The world as I see it…

I am writing out this little explanation only because this is one of the most asked questions I get from friends, students, band directors and other designers, and mostly because it is a question brought up several times a year. Rather than taking the time to explain, I usually just shrug it off and don’t consider it an issue.  But since it was recently brought up in a discussion with a good friend of mine and fellow drill designer, I felt the need to finally explain myself as I am getting a bit annoyed with the numerous accusations I get for allegedly copying Greg Poklacki’s designs that he wrote for Spring HS in 1993 and The Cavaliers in 1995 – that being the famous “DNA” helix drill move.

I won’t deny that several drill moves I have incorporated into some of my shows are inspired by other designers’ work and even some that are right out of some drum corps shows. All I can say is that it mostly comes from what was asked of me by the people who hired me and I always do my best to modify it the best I can to prevent it from looking like an exact duplicate of the original.  I am not at all comfortable copying drill moves as it is unethical and disrespectful to my fellow colleagues and designers.  Many times I was able to create something equally effective and unique and I am very happy with most everything I have designed.

I have been able to take the time to study what other designers have done in the past and take that “idea” and make it into something of my own.  In a way, that’s what we all do.  Not that we look to other designers for ideas because we’re not creative enough…  rather the little things, like finding a drill move/motion in the way the lights are spinning on the ceiling at some church event you are at or looking through a kaleidoscope and seeing drill in the images as they spin.   Those are only a couple examples of what I have experienced at times.  When it comes to seeing another band or corps or indoor group perform, I see little things in the motions and movements that can spark another idea that turns into something I write in a future show.

Along with drill moves such as the “Cross to Cross”, the “Diamond Cutter” and the “Crab Wedge”, one of the most admired and talked about drill moves from the 1990′s is the “DNA Helix” that was written by Greg Poklacki and performed by The Cavaliers in their 1995 “Planets” show.  I remember seeing this as a young 18-year-old thinking that was one of the coolest drill moves I’ve ever seen.  At that point in my life, I could never even imagine I would be writing drill someday…  nor even going to school for music.  At that time, I was on a course to major in art and become some sort of commercial artist or architect.

When I began writing drill, it was because I had a passion for art and music and my goal was to create unique, creative and fun shows for marching bands, with great staging, complex drill moves and something that expresses myself as a musician and artist.  I love what I do and I try my best each year, and with each drill move in each show, to get better and find new interesting ideas for the designs I create.   It’s not always easy, but I believe that the same applies for all of us in the business.

That being said, the one thing that has been brought up a lot over the past 3 years is me being accused of copying Greg’s design of the DNA drill move in the 2006 show I wrote for Pasadena Memorial high school and then later for the Dutch Fork high school band in 2007.   Although the drill moves may look similar to most, I can assure you all that for one – I did it all on my own. Two – I never once studied Greg’s DNA helix design as I wrote it.  Three – if you take the time to really compare them, which is something I only did after the fact, you would see that although they look similar based on motion, the shapes and “3D” effect in the animation are completely different – and that said “3D effect” or “screw-like motion” is what I was going for the whole time with the design.  Maybe I see it differently because I spent so many hours working on it and I don’t have a very fresh perspective.  That could then just be something I can’t do anything about. :\

Lets talk about how this all came about in the first place.   The show that was chosen by the PMHS directors is an original show by John M. Meehan and it is called “The Hypar Effect”.  It is a three-movement show and those movements are titled 1-Dome. 2-Sphere. 3-Helicoid.

At the first design meeting we had at TMEA in 2006, we went through the show, movement by movement, and talked about the sections we wanted visual emphasis on…  and others that were music emphasis.  Your typical break downs.  We didn’t want to break it down too much too early, so it was just a lot of throwing anything on the table that sounded cool.

When discussing the closer, the assistant director mentioned to me that he thought it would be cool to have some sort of “rotating helix or screw” move to represent the Helicoid, which is what the tune is titled.  I asked him, “what is a Helicoid?”  He kinda looked at the head director and smiled, laughed a little and looked back at me, almost as if he wasn’t sure how to explain it, and said it has something to do with a mathematical equation and when animated it somewhat resembles an Archimedes’ screw – or as he put it, like a “DNA” strand.  Although I knew what he meant by DNA, I didn’t really picture The Cavaliers 1995 show drill…   but I did want to see what the heck it was, just to be sure.  That’s why I’m thankful we have Google!

When I got home and looked it up, I found the Wikipedia page about the Helicoid, and that actually linked to the Wikipedia article on the Archimedes’ screw.   Both pages I found to be somewhat complex to understand in the matter of trying to figure out how to create a drill move out of it.  (I don’t remember for sure if it was Wikipedia I got all my info from at the time, but looking at it now, it is all basically the exact same information and diagrams).

Finally, I found this video – which I think is the best visual representation of the Helicoid animated in 3D form.

After studying several videos of animating Archimedes’ screws and a few helicoid videos – mostly the one posted here from the 0:53-1:08 mark – I then went into Pyware and gave it a whirl.

