DCI Cinecast

[ShortAndFast]

Seattle theater was pretty well sold out. The sound quality was decent - just a couple of short drop-outs in a few places. Stereo separation was good, and you could definitely hear when something was happening to the left or right of the field. Sometimes I thought they had balance problems between pit and field. With most corps putting their pit speakers right in front of the DCI microphones, you sometimes got a ride cymbal in the pit drowning out soft horn parts.

The video quality was horrendous! Anything beige or white looked like it had a huge black outline (I think they were trying to sharpen the picture, and went overboard). Crown suffered the worst. They kinda looked like neon bulbs marching around. Even for darker colors, the video looked like a VHS tape blown up to movie-theater size.

It's also good to see that the DCI producers retain their uncanny ability to focus on a marimba player any time there's an exciting drill move going on. As someone said earlier in the thread, who's going to this other than fans, alumni and family? Show us the freakin' drill already!

Overall, it'd give it 6 out of 10 as a presentation of the DCI's product.

[dmfootworks]

I take it you're not aware that Tom Blair, who produces and directs the broadcast, is intimately aware of 'what DCI is about", having marched in the Cavaliers before beginning his career as a tv broadcast director - a career which includes network sporting events, as well as most of the DCI telecasts for the last few years.

Good broadcasting of drum corps isn't long shots of drill. It's using faces and cutting from shot to shot to record A version of what the experience is like. If you just want to watch drill, buy the DVD and set it to show only the high cam...z..zz..zzzz....oh, sorry, I nodded off there for a moment.  B)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So your points are that Tom Blair is a Cavaliers FMM, he knows what the DCI experience is, and that you would fall asleep watching drill but not watching long, overdone closeups of individual guard members?

Okay . . . I guess we shouldn't argue with Tom then.

Edited August 12, 2005 by dmfootworks

[Jeff Ream]

I'm told that Harrisburg was about 2/3 full and that the amped pits seemed over balanced

[Galen]

Decent sized crowd for the Indy show. It wasn't sold out, but there weren't scads of empty seats either. It was also at a different theater this time, so that may have made a difference.

Crowd loved Phantom and Madison, hated narration (no surprise), and was deadly silent for both BD and Cadets. Speaking of Cadets, the crowd at the stadium seemed dumbfounded when the show "ended", and the theater had a laugh riot when the "dreamgirls" admitted, on camera, that even THEY didn't have a clue what the #### their show was about!

Phantom's show seemed like it took forever to end, and the drum solo at the end seemed very out of place for them. Otherwise, a phenomenal performance

BK's show grew on me because of their musical performance; very solid hornline and drumline tonight. Visually, they could stand to clean up more though.

As much as I hate to admit it, SCV deserves to be where they are (if not 2 spots lower) because visually, they offer very little this year. Sorry, but that was my impression of them.

Everybody in our theater was screaming "FACE!" when Stuart Shulman brought Rondo his cake at the end. I guess Stuart has a job lined up with DCI next year?

"Yowza" is the new "M-word" in drum corps.

[DCIDork]

The Cinecast here in Fresno, California was HORRIBLE! The picture quality was bad and it did not even fit the screen! And thats not even the worst part of the cinecast here. During the entire broadcast it kept friggin freezing then "no signal". I didn't even get to see an entire show of any one of the corps except maybe like two or three. it like cuts out and comes back when they're walking off the field. signal even dropped during intermission! most of the people in the theatres were really funny though and definitely provided somewhat of an entertainment when the signal dropped. Only a few people left after blue devils performed which also had a signal drop during their last piece while others stayed for the entire showing even with the constant signal drops. in the end everyone got two free movie passes and an apology. I am just so disappointed.

[Madera Dons]

The Cinecast here in Fresno, California was HORRIBLE!  The picture quality was bad and it did not even fit the screen!  And thats not even the worst part of the cinecast here.  During the entire broadcast it kept friggin freezing then "no signal".  I didn't even get to see an entire show of any one of the corps except maybe like two or three.  it like cuts out and comes back when they're walking off the field.  signal even dropped during intermission!  most of the people in the theatres were really funny though and definitely provided somewhat of an entertainment when the signal dropped.  Only a few people left after blue devils performed which also had a signal drop during their last piece while others stayed for the entire showing even with the constant signal drops.  in the end everyone got two free movie passes and an apology.  I am just so disappointed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I will second what DCIDork said. I think that the only corps that I remember seeing all of their show was SCV, made my day as well as the guy next to me who marched with the SCV Cadets this year.

In the beginning when they were showing parts of the shows that had performed earlier there was a feed break. We only got to see KK and probably not all of that. Someone from the theater came out and said if it continued we would get a refund. He then came back out later after about 14 feed breaks to say that we would all get two free tickets. He went on to say that if he were talking to a group watching a movie they would all have been gone by then. My guess was that no one had left and I had quit counting at 14 feed breaks. I'm guessing that there were 30 to 40 breaks. I was surprised at how good the crowd was considering. As said above they were entertaining during the feed breaks.

I would rather have seen the full show than get the two free tickets.

