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"Clash of the Corps" Episode Discussion


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Well, the series is done.

For those of us who follow dci closely, there are no doubt a lot of things we liked and didn't like. Personally, I didn't appreciate the way the producers handled scores, meaning, very inconsistently. Not even having SCV in the top five at the Rose Bowl was very unprofessional, and they didn't even correct it on reruns. Not naming the winner of the San Antonio show was very bush league. And then not naming Bluecoats' score at finals, what was the point of that?

At least they did show some bluecoats performance footage, albeit with non-Bluecoats music. Again, I get it, but wow, that would really sort of insult me were I marching Bluecoats.

I realize it is very difficult if not impossible to truly show the activity in a way that fits what it is all about in a 30 minute show with 15 minutes of commercials. And, being hamstrung at not being able to show much music. But still, the entire activity is about performance, and we saw almost no performances. And even when we did, the music was dubbed over generic marching footage. It just seemed like fingernails on a chalk board to me.

I did appreciate how George handled himself, he came off experienced but genuine. I personally did not feel the same about the guard instructor, she seemed like the type of instructor you hated marching for. Still, the very end with the corps song was very powerful.

Great job overall, this was probably a lot harder than the production crew ever could have imagined going into it. Kudos to BD and Cadets, and Johnson for taking a chance.

i know the show hasn't made her any fans, but the Kristy you saw is the Kristy you get in person. Hopefully she's not reading this or i'll get a call tomorrow, but she is one of the most complex people I know. One minute she's the yelling "not in Georgia" woman we saw in episode 1. Yet she's also the woman you saw talking to the male guard member tonight, hug and all.

Her personality can grate on people. She's direct. She's also loyal. If a former Mechanicsburg guard member called her tomorrow, she'd be there for them in an instant....any of her kids from 1997-2016. When a member of the band who was dating a guard member committed suicide 3 years ago, Kristy was there cancelling rehearsal to help people go find him ( which sadly, they did), hugging students, even driving to the directors house at midnight to ring his doorbell and get him up because he wasn't answering his phone. I've seen her scald the kids after a bad run, I've seen her shed tears of love after good ones, even if it didn't win.Especially after her mother died in 2006, she really let her emotions come out more easily, and motherhood can definitely help that ( it killed her to have to watch WGI Finals from home 2 weeks after the little guy was born.

She is everything the show gave us and more. This summer I got to see her interact with C2 after DCi was over, and kids went racing up to her to welcome her back. if i were to start a corps tomorrow, she's my second call. The first is to my wife to see if she's leaving me for starting a corps.

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so the show is over.

I think part of the "it" people were missing is this:

we already knew the end result. It's one thing to watch Hells Kitchen or AGT and not know who will win in the end. It's another to watch a show about a drum corps season we all overdosed on all summer and knew many of the plotlines before the show ever hit the air. Did I love every part of it? No, but it's not my demographic. But my dad, an 18 year drum corps vet of the 60's and 70's loved it. Since he doesnt OD on drum corps all summer anymore other than what I tell him and he sees now and then, he thought it was great. He and I still think ScoJo's speech in episode 7 is the real essence of drum corps, bleeps and all.

Can it be better if there is a next time? yes.

but following along in this thread proved another point to me I've said more than a few times:

drum corps die hards are never TRULY happy.

for years "we need real tv", " it needs a reality show" etc....how many times have we seen that on here and elsewhere? too many to count.

so we got one finally.

and people still #### and moan.

I for one, warts and all, thank Dwayne the Rock Johnson and company for making the show. If there is not a season 2, well we had it. If there is, bonus, and people will still #### and moan

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i know the show hasn't made her any fans, but the Kristy you saw is the Kristy you get in person. Hopefully she's not reading this or i'll get a call tomorrow, but she is one of the most complex people I know. One minute she's the yelling "not in Georgia" woman we saw in episode 1. Yet she's also the woman you saw talking to the male guard member tonight, hug and all.

Her personality can grate on people. She's direct. She's also loyal. If a former Mechanicsburg guard member called her tomorrow, she'd be there for them in an instant....any of her kids from 1997-2016. When a member of the band who was dating a guard member committed suicide 3 years ago, Kristy was there cancelling rehearsal to help people go find him ( which sadly, they did), hugging students, even driving to the directors house at midnight to ring his doorbell and get him up because he wasn't answering his phone. I've seen her scald the kids after a bad run, I've seen her shed tears of love after good ones, even if it didn't win.Especially after her mother died in 2006, she really let her emotions come out more easily, and motherhood can definitely help that ( it killed her to have to watch WGI Finals from home 2 weeks after the little guy was born.

