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Netflix "Cheer!" is what "Clash of the Corps" Should Have Been


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5 minutes ago, Glenn426 said:

There are so many more streaming outlets now with NetFlix, Amazon, Disney, Apple that there has to be a market for this type of in depth show.

They recently did this type of show with F1, Drive to Survive. It really gave fans a BTS view and interviews and access to fans that is just not available in normal scenarios. It came out the season so the interviews are candid and really get to the heart of the sport. It didn't focus on competition but to tell the individuals stories BTS the happen through the year.

Netflix notoriously throws money at anything in their search for content that their Billions of viewers want to watch. Watching Cheer will lead Netflix to discover that there is a demo that is interested in the backstories alternate sports organizations in the US.

I just hope that FLO doesn't hold the exclusive rights to anything DCI. Such a type of deal would prevent this side BTS project from taking off the ground. 

I only chose your post b/c it contained the words I wanted to reference..

Every time i think of these types of shows/formats it makes me think of the HUGE (IMO, obviously) amount of time NBC wastes on the "personal story / backstory / motivation" fluff pieces they bombard us with during the Olympics. Other than, you know, showing more ACTUAL COMPETITION.  At least now there are other channels that pick up SOME of the slack...

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3 minutes ago, gak27 said:

I only chose your post b/c it contained the words I wanted to reference..

Every time i think of these types of shows/formats it makes me think of the HUGE (IMO, obviously) amount of time NBC wastes on the "personal story / backstory / motivation" fluff pieces they bombard us with during the Olympics. Other than, you know, showing more ACTUAL COMPETITION.  At least now there are other channels that pick up SOME of the slack...

I know what you are referencing and yes I hate those fluff pieces too. Their general tone is all positive and is presented as a story to pull at your heart strings..

The F1 Netflix show I'm referencing follows the teams and drivers during a weekend and they provide some insight and real juicy details about something very public that happened during a race weekend.

For a DCI show to work they have to first establish 6-8 corps and people that are the running story board throughout the year. Imagine getting an inside look at Critique after a major regional and get a real time reaction from Michael Gaines about how a judge "sunk" them in a regional. 

Maybe they also follow a prominent judge through the season and you get some insight to why and how they do their judging. And you watch a a critique through their eyes where they have to say something to Corps A about why they are under Corps B, And then talking to Corps B about why they beat out Corps A.

Maybe there is a camera in the Design room where a Corps is deciding what their show for the following year is coming out. Their story boards, Preliminary Prop Designs, costume designs.

There are aspects of this activity that have long been shrouded in secrecy and many people would love to see a show.

The show is film during the year and comes out a full 6 months after the season ended so that no secrets are revealed. If this year was being filmed the entire Rules Congress could have been filmed and a dramatic episode could've been made out of just this one weekend.

Netflix normally pays money to the content producers for the rights to the show. A new revenue stream for DCI.

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6 hours ago, Tad_MMA said:

I am 100% convinced (not 99%) that COTC was the beginning of the end for G. Hopkins. The Cadet organization was utterly embarrassing. How much more interesting would Bloo vs Blue been?

it definitely pulled the curtain back

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4 hours ago, George Dixon said:

it's something. "Snarky" might be a good word

in the finale of this Cheer series, which I saw last night - the producers were not allowed to film the championship in Daytona - the activity is covered by a streaming service pay-per-view and all the families that couldn't make the championships were back home logging in on their phones/computers. The streaming service "Varsity" is akin to our "FloMarching" service - while the cheer circuit (akin to DCI) also heavily controlled the activities message. Neither seemed particularly pleased with this netflix series

the other main message of the finale was "what's next" for the performers as this was the end of the road - there is no professional next step (other than to become a tech/instructor. It all sounded very familiar 

highly recommend for anyone interested. If you're not - that's fine. But the parallels with Drum Corps are stark and illustrative

carry on!

especially with Varsity being curious in checking out drum corps

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Heh.  I liked the first two cheer movies because they’re was so much carryover in the dynamics of cheer and band.   While I was never into cheer, the moments of traditions, camps, social pressures, passion, creativity, performances, team building, resilience, being largely misunderstood by those outside of the activity, etc. were all instantly familiar. 
 

