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Hi guys,

Well, I just got in from a pretty decent display, though the weather took control of the entire thing, especially with the massive amounts of smoke accumulations. In fact, there were times when I couldn't even see La Ronde. The Easterly light winds also caused us to smell the smoke greatly at times.

In other news, this was, by far, the smallest crowd, for obvious reasons. The display itself was nicely done with some nice colors and effects, though often obscured by smoke, especially with some of lower effects and the frequent use of that bright red. It's a shame that the colors didn't come out as nicely. Synchronization was pretty much well done, especially with the entrance of gold fans at the left and right. However, there were parts that were quite slack.

The ending was lengthy, but not as enjoyable due to the smoke and possibly the lack of colors. However, it had alright length with plenty of noise.

The problem here was the general lack of wind and the abundant moisture and humidity, causing the smoke to build up. Thankfully enough, it did not rain, but it did come down a little steady up to 9:30 while some sprinkles just before the display. All in all, an excellent effort, but it's a pity that the smoke had to accumulate to such an extent. As a result, I did not get the chance to admire some of those dramtic colors and lower effects as much as I could have.

I'll have a full review tomorrow, that is, after I finish up South Africa's. What bad luck for the displays this year.

Regards,

Trav.

Well, I'm afraid my review and opinion won't be as accurate as the previous ones I've done in the past...

I had a very bad night and my mood was not very good. Many good and bad things happened to me today (I know I'm very dialectical) so I really wasn't in the "fireworks" mood tonight.

In fact, I was very close to come late to the show, mainly because my sisters just couldn't make their mind up! It was 8:50pm and I was still at home trying to make a decision myself .

After all the fuss, finally, I arrived at Henri-Bourassa station at 9:10pm. I took the metro and off I went to Papineau station. It was 9:50pm when I set foot on Notre Dame street in stress and in frustration! But once again, the metro saved the day. Ouff!

And ironically, what a GREAT view I found. I think that one more time, I had the greastest view on Notre Dame street or outside of La Ronde! I was right behind a handicap, up front, next to the steel and in the middle of the ramps.

This was by far the most anticlimatic fireworks night ever. I mean almost everything went wrong: low attendance, smoke blowing in my direction, and... rock music?

The smoke, aside being delicious to smell (well, somewhat) didn't really obscure everything. I think it really depended on where you were standing. But I did recieve black powders in my eyes and probably in my hair also.

As for the show, I found this dispay to be quite intense compared to other shows we saw this year. I think this is because they used rock songs, so I guess it's normal. However, I do like certain rock songs (mostly vampire songs), but they choose a lot of boring ones in my taste. Many of them were very repetitive and LONG. I know their theme is about rock, but I really am not sure if it's a good theme...

However, this isn't much of a big criticism because I thought their display itself was wonderful. There were many intense and beautiful scenes! Yet at the same, I know that there were a lot of intense moments, but I also felt that they weren't enough to stir up my excitement. I'm pretty sure it was because of my mood, though.

Anyhow, synchronization was good at certain times, but not always perfect. I very much loved the quality and the content of the pieces, they had many good wonderful effects. They should have used more candles and added more fireworks in the low part because it seemed that they used most of the time a lot of shells, etc.

The anticipating finale was not as powerful and sublime as they mentioned in the press release. Worse, it wasn't even colorful! But I should also mention that we did see many feux finales.

It was definitely a unique approach, but it just felt very anticlimatic. In general, unfortunetaly I am just not sure how to rate this display and what to make out of it, but I do believe I witnessed a very good display.

I've tried very hard to forget all the problems and rate the display in the most fairest way I can because I just don't want my mood to affect it. So I figured that they deserve to be in second place.

1. South Africa
2. Portugal
3. Italy
4. Switzerland
5. Argentina

Rated from Notre-Dame street and may not be debatable with those who watched the displays from elsewhere without recognizing that my viewpoint is different from theirs.

Indeed, this has been a very cursed year, Smoke.

