Duelling Decisions in DeKalb

[Yorkvillain]

They are not "bad" but they are facing four that really make huge contributions in their own ways:

BD - the undisputed masters of performance expression. Numerous WOW moments including the rifles on the high chairs and the stunningly musical saber work in the ballad.

Crown - the best staging of any guard this year. Wherever you look for an impact moment, there is the guard. Always in the right place at the right time in interesting ways. Plus they are doing incredibly hard stuff very well and are nailing the whole "tortured souls" performance aspect.

Vanguard - just cool stuff. I mean, the X-ray suits are a hoot!

Bluecoats: They need to clean more but are making a huge GE contribution, especially with the D-shaped silver things. The way they use them perfectly reflects the sounds the corps is making. They also do one of my favorite things: "less is more," rather than "more is more." The moments where they balance on one foot, do slow motion, etc. These bits of visual silence pull you in from all the noise, as opposed to being constantly pummeled with toss after toss after toss.

Cadets will undoubtedly be much cleaner by the end but, to me, nothing really stands out. The costume is generic. The silk designs are fair, the weapons seems to do a lot of similar work over and over. The pole-and-hoop thing generates little impact (especially after coloring them lime green and pink - yuck). The biggest puzzlement is the staging. The weapons mostly go back and forth in the same space in the front and the flags are almost always in the back, to the side, an arc in the rear or a circle around the whole corps. It almost appears the drill was written for the horns and drums and the guard put in last. There has been a lot of discussion about whether the corps as a whole is too "traditional," but it is hard to argue that the guard staging is not a bit period. They don't seem positioned to really have big impact moments, other than that rifle pyramid at the very beginning. The kids are working hard and doing a lot of difficult stuff, but who do they knock out of the other four to move up?

Nice post John. I don't think the Cadets can beat BD or Crown in guard (although they have been close a few times). Maybe they can eventually top SCV?

I think a really good outcome for the Cadets come finals night, especially if it winds up being a 2-horse race for the title is if they can just be .3 behind BD in guard (and then obviously that number gets cut in half to .15). That wouldn't be terrible. Just don't fall behind .5-.6.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Yorkvillain

[2000Cadet]

They are not "bad" but they are facing four that really make huge contributions in their own ways:

BD - the undisputed masters of performance expression. Numerous WOW moments including the rifles on the high chairs and the stunningly musical saber work in the ballad.

Crown - the best staging of any guard this year. Wherever you look for an impact moment, there is the guard. Always in the right place at the right time in interesting ways. Plus they are doing incredibly hard stuff very well and are nailing the whole "tortured souls" performance aspect.

Vanguard - just cool stuff. I mean, the X-ray suits are a hoot!

Bluecoats: They need to clean more but are making a huge GE contribution, especially with the D-shaped silver things. The way they use them perfectly reflects the sounds the corps is making. They also do one of my favorite things: "less is more," rather than "more is more." The moments where they balance on one foot, do slow motion, etc. These bits of visual silence pull you in from all the noise, as opposed to being constantly pummeled with toss after toss after toss.

Cadets will undoubtedly be much cleaner by the end but, to me, nothing really stands out. The costume is generic. The silk designs are fair, the weapons seems to do a lot of similar work over and over. The pole-and-hoop thing generates little impact (especially after coloring them lime green and pink - yuck). The biggest puzzlement is the staging. The weapons mostly go back and forth in the same space in the front and the flags are almost always in the back, to the side, an arc in the rear or a circle around the whole corps. It almost appears the drill was written for the horns and drums and the guard put in last. There has been a lot of discussion about whether the corps as a whole is too "traditional," but it is hard to argue that the guard staging is not a bit period. They don't seem positioned to really have big impact moments, other than that rifle pyramid at the very beginning. The kids are working hard and doing a lot of difficult stuff, but who do they knock out of the other four to move up?

Could it be perhaps that this is not the type of show that requires such "staging"? As far as Cadets' guard unis, I remember there was some kind of rumor before the season started that they were suppsoed to have some neon colored unis to represent the 10th element on the periodic table. Do you think THAT would have been better than what they have now? I didn't think the unis were that bad, but I'm not a guard person. What types of silks would you have recommeded as opposed to what Cadets are using now? I figured they were ok because of the theme of the program.

[xandandl]

Not that it's an excuse for the Cavies but TODAY:

A) slept till 10

B) travelled to Rosemont

C) marched in Rosemont Parade

D) got to spend afternoon at Rosemont Picnic until 4pm

E) back to stadium for warmup

F) perform

Unfortunately the lack of rehearsal time definitely hurt the focus of the members. Watching the show you can see and hear the errors that weren't there last night. Also performance order and TOC home show for Phantom may also have played a part.