[stickman882002]

Columbus Ohio was suprisingly empty. I preordered my tickets expecting there to be a crowd like last year, but the theater was only about 3/4 full. And last year there was 2 theaters full. But all in all, the quality was very good with a few audio skips but nothing to fuss about. It was a great time.

[Guizeppe]

Sacramento was full. Quick notes:

~Images were good, sound skipped few times but overall wasn't a problem. Could of been louder, but that's always the case for drum corps.

~Crowd was definitely pro-Mandarins (a big thank you to Scades for the tie, allowing the Mandies to make semis), pro-SCV and Phantom. I little pro-BD, but not after that mess of a show.

~Sitting next to a fat snoring lady is not the way to spend a night at the movies.

~Shocked at the Cadets' score (so you're telling me that every other corps had little or no increase in points, but the Cadets improved nearly a point and a half?...ridiculous)

~Blue Devils show designers should be embarrased/fired. Youza!

~Pleasantly surprised with Crown and Boston. Colts and Crossmen also rocked. Strongest 6 through 15 in a while IMO.

~On that note, as far as shows go, worst 1, 2 and 4 ever.

~Cavies were not as good as I hoped.

~Cadets were better than I expected, but I still don't like it....much. Frickin' awesome drumline though minus the "speak" (is this really going to be this years' championship show?)

~Scouts and Coats should definitely be ahead of Devils.

~TOO MUCH COLORGUARD ON SCREEN!!!

~Just like the NFL, get rid of the pointless sideline reports.

~Taipai Yuefu (sp?) looks/sounds great! Same with ECJ.

~A quote from my wife (paraphrased): "Am I the only one that notices that all of the 'historic'/'memorable' footage of each corps consists of music people actually like?"

~We need an all-alumni corps finals.

~If you can't be there, $15 is one heck of a bargain. Can't wait till next year. Bring on the youza...I mean...Deuce!!!

[SpectDrummer06]

I went to the Cinecast here in Denver (Greenwood Village)

and just as Madison was getting into their second piece, they

lost the satelite feed because of a rain storm!

ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!! This was my second opportunity to see

the Scouts this year and AGAIN, due to rain, I didn't

get to see their full performance

(They got rained out at  their home show back in June)

And I was ######...unfortunately, I was pretty vocal to say the least

and I think I offended some people around me, to which

I apologize....but man, what a dissapointment.

On a positive note, for those of us who left, they did

refund our money!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was there with you....I was so mad!!! I guess the theater paid for it really in the end, with the refunds and all.

Oh and a side not idea for the future...DCI on IMAX, now that would be sweet!

[Cardman]

TOO MUCH #### TIME SPENT ON INDIVIDUAL COLORGUARD MEMBERS!

Especially Madison, Phantom, and most especially, The Cadets!  So many great things going on during so many moments the camera just sat there on Carmen, Fred Astaire, and the dream girl. 

blah!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Amen! I was furious during Phantom's show because of all the missed drill....

I don't want to be offensive either (although I'm going to be), but every time they talked, I got dumber.  Did James really say that there was hype "in the grass" after he stood in BD's drum warm-up?  Wow. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The grass on the field wasn't the "grass" he was talking about...

Here in Oklahoma, it was a fairly good picture, but a little blown-out during crown's performance due to the color of the uniforms...The volume wasn't quite up high enough, so I went and told the manager to turn it up, and they did...I don't see why more of you that complain about the volume don't do this...and for those of you that did, and they didn't do anything...well, send more people out to complain until they do what you say. The rule the managers go by is not to ruin the enjoyment of the show to apease one or two guests (at least, that's how I do it at my theater...), so it may take more than one of you to complain before action is taken...

Getting back to the show...Feed cut out on us, like in most theaters, during the "highlights" of the lowest-seeded corps, during southwind's clip. This was the only loss of feed all night.

HATED the narration in all of the shows that had it. I was very tempted to leave before Blue Devils went on to save myself from all the "Yowza!"s, but I stayed to give it a chance, and it sucked big time...(the narration, not the whole corps...) People all around me were laughing uncontrollably, it seemed, during Seattle Cascades opening narration. I let out a guffaw at the line about the ground...how insipid can you get?...

Yes, when Phantom's score went up (the wrong one), I was super mad. Lots of boos from the crowd, as well as a couple of people (including myself) saying, "What show were the judges watching???" When the real score was shown, they all cheered.

RIDICULOUS SPREADS between Scouts/Devils and Phantom/Cavies/Cadets. There is NO WAY that the show the Cadets performed tonight deserved a 98.xx. I couldn't believe it. I thought they got the score wrong again...guess not.

Disagreed with the placements. Thought it should have been 1. Phantom 2. Cadets 3. Cavies NOTE: I didn't care much for either Cadets' or Cavies' shows. I was hoping to like both, and thought surely I would like Cavies, but no... :(

Edit: One final thing...WHY do people clap in the theater (or boo?)??? The corps CAN'T HEAR YOU, it is just a picture on a screen. This sounds obvious, but people felt the need to clap (even if just polite applause at times) before and after a corps performed. If the corps was actually there to appreciate your applause, I would say "Do it!", but they aren't, and it just seems silly to me for people to clap at a movie screen (maybe because I work in a theater...).

Edited August 12, 2005 by Cardman