It just dont get how you can write a review from outside of La Ronde...

the show is certainly "enjoyable" from Notre Dame or the bridge but you don't get to see any of the low level effects, wich are the ones that we spend the most time and efforts on, artistically-wise

Salut les mordus en feu

J'ai regardé le feu juste au dessus du lac sur le Pont.Je n'ai rien manqué car il y avait beaucoup d,action sur le Lac et sur toutes les rampes autant verticalement qu'horizontalement...........
J'ai adoré ce feu ...Une performance solide ,un feu roulant dansant le rock partout sur le site,une prestation menée de main de maitre qui m'a envoûté du début à la fin. Pour emprunter l'expresssion de Paul marriot; " It was a fantastic display" par ces petits nouveaux qui ne voulaient pas manquer leur coup.
Un concept cohérent du début à la fin...une intensité et un rytme très bien dosé, de bonnes transitions, des surprises originales, de l'émotion, un excellent choix musical,un choix judicieux de belles pièces pyrotehniques avec des couleurs riches , une très bonne syncronisation , une mise en scène soignée, très dynamique qui a maintenu l'intérêt du spectateur.
En fait ces gens du Portugal m'ont embarqué dans leur train à la première minute et m'ont fait vivre un très beau voyage pyro-musical.Pour moi c'est toujours bon signe....
En résumé pour moi la meilleure prestation à date...........ces gens là se sont préparés pour Montréal avec beaucoup de soin..cà se voyait..Bravo le Portugal.
Mon classement à date

Portugal
Afrique du Sud
Argentine
Suisse
Italie

Bye tout le monde...Et...cà continue...

Roger

Hello friends,

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch the display. However, I did hear the music. The theme was not very original since any firm can choose a "rock" theme or dance, country, folk, ...etc. Anyways, I'm looking forward to Paul's review and any video would be appreciated.


Portugal:

Quality: N/A
Synchro: N/A
Design: N/A
Appreciation: N/A

Dan

kamuro,

I've already said in the past that I do reviews and the rate the shows for myself, for those who watch it from Notre Dame street and also for those who wish to know my point of view from Notre Dame street.

You're thinking too objectively, and I don't want you to believe that my opinion can be mixed with those who watch it from La Ronde.

I've already explained this in the "Argentina (Cienfuegos) reviews." thread.

Generally, people on Notre Dame street can see the majority of the fireworks you guys see from La Ronde. I think we can all agree on the fact that most of the action happens in the sky and not always on the low level. I'm not exactly sure how high the low level is for you, but I certainly agree that we don't always see the effects that happen very near the ground.

But like I said, don't depend on me to have an accurate review, and I do recognize that my reviews are *unofficial* and I do them just for the fun of it. I am not professional (don't wish to be one for now), but only an amateur who watches fireworks displays outside of La Ronde and rate them from my perspective and from where I stand.

Let me know if or why you don't agree with me that I can share my point of view even though I agree that my reviews must not be compared with those who watch the displays from elsewhere without acknowledging that I watch the displays from Notre Dame.

As a former spectator from Notre Dame / de Lorimier I have to tell you that there's a lot of low-level action that is hard to see from there. Candles are OK, but the lower-level action and nautical shells are pretty much invisible. As displays have become increasingly sophisticated and use computer firing, more of the tightly synchronized action is at the low level. Last night's display was a case in point: it was probably visually the most tightly synchronized display so far this year. Yet the comments from people outside of La Ronde mentioned that the synchronization was slack in places.

All this said, I'm happy for people to review what they actually saw, no matter where they were located. For the spectators onsite at La Ronde last night, the weather conditions were perfect and we weren't troubled by any smoke at all - it was all directed at the bridge and Montreal shore! No wonder things were hard to see!

My review(s) will be up soon - once again I was away in California between last night's display and South Africa's. It has certainly been very hard to keep up with the competition and all the travelling I've been doing.

Paul.

Hey guys,

My report for South Africa is finally up.

As for viewing points, well, I'm well aware of the lower portions of the display are "nearly" invisible to us from the opposite side of the river. As a result of this, I only comment based on my individual interpretations of what I saw at ground level, especially considering that the lower effects, 90% of the time, illuminate before us, so we can often interpretate what was being displayed. However, I cannot say extreme details based on those interpretations since I'm only assessing on what I saw. Though not in detail, I can certainly pinpoint when ground level effects and nautical effects are ready to be executed.

For synchronization, well, I didn't necessarily comment on the lower parts in terms of slackness, but rather with some of the mid to high level effects.

And I was pretty sure that you guys didn't have a smoke problem due to the wind direction, so it was fortunate enough for spectators over there. Plus, a lot of the lower effects, for us, were obscured by smoke, but we were still fortunate enough that we could see the colors and the effects at that position since they still managed to come through slightly to us.

I'll do my best to comment on these in my review, that is, based on what I saw.

Trav.

Hi Everyone,



Roger.....moi aussi, je vais sur le pont juste au dessus du lac et on peut tout voir de là....autant l'activité haut dans les airs, que les feux juste au dessus du lac! En plus, en étant à proximité des feux, le délai entre l'explosion des feux et le bruit qu'ils émettent est très court, ce qui fait encore plus apprécier le spectacle!

