I met with Paul Csukassy, technical director of the fireworks competition, and Jim Souza, president of Pyrospectaculars by Souza and designer of the special “feux d’etoiles” closing show, this year, a tribute to Madonna.
Paul designed the soundtrack, in collaboration with Martin Roy (former director of Public Relations at Six Flags La Ronde) and Philip Benchetrit (one of the pyrotechnics crew members and a DJ). Martin, a long-time Madonna fan, suggested the outline of the soundtrack as well as which versions of the songs to use and then Paul organized everything with input from Philip to provide some DJ-type mixes between certain tracks. As previously, Paul worked with Celine Dion’s Stuid Piccolo to complete the mastering of the final track. Paul is also a huge Madonna fan!
Jim Souza was charged with the pyrotechnic design of the show and received the soundtrack at the end of April. He said he’s more used to working with an in-house track and so it took about a week of deep listening and thought to fully comprehend what Paul’s intentions were. The soundtrack itself is composed of approximately 25 Madonna songs and has been organized into five thematic sections: Introduction, Film Classics, Downbeat, Dancefloor and the finale section. Within these sections, Jim further broke down the thematic elements into smaller pieces, with some songs having as many as three identifiable parts and then created a storyboard around these, with particular effects and colours for each element. He said he watched many Madonna videos to get inspiration for the colours and effects to use and put the show together with ShowDirector (though only a few small portions were visualized in VisualShowDirector).
Team Souza (Jim 3rd from left)
Despite not being in competition, Jim assured as that this show would be a world-class full Souza experience, incorporating many of their signature effects and sequences. He said they had gone all-out and were using a full arsenal of products including their joint-venture manufacturer in China, together with Ricasa from Spain, Parente from Italy and Grupo Luso from Portugal (Souza himself being of Portuguese origin). There would also be some US-made effects from RES and around 30% of the products used would be brand new for this year, including a line of perchlorate-free shells that would be fired in the Live To Tell section.
Jim said it had been a very busy year for their company, with around 350 displays for the July 4th festivities, as well as their competition entry in Sherbrooke, which son Paul won for their company. All three Souza sons, Paul, Chris and Ricky (who just turned 18) are working on the crew and Jim said it’s an honour for all of them to participate in Montreal with its unique site that so well showcases their designs.
Technically speaking, the show will be fired with around 200 PyroDigital FM16 firing modules with a cue count of approximately 2800 and there will be 160 8″ and 30 10″ shells in the show. There are some surprises in the show, but I am sworn to secrecy! Jim said he’s particularly looking forward to the finale.
