10 Ways to Improve Your Show/Score

here's some of my advice for when designing a show that you want to do well. take it was you will.

1) keep things moving! - it's ok to set up a section feature and have them be the focus of the drill by keeping them in a halt, but there are too many times when i'll watch a show and only parts of the corps move, then the next set a different part of the corps moves, then the next set a different part moves. is this even making sense? basically, if the marchers aren't in a halt for a feature or an impact set, then keep them moving.

2) spelling counts! - *sigh* nothing is worse than seeing a show title with (EASY!) words spelled wrong. believe it or not, people do take that into account when judging. along those lines, spelling things right in the description would be a great idea.

3) good descriptions! - let's expand on the idea in #2. descriptions need to be short and to the point. most judges want to judge the show, not read a novel. honestly, i'll read a description as long as i don't have to scroll for 30 seconds. if i have to scroll more than two turns of my intelimouse wheel, then i don't read. just give me the show, not a declaration. furthermore, asking for comments is ok, but it is annoying. if we want to leave a comment, then we shall. also, it's great that you're writing shows!, but it doesn't matter if it's your first or seventeenth show--the judges won't take sympathy to you being a newbie. oh, and "PLZ" isn't a word.

4) impact sets! - design your show with multiple halts with really cool and really creative sets. give the audience something to look at for a few seconds and let them say "wow, that's neat!" it's even more effective if the halt set comes out of nowhere cause then it's like "oh! didn't see that coming!"

5) pick an idea and go with it! - random drill is fiiiiine...as long as it's good. there have been a lot of corps shows over the years where the idea is obscure and the drill is random, so it's ok to do that, but picking a theme/idea and making a show around it does better than non-thematic shows (at least for this site it does). to take it a step further, do ideas that no one has thought of. i think the math / outer space / SQUARE/CIRCLE/TRIANGLE shows have exceeded their novelty, so refrain from those ideas. some of the best shows i've seen on here have been ideas that probably just came from looking around their house/bedroom and saying "ok. we'll make that a show". pick a creative/unique idea and make it work.

6) variety! - make circles! squares! blocks! triangles! the nike symbol! crosses! balloons! beluga whales! anything! just don't overdo them. your show needs to be a plethora of formations, not just block --> circle --> line --> block --> circle --> line.

7) use the tools sparingly! - let's say you have a circle that you want to turn into a line. DO NOT highlight all the marchers in the circle and press 'i'. the program will just take all the marchers and throw them into a randomly-formed line; it will not look good. instead, press the letter 'y' a couple times until you see "Yard interval is OFF", then take the marchers and drag them roughly into the line that you want (alternating marchers from the top of the circle to the bottom of the circle, obviously), then highlight the marchers and press 'i' to get your perfectly-designed line. likewise, you can immediately tell when someone has pressed 'b' to make a block out of their marchers. i never do this. yeah, it makes a perfect block, but the transition from the set prior isn't always as great as it could be. so just do it yourself. the snap-to feature is great and allows you to set up a perfect block with 4-step spacing. if 4-step spacing is too tight, then make your block, highlight everyone, and hit the '-' or '+' until you expand or contract the block to how you want it. and freehanding a curvelinear form is ok as long as the spacing is justified. it's tedious to have to drag each member one-by-one to the squiggle form that you want, but it pays off in the end and after a few shows with freehanding, it'll become second nature to make them quickly. but do use the arc tool. plz.

8) avoid collisions! - i don't know why i have to even mention this. we're not fans of these things, are we? we don't like seeing collisions, so don't allow them to happen in your show. YES, some collisions that happen on this site wouldn't happen on a real field because of curved paths, but for the sake of what this site is, avoid writing collisions at all costs. when you press 'play' at the bottom of the design box to watch the set you just wrote (i'm convinced that not everyone does this...), if you see a collision, start the set over. just dont allow it to happen.

9) be innovative with your design! - this might shock you, but i love pass throughs. if you can make pass throughs work in your show, more power to you. and i'm talking about pass throughs that happen at set changes. however, pass throughs that happen DURING the set...wow. that's very difficult to write and looks great. making pictures in your show is great, too (some examples: the texas longhorn head [BCoat07], an Ace of Spades laid on top of another Ace [Adrian Caswell], a ladybug [myself], an olympic torch [Kyle6]). these are hard to do and the better they look, the better for your score. just make sure there's clarity with these forms. oh, and the percussion. it IS ok to break them up sectionally and have them distance themselves on the field. i was watching phantom '03 last night (YAY!) and in the closer each section was more than two yardlines apart at one point, so it does happen and is acceptable (just please don't mesh them with the brass as if they're a brass player). integrating the drumline into your show well will only boost your score, as very few people have been able to pull that off. and with guard...well, i'll post a #11 once we get guard.

10) be the designer that you are! - embrace yourself as a designer. this [amazing] website gives you the chance to write your own show, have it published for everyone else to see, and allows you to get feedback on that show. if your goal is to score above a 90, then great! go for it! but if you don't achieve that goal, then keep trying. you'll get there eventually. and learn from some of the great designers on this site as there are LOTS. watch their shows and borrow/modify their ideas/moves to fit your show. just be true to your identify and don't lose your uniqueness as a designer. and don't be afraid to try new ideas (ie: avoiding the tools and freehanding some forms). just keep at it and you'll get better. trust me.

hope this has helped. good luck!