perc2100 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 I secretly hope they win but BD is more on fire now than I have ever seen them in 44 years! I'm not kidding! it's going to be a real battle with Cadets this year. They seem real hungry also but have not seen their visual show yet. Were we watching the same BD drum corps this year? I personally am very disappointed with the BD program this year, they hardly move around it seems and the music is . . . . well, ok. Was really hoping for more of a 2011 music book. Don't think this BD corps will be top 3, possibly even 5th. Crown is moving amazingly and the playing speaks for itself. SCV I think will beat BD and Cadets this year, not sure if they will take Crown though. In all honesty have not seen anything out of the Santa Clara team. This is what's cool about DCI & us (the fans) this time of year. With zero judges, scores, spreads, etc. we can all see the same performance videos and come to wildly different opinions! I sincerely think that's awesome, and look forward to seeing how this season shakes up! Props to Crown for sharing their big night with all of us (for free, even!) and putting it all out there for us to over-analyze, criticize, and/or love. As some in SoCA who envies those in the stands that got to see the run though, I appreciate the gift! The show is both wildly different, yet also pretty much exactly what I was expecting. I look forward to seeing the show tweaked, cleaned, etc. this season 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Whoever is designing Drum Corps costumes should just stop. Stop with the bad colors, stop with oversized shakos that make the corp members look like little kids wearing a hat that is way to big for them, stop with the tight pants that show tthe guys junk. Just stop. Please stop wearing costumes & return to uniforms. Please. Great horn line though... Although I do think there are way to many that think they are fashionistas and are the next Michael Kors I do agree many need to stop BUT I do think that ship has sailed as far as returning to actual BITD Uniforms. There are many reasons for todays approach to " Uniforms/costumes, Themes/ movement/ interchangeable....like I said the ship has sailed....JMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 That being said, I liked Crowns drill better last year.......Can they win it all again ? Why not. I honestly think now-a-days it is REALLY hard to get a good sense of visual design on a first read: especially when we're talking multi-cam video streaming where we're 100% at the mercy of the video director on what exactly we see. I felt like I didn't get a good read at all on a lot of the visual design, likely because I was trying to take everything all in. There was one form, though, in the back third that was a big push to a slower movement where the guard made a form from the bottom right of the screen to the upper left, and the colors & guard posing was really cool. It was a simplistic type of thing, with the guard on the lower part (on the right, before going through the brass form) on the ground in one pose, with the guard members on the upper left after intersecting with the brass standing up in a different pose. It was a really nice look, and the colors of the guard contrasting with the corps proper were very cool! But there were a LOT of visual things I missed on first read, at least. I'll probably try to watch the video a few more times to get a better feel. I'll be curious to hear if the effect of all the various stuff on the field outweighs the potential visual "clutter" of it all being the same spot the entire show. Maybe it won't bother judges (it honestly didn't bother me on first read), but it might, IDK. Really curious to see what happens competitively: wish Crown were coming out to CA again to mix it up with Devs and SCV 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crownisking Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 My point is that they did not distract. It seems Crown is going crazy over props. All the props BD use are effective in what they are doing. When I saw Crown props for this year, I thought they were a distraction. 1930 had 40 chairs Cabaret Voltaire was represented by hobby horses. And everything else they had was part of the Dada movement. The 100 poles in Rite of Spring represented the 100th anniversary of Rite of Spring The mirrors went well with the music from City of Glass I don't see how any of this makes any of BD's props any less distracting than Crown's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConnorLeeWithSomeTea Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 I thought the hornline was very powerful with the large hits, and the fast notes at the end were very good. The drill, though, I was not impressed. As far as guard and percussion, the muffler/ earth plate feature was cool, and I liked the trampolines. It definitely could have used more of a story with it, though. Overall, it wasn't bad. It should be a lot better by finals, of course. So I'll see how it grows to there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Whoever is designing Drum Corps costumes should just stop. Stop with the bad colors, stop with oversized shakos that make the corp members look like little kids wearing a hat that is way to big for them, stop with the tight pants that show tthe guys junk. Just stop. Please stop wearing costumes & return to uniforms. Please. Great horn line though... IDK, as others have pointed out I think we're well beyond that point now. If that's the case (spoiler: it is), I really like what Crown has done the last two years with costuming & colors. The way they integrate the costuming into their visual design is amazing, and it really sets them apart from almost every other corps in DCI. Also, if it's between Crown 2013 and 2014, and a corps uniform like, say, Madison Scouts lately that looks kind of like a short-sleaved janitor uniform, I'll take costume any day of the week. But that's why we have diversity in the activity: I can love me some Crown costumes and you can love you some old-school Cadets (or whomever you really like) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Absolutely agree about the videographer's choices affecting our perception of a show's quality. In this case, I thought way too much time was spent focused on the trampolines and the car-part percussion break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Add one more to the list. The question I'm wondering is how many props are too many? Is it the size of the prop more than the number of props? I dunno, I just feel like there's a little pot calling the kettle copper going on here. That's just me, It's all good. For me (and likely most adjudicators), it's all about how effective the props are. A judge is not sitting there counting "stuff" on the field, and saying, "ooooh, 100 is 13 props too many sorry." DCI judges aren't like the MPAA counting eff-words in a PG-13 movie, or pelvic thrusts in an R-rated film. A gigantic house on the field is either effective or it isn't: 40 chairs either work or they don't. We'll see how trampolines & tons of percussion gear scattered on a field work for judges soon enough 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Absolutely agree about the videographer's choices affecting our perception of a show's quality. In this case, I thought way too much time was spent focused on the trampolines and the car-part percussion break. Having watched a few hi-cam vids of the show, I agree. I have a suspicion that (like last year and several other Crown shows) video is going to miss the show no matter how clever the camera work. True for the audio as well -- Crown's been expanding their use of sound in space. You need to be see and hear it live. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Something that I would have done with the guard is remove those head pieces they have and get something similar to what the Cavies guard had back in 2006 for Machine. It was really difficult to get a great read of the visual design, and I tried really hard, but I couldn't quite see how/why those headpieces were really that effective for most of the show (unless they took them off for large portions and I missed that). I dug how they kind of reminded me of the 'Space Oddity' music video: a video that was done pretty low-fi and low-tech. And maybe they will be adding to those visors throughout the season: that's what I'm kind of thinking, and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt at this point. I agree that Cavaliers' guard uniforms in 2006 were off-the-hook, and I guess props to Crown for seemingly trying to not come close to mimicking them in any way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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