N.E. Brigand Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 4 hours ago, Jeff Ream said: Shortening shows IMO isn't a fix that will help. Corps being prepared sooner is the key and not trying to be DCI-lite visually on a weekend schedule. I'd love to hear people's thoughts about what visual in DCA should be and what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 2 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said: That's an interesting thought. In DCI, the minimum time for Open Class is shorter than the minimum time for World Class. Before I run to work, I also think a very fine show can be presented in an 8 minute format. Seen enough wonderful school shows that last seven and a half to 8, Adam himself's been a part of several of those. You can get your point across easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 (edited) 5 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said: I'd love to hear people's thoughts about what visual in DCA should be and what it is. Well, the Bucs manage to do a lot of very advanced things and perform them exceptionally well. They're also physically strong and work seriously on that. The thing is, even if the rubrics would be relaxed, it they keep doing what they do visually, they would still win in those captions due to excellence as well as their insane challenge/demand. It's a tough issue to hash through. Back to listening to the Electric Prunes... Edited April 25, 2018 by BigW hash! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 39 minutes ago, BigW said: Before I run to work, I also think a very fine show can be presented in an 8 minute format. Seen enough wonderful school shows that last seven and a half to 8, Adam himself's been a part of several of those. You can get your point across easily. High school shows that run less than nine minutes tend to feel lightweight to me. (And those bands who put on shows of five minutes or less at early-season competitions are extremely dissatisfying--the penalties for that should be larger than they are. If you're performing in front of an audience, you have an obligation to them. If you don't like that, don't play at events that charge for tickets.) But some bands that stretch to the full eleven minutes do seem to be trying to add points through the sheer accumulation of elements rather than through presenting a well-integrated program. That said, in DCI's Open Class, the top corps tend to put on shows of World Class length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 5 hours ago, Jim Schehr said: I’m thinking more along the lines of stamina of these smaller corps within Class A. Most are not full (65) and many have less than 16 - 18 brass. I’ve seen them run out of gas during a 10-12 minute performance. They’re not future corps. A part is design. Too many small corps design like they’re Phantom or Vanguard as opposed to designing for what they actually have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said: I'd love to hear people's thoughts about what visual in DCA should be and what it is. I've shared my thoughts on this elsewhere.... in my perfect world, DCA/all-age corps would focus more on staging and music support, and and less on sheer physical demand/high-speed visuals. The touring DCI corps have much more time to rehearse, and clean, those high-demand visual programs. I would leave that stuff to them. But, on the other hand, as Big W has said... the Buccaneers have managed to pull off a well-staged and physically demanding visual program for a while now. Whether more DCA corps can handle that, on a sustainable basis... I don't know for sure. Then again, In recent years I've noticed that a number of DCI corps seem to be changing their emphasis from "run and gun" visuals to better staging, use of body movement, and so forth. So... bottom line, I don't know. Edited April 26, 2018 by Fran Haring 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Some of the scholastic restrictions also have to do with certain states at times, IIRC. I think WV has a 7-7 and a half halftime restriction. Interesting that the shows feel light. I'd rather have 7'30" of engaging kapow than 10 minutes of wandering about aimlessly. I've seen both! Also... it's hard to explain to people that more content will not necessarily get you a bigger number. Judges aren't supposed to time study a program with metric stopwatches like an Industrial Engineer when they assess difficulty. In most cases with less experienced groups, more content end up causing the group to run out of gas or not really perform their given content with quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burdettsky Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 Good stuff everyone. Again, not trying to reinvent too much, but these are great topics. My initial idea of shorter shows was to give corps a better chance at being cleaner, sooner. We already don't give scores at Wildwood (which is a great idea for sure!), but maybe people could be polished a little earlier than the last 2-3 weeks. Kind of liked the Class A shorter show idea as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 14 hours ago, Fran Haring said: I've shared my thoughts on this elsewhere.... in my perfect world, DCA/all-age corps would focus more on staging and music support, and and less on sheer physical demand/high-speed visuals. The touring DCI corps have much more time to rehearse, and clean, those high-demand visual programs. I would leave that stuff to them. But, on the other hand, as Big W has said... the Buccaneers have managed to pull off a well-staged and physically demanding visual program for a while now. Whether more DCA corps can handle that, on a sustainable basis... I don't know for sure. Then again, In recent years I've noticed that a number of DCI corps seem to be changing their emphasis from "run and gun" visuals to better staging, use of body movement, and so forth. So... bottom line, I don't know. which usually means DCA follows in 5-10 years 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Windish Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Reducing the shows to 8 minutes each would possibly result in the entire event program lasting just an hour an a half. Maybe instead, a return to a 3 minute standstill concert formation and an old style Exit number that has the corps slowly exiting to the right. I realize this sounds kinda crazy, but the net result is a much less physically demanding performance. The Labor Day Weekend provides a third day dedicated to travel back home. Any other weekend will be tough for some corps to manage. It might be time to conclude the DCA season with a single day event some weekend before Labor Day. It might not include EVERY active DCA corps, but neither did the past AL and VFW National Championship include every active senior corps. There is no doubt, over the years, Labor Day Weekend has become pressed by competing school, college, and family activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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