From Concept to Field

Greg Bimm and Ken Snoeck

Deciding on a Concept
Whats your show? has had different answers in different time periods.

Essential preliminary questions:

What is my bands identity? (A constantly moving and developing target)

Who are we?

What is our mission? (Education!)
What is our brand?
What do we (I) know and do well?
What are the community expectations?
What are our resources?
Budget
Talent
Time
Facility

Where are we in the taxonomy?

Survival
Respectable
Competitive
Higher art and education (with or without the competitive aspect)

What is my audience? (For whom are we designing?)

Students
Administration
Parents
Football crowd
Contest

Study and preparation-developing knowledge and information as a base

What is being done in the medium? (Even if we only do Friday night home
football games, we are being compared to others.)

What and where is the current State of the Art?

 What can we learn and use from the leading programs?
Determine what concept made it successful
Imitate the concept, not the actual production

Counter programming to stand out from the rest by being different

Everything old is new again

Block permutations
Part of band shows since at least the 1950s
Choreography
Part of band shows since at least the 1940s
Figure animation
Part of band shows since at least the 1950s
Voice-overs
Part of band shows since at least the 1940s
Concept shows
Part of band shows since at least the 1940s

What is the next step?

Dont be afraid to reinvent yourself

Developing my design team

Just me?
Me and who?
Define team roles and responsibilities (working routine)
Remember that I am the director (executive producer)

Finding and refining concept inspiration

Often, but not necessarily, The Story

Is it interesting and relevant?

Once we have invested time and energy, will anyone care?
Will it engage the audience?

Is it appropriate?
Do we need to dwell on teen suicide?
Do people want to be reminded of Timothy McVeigh or Jeffrey Dahmer?

Is it practical?
Can we tell the story with the performers, writers, teachers, time and
finances we have available? (VERY important!)
The limitations of my band (primarily, me)
Polishing your skills
 The Joss Whedon/Toy Story rules:
1. The effects have to serve the story
2. You cant use water

Will my student performers connect with the concept and be able to effectively
communicate its intent?

Will it cause the audience to feel emotion?

Doesnt have to be high concept
Fun is an emotion too, but very difficult to do

Is it fertile-does it lead to related ideas?

Does it lend itself to musical depiction?

Does it contain the potential for a visual hook?

Is there a quantity of material available?

Sources for ideas and concepts

What I want to do to benefit my students

Band staff-engaging the stake holders
Trusted people around you
Professional program designers
Maintain control over your band
Maintain control over your message
Mining programs from major marching band events
There are many concepts that can be repurposed
What works for a band of 200 often does not work as well for a
band of 20 (Very important!)

Distill the concept and then apply

Make the intent understandable

Thoughtfully pursue the creative edge where success and failure meet

Beware of false assumptions of the communication of the concept

(There is no free leap of faith)
Designing to the Music or Writing Music for the Design
Relating music and visual productions to one another

A. Music comes first and the visual program is crafted to present the music, as in ballet
(Not currently the major mode for most/many)
The music is the primary motivator of the programming
Musical ideas tend to be more complete
The visual production serves the music

B. Production ideas come first and the music is adapted or composed to achieve those
effects, as in film scoring (Much more in vogue currently)
The production concept is the motivating factor
The music tends to be more oriented toward effects (different than
effectiveness) than melody
Musical segments tend to be more numerous and of diverse character in the
telling of the story

Both are viable if done well

Most/many programs are a blend of the two concepts, following where the path leads

Pacing
Focus

Know what I want the audience to feel at every moment

Be willing to add or remove some of the musical and/or visual clay to

give the production better balance and form (Very important!)
Does it fit?
Is it musical?
Does it advance the concept?

Design is the willful direction of attention; making people focus their

attention where you intend. Focus, then, is the direction or redirection of
expectation.

Lead the audience to what you want them to hear, see and feel (most
forget the last one)
Take the audience on your journey
Apollo Robins: The Art of Misdirection (Ted Talk, September 13, 2013,
now on YouTube)
Attention is a powerful thing. It shapes your reality.
If you could capture someones attention, what would you do with
it?
Impression points no longer Impact points (Its not just about playing loud!)

Points of emotional intensity

Points of release or gratification

Contrasts-Sometimes manufactured, yet integral to the message of the moment

Loud-Soft
Intense-Relaxed
Complex-Simple
Fast-Slow
Full band-Section or small ensemble
Key and mode relationships

Frequency of change

Our ADD society

The 20 second rule

The Personification of the Concept-The Role of the Guard

Putting a face on the production

The cursor for the production

Portraying the essence of the concept

Costuming
Color
Equipment
Choreography
Role playing

The Marching Band Program as a Pedagogical Tool

Musical fundamentals with which the students need help that we can improve by their
being included in the marching band program:

Meters, particularly compound

Keys
Scales
Style
Phrasing
Characteristic sound production
(Virtually every musical concept can be taught through marching band)
Program Development
Dont stop at ok, comfortable mediocrity, when good is within reach and excellence is
possible. Do not deprive your students (and yourself) of the experience of true
achievement when all that stands in the way is greater effort. It need not take any more
time or money. Just more effort.

Analyze why something does not work as well as intended. Often it is a matter of
relative tempo or dynamics, easily and quickly changed.

Regardless of who wrote it, refinement, rewriting or editing, is necessary to maximize

the effectiveness. Do not be afraid to make the changes that will make the program
more successful. Make it work better for your students in their situation.

Less is often more. After taking performance improvement as far as it can reasonably
go, clarify by removing unnecessary or redundant material. It has served its pedagogical
purpose.

Final Thoughts
1. No great design can survive poor performance. It is not difficult to perform
demanding music or drill poorly. Dont attempt to impress with what you are doing, but
rather how well you are doing it. To do choreography well, preparation in body control
needs to start well before implementation and practiced often.

2. Excellence is not something the performers or you do on Friday night or Saturday. It

has to be a part of everything you and they do, from how they leave the band room, get
off the bus and behave when you are not there to the engagement and attention to
detail when at rehearsal. It is not enough to have the desire to excel. You and they must
also have the desire to prepare to excel.

3. All of life is not a T-Ball game. Everyone is not a winner for just showing up. We
have to actually DO something. This applies to us too, not just the students. We have to
invest time and effort to build skills. We then have to apply the skills in a directed and
reflective manner to create art. We must model the intensity of involvement that we wish
to see. Creating the culture of success, the expectation to excel, is the difference
between I probably cant. and Ok, tell me what to do.

4. The best way to predict your future is to create it. A. Lincoln

gbimm1@aol.com
kpsnoeck@comcast.net
The young woman or the hag?

We see different things in the same image dependent upon our individual
predispositions. Can we be sure that our design intent will be accurately read? Are we
making our intended message clearly understandable?