DCI World Champs Prelims - Aug 9, 2018

[wvu80]

2 hours ago, fanman said:

I see the beastly faces and the snarling, but the costumes remind me of bugs  

Snarling, that's the right word.  The costumes don't do much for me either.  I don't think they're visually effective either from a distance or close up.

I think costume designers do this do hide dirt while the corps is synchronized choreography or even while marching.  It hides the crooked lines (not just Crown, all of them with the non-white uni's).

[KVG_DC]

5 minutes ago, Box5Opinion said:

Talk about in the zone - he should get more credit for doing that! One of the best drum majors in the activity! 

The whole time I felt like "This is priming us for the Drum Major award announcement."   Although I really think Pioneer's Drum Major should be in that conversation.  She's meant a LOT to them in her time there as a leader.  

[Box5Opinion]

8 hours ago, TRacer said:

Back from the theater in Honolulu.

First, my rant...

In the movie “Field of Dreams” Costner’s character was told to “Build it, and they will come.” In DCI it’s “Lay down a tarp, and they will trip on it.” Why oh why do designers insist on using grounded tarps ** if you know performers are going to be marching back and forth over them **?? I don’t care how good you are, it ain’t safe!

Totally agree, they are playing with fire and eventually someone is going to get burned! 

I have judged or watched too many shows where casualties happen when an Attack Tarp runs amok. Case in point: tonight’s hapless victim was a poor Cavie tuba that went down by the back sideline as soon as he hit the red strip nearly perpendicular, then the tubas had to come all the way back to the front. That kid looked like he was still favoring his leg a bit in the following camera close up. 

Lots of great performances marred by mic issues. All I want to say to their users is hey, you voted for ‘em. 

You live in die by the sword, they wanted it! 

Dennis didn’t look or sound particularly well, almost as if it was “just get me through this.” Then he stepped out and let Will take some of the interviews. 

I think there is more there.......

Best moment was before Bloo’s stepoff: “Don’t wrinkle your jacket!”....and then Sam  carefully folds it and lays it on the podium. Lots of laughs in our theater. 

Big spontaneous cheers and applause for Cadets *during* closer ((gasp!) “OMG they’re doing it!!”) and afterward! Lots of tears, myself included.

YES!! YES!! YES!!

Teared up at the short SCVC clip and the close up of the trumpet player that I’m 95% certain was my kid (face was obscured but the hairstyle was his.) 

Choked up at The Horn Snap; I saw a number of heads in the theater do a headbang when it hit. 

 

 

 

[wvu80]

2 hours ago, Eleran said:

But as far as money is concerned, you might try viewing this recent Organizational update from the YEA! Board.

First of all they break even most years, which is what non-profits are supposed to do.  What was shocking was the $300,000 SHORTFALL for THIS year! 

That means they broke the budget by $300k in one year!  How do you overshoot a budget by that much with "unknown" or unexpected expenses?

Edited August 10, 2018 by wvu80

[wvu80]

2 hours ago, ajlemm said:

I was right in front of the left speaker at the stadium (section 142, row 8). I heard the left solo mic'ed, but the right solo sounded like it wasn't mic'ed. It was odd.

Not just odd, it wasn't correct.

I sat 5 rows up on the 33 yard line at Massilon five days ago, almost directly in front of the left side speaker.  Both bari soloists (either 40 or 60 yards apart, can't remember which) had the sound coming out of the single speaker I was in front of. 

If you couldn't hear the right side soloist then his mic wasn't working, mixing board didn't work, etc.

Edited August 10, 2018 by wvu80

[wvu80]

1 hour ago, Gizmit26 said:

I also recall a trumpet screamer in the ballad. I didn’t see or hear this last night. 

Then that is another electronics failure.  The screamer is definitely mic'd and amplified and the sound has reverb added.  He intentionally hangs over the cutoff for effect, so we know the designers want us to hear his stratospheric last note.

