2016 BOA San Antonio

[Anthony V]

  On 11/7/2016 at 1:09 AM, Shadow Weaver said:

You bring up some intriguing points, because I think here is where we broach a terribly interesting topic: what is it that we are really judging?

 

BOA and UIL play off each other so well when the topic of biased judging comes into play because two biases, both valid in their own ways, can find themselves at odds. I love both judging systems and appreciate their differences, but they have to be recognized.

 

I believe that BOA approaches their judging with an emphasis on the artistic and creative advancement of Marching Band Arts. This is a lofty goal that yields many fascinating interpretations and stretches the more subjective aspects of art and taste. Innovation and boldness is encouraged and admired such that events are always dynamic.

 

UIL seems to me more cerebral and less interested in artistry past a commitment to teaching the fundamental art of performance in the moment. In that respect, UIL focuses much more on the interaction between student and teacher as well as the product of discipline, dedication, and technique. Great bands have both creative artistry and technique, but in a teaching environment, how much emphasis should be focused on the artistic sensibilities of the director?

 

Depending on how each of us personally judges a band, we will often draw different conclusions as to how we might rank a particular band, but it is useful to remind ourselves of how we might approach our opinions of the bands while also remembering that there are other, valid ways to think about any group in particular.

 

Just another tangent as we approach UIL 6A State and the judging disparities that are bound to occur.

 

 

Great points all around. I love these topics.

 

And thanks for tying my abstracted, philosophy student verbosity back to the present reality of UIL State! 

[ChristopherRoden]

  On 11/6/2016 at 7:02 PM, justabandkid94 said:

Looking at prelims vs. finals sheets is always so very interesting to me.

 

Vandegrift was a solid 3rd and dropped to 7th during finals.

Leander was 6th (!!!) and had a stellar finals run to finish 3rd. We saw the same flipping of the two at Austin. Leander was clearly first in prelims, then vandegrift swept in finals. Did the fireworks affect Vandegrift at all? One issue I'm seeing with them is that they are unbelievable at the execution, but lack in "boundary pushing" GE we see from other bands.

What fireworks are you talking about??

[vincentlee1220]

  On 11/7/2016 at 2:39 AM, ChristopherRoden said:

What fireworks are you talking about??

There's always some event in San Antonio on the same day as BOA SA that leads people to set off a lot of fireworks, and it's audible from the dome sometimes. That's probably what they're talking about.

[ChristopherRoden]

  On 11/7/2016 at 2:51 AM, vincentlee1220 said:

 

There's always some event in San Antonio on the same day as BOA SA that leads people to set off a lot of fireworks, and it's audible from the dome sometimes. That's probably what they're talking about.

Oh okay thanks

[natertater21000]

Someone posted all the flomarching videos of finalists from San Antonio. The visual feed isn't bad but the mic placement has to be the worst I've ever heard. It's as if they put them two inches from the pit speakers at every performance :/

 

Hopefully the same won't be true of grand nationals

[FloMoParent]

  On 11/7/2016 at 3:13 PM, natertater21000 said:

Someone posted all the flomarching videos of finalists from San Antonio. The visual feed isn't bad but the mic placement has to be the worst I've ever heard. It's as if they put them two inches from the pit speakers at every performance :/

 

Hopefully the same won't be true of grand nationals

Yes, I was VERY DISAPPOINTED at the quality of the video feed I purchased.  They missed so much of the performances and the sound was horrible. 

[crossblue82]

  On 11/7/2016 at 3:13 PM, natertater21000 said:

Someone posted all the flomarching videos of finalists from San Antonio. The visual feed isn't bad but the mic placement has to be the worst I've ever heard. It's as if they put them two inches from the pit speakers at every performance :/

 

Hopefully the same won't be true of grand nationals

 

Link?

[natertater21000]

https://youtu.be/q8ajy5rxqu0 this link is leander the rest are on this channel.

 

DISCLAIMER-AUDIO QUALITY IS NOT INDICATIVE OF ACTUAL PERFORMANCE FOR ANY GROUP.

[PSHSMom]

I have to chime in about the quality of the live stream too.   The sound was terrible, but since I had to mirror from my phone (couldn't log in thru either of my TV's for some reason) I thought it might have been that. Was also disappointed with the camera work.   I know they like to zoom in on kids from time to time, but you really lose the effect of the show when you don't show what is happening on the other parts of the fields.    I started to get irritated when Reagan was on and the kept going back to the singer and I really just wanted to see what was happening on the field! 

 

And sound wise, none of the bands sounded good and I know that the dome "rings" with music when those bands are playing!   It was all so muffled.

[littlejaw]

  On 11/7/2016 at 3:13 PM, natertater21000 said:

The visual feed isn't bad but the mic placement has to be the worst I've ever heard. It's as if they put them two inches from the pit speakers at every performance :/

Just an FYI, this is common practice for mic placement. I went to Indy for finals week this year and it was a couple of people's jobs to put the mics an arms length from the speaker. At prelims I was on the 5th row and watched them do it every corps. The problem is probably sound mixing, though I haven't seen the videos.

[natertater21000]

Then it's as if they didn't mix it at all. It sounds muffled and once anything from the pit comes in it's all that is heard.

[JeremiahW]

  On 11/7/2016 at 3:13 PM, natertater21000 said:

Someone posted all the flomarching videos of finalists from San Antonio. The visual feed isn't bad but the mic placement has to be the worst I've ever heard. It's as if they put them two inches from the pit speakers at every performance :/

 

Hopefully the same won't be true of grand nationals

 

 

  On 11/7/2016 at 8:53 PM, littlejaw said:

Just an FYI, this is common practice for mic placement. I went to Indy for finals week this year and it was a couple of people's jobs to put the mics an arms length from the speaker. At prelims I was on the 5th row and watched them do it every corps. The problem is probably sound mixing, though I haven't seen the videos.

 

It is a common practice to mic the speakers, but FloMarching doesn't do that. If I remember correctly, in the past at Grand Nats (and maybe at super regionals), the video crew used three main audio sources to ensure quality audio. They had mics that they would put in front of the speakers, to record all the sound coming through the band's sound system; highly directional mics that operators would literally stand on the sideline and point wherever something musically significant was coming from and fixed mics up against the stands to capture the overall sound. Flo only uses a handful of mics hoisted up in front of the stands. With this setup, they're unable to do any sort of audio mixing, because there's really just one source that picks up a little bit of everything, and sometimes a little bit too much of somethings.

 

Imagine if you were watching an awards show broadcast on TV and they just stuck up a few microphones in the back of the room to capture the whole sound instead of mixing the audio from the speaker's microphone with the audio from the orchestra microphones and with the audio from some microphones capturing audience noise. That's kinda what Flo's audio capturing strategy is right now.

[MadisonBandMan1]

Man, I miss this year. It was so much fun performing in the alamodome as a freshmen with the best show that our school had ever put out, I just wish I actually marched that year and didn't have to push a prop.