DCA televised?

[bawker]

Hey, Bawk!

I'm sure there's interest in a "legacy video thing," but so far, no effort. As Jeff Ream and others have alluded, DCA, and video, has been all over the map. We have dealt with a variety of sources, under a multitude of conditions. It would be a challenge, for sure. Also know, source material from earlier years is simply not available, and then there's the question of market size to justify expenditure. Please know it's a concept that needs to remain on the table.

:)

I'll do my part and keep buying what is available, then. :)

Thanks!

Edited January 14, 2006 by bawker

[Jeff Ream]

Fred I do have a copy of the 77 highlight version somewhere. I'll be in touch.

[TennTux]

That was the one and only Tom Hart..... a great drum major, leader and overall great guy. He was Sun's DM for the 1977-1978 championship years, and also for the last few weeks of the 1980 season. He also served as DM for the Hurricanes earlier in the 1970's. One of the all-time best, IMO.....and certainly one of the key reasons for our success.

Fran

Fran,

I concur, Tom was a great leader and friend.

I marched with Tom in the Hurricanes and the Sunrisers.

Tony B)

[CVQuesty]

Yup, it would.

Whenever I bring this up,I feel as though I'm alone, but here goes.

Having done the TV production thing, I probably wouldn't even show the DVD's in their current state to a television audience, ESPECIALLY with the advent of affordable ddigital and HD to the masses.

There's too much that goes on in our DVDs that wouldn't be acceptable in a broadcast situation.

THIS IS NO SLAM ON THE CURRENT PEOPLE, LIGHTEN UP! (before I say it, just to be sure. This is a professional opinion and no reflection on the PERSONS doing the work. They do a stellar job for us given the budget and conditions they have to work with)

<soapbox on>

Our DVDs are not of the best direction quality.

What do I mean? Watch the DCI product. It is CLEAR whomever is making the call on what gets shown and what doesn't KNOWS drum corps. Tom Blair shows year after year his experience as a marcher and instructor that works very well in tandem with his broadcast experience.

It may sound mean, but if ESPN were presented a product of the quality of the DCA DVD's, I'm certain they just wouldn't be able to use them.

Some examples:

It looks like all the cameras are "active" i.e. no iso cameras. (this can be good sometimes, but has provided us with a few "burps" that we have to live with) There's too much of videographers moving the camera or dropping the camera before the director cuts away.

The videographers will hold a soloist shot, and the director will stay with them even though they're not playing, or are getting ready to play a second time then will suddenly cut away when they start playing again.

I've noticed (after seeing some of the corps during the year) that the video folks will hone in onto a section that is doing regular work while something REALLY nice is going on elsewhere. (usually back and forth between Battery and Guard)

And, you just get the feeling that the people pushing the buttons and sweeping the switches just aren't that familiar with the activity like Tom and his crew are.

Some things that would help:

Cameras:

Overhead angle on all the time, never touched.

crossing-path iso field level cameras to handle maybe picking up something missed.

One field-level manned camera with a TALENTED videographer that can do moving truck/pan/zoom effects by hand

One crane (overhead/moving shots)

One handheld (for pit and features)

Obviously, that will all be a pretty big budget, which we don't have. More:

Production:

Instead of trying to cut live to video, go back and EDIT. I can guarantee you a lot hits the floor with the live to video thing that wouldn't if someone did a bunch of edit work, and took the stance a lot of editors do, that it's an art. you'll see better sweeps, pans, fades. You'll catch some of the better zooming/trucking videography from the crane and (if you have one) maybe an extra field level camera.

You could use things caught from various angles and really do some nice work. When you have a valid issue that a camera's shots are unusable, you've got 6 shots to choose from, thus increasing the possibility that youhave a shot or two that can save your rear in the edit process. Live to video really shoots your chances of fixing those type blemishes.

Budget:

I think the primary problem would be budgetary. It ain't cheap to find/get a video company with enough equipment and personnel to do the type of job Tom does. DCI also has a much broader audience, so they sell many more units than we ever could, bringing down the overall cost to DCI.

The second issue is that the distribution channel would need to be much larger to justify the expense.

It would be*nice* to have someone directing that has marched, understands and has taught or even written drill.

While we would be somewhat inconvenienced at not being able to have our DVD/VHS immediately, in the long run the product would be MUCH better when they have several days of edit time rather than very little edit time.

Or, some kind of way the production company could make a live to video cut and then a later edited cut, both for pay.

