Storyboards & Soundtracks

I've been on a posting tear now - three in a row - maybe because it's final exam season and I'm pretending my boys are reading this for inspiration. (1)

I got to thinking that besides sheer physical volume (see 7Ps below) of practice, there also is the mental preparation side of practice, which brings me to this topic.

Storyboards … Watching “Shrek The Third” with the family the other night, we took in the "deleted scenes" DVD feature. This was different from other delete scenes features, however, it that there were three camera shots on the screen – the shot on top featured each storyboard, with the bottom left showing the person telling the story and the bottom right showing the audience.

I could not help but wonder how many marching bands “storyboard” their show. I don't mean just computer music playing to the to the computer drill, but an actual storyboard of the visuals. Then I got to thinking, how many people storyboard important events? Weddings? Important presentations (and I don't mean just PowerPoint!)?

Storyboarding can take place in your mind, but maybe we should all use paper, not computers, and storyboard ... whatever needs to be storyboarded. Paper is cool and can be recycled. It can be dug out of the trash. It can be marked up. My paper of choice is in several sizes, but about two years ago I ditched the typical legal pad for grid/graph paper. Click here for some other cool tools.

Soundtracks … I chose the name Soundtracker because originally I was going to write about probably my favorite “type” of music, movie soundtracks. (Or, as they say in the business, "film scores.") Some soundtracks are original music, some are adapted from familiar themes, and some are old hits in a new form.

But without music, TV and movies can never be “best pictures”. Music sets the tone. Think about it – we hear a song, and picturesque memories or fantasies come to life.

My Mom told me I learned to like classical music from Loony Tunes. (Hmmm. Maybe my Mom was saying that I was looney tunes ...?) I mean, who can forget Bugs Bunny and "The Rabbit (Barber) of Seville"!

I’ve told people in the past that there is nothing more to be said in the world, that we can just sing our way though conversations. (It certainly would make peace talks more interesting!)

Tony singing “Maria” in "West Side Story" – pretty romantic, guys, no matter how you propose! (We used “One Hand One Heart” in our wedding. And "Sunrise Sunset" from "Fiddler on the Roof", come to think of it. And ... well, I'll quit with that.)

So ANYWAY, this is I think why I have the passion for marching band. Visual storyboards, told purely with a soundtrack.

Storyboards. Soundtracks. As the great Yogi Berra (not Yogi Bear, but he's great too ... see the storyboard!) said, “Ninety percent of this game is half mental.” (Yogi said a lot of other things that are allegedly about baseball. More on that later.)

(1) Finals have been going on for the past week. Studying? Hmmm.