I met with Brad Dezotell of Fireworks Spectaculars Canada(FSC), representing Canada for their 3rd time. Brad won the Gold Jupiter for FSC the second time he competed in 2010 as well jointly with Royal Pyrotechnie in 2014. The collaboration with Royal at that time was for the special 30th edition of the competition, where previous winners were invited to competed. Royal and FSC are the only Canadian companies to have won the Gold Jupiter so far.
FSC had been scheduled to compete in 2020, though the Covid pandemic put paid to that idea. Because of FSC’s involvement in the Grandstands show at the Calgary Stampede, Brad said it had been impossible to come to Montreal in either 2022 or 2023 but finally, in 2024, the dates worked. Brad told me he had just finished 11 straights days of Grandstand shows, coming straight to Montreal afterwards to compete here. He said half of his crew were tired from the Stampede work and the other half were raring to go! The Stampede shows are part of a large spectacle and consist of an 8 minute pyromusical that uses around 1300 cues. FSC also do the close-proximity pyro for the musical stage shows that are part of the event. He said this was their 21st year working at the Stampede.
Brad said this would be their largest show this year and he had used comments from his 2010 Montreal entry to come up with the title for display. Many people had commented that the design had been epic, as were the parts he scripted for the joint display with Royal in 2014 (the opening and the finale, designed by Brad, had elicited the same comments) and so he came up with the concept of an Epic Journey for the cancelled 2020 participation. He said around 60% of the music he had originally decided to use for the 2020 design made it into this year’s and, to help with the creative process, he turned to an AI search-engine to help find more epic music. He said that it turned up music he had never heard before and he was impressed with what he found, especially with the piece of music destined for the finale. This is the first time we’ve heard of AI being used to help design a show. However, the scripting itself was done largely without the aid of any visualization software as Brad said it’s too time-consuming, preferring to visualize the design in his head.
On the technical side, the display will use all of the possibilities of the firing site, and then some. With five positions on the five floating platforms of ramp 5 in use, as well as the roof of the control building (ramp 4), ramp 3 will have 11 positions and ramp two will be augmented by two scissor lifts at the height of around 15m at the left and right hand sides adjacent to the lake to add two extra positions. Ramp 2 itself will have the maximum amount of 100mm mortars possible (around 1250) as well as over 900 75mm ones. During the interview I saw extra 150mm mortars being installed on ramp 1 and Brad said there would be around 40 shells in the 200/250/300mm calibre with three Igual 300mm shells. The display contain around 4000 cues with a mix of firing systems.
In terms of products, the display will feature material from all of the manufacturers who import into Canada so there will be items from Dancing Dragon and Pyrospec (Royal’s Chinese manufacturer), Lidu, Vulcan and Mystical (also Chinese) plus some Spanish shells from the sadly defunct Zaragozana and some Italian Silver Rain shells from Panzera. There will also be special-FX products from various manufacturers too. For the first time this year, there will be nautical shells used – coming in the 100mm and 125mm calibre from Zaragozana. I recall getting wet from water blasted from the lake in 2014 following a barrage of similar nauticals!
For the laser segments, Brad said the two segments would also include pyrotechnics, so the laser portion is shorter than the musical segments used. He said he was not familiar with the capabilities of the lasers so left the detailed design to the company responsible. One comment I found interesting was that he has not watched any of the displays from Montreal on video ever – the only shows he’s seen (just seven) were Royal’s Gold Jupiter winning display in 2003, his own three shows and three awards ceremonies.
Brad also said he wanted people to feel the epic aspects of the soundtrack and feel transported through a world of emotions as the music and fireworks leads to feelings of soaring through the air and flying. He noted that FSC had won the people’s choice award for the soundtrack back in 2010 and is sure the audience will enjoy this year’s show.