Until we have a much better, more polished product with high-quality on-screen graphics and DVD interfaces, and better produced artwork for the DVD, we'll not be able to get much of it onto TV locally much less nationally.

</soapboxoff>

[AlbionNY Drum Line]

wow that would be very very very awesome if DCA could make that happen, with the dvds...id take that before id take it being on Tv!!!!!!!!!! very very well said, maybe you could help DCA with this in the future?

Whenever I bring this up,I feel as though I'm alone, but here goes.

Having done the TV production thing, I probably wouldn't even show the DVD's in their current state to a television audience, ESPECIALLY with the advent of affordable ddigital and HD to the masses.

There's too much that goes on in our DVDs that wouldn't be acceptable in a broadcast situation.

THIS IS NO SLAM ON THE CURRENT PEOPLE, LIGHTEN UP! (before I say it, just to be sure. This is a professional opinion and no reflection on the PERSONS doing the work. They do a stellar job for us given the budget and conditions they have to work with)

<soapbox on>

Our DVDs are not of the best direction quality.

What do I mean? Watch the DCI product. It is CLEAR whomever is making the call on what gets shown and what doesn't KNOWS drum corps. Tom Blair shows year after year his experience as a marcher and instructor that works very well in tandem with his broadcast experience.

It may sound mean, but if ESPN were presented a product of the quality of the DCA DVD's, I'm certain they just wouldn't be able to use them.

Some examples:

It looks like all the cameras are "active" i.e. no iso cameras. (this can be good sometimes, but has provided us with a few "burps" that we have to live with) There's too much of videographers moving the camera or dropping the camera before the director cuts away.

The videographers will hold a soloist shot, and the director will stay with them even though they're not playing, or are getting ready to play a second time then will suddenly cut away when they start playing again.

I've noticed (after seeing some of the corps during the year) that the video folks will hone in onto a section that is doing regular work while something REALLY nice is going on elsewhere. (usually back and forth between Battery and Guard)

And, you just get the feeling that the people pushing the buttons and sweeping the switches just aren't that familiar with the activity like Tom and his crew are.

Some things that would help:

Cameras:

Overhead angle on all the time, never touched.

crossing-path iso field level cameras to handle maybe picking up something missed.

One field-level manned camera with a TALENTED videographer that can do moving truck/pan/zoom effects by hand

One crane (overhead/moving shots)

One handheld (for pit and features)

Obviously, that will all be a pretty big budget, which we don't have. More:

Production:

Instead of trying to cut live to video, go back and EDIT. I can guarantee you a lot hits the floor with the live to video thing that wouldn't if someone did a bunch of edit work, and took the stance a lot of editors do, that it's an art. you'll see better sweeps, pans, fades. You'll catch some of the better zooming/trucking videography from the crane and (if you have one) maybe an extra field level camera.

You could use things caught from various angles and really do some nice work. When you have a valid issue that a camera's shots are unusable, you've got 6 shots to choose from, thus increasing the possibility that youhave a shot or two that can save your rear in the edit process. Live to video really shoots your chances of fixing those type blemishes.

Budget:

I think the primary problem would be budgetary. It ain't cheap to find/get a video company with enough equipment and personnel to do the type of job Tom does. DCI also has a much broader audience, so they sell many more units than we ever could, bringing down the overall cost to DCI.

The second issue is that the distribution channel would need to be much larger to justify the expense.

It would be*nice* to have someone directing that has marched, understands and has taught or even written drill.

While we would be somewhat inconvenienced at not being able to have our DVD/VHS immediately, in the long run the product would be MUCH better when they have several days of edit time rather than very little edit time.

Or, some kind of way the production company could make a live to video cut and then a later edited cut, both for pay.

Until we have a much better, more polished product with high-quality on-screen graphics and DVD interfaces, and better produced artwork for the DVD, we'll not be able to get much of it onto TV locally much less nationally.

</soapboxoff>

[Jeff Ream]

Whenever I bring this up,I feel as though I'm alone, but here goes.

Having done the TV production thing, I probably wouldn't even show the DVD's in their current state to a television audience, ESPECIALLY with the advent of affordable ddigital and HD to the masses.

There's too much that goes on in our DVDs that wouldn't be acceptable in a broadcast situation.

THIS IS NO SLAM ON THE CURRENT PEOPLE, LIGHTEN UP! (before I say it, just to be sure. This is a professional opinion and no reflection on the PERSONS doing the work. They do a stellar job for us given the budget and conditions they have to work with)

<soapbox on>

Our DVDs are not of the best direction quality.

