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Madison in Macy's Parade


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F A N T A S T I C J O B, S C O U T S! Wonderful, amazing, incredible, hard work, dedication, flair, pizazz, talent, pride! Now, about television performance.

First rule of television live performance, FILL EVERY COUNT WITH MOTION. Shots last less than two seconds, and every shot has to be filled with movement. For example, the sixteen count pause between the end of the song Happy and the start of the drum beat is interminable. Looks like a mistake. No standing still, before, during or after your song. Constant movement. No silent segues, no marking time, no bowing. Final tableaus can last no longer than two beats.

Second rule of television-- KNOW THE FRAME SIZE and stage accordingly. Fill the screen and know the shots and camera angles. Know the size of the staging area and fill it accordingly, without excess performers. Avoid too large a group with performers that spill outside the frame.

Third rule of television-- VOLUME AND SIZE DON'T TRANSLATE on TV because there's no perspective. Don't make audio volume the focus of your piece unless it can be translated through a TV screen (it can't). Same with size-- unless you're OK GO and have a Go Pro mounted to a drone, viewers will never appreciate the size or volume of your corps. Broadcast audio for one-time live non-electronic music always sucks, especially if your audio is different than everyone else's (massive scale brass explosion-- no one is ready for that, and no one has bothered to mic it properly either), so emphasize the visual instead. Sometimes your audio will be talked over, muffled, pre-empted, cut out or overlapped. Besides, viewers can only appreciate volume as translated by the television production companies' audio design.

Fourth rule of television - ADD A FOCAL POINT for a closeup-- either a featured performer, soloist or center stage small group. Television relies on multiple cuts wide, medium, closeup, overhead, wide, medium, closeup overhead. Give us a featured performer to look at close-up, otherwise we have nothing interesting to cut to we're stuck for days with a wide or overhead shot. Change the stage picture at least five times in a 45 minute segment.

Fifth rule of television- STORY BOARD your 45 seconds! Even though you may not know the order of the shots, plan so that each angle pops with motion, regardless of last minute shot order. Rehearse with cameras you set up to mirror the Macy's production. Get a jib. Get an overhead camera. Whatever it takes to make sure each shot pops with visual appeal. No pauses, no standstill, no marking time. Color guard, no alternating group a and group B like they did in the guard work because that means you're guaranteed to have a shot of group B standing still on camera while Group A off camera is spinning their arms off, and group B will be standing there for an eternity perfectly still, and then when the producer finally switches the shot to the Group A, guess what? Also, overhead shots must be filled with drill movement, even if it's scatter drill or simple back and forth cross moves.

Hmm, I wish you were there so all of these "glaring" mistakes would have been corrected. But you weren't and don't really know all of the logistics and amount of rehearsal time that was actually done trying to get 430 members from 6 generations all on the same page with a evening practice and one full day before the parade. I think it was fantastic and great exposure for our activity.

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First rule of television live performance, FILL EVERY COUNT WITH MOTION.

Second rule of television-- KNOW THE FRAME SIZE and stage accordingly.

Third rule of television-- VOLUME AND SIZE DON'T TRANSLATE on TV because there's no perspective.

Fourth rule of television-- ADD A FOCAL POINT for a closeup-- either a featured performer, soloist or center stage small group.

Fifth rule of television- STORY BOARD your 45 seconds!

These all sounds like sensible guidelines, but I doubt any of this was practical on this occasion. Some parts were presumably out of the Scouts' control, like knowing the frame size, especially in any time to readjust a marching performance. Others could be "fixed" only by radically changing the plan: if "volume and size don't translate on TV", the solution was presumably to tell half of the 400+ Scouts who wanted to participate not to bother.

Edited by N.E. Brigand
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These all sounds like sensible guidelines, but I doubt any of this was practical on this occasion. Some parts were presumably out of the Scouts' control, like knowing the frame size, especially in any time to readjust a marching performance. Others could be "fixed" only by radically changing the plan: if "volume and size don't translate on TV", the solution was presumably to tell half of the 400+ Scouts who wanted to participate not to bother.

