2017 Uniform Thread

[ouooga]

39 minutes ago, JAZZER said:

Also, Colts '82 uniform would have negatively impacted their Short jacket eras.

Also, early spiked helmet era of Glassmen would have negatively impacted their top ten finalist years. 

Does your question specifically ask for ANY previous year uniform, or just one year previous? My SCV answer follows the latter, your Bluecoats example cites any previous, so I'm unclear.

Good question either way!

Any year. I'm trying to work backwards on the show-specific uniform concept. If a uniform can help a show where that uniform makes sense, surely it can hurt a different show as well, right? That helps make a strong case over the validity or lack-there-of as to how uniforms impact GE/Vis.

[DawsonBurnes]

18 minutes ago, ouooga said:

Any year. I'm trying to work backwards on the show-specific uniform concept. If a uniform can help a show where that uniform makes sense, surely it can hurt a different show as well, right? That helps make a strong case over the validity or lack-there-of as to how uniforms impact GE/Vis.

If Phantom Regiment (for example) had to use their uniform from 2012 (the one with the coin on the chest for the Turandot theme) for their 2014 (Swan Lake) show, I'm sure they'd get some weird looks. It'd also not get them many more points in GE. I'm not sure how much of the GE category themed uniforms take up, but they definitely wouldn't get those points. They'd have to rely more on other things to strengthen that category. Which brings me to another question I have: how did corps get good GE in "the old days?" The only way I can see is the guard costumes and show music/design. 

[ouooga]

17 minutes ago, DawsonBurnes said:

If Phantom Regiment (for example) had to use their uniform from 2012 (the one with the coin on the chest for the Turandot theme) for their 2014 (Swan Lake) show, I'm sure they'd get some weird looks. It'd also not get them many more points in GE. I'm not sure how much of the GE category themed uniforms take up, but they definitely wouldn't get those points. They'd have to rely more on other things to strengthen that category. Which brings me to another question I have: how did corps get good GE in "the old days?" The only way I can see is the guard costumes and show music/design. 

Selling it. Arguably, this was the most "theatrical" part of the activity.

I used to give this example to explain GE: Let's say there's a part in the show where the horn line is supposed to be ducks.

• The music judge will ask himself "Well, did they sound like ducks?" 
• The visual judge will ask himself "Well, did they move like ducks?"
• The GE judge will ask himself "Well, did they really make me believe they were ducks?"

Using that same mentality now, I imagine the GE judge now would have to think "Well, did they really make me believe they were ducks? The duck costumes definitely helped."

 

Same as if you were to take a theater class. Wearing a duck costume is definitely going to help the audience understand that you're a duck, but a talented enough actor could definitely make you understand that he's supposed to be a duck without wearing feathers and a beak. 

[DawsonBurnes]

7 minutes ago, ouooga said:

Selling it. Arguably, this was the most "theatrical" part of the activity.

I used to give this example to explain GE: Let's say there's a part in the show where the horn line is supposed to be ducks.

• The music judge will ask himself "Well, did they sound like ducks?" 
• The visual judge will ask himself "Well, did they move like ducks?"
• The GE judge will ask himself "Well, did they really make me believe they were ducks?"

Using that same mentality now, I imagine the GE judge now would have to think "Well, did they really make me believe they were ducks? The duck costumes definitely helped."

 

Same as if you were to take a theater class. Wearing a duck costume is definitely going to help the audience understand that you're a duck, but a talented enough actor could definitely make you understand that he's supposed to be a duck without wearing feathers and a beak. 

That's a good example. But what if the show was more broad and general? Cadets 1990, one of my favorite shows, was "Undiscovered Bernstein." They just played Bernstein. How would that analogy apply to that?

[Ghost]

7 minutes ago, DawsonBurnes said:

  They just played Bernstein. How would that analogy apply to that?

Wear tuxedo's?

[DawsonBurnes]

2 minutes ago, Ghost said:

Wear tuxedo's?

The guard wore what looked like night gowns. The show's on YouTube if you want to see it. My cousin marched in it. 

[ouooga]

22 minutes ago, DawsonBurnes said:

That's a good example. But what if the show was more broad and general? Cadets 1990, one of my favorite shows, was "Undiscovered Bernstein." They just played Bernstein. How would that analogy apply to that?

 

The duck example is a literal example; we all know what a duck looks/sounds like. For the vast majority of shows, you're probably going to have to replace "Duck" with "X Emotion", which is a much harder thing to do. This is specifically where I thought the "how would X uniform hurt Y show" question would come into play. If you want your audience/GE judge to feel an emotion, let's say Sadness for this example, I don't actually know how to describe doing that nor do I know what uniform would help convey that, but I feel really confident that a bright yellow suit covered in smiley faces is going to hinder that goal's achievement. Also I'm sure that some designer somewhere could come up with a uniform that would help a corps convey Sadness better as well.

[DawsonBurnes]

Just now, ouooga said:

 

The duck example is a literal example; we all know what a duck looks/sounds like. For the vast majority of shows, you're probably going to have to replace "Duck" with "X Emotion", which is a much harder thing to do. This is specifically where I thought the "how would X uniform hurt Y show" question would come into play. If you want your audience/GE judge to feel an emotion, let's say Sadness for this example, I don't actually know how to describe doing that nor do I know what uniform would help convey that, but I feel really confident that a bright yellow suit covered in smiley faces is going to hinder that goal's achievement. Also I'm sure that some designer somewhere could come up with a uniform that would help a corps convey Sadness better as well.

Man, GE is complicated. But I'm glad it's there. If GE weren't a thing, BD would have about 10 more championships under their belt. 

[ouooga]

1 minute ago, DawsonBurnes said:

Man, GE is complicated. But I'm glad it's there. If GE weren't a thing, BD would have about 10 more championships under their belt. 

It's my favorite caption. If it were just music and visual, a talented enough corps could come out in a block, move forward 8, back 8, repeat, playing a Bb scale for 11 minutes and they'd win. GE takes into account the show itself and how well the members connected with it, and how well the audience connected with the members. It's the reason you often hear about people bringing a friend who knows nothing about music or drum corps who ends up loving a corps that took 11th place and hating a corps that takes first; they're interested in the show itself more than anything else.

 

In that dream that everyone in our activity has where "drum corps becomes mainstream", I see GE being the main glimmer of hope where that dream could possibly someday become a reality.

[DawsonBurnes]

Will BD be going back to regular white plumes or will they keep the white plumes with the feather in them? I'm guessing the latter

Edited March 28, 2017 by DawsonBurnes