I was working with Mitch Rogers at the time and I would send him drill files of me attempting to make this work – mostly unsuccessfully at the start.  I went through about 100 different versions of this from March through May that had my head spinning off my body – literally.    But when I finally got the motion to work, I had originally figured it out set horizontally, or parallel to the sidelines.  My plan was to flip it straight up-n-down vertically on the 50.  I knew it looked a bit funny set horizontal, but it just worked better to write it that way initially so I could get the paths correct.

The only issue I ran into when trying to do the final draft was that I needed to figure out where to put it in the drill and how to get in and out of it without killing any of the band members.    The first “final” draft I completed of the move was before I even wrote a page of the opener.  And since I knew this would go in the closer, I had plenty of time to figure that out.

Setting that Helicoid draft aside, I began writing the drill for the band in early May.  A few weeks later I got to the closer and spent maybe 3 days debating on the placement of the drill.  I was at a complete loss because there wasn’t enough time in the drum solo to have the drill go through enough cycles/counts to be effective.  And if I were to place it at a point where they are playing, I’d have ensemble issues all over the place because the Helicoid went sideline to sideline as originally written.

I then talked to Mitch and we decided it would be best to set it on an angle and have them march it during a part of the show they are playing.  The placement of it, I believe, couldn’t have been more perfect.   I was more confident than Mitch that it would be executable while playing.  I completely understand the concern, but I knew the band well and those who were teaching over there, and knew that so long as they stuck to the coordinate system, worked on each of the 4-count moves and didn’t blow through it, it would be achievable.   I even went out to spend some time working with them, and I think that helped out some.

After it was all said and done, I can say with confidence that I am extremely happy for what I was able to accomplish with that drill and none of it came from any kind of copying or studying of Greg’s drill, although I am constantly accused of doing so.  There’s really not much more I can say except that it wasn’t until about a year after I wrote that drill that I actually went back and compared it to Greg’s DNA drill move.  I only did that because I was asked by the director at Dutch Fork HS if I would touch-up that drill and fit it to their numbers, which were actually very similar.  He said something along the lines of “I see you put the Cavaliers DNA move in the show…” or something to that effect.  I don’t remember the exact way he worded it, but he did say DNA and Cavaliers, as if I stole that move, or even the idea, and put it in the show for my own pleasure.

Well, it should be evident that although these drill moves look very similar, I put a lot of effort into the studying of the Archimedes’ screw and 3D rendering of the Helicoid equation and many, many hours of trial and error on Pyware coming up with what I believe is the best representation of the Helicoid in marching band form.

The “DNA” and “Helicoid” are very different drill moves and I hope that everyone understands that.  I do see that the paths for those marching look similar, but the effect I was going for was the “turning screw” and I believe I pulled it off quite well.   It is also just one of those cases, like in composing or movie making, it’s almost impossible to do anything original now a days without comparing it to something that has already been done in the past.  Yes, designers are coming up with new a innovative ideas every year – but as for me and being only in my 5th year as a designer in 2006, I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish with that design and there’s nothing that anyone can say that will take away from that.

Greg’s DNA drill:

My Helicoid drill:

I never intended it to be a copy nor do I feel I copied any of Greg’s drill.   I hold Greg in very high regard for what he has done as a designer for this activity and he is one of the many designers who has inspired me for many years.  I’ve learned a lot by studying what has all been done by designers all over the world, and for those who know me best know that I am always trying to do something different and something that I believe has never been done – perhaps looking for something to define me as a designer without going about it in any selfish way.

After the completion of the 2006 drill for Pasadena Memorial HS, I felt I had found it with that Helicoid drill move, only to have those dreams shot down year after year with the massive number of emails and comments I receive accusing me of copying the “DNA” drill, even from Greg himself – though his e-mail was extremely kind and complimentary, he commended me on the job I did and even complimented me on “improving” the original design he wrote.  I definitely appreciated the compliment, but I was not expecting that drill move to be directly compared to the “DNA” drill.  I never once looked at or studied the DNA drill for reference and as I said before, although the motion is similar, they are very different drill moves.  If you watch/study the motion of the Archimedes’ Screw, along with the last part of the Helicoid video, hopefully you’ll be able to see what I was trying to accomplish in the drill design.

I understand that maybe this whole post was pointless or might come across as me being overly defensive about a sensitive subject.  It is just an unfortunate issue that has become more annoying to me than anything, where I feel I am almost burdened by this ONE drill move I did 4 years ago and am constantly being criticized by my friends and colleagues for plagiarizing, when in fact that was never my intentions, no matter how similar the designs are to each other.

I am not worried if my hard work on that drill goes unnoticed or unappreciated…  but I hope that more people can understand that the “Helicoid” drill I wrote had a specific purpose and was intended on representing the title of the movement and the wishes of the directors at PMHS. I hope that doesn’t sound like I’m saying “they told me to write it”…  no no no…  I had a lot of fun doing it and I’m very happy with the way it turned out.  I just don’t want it to look the way everyone assumes it…   they just see it in the show and without knowing the title of the tune or even what a Helicoid is, everyone jumps to the conclusion that it’s “the Cavaliers DNA move” and assume I copied it just for the sake of doing it.  That’s just not the case.

I know there are several of you who have seen that drill move on my website and probably thought the same thing or something similar.  I understand.  Had it not been brought up yesterday when talking design with my friend, I wouldn’t have thought of it in that way.  It’s cool…