The scouts had literally ten years' worth of televised Macy's parades to view regarding camera angles, with the overhead angle being added in the last few years. So, no. (I hope you're not a defense attorney with that logic, LOLz. :tounge2:)

The concept of a massive corps appearing at a televised parade was a planning error-- that many performers don't fit in a TV frame. Would you rather tell the 200+ Scouts who didn't fit in frame that they were edited out after all their work? The Scouts' planners were thinking in terms of massive live performance and reunion, which isn't what this televised event is about. It's primarily about the 25 million viewers on TV, not the three million in attendance. Live attendees were dazzled by the Scouts' power. TV audiences, however, viewed the corps through a tiny TV portal and a street-sized performance space and a 45 second performance window, and the show design should have been adjusted accordingly. For example, if you had a Macy's performance by the members of the revival of the Broadway play Cats, you would probably avoid making it a reunion parade unit, which would have like 350 performers dressed as cats, falling over each other in a small street sized stage space, with disorganized heaps of fur flying around and spilling out of frame.

There were two additional problems. First, the oversized drum line overpowers outdoor Sennheiser mics with a hairy windshield. :shutup: That's a mistake. Second, corps need to begin to design for television performance, limiting the number of performers and condensing the scope and intensity of the production to a tiny performance space.

DCI has been spoiled by the great television production crews on DCI shows which have adjusted the camera angles, jibs and framing to suit the field shows, capturing the depth and richness of the performances, wide, medium and closeup.

Edited by Brutus
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The Scouts had literally ten years' worth of televised Macy's parades to view regarding camera angles, with the overhead angle being added in the last few years. So, no. (I hope you're not a defense attorney with that logic.)

Well, I did think of that, Mr. Prosecutor, but all it would take was a new producer or director (which happens with annual televised events all the time) who decided she wanted the cameras in a different position this year, and all that planning you suggest goes for naught. As for whether to make this a big reunion event or a promote-the-Scouts-on-TV event (in which any number of contingencies might waste the Scouts' efforts), they had to make a choice, and quite reasonably opted for the former.

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I'm sure I'll get blasted for this, but I think that the whole performance would have sounded MUCH better if they decided to go without those screamers in the front. There were too many of them, for one, and some of them simply could not hit the notes they were trying to hit. When taken it its totality, added to the mix of the rest of the corps (which sounded relatively decent), the poor blend made me cringe a bit. Still, a terrific bit of exposure for DCI.

As far as the whole TV coverage thing and the "small stage," I think the networks should take into account the size of some of these groups (and let's face it, there were no "small" bands in the parade) and consider a higher angle that covers more of the group. Then, when the smaller Broadway acts come onto the stage, they can use the current set of angles. I know they'll probably never do that, but that's what I would do.

Or maybe (and this is a big stretch) instead of having the stage in front of Macy's, move it to an intersection with more space? Macy's could put up all the signage they want in the background, but as long as they keep inviting all these acts with so many performers, they should really look into making sure they can televise them in as full a capacity as they can. I know. Pipe dream for an event such as this, but a guy can dream.

Edited by seen-it-all
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My guess is that the Scouts saw the opportunity to field a massive alumni corps much the way Cavaliers did a few years ago; as a method for building stronger alumni relations (and, presumably, alumni funding).

Their ancillary PR efforts seems to have been pretty well-covered as well, so it's hard to consider it anything as a success (though the on-camera product would have been better-served minus the screamers).

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none of the bands come anywhere close to fitting on the screen for the tv audience... just the way it is.

I don't think the parade wants 30 person marching bands, but they would fit nicely on the tv cameras.

Drum Corps is different than "band." It's a highly specialized marching activity which can now adapt to any performance medium, from Kabuki theater to Snapchat.

Edited by Brutus
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All the criticism aside, I liked it. I liked the screamers. I thought it was fun and what It should have been. Of course it could be "better" presented for TV but I feel that way about just about every band at Macy's.

I liked it for what it was, and think it also made a pretty positive statement about the Scouts Alumni that shoots down some of that gets said here on DCP. I believe the whole thing was about

-getting together with your corpsmates old and new and enjoying being with the corps again. They did. I watched some of the FB videos. being an alumni corps member myself, I knew what was going through their hearts. It meant a lot to all of them to just be together.

-kicking some "tuckus"., serious "tuckus". They did.

Perhaps making the perfect presentation for TV wasn't exactly their main goal here. :satisfied:

Just my tuppence.

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