Dan.....like you, I could not attend the Portugal display.....I had a hard and long day at work, so I finished later, then I had to go visit a friend at the hospital....and I was way too tired to go watch the fireworks, knowing that I had to rush to go downtown and then come back late and get up early the next morning

At 22:25, I got outside on my balcony and listened to the fireworks to try to find if I had missed a loud finale! ;-) Even though I live in Ahuntsic very close to the river (Des Prairies), I could hear the rockets explode very clearly.

Travis and Enkil.......please, let me know how the finale was and were there any salutes? How intense was the finale, compared to other displays?

I will write my comments about the South Africa display in the next few days.....which I really enjoyed. And hey.......Canada is next! Let's go Canada!!!

Talk to you later, my friends.

Pierre ;-)

Salutes lover,

The finale was in a essence intense, mainly because it was very noisy. However, I'm not sure if they were shooting kamuros, but they mostly looked like brown shells . It wasn't that bad, except personally I by far prefer to see a colorful and salute filled finale.

I think there were also salutes, but not as powerful as other countries. I'm not sure though.

Honestly, Salutes lover, I think you would have prefered the whole display over the finale, because their display itself was quite intense (and very good) since the theme was about Rock.

BTW, I'm not sure if you saw it yet, but a few weeks ago I posted the finale of IPON 2004, here's the link in case you missed it :
http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum =5&topic=570

It's true that you can see many of the bottom effects from the bridge if you stand right in front of La Ronde, except the angle sucks. That's why I prefer to watch it from Notre Dame street. I know it because I used to go where Passion goes (I think).

I was really entertained by this first show of Macedo's Pirotecnia in Montreal! Despite some repetitive parts, the display was very interesting. Music choice creates a light theme and transitions from one part to the next were very quick. The show was also longer than usual (approx.: 32 minutes). In my opinion, synchronization was very good throughout the show and choice of pyrotechnic pieces was generally appropriate for the music.

As soon as the second minute of the show, I have been impressed by four large cakes of whizzer (two on each extremity of the third firing ramp), launching white pieces vertically for almost one minute. Talking with Carlos Macedo after the show for PyroPlanet.com (the interview should be online very soon), I learnt that each cake included more than 1200 whizzers! The third part, on the music of "I want it all" was terrific, ending with barrages of nautical shells. They produced a lot of smoke over the lake, however, but the designer has made the good choice to use only high-level pieces for the next segment, so we didn't miss any part of the show.

The show was a little repetitive. For instance, the first and third parts began exactly in the same way, that is, with flares along ramps 3 and 4. I believe also that some crossettes and go-getters have been used very often during the show. However, it was interesting to see go-getters again, since I think it was the first time this year. By the way, a fifth ramp has not been deployed yet, neither large setup pieces on firing ramps.

I am not sure that Macedo's Pirotecnia is going to win a Jupiter prize this year, but this first show in Montreal was very good.

Fred

The interview with Carlos Macedo and a short article are now online:

http://www.pyroplanet.com/article306.html

Do not blame me again - Paul already did it - for the most important question which has not been asked, that is, how many cues?

Fred

Interesting display...I actually liked what I heard of the music...and thought they did a good job synchronising it with the fireworks. I was on the bridge, incidentally....it was really too bad there was so much smoke accumulation, because I could tell that the colours they used were really striking and rich - intermittently, you could see their full richness, but that smoke really dims things. Really unfortunate. A lot of my photos sucked for the same reason, but I also think that the smoke and light creates a kind of coloured haze that is interesting:

http://eps.mcgill.ca/~devries/fireworks3.htm

Cheers!

Enkil,

First of all, thanks for letting me know about the link to the IPON S.R.L. 2004 finale......you are right, I did not know about it, since you mentionned it in this thread! I left my comments in the "Surprise video dedicated to Pierre" thread! Man, you have made my day!

Thanks also for your answer about the Portugal's finale. This way, I don't feel I have missed too much in the way that there were more intense and filled with salutes finales in other displays. On the other hand, I am sure that I have missed an excellent display, judging by all of you guys' comments. I will not rank Portugal in my list of favorites so far this season, since I have not attended!

See you later!

Pierre

Hi there, fellow enthusiasts,

Well, we certainly had an enjoyable evening, though it did involve some steadier light rains up till 9:30 with light winds from the East. In addition, which I do love, it was quite humid and ideal along with temperatures steady at 24-25 Celsius, but this did lead to smoke accumulations, but this had more of an effect for those on the opposite side of the river. We also had a very small crowd, obviously, due to the weather scenario, but thankfully enough, there wasn’t any rain at all at 10:00 and the display started on time with much enthusiasm. Though my vision was obscured by a lot of the smoke, I was still fortunate enough to still see a lot of what was presented.