She is everything the show gave us and more. This summer I got to see her interact with C2 after DCi was over, and kids went racing up to her to welcome her back. if i were to start a corps tomorrow, she's my second call. The first is to my wife to see if she's leaving me for starting a corps.

Thank you for this, Jeff.

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Don't hate them too much for this. SCV wasn't at the rose bowl this year.

There was a show in the series where they just didn't get the results right, and scv was totally missing.

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so the show is over.

I think part of the "it" people were missing is this:

we already knew the end result. It's one thing to watch Hells Kitchen or AGT and not know who will win in the end. It's another to watch a show about a drum corps season we all overdosed on all summer and knew many of the plotlines before the show ever hit the air. Did I love every part of it? No, but it's not my demographic. But my dad, an 18 year drum corps vet of the 60's and 70's loved it. Since he doesnt OD on drum corps all summer anymore other than what I tell him and he sees now and then, he thought it was great. He and I still think ScoJo's speech in episode 7 is the real essence of drum corps, bleeps and all.

Can it be better if there is a next time? yes.

but following along in this thread proved another point to me I've said more than a few times:

drum corps die hards are never TRULY happy.

for years "we need real tv", " it needs a reality show" etc....how many times have we seen that on here and elsewhere? too many to count.

so we got one finally.

and people still #### and moan.

I for one, warts and all, thank Dwayne the Rock Johnson and company for making the show. If there is not a season 2, well we had it. If there is, bonus, and people will still #### and moan

It's a very unique activity, one that attracts a certain type of kid, instructor and fan. In short, it attracts perfectionists. Probably the people who will dissect a show like this and recognize every misstep.

In the end, I come away not really sure who the show is for. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't tell a friend who doesn't know anything about dci to watch it, because it contained so little performance. And I probably wouldn't refer a hard core band kid to it because, well, they would see so little performance.

So who do you have left? People who don't know much about drum corps, don't care that much about band, and are attracted to the drama...which was largely injuries based around performances you never saw. And the train wreck that was cadets.

In retrospect, this needed to be one hour shows. Which we all know ain't gonna happen.

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Well, the series is done.

For those of us who follow dci closely, there are no doubt a lot of things we liked and didn't like. Personally, I didn't appreciate the way the producers handled scores, meaning, very inconsistently. Not even having SCV in the top five at the Rose Bowl was very unprofessional, and they didn't even correct it on reruns. Not naming the winner of the San Antonio show was very bush league. And then not naming Bluecoats' score at finals, what was the point of that?

At least they did show some bluecoats performance footage, albeit with non-Bluecoats music. Again, I get it, but wow, that would really sort of insult me were I marching Bluecoats.

I realize it is very difficult if not impossible to truly show the activity in a way that fits what it is all about in a 30 minute show with 15 minutes of commercials. And, being hamstrung at not being able to show much music. But still, the entire activity is about performance, and we saw almost no performances. And even when we did, the music was dubbed over generic marching footage. It just seemed like fingernails on a chalk board to me.

I did appreciate how George handled himself, he came off experienced but genuine. I personally did not feel the same about the guard instructor, she seemed like the type of instructor you hated marching for. Still, the very end with the corps song was very powerful.

Great job overall, this was probably a lot harder than the production crew ever could have imagined going into it. Kudos to BD and Cadets, and Johnson for taking a chance.

It's kinda hard to have SCV at the Rose Bowl when at the same time they were in Oregon. Blaming the producers for that?

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So, I just downloaded from iTunes the Scouts Honor documentary. Wow! The first minute of this movie provides more of the essence of DCI performance than the entire Clash of the Corps 'reality' show. If anyone here has not checked out Scouts Honor, I highly recommend it....sound quality, visuals and the narrative showcase the Madison Scouts and the DCI activity in a bright positive light!

Thanks so much. We worked hard to get this movie right. Somehow we walked that tightrope to make it both work for the hardcore drum corps fan and at the same time it works for people who've never heard of the activity. Our film festival screenings proved that it works for a general audience.

We do have performance moments in our documentary, and it was a major headache to get the music licensing done to allow us to keep them in the film, but we just couldn't show drum corps without giving you that "in your face" sound that we all know and love.

The film now has a presence on the Apple Trailers site, and you can watch not only the trailer there, but 2 exclusive scenes from the movie. If you're still not sure about getting a copy, there are 28 customer reviews on our iTunes page that you can read. This link will lead you there.

Thanks again,

Mac Smith - Director/Producer "Scouts Honor: Inside a Marching Brotherhood"

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I like how they plowed right through scores...if only...

Loved seeing Shayne's wink, He definitely has star quality.

I agree with a previous post -- the highlight of the episode.

If there is a Season #2, I'll watch. I wasn't hoping for a lot from this series after I realized the actual show was going to be about 15-16 minutes per episode, but it was better than it could have been.

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