Premium Features - How to Handle Them

I had a period of time from April to June when my premium expired. I thought, "Oh no! My premium is gone and now my shows aren't going to be creative or good anymore!" I then proceed to pump out a 3 show series and another show in about 2 months, and if you know me designing wise, my REALLY good shows are usually about 4 months apart. So that was strange.

Here's my point. Don't let premium features distract you from designing a show. Design the show first. Don't color the uniforms/flags, don't add horn pops or backfields, tosses, ect., just write your drill first. If you focus on the drill and THEN those other things, your show will be a lot better.

Think about it this way, you are baking a big 5 tier cake. Do you want to have to worry about frosting it and putting all the extra goodies on it while you are also doing the stacking/structure of the cake? NO! You want to get a good structure and THEN add on all the little details, because if you worry about them while building the cake, the structure will suffer from not getting enough attention. You can add all the extra things you want, but that won't cover up a bad structure.

So:

1st write the drill.
2nd clean the drill.
3rd add all the flag tosses, colors, ect.
4th watch the show again and make sure all those things fit in because too often there are unnecessary tosses that just don't fit in shows.

Side note: Use the features to highlight the drill. If you have an arrival point, add a big unison toss in. If the drill structure changes, change the flag colors. Use the horn ups, downs, and backfield like you think they would fit in a real show. Make them fit into your drill!

Good example for the above suggestions:

micromarching.com/show/2i1z/lescalier-du-diable

And also, I've seen a bunch of people lately who say "This is my last show in awhile because my premium runs out". Don't do that! During my time off I used the non premium to look past all those extra features and just write drill. No ripples, no tosses, just good solid drill. And those were some of the best shows I've ever written. Some of the best shows lately have been non premium, and get overlooked because they aren't premium. Example:

micromarching.com/show/2nur/atlas-shrugged

The main reason I'm writing this is that I feel most people on this site are getting too caught up in adding all the colors and tosses and stuff, and their actual drill suffers from it. Back in November 08 there were a BUNCH of 9-10 quality shows on the front page from top to bottom. Now there's a few 9-10 quality shows on the front page and a bunch of 8 quality shows. Now those aren't bad, but I feel like people are letting the features get in the way of their potential. I use Matt Wasson's shows as examples, because watching his shows, premium or not, he just seems to have designed good solid shows that have just the right touches of tosses, ect in his premium shows, and his non-premium shows are just as good.

So in the end, just design your show, THEN add all the premium stuff. I want everyone to put out their best product possible! This was not meant to be an attack, I just felt like someone needed to say it. And if your show isn't premium, who cares? It can be just as good!

Happy designing!

Thanks! And I just posted about premium shows! Haha this helps a lot!

I have thought about doing a topic like this for a long time now, I just thought it would be the right time since there are a bunch of people asking about premium.

Well again, it will help ease peoples' questions most likely!

*ahem* this should be stickied *ahem*

This is great. Perfect for a lot of people out there who are worried about the flash that premium gives...

^Done ;-)

I usually either just put in dummy guard work or no guard work the go back and change it all later. The only time you really need to write the guard work on the spot is if you're doing a synced show- you need to put the flag tosses in where they need to be for timing purposes.

I do usually set the uniforms I like before hand, dunno that's just how I roll. I never consider the uniforms or flag colors set in stone though, and I'm always willing to go back and change them if needed (unless I insist on duplicating a certain corps' uniforms)

Yea I never thouht of this but i've done this on EVERY premium show of mine...
I'm goint to try this... THANKS!

Oh my gosh! I'm so honored that you used my shows as examples! Thanks so much.
I totally agree with everything that has been said, and I think that it has been this type of approach to design that has allowed me to improve from where I was at my first show.

Wow! Thanks a lot! I'm going to try this.