 

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3 hours ago, gak27 said:

 Every time i think of these types of shows/formats it makes me think of the HUGE (IMO, obviously) amount of time NBC wastes on the "personal story / backstory / motivation" fluff pieces they bombard us with during the Olympics.  

Possibly to keep the women interested in the events?

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"Clash of Corps" was a total embarrassment to the activity, and should serve as a warning to any corps admin who's hubris ever gets to the level of BD's/The Cadets' admins. Just awful, cheesy, unfocused crap at every stage. Just because Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's brother/cousin/whatever is involved, it doesn't mean it's worth getting into. 

- It showed too little of the actual shows and pretty much zero instruction

- It showed too much of the wrong behind-the-scenes stuff (members having a rough experience, the infamous dorm-room scene, etc).

To me , a documentary that should serve as any blueprint to this sort of thing is "Madison On Tour." It was released in 2000 and got played on PBS before finals that year. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to find.

It showed off stuff from multiple seasons (93-94, mostly). It captured the RIGHT moments to show to a wider audience:

- Actual instruction i.e. Jeff Moore and the battery doing a HS clinic

- Actual show footage from the Scouts and other corps

- Scott Stewart explaining his philosophy on the activity

- And yes: some fun, random tour highlights (completely PG)

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3 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheSonOfSUAPYG said:

"Clash of Corps" was a total embarrassment to the activity, and should serve as a warning to any corps admin who's hubris ever gets to the level of BD's/The Cadets' admins. Just awful, cheesy, unfocused crap at every stage. Just because Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's brother/cousin/whatever is involved, it doesn't mean it's worth getting into. 

- It showed too little of the actual shows and pretty much zero instruction

- It showed too much of the wrong behind-the-scenes stuff (members having a rough experience, the infamous dorm-room scene, etc).

To me , a documentary that should serve as any blueprint to this sort of thing is "Madison On Tour." It was released in 2000 and got played on PBS before finals that year. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to find.

It showed off stuff from multiple seasons (93-94, mostly). It captured the RIGHT moments to show to a wider audience:

- Actual instruction i.e. Jeff Moore and the battery doing a HS clinic

- Actual show footage from the Scouts and other corps

- Scott Stewart explaining his philosophy on the activity

- And yes: some fun, random tour highlights (completely PG)

licensing concerns limited what you saw/heard of actual show music, either in performance or rehearsal settings

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"Cheer" ties back into Drum Corps and band.  I get a newsletter called "BIG," by Matt Stoller, about the economics and politics of monopolies.  Today's newsletter was about Varsity Brands, the monopoly behind cheerleading competitions.  (They're also owned by Bain Capital, BTW.)  In one of the episodes of the show, "cheerleaders complain that they can't watch cheerleading on TV anymore, because Varsity streams its competitions over its for-pay app Varsity TV, moving ESPN out of the picture."

Have seen ...twice?... written online (I think once here and once on Reddit) that Varsity would bid if the Cadets decide to sell YEA, to start expanding into the band world.  That would be a very bad thing, for many, many reasons.  Varsity has regulated out rival apparel companies, directly owns gyms where cheerleaders practice, and lobbies against regulating the activity as a sport, because it would then impose limits on competitions and practice time.  Example - in another quote from the newsletter, their CEO "admitted that in at least one contest, cheerleaders got more points if they used more Varsity equipment as props."  

BTW, cheerleading "causes more than half of the catastrophic injuries for female athletes in America."

Mike (instant expert, 'cause I read one article.  Granted, it was about 30 minutes before I saw this thread for the first time, so... timely!)

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