Martin Hildeberg
I met with Martin Hildeberg and the Göteborgs Fyrverkeri Fabrik team at lunchtime as they were going to be having a busy day due to their container being delayed by customs for a day, arriving today instead of yesterday and thus ensuring a busy day for the team.
Since their debut in Montreal in 2005, the team has been thinking about their subsequent visit to Montreal and kept affectionately referring to their previous visit as “last year”. Indeed, two thirds of the team are the same this time as last.
Martin was candid in saying they had learned a lot since their first participation and that their display then had been a mix of “old style” and some “new style” techniques they were starting to develop. He said that he realized a stronger start to a display is needed and that it shouldn’t be necessary to include a narration, their display needing it last time because of the complex theme. This time, the theme will be obvious and so require no explanation.
I wondered if Swedish companies were compelled to use an Abba track and Martin laughed and said that, in actual fact, the Dancing Queen song they’re using has never been used in any of their other pyromusicals. He also noted that the popularity of Abba is cyclical – ironically both in 2005 and 2010 there were Abba-related concerts in Montreal so they seemed to have timed their return perfectly!
The theme of the display came naturally as both Martin and fellow team-mate Anders had been DJs in the 1980s and 1990s. I wondered which came first in the design process, the music or the fireworks and Martin told me that it was a mix of the two. Sometimes he would hear a song and file it away mentally for future pyromusical use or sometimes he’d have a specific fireworks effect in mind that would cause him to search for appropriate music to fire it to. Martin noted that his experience as a DJ was invaluable in putting together the soundtrack as it’s much more of a mix than just a simple cut-and-paste of various songs – sometimes different versions of the same song are mixed together. He said they had changed ideas as the theme developed from just using recent music or trying to incorporate music from Montreal into the final theme which encompasses different musical eras from the 1970s up until the present day as well as including a tribute to Latin music as well as the late Michael Jackson.
Göteborgs Fyrverkeri Fabrik have also been competing in other competitions since their previous appearance in Montreal and have won the Swedish National Championship 8 times in a row now. Martin said that one of their proudest moments was winning the Pyronale competion in Berlin in 2007.
Some technical information: the display is to be fired using 164 FM16 Pyrodigital firing modules with a total of 2586 cues. Products come from several manufacturers. These are Grupo Luso (Portugal) for their relampagos, tremuladas, silver assadas and thunder shells; Ricardo Caballer (Spain) for one shots, mines and some shells; Pirico (Parente, Italy) for studatas; Panzera (Italy) farfalles and studatas; Zink (Germany) special effect peony shells; Yung Feng (China) various shells and NextFX (USA) for close proximity special effects. Quite the selection! There will be around sixty large calibre shells (8″, 10″ and 12″) but one must not forget that Italian 6″ shells can pack more effects than a 12″ peony. There will be nauticals and the team will be using the ramp 5 floating pontoons. Martin also hinted that there would be some special surprises and, of course, didn’t reveal what these will be!
I asked if they had used VisualShowDirector and Martin confessed that they have not completed adding all of their products into the database and, when they do use it, it is often more for error checking and refinement of firing angles rather than complete show design.
Martin said that although he had being the primary designer of both the soundtrack and the fireworks, all of the team had input their ideas into the process and he felt that Göteborgs Fyrverkeri Fabrik have a technique of using close proximity effects that is all their own. He said he’s particularly looking forward to seeing the Latin mix segment as well as the 70s disco mix and wants the audience to feel like they’re at a dance party and join in with the fun.
The weather forecast is currently favourable for Saturday so let’s hope that lots of people turn up in a party mood!