Seems the Cadets also experienced influences.................................including a diverted Food Truck which the corps worked around.

http://yea.org/programs/cadets/cadets/on-the-road/902-on-the-road-recap-tour-of-champions-northern-illinois

Edited July 13, 2015 by xandandl

[chris ncsu]

Could it be perhaps that this is not the type of show that requires such "staging"? As far as Cadets' guard unis, I remember there was some kind of rumor before the season started that they were suppsoed to have some neon colored unis to represent the 10th element on the periodic table. Do you think THAT would have been better than what they have now? I didn't think the unis were that bad, but I'm not a guard person. What types of silks would you have recommeded as opposed to what Cadets are using now? I figured they were ok because of the theme of the program.

There hasn't been much discussion here about this lately, but has been on my mind. Based on what GH said in the spring, yeah, we should expect some changes in color this month, toward more color and probably more neon. It was July last year, right, that we finally got the guard uni changes, right? Not that they were a slam dunk, but certainly better than blue the whole time.

[wonker]

was at the show last night and have a Crown question......

When the "Abandon all Hope" banner pulled across the field at the end of the opener, one of the guard girls went down under the banner on the backside of the field, stayed under the tarp (you could see her moving occasionally) for the ENTIRE show........re-emerged AFTER the final chord and then walked off the field.

Anyone see as well or have an explanation?

Is this some new "punishment" for someone breaking corps rules? Sentenced to a night of purgatory under a hot black tarp through the entire show???

:)

[NakedEye]

Could it be perhaps that this is not the type of show that requires such "staging"? As far as Cadets' guard unis, I remember there was some kind of rumor before the season started that they were suppsoed to have some neon colored unis to represent the 10th element on the periodic table. Do you think THAT would have been better than what they have now? I didn't think the unis were that bad, but I'm not a guard person. What types of silks would you have recommeded as opposed to what Cadets are using now? I figured they were ok because of the theme of the program.

I think any show benefits from good guard staging. We're not necessarily talking about what BD does. They take an entirely different approach to visual use of space. I would say look to Crown - they do more of a traditional drill than BD and the usage of the guard is fantastic. Their opening statement: BOOM silks everywhere, the fantastic integration of the weapons and the drumline, the sections with the whole guard on rifle. A lot of times they are in the middle of the action or ARE the action. Not too often are they a frame for everything else. Cadets have parts with the guard enmeshed, but when the major moments occur, it is usually something with the horn drill and the guard went back to the edges.

As far as the costumes, yeah if they did something neon (that doesn't clash with the maroon) it would be great. Currently they have kind of a 2015 version of their 1988 look. It just sort of goes with the corps, and they have done this a lot in the past 10 years (2009, 2007 and other times). Not much in the outfit seems to relate to a 10 or X theme. It maybe looks vaguely Russian, but then nothing else in the show alludes to that. And it has a pet peeve of mine, which is the yellow sleeve is just enough off from the gold corps cummerbund shade to drive me up the wall. It would be like a seriously sharp note to a horn player. Fingers on a chalkboard for me when colors slightly miss like that. With that said, I'll take this over the 2013 Insane Clown Posse suits. Those are still giving me nightmares.

The silks use a super bland sans-serif font combined with color fades. Lots of dark reds and purples against a sea of maroon. Losing impact there. There are tons of X forms in the drill, but not even one set of silks features a play on an X or Roman numeral. Everything is arabic number sets. That to me is a missed opportunity of thematic coordination and clever thinking. The silks in the ballad could be so much stronger. Here you have virtually the whole corps smashed into a narrow space. You have the high contrast maroon and creme creating much visual clutter. Real clarity of color is needed as the silks are often enmeshed with everything else. They use blue, which helps, but a major part of the design is a big honking white number (similar to creme) and the blue fades to a pale. Combined with a lot of split work parts, you get quite a messy soup.

Nothing they are doing is horrible, but there is just some really good thinking going on with the competition. BD have certainly gone to the fuchsia/orange well a few too many times, but here it really makes sense as it represents how black ink diffuses into the colors that form it. The colored sleeve totally does that, starting black at the wrist and bleeding into color as it goes up. The text print on the guard is very artistically done.

Vanguard is pulling off the Mad Scientist/Flash Gordon-ish look fantastically, even if I'm never a fan of the spandex velvet stuff.

Crown has, by far, the best costumes and silk designs they've ever had - the "skinless muscle" outfits have a classical feel and the monotone silks with similarly period black etchings of demonic imagery overprinted. Totally of one idea and great impact.

