When you write drill...

When you write drill for MML do you have your entire show planned out ahead of time or do you let the creative process kind of let your go where you want to go? I think it would be interesting to see what other designer's creative process is for creating shows.

only if i am truly inspired, i will write drill solely based on a theme from the beggining. but what usually happens is that i start writing and my concept or title for the show comes to me about half way through. but that's just me...

It's both for me. Sometimes I just get this idea and go with it for a couple hours and, voila! But most of the time that doesn't happen. I usually plan out parts of the show, the impact points, and then I let the creativeness inside do the rest of the work.

I have always had a theme in mind before writing shows. Only once did I plan out the entire show (Scoptophobia). I usually just find ideas as I am writing and work towards them.

I used to write with a "let's see what happens" attitude, but now I usually pick one strong visual idea, write it out, and work backwards or forwards or both as necessary. That one visual idea is usually key, and working backwards let's you have that strong visual idea without having your horns get out of order.

Lately, I've just started writing and found a them about halfway through writing. Probably not the best technique, but sometimes if I feel bound by a theme from the beginning, then I don't feel as though I can just write whatever kind of set I want and that I have to convey that theme at every possible chance.
But that's just me.

A little of both- Sometimes I write with no plan at all, and just go with things as they unfold (Zen drill writing). Sometimes I have a loose outline to follow in my head- i.e. scatter drill to a big hit into a drum feature about 5-6 pages long, horn reentry with fast drill into another hit then a big/fast tag into a company front.. or something like that (semi-anal-retentive drill writing). Usually I'll have something in mind for one or more of three sopts- the beginning, a big hit somewhere in the middle, and/or the ending, and I'll work around those ideas, but will often compromise (balanced-approach drill writing).

All these methods have merit- generally I let the show itself have a lot of say even if I have a strong plan- maybe I planned a company front, but the movement I;ve got up to that point might look like it wants to do a box-contrary-motion trick instead... in those case I ususally go with what the show seems to want to do more often than forcing it into my original idea- it usually makes things flow better- but that's what works for my style and might not work for you.

If I'm syncing to music I tend to be more strict- I have a more rigid plan, and I try to stick to it better than I would if I were writing drill that didn't have music.

Good question. Most of the time when I write I start of with an idea in my head. Very rarely to I write randomly. There are times however, when I would start of writing one theme and see it completely change to another. My I didn't intend my snake show to be about snakes at all. But after a few sets into it, I realized it would work much better than the previous theme I had, so I stuck with ti.

i usually just go with drill moves that i think that look good together for this site its different when im working with Pyware. I usually pick the music i want to sync with first if im using Pyware.

A little bit of both. I rarely have a theme right from the start. I usually just start writing drill, backwards and forwards, from a neat set that i just doodled onto here. The title or theme usually comes about half way through.

I just write, then slap a theme on it when I'm done.

I've hit all the extremes by this point. "What Happened to Forever" and "Θεός" had clearly defined themes from the start. "Fibbonaci's Spiral" was a show about spirals by about set 18. "Dia y Sueños" barely even has a theme, it just got a title from a marimba composition that I thought loosely fit the mood of it. And "Forms of Expression" /started out/ with a theme, but then I gave it up halfway through!

I find, as far as my current WIP (a synced show) goes, I do my best drill when I know what I want to do as far as motion. First thing I did was make notes while listening to the music as to what I wanted to see:
"2 - hold
2 - move
2 - hold
2 - move and form
(faster tempo -- drumline breaks through drill to SW)
5 - (crazy)expand
3 - form lines
5 - rotate
3 - rotate"

etc. Might work for some. Thinking about the length of counts isn't important if you're not syncing, but in general, I find all of my best work and even all of my best drill effects come from me thinking about my current set and saying "what next?" and just using my mind to find out what I want. Hope that helps someone else too. :S