I loved the way a lot of the effects were exploited in this display, especially at lower level. The theme of the show was well respected with collaboration with the fireworks while I simultaneously felt that the music well connected to it, though it didn’t seem totally legitimate in my mind (more on this later). The display started off with some low to mid levels of glitters in addition to lower sparkles. This then lead to a wonderful series of golden fans that went beautifully with the music, especially upon the rate of fire from the sides to the middle. Personally, this was probably the most fantastic opening scene so far, especially with those wide golden fans a left to right in addition to the pace flow.

The colors were very standardized and brought out much elegance while even giving a sort of fictitious feeling of glamour, especially with the darkened intense reds given off. The golden colors were also quite impressive in relation to the concept demonstrated. Other tangible examples would more and less relate to the actual contrast between colors. I personally loved the dynamic mixture of the reds and greens with middle leveled mauves. The lasting silver colors at times, especially with the fountains, were unique and obviously manifested a differentiating contrast to the elegant light pink lasting glitters.

Synchronization was excellent for the most part while a lot of the fireworks, especially at ground level, matched the music speeds along with the actual effects that were used, particularly the nautical flares and shells. There were some slack spots at both the low levels and high levels, but moreso the higher areas of the sky. However, the lower pieces were definitely in the right tempo while a lot of the shells and kamuros (at times) did it justice to support them. I personally found that most of the lower effects were incredibly synchronized at times and this made things very passionate! The choice of music was ideal for this type of approach, but the feeling connection just didn’t seem right, but still fitted in to the thematic attempt.

The effects used in this display were fantastic while I truly did love the unique type of gold slender girandola that would burst into mauve or light purple stars upon reaching a certain height. This was a truly nice way, as always, to differentiate the variations of pace. The fact that there were plenty of glitters of differing colors easily paid its tribute to utter elegance and superb serenity, especially with the lighter pinks and lush green glitters by contrast to the standard silvers. Kamuros and coconut trees also made a delightful appearance where appropriate allowing for a considerable latter burning of green to red stars as they trailed downwards. There seemed to be some gallant mixtures, as was seen with a couple of previous displays, of ball-stars that burst from either shells of similar typical reds and greens, which usually gave way to an apocryphal notion. The extensive use and variety of the screaming serpents were totally a success since they made plenty of noise while giving the impression of intensity. The accompanied shells of swirls were also nicely deployed and they always seemed to be fantastic as they filled the sky in number giving a lasting fortifying feeling. Near the penultimate area of the display, the incredible reds at low level were simply incredible and truly dignified both the music and the pace while also relating to a fundamental concept of the show. The red and green variations of go-getters (I think that’s what they are) were also quite subtle over our heads. Finally, the exciting parts, which were more tied to the music flow, often involved a series of shell of shells of multi-breakers. This concept easily connected to the sequence of salute shots given in a specific rhythm with the “1, 2, 3, 4” flow (best way to describe it) which then gave way to more shell of shells immediately after. Other than that, there were many surprises overhead, which usually involved quite loud shells, especially when in combination with the silver multi-breakers; always a truly welcomed effect to us all.

The lower effects were superb, especially with elongated golden slender fans that numerated from the left to right. There were some dramatic intense reds from many of the nautical shells, which gave off a splendid noise at ground level. The large shells at the bottom were usually excellent since they did accompany some nice impressions via higher levels. There were a few pieces where I noticed some fascinating silver fountains in correspondence to the music. The bottom to mid level cracklers that exploded into fine glitters were also intrinsically chosen while in luscious aspirations by which we could appreciate what was fired at the top and sides.

The construction of the display itself was something to definitely consider since a lot of the lower leveled action was totally impressive at times, especially with the flares and or the intense and unique nautical shells that brilliantly made their appearance. There were much gasps of excitement when they were present while it certainly delivered much appeal. Much of the candles, fans and subsequent mines and flares were nearly in perfect harmony with the music and thus synchronization was most admirable to this respect, safe for a couple of candles and later fans that seemed to be just off cue while some of the upper level shells in a few segments seemed to be (in my mind, anyway) not as timed. Symmetry was rarely lost in this display while the balance between upper and lower effects was tremendously acknowledged.

The finale was in good crescendo and was a decent length, but there was too much repetition in the barrages of golden kamuros or weeping willows while not allowing for a more appreciable variety of standard colors, which the press release over estimated in its description. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a bad finale at all, but I know it could have been better, especially with the soundtrack used here.

