd gives me a chill ( and I hope it still chills a lot of others too... otherwise we're in deeper dodoo than we think in this Country ).

actually the high and mighty are the morons

[Jeff Ream]

The problem is that in the attempt to seem "intellectual" it comes across as "faux intellectual" and usually is.

yep. too often designers pick a concept so nebulous all they can think of is narration to bail them out.

most of the time, it doesnt help on the sheets