What do I mean? Watch the DCI product. It is CLEAR whomever is making the call on what gets shown and what doesn't KNOWS drum corps. Tom Blair shows year after year his experience as a marcher and instructor that works very well in tandem with his broadcast experience.

It may sound mean, but if ESPN were presented a product of the quality of the DCA DVD's, I'm certain they just wouldn't be able to use them.

Some examples:

It looks like all the cameras are "active" i.e. no iso cameras. (this can be good sometimes, but has provided us with a few "burps" that we have to live with) There's too much of videographers moving the camera or dropping the camera before the director cuts away.

The videographers will hold a soloist shot, and the director will stay with them even though they're not playing, or are getting ready to play a second time then will suddenly cut away when they start playing again.

I've noticed (after seeing some of the corps during the year) that the video folks will hone in onto a section that is doing regular work while something REALLY nice is going on elsewhere. (usually back and forth between Battery and Guard)

And, you just get the feeling that the people pushing the buttons and sweeping the switches just aren't that familiar with the activity like Tom and his crew are.

Some things that would help:

Cameras:

Overhead angle on all the time, never touched.

crossing-path iso field level cameras to handle maybe picking up something missed.

One field-level manned camera with a TALENTED videographer that can do moving truck/pan/zoom effects by hand

One crane (overhead/moving shots)

One handheld (for pit and features)

Obviously, that will all be a pretty big budget, which we don't have. More:

Production:

Instead of trying to cut live to video, go back and EDIT. I can guarantee you a lot hits the floor with the live to video thing that wouldn't if someone did a bunch of edit work, and took the stance a lot of editors do, that it's an art. you'll see better sweeps, pans, fades. You'll catch some of the better zooming/trucking videography from the crane and (if you have one) maybe an extra field level camera.

You could use things caught from various angles and really do some nice work. When you have a valid issue that a camera's shots are unusable, you've got 6 shots to choose from, thus increasing the possibility that youhave a shot or two that can save your rear in the edit process. Live to video really shoots your chances of fixing those type blemishes.

Budget:

I think the primary problem would be budgetary. It ain't cheap to find/get a video company with enough equipment and personnel to do the type of job Tom does. DCI also has a much broader audience, so they sell many more units than we ever could, bringing down the overall cost to DCI.

The second issue is that the distribution channel would need to be much larger to justify the expense.

It would be*nice* to have someone directing that has marched, understands and has taught or even written drill.

While we would be somewhat inconvenienced at not being able to have our DVD/VHS immediately, in the long run the product would be MUCH better when they have several days of edit time rather than very little edit time.

Or, some kind of way the production company could make a live to video cut and then a later edited cut, both for pay.

Until we have a much better, more polished product with high-quality on-screen graphics and DVD interfaces, and better produced artwork for the DVD, we'll not be able to get much of it onto TV locally much less nationally.

</soapboxoff>

have you taken this to DCA's leadership, as well as given them a company who can do this and not break the bank?

like finals locations, if you ##### about it here, it will go nowhere.

[CVQuesty]

blah blah blah.

I have indeed spoken to DCA folks, so go find another reason to gripe, Jeff.

And FYI, the way I got through to DCA folks was SPECIFICALLY because I posted here.

Edited January 15, 2006 by CVQuesty

[Skylinersop16]

Whichever company did the video in 1995 did an awesome job I think. I don't remember their name right now though or if they are even around.

Some of the bigger corps like Hawthorne requested their show be shown entirely from up top and when there was a solo for some of the corps they did a picture in picture type thing so you could see the soloist plus what the rest of the corps was doing. They also kept the camera rolling long enough so we could hear some street beats when the corps were leaving.

EDIT: Their name was Competitive Arts Productions

Edited January 15, 2006 by Harry_Jr

[audiodb]

They also did the 1996 video, IIRC.

[davidp]

I'd love to see DCA on TV. All things being equal, though, I'd like to see drum corps, be it DCI or DCA, on A&E, rather than ESPN. PBS is fine, too, if it's going to be a national product; however, not all PBS stations carry it (it hadn't been shown in Atlanta in a few years before ESPN showed their "drum corps on speed" show). I for one wasn't all that impressed with the ESPN deal. Drum corps is art (you know, music and stuff), not sports, no matter how DCI tries to package it. Just my opinion. I guess I'll need to get out my flame suit I use on the soccer bb. :D