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'When corps officially announce upcoming shows, please consider less is more.  30+ years in journalism taught me brevity is the soul of wit.  If it takes a corps more than three sentences to describe their production (not including music), you''re talking to the tall grass.  A longer, more detailed announce could be attached.  Yes, our performing ensembles are a dedicated bunch and I've been a fan since Madison introduced me to DCI in 1975 via PBS.  I do not need rambling paragraphs resembling navel gazing on what to expect.  Also, shorter announcers are likely to get more social and existing media for access).     

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2 hours ago, Herk said:

BK tried the shorter announcement route back in 2012 when they announced Avian.  The result:  Nobody knew what the show was about.

Sometimes more is better.

More is never better. See the follwing two examples of Show Title: Description

1) Birdland: Join us in recreating that famed jazz venue

2) Irrational Rationality: Join us on a journey with Camus as he is keenly aware of mysteries within the zeitgeist time spirit: a conundrum that we are still far from solving. His own spirit is represented with a strongly lyrical feeling for the material world so that his consciousness of awareness is made full, occurring only in moments of metaphysical interrogation. Also, since he came from the working class, we do not present his persona so much as a social stratum but rather as a highly differentiated reality made up of irreducible individuals. The representation of his intellectualism, which was genuine and had moreover been developed by philosophical studies at the university level, is tempered by pragmatism and a sense of inarticualate values. Poverty, and a feeling for human solidarity, made him much more of an ordinary man than Sartre. Who was the ferociously dedicated intellectual, whose professed aim is to translate everything into words, so that formulated truths can react on society.

Edited by Stu
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3 hours ago, Herk said:

BK tried the shorter announcement route back in 2012 when they announced Avian.  The result:  Nobody knew what the show was about.

Sometimes more is better.

and still don't years later

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On 2/19/2019 at 12:00 PM, lameisrob said:

'When corps officially announce upcoming shows, please consider less is more.  30+ years in journalism taught me brevity is the soul of wit.  If it takes a corps more than three sentences to describe their production (not including music), you''re talking to the tall grass.  A longer, more detailed announce could be attached.  Yes, our performing ensembles are a dedicated bunch and I've been a fan since Madison introduced me to DCI in 1975 via PBS.  I do not need rambling paragraphs resembling navel gazing on what to expect.  Also, shorter announcers are likely to get more social and existing media for access).     

Great points.

No offense to anyone... but man, some of those show-theme writeups are way overwritten.  IMO of course. Perhaps shorter ones for the program book... and a link to where fans could find out more if they so choose.

 

Edited by Fran Haring
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8 hours ago, Stu said:

More is never better. See the follwing two examples of Show Title: Description

1) Birdland: Join us in recreating that famed jazz venue

2) Irrational Rationality: Join us on a journey with Camus as he is keenly aware of mysteries within the zeitgeist time spirit: a conundrum that we are still far from solving. His own spirit is represented with a strongly lyrical feeling for the material world so that his consciousness of awareness is made full, occurring only in moments of metaphysical interrogation. Also, since he came from the working class, we do not present his persona so much as a social stratum but rather as a highly differentiated reality made up of irreducible individuals. The representation of his intellectualism, which was genuine and had moreover been developed by philosophical studies at the university level, is tempered by pragmatism and a sense of inarticualate values. Poverty, and a feeling for human solidarity, made him much more of an ordinary man than Sartre. Who was the ferociously dedicated intellectual, whose professed aim is to translate everything into words, so that formulated truths can react on society.

Charlie Parker would be proud of you.  :laughing:

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9 hours ago, Stu said:

More is never better. See the follwing two examples of Show Title: Description

1) Birdland: Join us in recreating that famed jazz venue

2) Irrational Rationality: Join us on a journey with Camus as he is keenly aware of mysteries within the zeitgeist time spirit: a conundrum that we are still far from solving. His own spirit is represented with a strongly lyrical feeling for the material world so that his consciousness of awareness is made full, occurring only in moments of metaphysical interrogation. Also, since he came from the working class, we do not present his persona so much as a social stratum but rather as a highly differentiated reality made up of irreducible individuals. The representation of his intellectualism, which was genuine and had moreover been developed by philosophical studies at the university level, is tempered by pragmatism and a sense of inarticualate values. Poverty, and a feeling for human solidarity, made him much more of an ordinary man than Sartre. Who was the ferociously dedicated intellectual, whose professed aim is to translate everything into words, so that formulated truths can react on society.

And I bet Irrational Rationality came across exactly as described.  When I see something written to that extent, your on-field production cannot possibly be viewed as such.  How many people in the stand got THAT show?

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A wise man in the activity once watched a staff come into critique and take their entire time to describe their show. Said wise man looked at them and said "if it takes that long to explain your show to me, you've already lost me, the audience, and most judges."

 

And he was right. Thank you for that sage advice Mr. Hershman

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3 hours ago, Fran Haring said:

Great points.

No offense to anyone... but man, some of those show-theme writeups are way overwritten.  IMO of course.  My "radio newswriter"... where shorter and sharper is better... hat on here.  LOL. I like the idea of shorter ones for the program book... and perhaps a link to where fans could find out more if they so choose.

Back in the days when show announcers used to read the program-book writeups... wow. What a convoluted situation. LOL.

Not trying to blow my own horn here.... but I stopped reading those writeups fairly early on during my time as a DCA announcer. Occasionally, some folks would ask me why. I said, no one in the stands is listening to this stuff, and the logistics of making sure all the names were pronounced properly... or, in some cases, if the names listed were actually still on a corps' staff, or, in one case I remember, actually still alive...:tongue:... not worth it.

I think W.C. Fields said it best from Philadelphia:

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bull....."

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2 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

A wise man in the activity once watched a staff come into critique and take their entire time to describe their show. Said wise man looked at them and said "if it takes that long to explain your show to me, you've already lost me, the audience, and most judges."

 

And he was right. Thank you for that sage advice Mr. Hershman

He certainly has a knack for getting right to the point, on a lot of things.  LOL.

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