Honor Corps

[perc2100]

The clip was so short <**> on the Disney parade we were unable to even tell what they played so what was the tune?????

That sucks that the DCI portion was cut so short. It doesn't come on until 2:30 here, and I guess I'll just skip it and watch football and basketball instead.

Thanks for the heads up.

--

doug

[MHSmirage]

I guess my whole problem with this is that the members of the honor corps paid (in my opinion) a crazy amount of money to be there to represent DCI and help Disney and only got 10 seconds of air time. I'm not saying they needed an 11 1/2 min. slot, but seems like you get abetter pay off of exposure with Rose Bowl and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Just my two cents.

[oldbandguy]

I didn't get to see it. I assume there were marching bands in the parade.

Did they get more air time? If so, I have to wonder....why?

The folks at Disney made a good bit of money off of the DCI kids. As I

understand it, each member paid to stay in a Disney hotel, paid for Disney

meals, and paid to get into the Disney parks (part of the package, but still

a cost.) I also know that the "deal" the DCI kids got was NOT as good as

some of the trips to Disney I've been on with high school bands.

I would hope that DCI would ask for a guarantee of more TV time before

doing this again. I agree that doing Macy's or the Rose Bowl parade would

be much better PR for drum corps.

[=l==l==l=]

i am VERY disappointed........ <**> <**> <**> <**> <**>

[SopMom]

I also know that the "deal" the DCI kids got was NOT as good as

some of the trips to Disney I've been on with high school bands.

Just remember that the kids who participated had a FANTASTIC time - and I'd venture a guess that many of them would say the time THEY spent there was far better than what any high school band gets for a grad night experience. There's a huge number of the kids who were in the honor corps who had a blast, and got so much more out of their experience than what having better coverage today would have given them. Sure, it's a shame their few minutes of glory became mere seconds, and that the public didn't get the drum corps education we all hoped they would, but the good that came from this event really happened from Dec. 1-4, and will continue to happen next summer as the kids meet up across the US...

But... I too am very unhappy(and a bit embarrassed for all the people I made PROMISE me they'd watch!)...

Out here in California, a basketball game (that wasn't even of OUR local team) ran 30 minutes over the 2:30 pm start time of the parade, so we thought we missed the honor corps completely. We went ahead and set the vcr anyhow, and kept watch in case they happened to air the honor corps later on... when fairly far into the parade I saw the color guard doing their drop spins, I thought to myself, "woo hoo, we're in luck!" I called the entire family over to the tv, they literally about knocked each other down the stairs, barely in time to see "Drum Corps International" across the screen, and then in a couple of seconds it was over! What the ****? I've still got the recorder going, just in case, but I'm doubtful that we'll see anything else. Like others, I'm terribly disappointed - we cancelled our plans to see "King Kong", realizing how long a movie it is, knowing it would make us get home late for the parade at 2:30. We pretty much arranged our day around the parade times (which was late in our neck of the woods), but at least we got to spend time with all the kids home, and no one rushing out the door like on a regular day.

I'm wondering if DCI might have the ability to get a copy of the footage of the honor corps, in its entirety.

Happy Holidays...

[DerrickSCV87]

The thing is guys, this was not in any way meant to be a PR moment for DCI. It's Disneyland's 50th anniversary and this parade was meant to celebrate only that. If DCI were to try and "ask for [any sort of] guarantee", Disney would have, with out a doubt, laughed in their face.

The difference between this "event" and the Macy's Parade or the Rose Parade or whatever is that this was in effect a glorified commercial for Disneyland/Disneyworld and the others are much more like community events. Seeing a DCI corps or Joe Blow High School is not going to sell tickets to "The Happiest Place on Earth", but giant gingerbread men and Goofy will.

I would guess that the reason the ABC TV & Disney folks were so "GO GO GO..." was because every minute they are out there with "you" (ALL of the people in the Parade, not just DCI) meant THOUSANDS of dollars in production/talent costs. It also means that all of the folks watching in the park are not buying mouse ears and churros (mmmm...churros).