Not sure if I love or hate the Bluecoats shorts over the unitards - I can't decide. But it is certainly interesting and the riot of swirled color on everything really, really represents "noise" in an artistic way.

I tend to look at this stuff with a more detailed eye than many, and there have many years were there was a lot of disaster all around. This year, though, some really great stuff happening from the perspective of artistic thinking and "good enough" is not going to cut it.

[2000Cadet]

I think any show benefits from good guard staging. We're not necessarily talking about what BD does. They take an entirely different approach to visual use of space. I would say look to Crown - they do more of a traditional drill than BD and the usage of the guard is fantastic. Their opening statement: BOOM silks everywhere, the fantastic integration of the weapons and the drumline, the sections with the whole guard on rifle. A lot of times they are in the middle of the action or ARE the action. Not too often are they a frame for everything else. Cadets have parts with the guard enmeshed, but when the major moments occur, it is usually something with the horn drill and the guard went back to the edges.

As far as the costumes, yeah if they did something neon (that doesn't clash with the maroon) it would be great. Currently they have kind of a 2015 version of their 1988 look. It just sort of goes with the corps, and they have done this a lot in the past 10 years (2009, 2007 and other times). Not much in the outfit seems to relate to a 10 or X theme. It maybe looks vaguely Russian, but then nothing else in the show alludes to that. And it has a pet peeve of mine, which is the yellow sleeve is just enough off from the gold corps cummerbund shade to drive me up the wall. It would be like a seriously sharp note to a horn player. Fingers on a chalkboard for me when colors slightly miss like that. With that said, I'll take this over the 2013 Insane Clown Posse suits. Those are still giving me nightmares.

The silks use a super bland sans-serif font combined with color fades. Lots of dark reds and purples against a sea of maroon. Losing impact there. There are tons of X forms in the drill, but not even one set of silks features a play on an X or Roman numeral. Everything is arabic number sets. That to me is a missed opportunity of thematic coordination and clever thinking. The silks in the ballad could be so much stronger. Here you have virtually the whole corps smashed into a narrow space. You have the high contrast maroon and creme creating much visual clutter. Real clarity of color is needed as the silks are often enmeshed with everything else. They use blue, which helps, but a major part of the design is a big honking white number (similar to creme) and the blue fades to a pale. Combined with a lot of split work parts, you get quite a messy soup.

Nothing they are doing is horrible, but there is just some really good thinking going on with the competition. BD have certainly gone to the fuchsia/orange well a few too many times, but here it really makes sense as it represents how black ink diffuses into the colors that form it. The colored sleeve totally does that, starting black at the wrist and bleeding into color as it goes up. The text print on the guard is very artistically done.

Vanguard is pulling off the Mad Scientist/Flash Gordon-ish look fantastically, even if I'm never a fan of the spandex velvet stuff.

Crown has, by far, the best costumes and silk designs they've ever had - the "skinless muscle" outfits have a classical feel and the monotone silks with similarly period black etchings of demonic imagery overprinted. Totally of one idea and great impact.

Not sure if I love or hate the Bluecoats shorts over the unitards - I can't decide. But it is certainly interesting and the riot of swirled color on everything really, really represents "noise" in an artistic way.

I tend to look at this stuff with a more detailed eye than many, and there have many years were there was a lot of disaster all around. This year, though, some really great stuff happening from the perspective of artistic thinking and "good enough" is not going to cut it.

Excellent insights. Now that you've pointed out something that my guard-uneducated eye wouldn't see, it makes a lot of sense. I do agree with a few of your points:

Specifically how you mention that there is really no reference to the "10" theme (the roman numeral) within the guard when speaking of the flags. I think that would be kinda cool by creating flags with a big (red?) X imprinted in the middle of the flag for the opener. Even maybe when the horns have that chord in the opener, put the guard in an X shape for thier feature.

But I agree with a lot of what you've stated. It makes sense. I think I'll have to watch more closely at more of the guards to understand fully of why things look the way they do and why other corps' guards are scoring better.

Edited July 13, 2015 by 2000Cadet

[xandandl]

I think any show benefits from good guard staging. We're not necessarily talking about what BD does. They take an entirely different approach to visual use of space. I would say look to Crown - they do more of a traditional drill than BD and the usage of the guard is fantastic. Their opening statement: BOOM silks everywhere, the fantastic integration of the weapons and the drumline, the sections with the whole guard on rifle. A lot of times they are in the middle of the action or ARE the action. Not too often are they a frame for everything else. Cadets have parts with the guard enmeshed, but when the major moments occur, it is usually something with the horn drill and the guard went back to the edges.

