Cadets 2007 show

[festive]

Now, this is funny...I just put "Earbox" (the Adams box set) on my iPod last night. I was thinking the same thing when I listened to "Christian Zeal And Activity"....keep it simple and direct; although part of my daydreaming while listening to everything also included "The People Are The Heroes Now"...I won't rest until someone does a "Nixon In China" show. :P

OK, so we're thinking with the same brain. Or perhaps I tapped into the collective unconscious at the precise moment you did. Adams on the iPod is a wonderful thing.

The original idea (NPR style) is interesting, but perhaps it has a tendency toward cacophony? Is that intentional? Maybe that's my problem with it? The statement is not focused? The coherence is not there? Having professional integration of the "work" might in fact help matters. The NPR series does not feel cacophonous, but the narration here does, at least at this point.

The flying monkeys are clearly VK's area.

[euponitone]

So, if narration/amps/electronics/flying monkeys have to be there, then I would say it's our duty to expect them to be used in the best and most professional manner possible.

...and that's something I'm pretty sure we can all get behind.

In a word...

Yuuuppp

[bawker]

OK, so we're thinking with the same brain. Or perhaps I tapped into the collective unconscious at the precise moment you did. Adams on the iPod is a wonderful thing.

The original idea (NPR style) is interesting, but perhaps it has a tendency toward cacophony? Is that intentional? Maybe that's my problem with it? The statement is not focused? The coherence is not there? Having professional integration of the "work" might in fact help matters. The NPR series does not feel cacophonous, but the narration here does, at least at this point.

The flying monkeys are clearly VK's area.

Hmm.

Well, if you look at drum corps as a whole (which is what the show intends to do in some regards), then I would think that the cacaphonous elements would be in direct opposition with one of the tenets of the activity: all working towards to same goal.

If there was a narrative thread in the show that took the beginning as not "Hey, we're human beings! Boys have a #####, girls have a ######!" kind of Mickey Mouse meanderings...but put it into the context of this (of course, this is rather simplisitic in itself since I've only spent about five minute on the concept, however, I'm not a paid show designer :P ...but tell me if this doesn't paint the picture of what they want to do a little clearer):

"This, I Believe: Out of Many, One"

Start of show: lots of activity, lots of overlapping voices and sounds....no single "This I Believe" statement. The opening music as it starts now (App Spring, cute chords) is in opposition with this...it attempts to paint the "All Are One" picture before we even get started, drop it and go straight into the main meat of the opener.

Perhaps the opener is trying to do this "cacophony" already, but not succeeding?

Keep the confusion factor high in the middle....lots of energy, lots of individual sections featured. "Blue Shades" could still work here.

As things become "one voice" etc in the ballad and tag, then the corps could just totally let the music take over with this. The "one voice" can just be the music speaking from here on out.

There's a challenge in how to word the narrative, still...but I think the overall effect might be easier to grasp than what we have now.

Heh. Maybe it's just a slow Friday here, and I'm way off base. :P

[scottgordon]

The arguments in favor of narration seem to always be along the lines of "if the designers think it helps express what they want to express, they should be free to do it."

Ok, but that leaves me with one question that I would like to hear an honest answer from the pro-narration fans... you've seen a few shows with narration: take BD's dance marathon and this year's Cadets show for examples... regardless of whether you think it's "ok", do you personally actually enjoy/like the narration? That is, rather than arguing abstractly for or against allowing narration, or arguing that it "works" on some artistic/design level, watching this year's Cadets show can you honestly say that you enjoy the narration?

Because as much as can understand the pro-narration argument, and as much as I can understand someone defending any artist's right to freedom of expression, and that in the end one person's likes or dislikes isn't the point, it's still hard for me to believe that anyone watching this Cadets show would actually enjoy the narration. So... do you, yourself enjoy the narration, really?

[Matt_S]

So... do you, yourself enjoy the narration, really?

Yes, I do. I thought BD's narration in 2005 was very engaging. Other design decisions, such as going through the show backwards to forwards, held the design back some, but I thought the narration was well done. Cadets '05, I thought the drumspeak was one of the highlights of the show. Could have done without the Björk-speak, but that's the hit-or-miss nature of any design decision. In Cadets '06, the ballad was simply gorgeous. I didn't have a problem philosophically with the sentences that the characters uttered, though I would have worded them differently.

I've enjoyed some narration, while other instances didn't work for me. Take Boston '04, where the "poetry" struck me as inane, but when the narrator begins chanting in time with the music I got chills. That makes narration no different than music selections, some of which I've enjoyed and some of which I haven't.

[prodigal bari]

I keep hearing comments like these, and I keep thinking of Kennesaw Mountain's 2004 show "Evolution". Have either of you seen that show? I won't know until I listen to the Annapolis APD, but it sounds like this show might not actually be anything we haven't seen before.

THAT was the group that this show reminded me of.

That show distracted the fool out of me, too. :(

I have to be honest. IMO, the narration absolutely overpowers the show content to the point of distraction. When I heard the music clips earlier I had hope this would be a tremendous show...but the way they chopped up the music to fit all this talking in absolutely ruins the flow and direction of the product. There is such a dissonance between the vocal/instrumental conversation (in terms of actual volume and quality alone) that it does not compliment each other very well; and I see no fixing it without major restructuring of the book; as well as a lot of work to balance both the volume and tonal quality of the narration. I have to wonder when this will finally be recognized as a performance issue by the judges and scored accordingly.

Shame too...the performance level of this group is at the top of the activity.

This corps is soooo talented. I do not understand at all the staff's insistence of repeatedly pouring all this gravy (narration) onto this great piece of meat.

[dccorpsfan]

:lolhit:

The End. :)

[Matt_S]

I've been to this thread a number of times, and serious cat makes me chuckle each time.

[Ben]

I've been to this thread a number of times, and serious cat makes me chuckle each time.

i'm with ya on that one.

[arno0940]

For me it really has to do with how narration is designed and integrated into the show. I loved what the Crossmen and Cadets did last year with narration. Though I wasn't a big fan of how the Blue Stars narrated their show or the Blue Devils during the dance derby show.

To me it's similar to props, amps, tilted snares, over-sized flags, all weapon guards, no weapon guards, b flat horns, G bugles, marching technique etc. There are times when it works, and times when it doesn't. I base my opinions on the elements in each corps show itself and not grouped together as "all narration" or "all amps".

Make Sense?