[cixelsyd]

1 hour ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Sorry about the injury, but my point is you either march the hole or you don't.  It is a binary decision.  

<<WARNING - Old Flatus Comment - WARNING>>  In Yea Olden Days (prior to 1984) the Academy performance last night would have been tick city.  There were 4-6 individuals in the horn line that looked like they didn't quite know the drill.  That should not happen at DCI prelims if you are a serious contender for a finals spot.   

I do not disagree with you.  However, I have been noticing several corps closing down holes in some forms, while leaving them open in others.  I can only hope that goes on with missing marchers due to return in the next couple of days.

[cixelsyd]

46 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

It’s a chicken and egg thing, to some extent, but somehow the activity has to be really self aware about allowing styles to become scores. Otherwise, you get sameness that kills the activity. 

But we have had that for the past 88 years.  Worse yet, it seems that the styles are being determined in advance now, as if someone in a smoke-filled room told everyone back in January to remove headgear, replace uniforms with show-specific costumes for the musicians, roll props around, climb on props, add reverb to every brass solo, and even do the same dance moves.  (Is that what the DCI Artistic Director does?)

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, Eleran said:

The male Cadets thank you for your assessment.

But as far as money is concerned, you might try viewing this recent Organizational update from the YEA! Board.

females too

[Cappybara]

1 hour ago, MikeRapp said:

Every top 10 World Class Corps has what we in UX call design patterns, ways of doing things that are associated with the brand. Some of those are intentional, some are not. 

Design patterns are useful in product design, because they help the user understand your intent, and what will happen when something happens. Cadets’ z-pull is probably the best current example of this. 

Where design patterns become insidious is when you don’t know you have them, and don’t realize you are using them over and over again. Or worse, you think you AREN’T using design patterns, and never have.

Blue Devils has a clear set of design patterns they have used and relied on for much of the past decade. They are steering out of some of those, recently. But still, they use their tried and true concepts as the glue that holds the parts together. Scatter drill, “hairology,” high brass sound and tuning, staging concepts, color palette. These are, to the aware, quite obvious when you watch a BD show. How you feel about that largely has to do with whether you like those patterns and ideas.

Where I believe DCI needs to continue to address, very aggressively, is the creeping danger of making design patterns a necessary aspect of successful scoring. This corps didn’t do a symmetric drill, therefore they aren’t going to score as highly as one that did. This corps didn’t do a staged drum feature, that show didn’t feature a huge set concept.

The frustration, imo, with BD is that their artistic presence has been so dominant that many feel that their design patterns have or had become the only de facto way to be successful on the sheets. It’s a chicken and egg thing, to some extent, but somehow the activity has to be really self aware about allowing styles to become scores. Otherwise, you get sameness that kills the activity. There is always going to be only so much elite marching and playing talent a available. If one or two corps can dominate that talent and at the same time dictate what style is a winning style, then you have big problems.

Look, I don't disagree with you at all. All corps have a design language and certain things that they tend to do to distinguish themselves. Or atleast the corps who do a good job of staying true to their identities do.

However, there is a way to express that opinion like you did, versus putting an exaggerated and inaccurate statement just to be an a-hole. 

No, you cannot basically look at the past decade of BD shows and say they are all the same or similar. Phantom Regiment puts out shows with similar concepts. Carolina Crown puts out shows with similar concepts (before someone butts in, I'm referring to how they tend to do shows that has some adversity in the middle until the end when every becomes happy-go-lucky all of a sudden). BD does not do that. 

Criticizing them for scatter drill or repeat body movement is like criticizing a corps for deciding to incorporate a mellophone rip or a drum break. 

BD has used white poles about 3 times in the past 10 years. 

Repeating music I'll give you, they do quote themselves, but this is the first year they've actually repeated a whole piece, in the past it's usually just a short quote in the percussion or brass. 

Repeat staging, not sure what that even means every corps uses staging nowadays lol.

Long hair has been a characteristic of BD's guard only relatively recently (I think since Felliniesque)