As far as the costumes, yeah if they did something neon (that doesn't clash with the maroon) it would be great. Currently they have kind of a 2015 version of their 1988 look. It just sort of goes with the corps, and they have done this a lot in the past 10 years (2009, 2007 and other times). Not much in the outfit seems to relate to a 10 or X theme. It maybe looks vaguely Russian, but then nothing else in the show alludes to that. And it has a pet peeve of mine, which is the yellow sleeve is just enough off from the gold corps cummerbund shade to drive me up the wall. It would be like a seriously sharp note to a horn player. Fingers on a chalkboard for me when colors slightly miss like that. With that said, I'll take this over the 2013 Insane Clown Posse suits. Those are still giving me nightmares.

The silks use a super bland sans-serif font combined with color fades. Lots of dark reds and purples against a sea of maroon. Losing impact there. There are tons of X forms in the drill, but not even one set of silks features a play on an X or Roman numeral. Everything is arabic number sets. That to me is a missed opportunity of thematic coordination and clever thinking. The silks in the ballad could be so much stronger. Here you have virtually the whole corps smashed into a narrow space. You have the high contrast maroon and creme creating much visual clutter. Real clarity of color is needed as the silks are often enmeshed with everything else. They use blue, which helps, but a major part of the design is a big honking white number (similar to creme) and the blue fades to a pale. Combined with a lot of split work parts, you get quite a messy soup.

Nothing they are doing is horrible, but there is just some really good thinking going on with the competition. BD have certainly gone to the fuchsia/orange well a few too many times, but here it really makes sense as it represents how black ink diffuses into the colors that form it. The colored sleeve totally does that, starting black at the wrist and bleeding into color as it goes up. The text print on the guard is very artistically done.

Vanguard is pulling off the Mad Scientist/Flash Gordon-ish look fantastically, even if I'm never a fan of the spandex velvet stuff.

Crown has, by far, the best costumes and silk designs they've ever had - the "skinless muscle" outfits have a classical feel and the monotone silks with similarly period black etchings of demonic imagery overprinted. Totally of one idea and great impact.

Not sure if I love or hate the Bluecoats shorts over the unitards - I can't decide. But it is certainly interesting and the riot of swirled color on everything really, really represents "noise" in an artistic way.

I tend to look at this stuff with a more detailed eye than many, and there have many years were there was a lot of disaster all around. This year, though, some really great stuff happening from the perspective of artistic thinking and "good enough" is not going to cut it.

Unfortunately you have taken the BD perspective of uniform/costume and color and made it the infallible standard for the whole activity as if every corps/show has to have the same timbre, texture, and personality. A recent poll of attendees at the Allentown contest found that few could discern what was on Crown's silks, if they remembered at all at the end of the show.

One of the major complaints of the WGI-approach to guard, both winter and as applied to summer drum corps, is how "cookie-cutter" it has made the whole activity when speaking of flags, weapons, and other equipment. Contrast is not the only approach to presentation just as body moves, ballet, and modern dance are not the only ways to entertain effectively. There are more emotions than just being manic or depressed, the two usual guard personalities.

Edited July 13, 2015 by xandandl

[NakedEye]

Unfortunately you have taken the BD perspective of uniform/costume and color and made it the infallible standard for the whole activity as if every corps/show has to have the same timbre, texture, and personality. A recent poll of attendees at the Allentown contest found that few could discern what was on Crown's silks, if they remembered at all at the end of the show.

One of the major complaints of the WGI-approach to guard, both winter and as applied to summer drum corps, is how "cookie-cutter" it has made the whole activity when speaking of flags, weapons, and other equipment. Contrast is not the only approach to presentation just as body moves, ballet, and modern dance are not the only ways to entertain effectively. There are more emotions than just being manic or depressed, the two usual guard personalities.

That "standard" would be one used tremendously by the Cadets themselves from '92'-'95 when they had absolutely fantastic, show-specific costume designs and silks, with guards which are still considered among the best ever. Good design is good design, no matter who is doing it.

Crown has had a history of tremendously bad color issues, with last year being a standout of purple and turquoise swirl horror. But what they have done for 2015 is wonderful. You don't have to see the detail in the flag imagery from the stands to know how much impact the silks are making. For an activity where a large percentage of the audience now sees the performances close-up on the big screen at the end of the season, more intricate detail like that is a great thing, especially since it is part of such a clearly integrated design motif.

[flammaster]

I agree with naked eye. Crown is fantastic this year. I am very impressed with their guard. Too bad they would do a close up just when they are starting to do some really cool visual move and you think "oh yea this is gonna be great" then they cut to close up and ruin it. (pretty much par for the course in the production of the video though) I'll have to watch a show in hi cam eventually.

I think everyone is so much better this year!