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Phantom Regiment 2018


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I would not mind seeing a modern Phantom Regiment take a crack at The Wind and the Lion score.  Also a good excuse to go back to a co-Ed guard.

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They had a hornline and drumline?  All I could pay attention was the GUARD!!!  Don't worry I'll go to confession for this comment this evening.

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My biggest request for next year is please don’t amp the entire corps. It didn’t bug me earlier in the year but it was bad at finals. They were one of the worst amp offenders. At one point, they had a curved line towards the front and of course, massive stick out by the horn closest to the mic and does a snare line ever sound good through amps? No, no they don’t

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nm.......

Edited by BRASSO
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On 8/14/2017 at 8:23 AM, hostrauser said:

After several years of under-written shows that didn't give the corps a chance to succeed, Phantasm at least had the chops to give them a chance. But there were still a lot of problems. Most key for me: the past two years, Phantom has had shows with a lot of great IDEAS that have failed to coalesce into a working whole. The cohesiveness of show design is simply not there and, let's be honest, hasn't been for a while. This leads me to my first, most drastic suggestion:

1. Replace Dan Farrell and/or Wes Cartwright

Phantom needs new eyes at the top and, quite frankly, some fresh design and instructional staff. This won't be an easy task: quality program coordinators do not grow on trees. But Rick Valenzuela is already in place and I think he can bring in good replacements. This corps has scored below 90 at Finals only four times since the build-up system was introduced in 1984. Three of those have been in the past nine years. Their Finals score has dropped five years in a row, and their Finals placement has dropped four of the past five years. There has been no correction in the opposite direction to provide optimism. It's time for a big change. In fact, it's time for multiple big changes. This leads me to my second drastic suggestion:

2. Lose the helmets

Yep, I like the look, too. But they are visual albatrosses and it's not reasonable or feasible to keep designing holes in the show for the members to take them on/off. Phantom wore shakos before, they can go back to that, go bare, or even get creative like Crown and invent an entirely new type of headgear that fits the Phantom image without hamstringing the corps' visual potential. Visually, the activity is leaving Phantom behind. You can argue all you want that it shouldn't be that way, but that's the way it is. 9th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 9th, 10th have been their visual subcaption scores the past two years at Finals. The middle 7th and middle 9th are their Visual Analysis scores, which means they are maxing out what little visual vocabulary is written into the show.

3. Keep your classical identity

It might seem contrarian to my prior two statements, but there's no reason Phantom needs to reinvent the wheel on their musical books. There's more than enough content in the classical repertoire to provide Phantom with great shows for years to come. (Mr. Will Pitts, please check out a work by English composer Granville Bantock entitled "Thalaba the Destroyer".)

Hostrauser you are right on the money!  Saved me the task of commenting as I have held off this year.  As I mentioned in my original comments this year this show seemed to move in a different direction for Phantom. My initial thoughts were that of a high school show and that thought continued through the season.  Phantoms talent far equates that of high school kids.  Wasting talent is a management issue.  I've said this all along.

Phantoms placements fall directly on Upper management.

I'm not sure about losing the helmets but it is an area that needs attention so I think all ideas should be investigated.

I'm also not sure of Phantoms classic identity...music source isn't the issue its more of a "NEW ERA" of music that will appeal to the current audience. Big and Beautiful is Phantoms history, without that Management will continue to hold them back.

Will has had ample time to figure out how to make music that will compete on all levels.  It's not a talent issue.

 

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For 2018: 

There was a time, not so long ago when Phantom didn't care where they placed...they just wanted to put on a beautiful, musically tasteful program.  

My college friends that are now music educators are all Phantom fans and that speaks much more to me than winning.  I also now 2 early 00s Bluecoats that didn't age out that wish they would have with Phantom.

My two favorite Phantom shows are their championship years because the shows were so magical in different ways.  I prefer 1996 because I like dark, melodic music.  My husband watches 2011 Phantom at least once a week.

I want Phantom to stick to their guns and keep with beautiful classic masterpieces. I do think they are hurting and losing top tier brass to Crown over the past 5 years but the top tier of musicians are always going to gravitate towards the most musical programs and maybe...just maybe this year has tipped the scales in their favor (Boston really had a great musical program this year though).

Phantom Regiment is beautiful artistic musical balance. They do not have an identity problem and stand alone with SCV as the classiest corps in DCI.  They have been shifting up and down in the ranks just like SCV too and if they stay consistent the scale will shift back their way.

 

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1 hour ago, ThePlanets said:

There was a time, not so long ago when Phantom didn't care where they placed...they just wanted to put on a beautiful, musically tasteful program.  

I'm sure you're right. But I bet that was before they spent four consecutive seasons out of the top six. 

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25 minutes ago, kdaddy said:

I'm sure you're right. But I bet that was before they spent four consecutive seasons out of the top six. 

Sure...but they had top tier talent until 2014 regardless of placement.  They have the biggest yo-yo from 1-9 of anyone.  Look at 2008 vs 2009. I do live in Ohio but the fans adored their show in Massillon and Indy this year and I think they are going in the right direction... it's just unfortunate for them that Boston made a huge jump because now things in the top 9 just got a lot more complicated.

Recently you don't see any corps placed below Phantom surging though. 

The Cavaliers fell and they are back, the Cadets are falling and I don't think they will quite get their feet next year...and as I have said before BK is very good and a formidable opponent for any corps.

Edited by ThePlanets
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