Don't get me wrong though!! I'd MUCH rather see ANY drum corps than 2 hours of Buzz Lightyear and skating snowflakes. And while we are all very disappointed about the minimal coverage, and knowing Disney, we should all be happy that there was any coverage AT ALL.

Just my $68.45

Derrick

Edited December 26, 2005 by DerrickSCV87

[E-Daddy]

The so-called Disney parade was absolutely riduculous. We get a 5 second shot, panning the group. This was such a joke. Next time there's an Honor Corp, I will have to think long and hard about spending another $600 or so to send my kid. While there was a great time bonding with other corps members, the air-time we were all lead to believe was just not there. And the "parade" was so chopped up with commercials, I've got to believe there was no more than an hour shown.

ABC and Disney shouod be ashamed of themselves for over-hyping this and then just not delivering. I think they owe DCI and every kid that was there an apology.

A pretty PO'd parent.

[oldbandguy]

Just remember that the kids who participated had a FANTASTIC time - and I'd venture a guess that many of them would say the time THEY spent there was far better than what any high school band gets for a grad night experience. There's a huge number of the kids who were in the honor corps who had a blast, and got so much more out of their experience than what having better coverage today would have given them. Sure, it's a shame their few minutes of glory became mere seconds, and that the public didn't get the drum corps education we all hoped they would, but the good that came from this event really happened from Dec. 1-4, and will continue to happen next summer as the kids meet up across the US...

I sure hope they had a FANTASTIC time and I'm confident they represented DCI well.

At the same time I think of the number of DCI kids who did NOT get to have a FANTASTIC time

because, following a season of drum corps, they simply could not afford to be a part of the

Honor Corps. I also have to question how much of an honor it was considering you had to come

up with several hundred dollars for the 3-4 days you were there? (And I certainly don't mean this

as a knock on any of the participants.)

It is my understanding that each corps could nominate 10 kids. In division 1 alone, that's

240. Add in division 2 and 3...

About 100 actually participated. I can certainly understand the feelings of the POd parent.

[ZSDAvenger]

Dan Acheson told the members that a total of 250 invites were sent out, and about 115 people showed up.

Yeah yeah, great memories/bonding....it happened, and its the salvation of the weekend for the members, seeing as how the coverage on ABC was a joke. But for what it cost me, I could nearly do a complete tour w/ most div 2/3 corps, instead of 3 nights in an overpriced theme park.

Don't get me wrong, I had a great time meeting people and hanging w/ my corps buds....also got to put on the super suit one last time, however the effort that was put into the show design by the staff, the hassle that the ABC/Disney gave the corps staff over the repertoire and the effort put out by the staff and members for the performance was incredible overkill for 6 seconds of TV time.

If we weren't going to be on TV, the ABC/Disney people shouldn't have wasted 30 minutes with us at the parade starting line getting the block set at just the right point so the whole routine could fit within the cameras range.

They also shouldn't have had us do 2 takes.

They also shouldn't have spent time and money doing TV promos about the corps (other than to appease DCI, I imagine) for 6 seconds.

They also shouldn't have been so indecisive about the show repertoire by changing the performance song 3 times, giving the music arrangers and guard choreographers a huge stress induced headache caused by having to meet unfair deadlines. (This also hurt the performance as it greatly delayed the music/guard work being released to the members)

You can say all you want about how it should be about the fun time the members got to have, and I'll never disagree that thats not important. But thats only half the reason for even being there in my opinion.

I give nothing but praise to the DCI staff for being far more on the ball with this project than ABC or Disney could have dreamed to be. It really shows me just how much better corps people are at sticking to their word, accomplishing the task no matter what, and being professionals no matter the circumstance.

I wish people outside of the drumcorps world could be such.

ZSD,

A PO'd honor corps member and son of a PO'd parent.

[madcontra99]

I wish you hadn't been invited, because the people I have talked to loved it, and the people they surrounded themselves loved it to.