The Cadets 2023

[Vuitton]

3 hours ago, DAYGO said:

I'm with you.  The haters came out in droves once the uniforms/costumes went public and think most wrote off the complete show over that.  I'm hoping they have a great push to the finish as they continue to polish.  Keep pushing, Cadets! Keep RISING! 

It's a fantastic show. One of my favorites of the season, along with Regiment and Bluecoats.

[Vuitton]

3 hours ago, Big Bird said:

My issue with this show is that the mythology surrounding Atlas is incredible. The story of Atlas holding up the weight of the world as punishment has incredible depth and there are so many ways it could have been explored.

Instead, we get this shallow and seemingly low effort design that does this top 5 ensemble a disservice.

Well, to be fair, these concepts these days are really pretentious and other corps aren't reaching amazing depths with their themes either. It's all up for interpretation.

I think this is a GREAT product for this corps. They are doing heaps of simultaneous responsibility and movement with challenging and complex drill. For me, it's the best of both words.

Mark my words - they are going to finish 5th come finals. Baring disaster this show has much more complexity than Regiment's. Regiment's design is perfect. Their staff are genius for the way they are rebuilding this corps and I believe they will return to the top in the coming years, but if Cadets can, at minimum, match them from an execution standpoint, the Cadets will beat them. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Vuitton

[Vuitton]

@Big Bird Why confused?

[2000Cadet]

4 hours ago, DAYGO said:

I'm with you.  The haters came out in droves once the uniforms/costumes went public and think most wrote off the complete show over that.  I'm hoping they have a great push to the finish as they continue to polish.  Keep pushing, Cadets! Keep RISING! 

I wouldn't call everyone who said something negative about the uniforms/costumes "haters." I mean, Cadets hyped up the uniform reveal (as did every other corps), but to a lot of people (myself included), it turned out to be a big letdown. I'm far from a hater of Cadets obviously, but as the post below implies, many people thought this show was going to be something bigger than it is turning out to be. I'm am REALLY hoping this show scores and places better toward the end of the season, but as we can see at this point, Cadets are sitting in 9th (I believe). 

3 hours ago, Big Bird said:

My issue with this show is that the mythology surrounding Atlas is incredible. The story of Atlas holding up the weight of the world as punishment has incredible depth and there are so many ways it could have been explored.

Instead, we get this shallow and seemingly low effort design that does this top 5 ensemble a disservice.

 

[saxfreq1128]

4 hours ago, Big Bird said:

My issue with this show is that the mythology surrounding Atlas is incredible. The story of Atlas holding up the weight of the world as punishment has incredible depth and there are so many ways it could have been explored.

Instead, we get this shallow and seemingly low effort design that does this top 5 ensemble a disservice.

We can feel however we want about the show not being literal enough to the theme, but low effort design??? There’s some thoughtful, intricate stuff happening on the field. If they’ve chosen to be more modern or abstract in their approach to the story, so what? That doesn’t mean the entire design is low effort; at most, it means that they’ve chosen not to spoonfeed your own preconceptions of their theme back to you. 

[TheOneWhoKnows]

4 hours ago, Big Bird said:

My issue with this show is that the mythology surrounding Atlas is incredible. The story of Atlas holding up the weight of the world as punishment has incredible depth and there are so many ways it could have been explored.

Instead, we get this shallow and seemingly low effort design that does this top 5 ensemble a disservice.

While at first I too hoped for more of a concept surrounding the mythology of Atlas, and even the source music I feel is perfect for a design concept of that such, they went for a figurative image approach for design. 

However, that doesn’t mean the design is shallow and low effort. They still run and gun like the cadets, the choreo is challenging and constantly has them moving, the music is challenging. 
 

I’ve had the show concept described to me and I am able to recognize the foundation of what they’re trying to do. I don’t know it always comes across as clearly as they hoped and I do expect rewrites. But to just to dismiss this idea because you don’t like it or get it is a disservice to the kids. 

[postertrout]

26 minutes ago, 2000Cadet said:

I'm am REALLY hoping this show scores and places better toward the end of the season, but as we can see at this point, Cadets are sitting in 9th (I believe). 

Yes, they are currently sitting with the 9th best score, but they have not competed versus any corps in their tier (Cavs, Blue Stars, Mandarins). If they lay an egg versus the Cavaliers on Thursday, then it might be difficult for them to achieve the pre-season hype they were generating. 

The main scoring concern is that the gap between their score and the winning score is widening rather than narrowing. 

I hope they can make quality adjustments before Broken Arrow, my Cadet is ageing out and he really wanted to improve placement this season. 

[arabica]

**double post**

Edited July 12, 2023 by arabica

[arabica]

9 hours ago, Vuitton said:

I'm surprised that people aren't seeing what I'm seeing. I'm seeing a show that is clearly top 5 in its complexity and design. I love this show. I think it's their best design in a long time. I think it has great potential. It is my pick for 5th place if they can clean and really show the judges the high content. If they can't, then I don't think they'll get by Regiment, but I don't see this show finishing lower than 6th.

Huge and long-time Cadets fan here, and loved what they produced last year, but I'm not seeing it either. I'm not feeling connected to the theme, the visual design is problematic from uniform to props to movement to drill/staging, and the music design suffers as a result: as wonderful as the brass or percussion writing may be independently, the flow and integration simply feels off...to me, it comes off forced, constrained, and chunky due to certain visual decisions.

1 hour ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:

I’ve had the show concept described to me and I am able to recognize the foundation of what they’re trying to do.

I'm curious, what were you told about the props and what they are supposed to represent/add? They're baffling, and yes, seem low-effort.

In 2023, we KNOW effective and competitively-designed props cannot just be wooden platforms [...with glittery wrapping paper tubes??] clunkily moved two or three times with seemingly no connection to the theme. They need to be intentional, integrated, interactive, and seamlessly restaged.

These unfortunately are not that.

Edited July 12, 2023 by arabica

[Tommeee]

7 hours ago, Big Bird said:

My issue with this show is that the mythology surrounding Atlas is incredible. The story of Atlas holding up the weight of the world as punishment has incredible depth and there are so many ways it could have been explored.

Instead, we get this shallow and seemingly low effort design that does this top 5 ensemble a disservice.

I do not agree about this being a low-effort design.  However, I think their chosen name for the show, “Atlas Rising”, was perhaps not very well thought out.  This name certainly implies some very literal motifs, but yet the staff admit they were not going for this type of theme in literal sense.  
 

The idea that design choices in a show should always make sense has been proven wrong many times.  And I personally prefer shows that are more non-literal.  This brass and this percussion are great, and I kinda wish they were just playing and marching and dancing to show off their growth and emotion, WITHOUT any theme at all this year. 
 

This Atlas Rising theme is not only unnecessary, but it’s actually causing people to try and find literal meaning where there is none.  It doesn’t really bother me, but I can understand how it bothers other people.  I am choosing to overlook it, and just pay attention to their performance and emotion.  Looks like the score improved tonight, if scores are what matters.  Let’s keep it going!!

 

I still believe they can finish as high as 5th, depending entirely on their performance!