My criticisms are mostly related to perhaps a tad of redundancy with some effects, while there could have been a little more in the way of special effects at higher levels, which I’m sure would have given a little more to the concept of the show. The screaming serpents were a little repetitive at times, though I did enjoy them to the fullest. The music choice was ideal for this attempt, but I found that there wasn’t much of a sense of coordination in connection of feeling to the display itself, so it sort of through me off with an ideal connection of establishment with the essence of the display. However, of course, the music fitted the theme of the display, but I found the core concept of the display to be a little devious and elusive. The colors present in the display were excellent, but did not present too much variety by comparison to the South African display, for example. However, I found the strongest points in this display to be primarily with the attempts at choreography as well as the synchronization tightness for much of the display.

Travis' personal rankings and display criteria rankings:

-Synchronization: 8.5/10-I loved the attempts in this criterion, especially the tightness at the bottom pieces. Some parts were just a tad off, but this was mostly prevalent at higher levels, but still quite enjoyable.
-Color: 7.5/10-Some very dramatic appearances of colors, especially some of the contrasts between paces and pieces. Some colors were totally breathtaking. However, there wasn’t a huge variety of colors, but the selection was very nicely chosen, especially the gold and reds.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 8/10-This was additionally a very artistic display at some moments and thus had some neat creativity. The choices of color also reinforced this area very neatly to my standards. The lower effects, particularly in the sweet opening, really brought out the concept of the display as well, especially in relation to both the music and the theme. The transitions between fast and quiet segments were apparent and certainly supported some of the effects used from time to time.
-Choice of music: 8/10-The team really chose the music well in correspondence to the concept of the display and main theme while it worked incredibly well with the pace transitions as well as the fireworks executions at the lower levels. However, as mentioned, the music choice was a little vague with the core essence of the display, so it sort of deviated away from the main idea. Nonetheless, still a truly nice selection and it worked well with this approach, especially with the periods of potential intensity.
-Finale/General Appreciation: 8/10-Not a bad finale since there was plenty of noise while it had good length. However, the color variations were not present, so this was disappointing. The lasting appeal was fabulous as it concluded with a lot of zeal to a powerful overall performance!
Overall: 8/10

My personal predictions for the winners so far:

1-South Africa
2-Italy
3-Portugal
4-Argentina
5-Switzerland
^^^
As usual, I’m still contemplating between Argentina and Switzerland for 3rd while I think Portugal could also make 2nd place. I’ll have a lot of adjusting to do when I make my final remarks at the end of the competition, which isn’t too far, unfortunately.

This was a truly enjoyable display and I simply loved a lot of the effects used in and around the areas of sky. The display wasn’t devoid of excitement at all while a lot of it seemed to be quite complex in nature. I personally found most of the colors in total admiration, especially that deep red. The contrasts were also demonstrated in a subtle manner while quite a bit of the colors were in excellent mixture most of the time, though not a huge variety of color to my expectations. The quality of the materials used was mostly in total admiration on my part while I found the display to be very organized and balanced, so this made things equally as enjoyable. The choice of music was absolutely enjoyable and certainly was legitimate to the overall theme and concept, but the music selection was a little deterrent since it didn’t totally administer the nature of the show as much. However, the transitions were very neat and fit perfectly in fluctuation. Just a reference recap to the salutes that were deployed just before the multi-breakers in one segment: I have a feeling that there was an attempt to actually create rhythmic flow solely with the salutes themselves just prior to the explosions of the multi-breakers. I personally thought that this was quite attractive considering it sort of created its own music in relation to the music. In all, this was a remarkable performance by the debutant Portuguese team and they certainly can make an appearance on the podium. This time around, it’s a shame that my viewpoint was obscured to vast amounts of smoke build up due to moisture and wind direction. Incidentally, I wish I had a seat at La Ronde for this display since the effects and colors would have been far more elegantly brought out while my perception of enjoyment would have dramatically increased. With that being said, I was still lucky to mostly see the display from where I was standing, but not totally in an entertaining manner.

And Pierre,

Well, it must have been more of a surprise for you since you didn’t even notice Enkil’s surprise to you, my friend. I’m just so happy that you managed to finally see IPON’s ending of 2004. I’m equally as happy to see you get your satisfaction after all this time, so here’s to you, Pierre! I suppose you took it as a latter birthday present!

I just only wish that you had seen the Portuguese display, but the ending wasn't as good as hoped, but the display was very intense for almost all the way through!

Regards,

Trav.