Greetings,

I'm assuming everyone is caught up with the heavy thunderstorm presently happening as much as I am, perhaps? That cold front is really coming through now and the storms will continue until it finally does. The lightning was very impressive when I arrived back at my residence in the West Island, and my electricity was going on and off!

In any case, I was correct about the storms in the area just before and somewhat during the show, and the sky was quite threatening from 8:30 to 10:15 p.m (I'll be posting some pics I took in the weather thread of the development leading up to the final moment). Thankfully, the storms stayed well to the East while the lightning was seen far off in the distance (quite an addition during the display, though!).

The display was excellent and the theme was very well chosen. I personally thought that the use of that suspended ring really brought out what was being demonstrated and made a great addition to the displaty, especially with the corresponding mines and overhead shells. The representation through the ring with respect to the theme was actually quite clever, too, since it's ideal to show off the sun and moon. That said, the display was well designed and constructed when representing "Day and Night".

I personally enjoyed the music very much since there were many favorites, and the fireworks themselves were pretty much on cue with the music altogether, which, at times, I found very cute. The music itself was well chosen and I thought that there was a strong connection with the theme involved. The theme was actually brilliant and worked well with kind of approach, though I found it to be more orginal than the Spanish theme.

As for the finale, it was very teasing and always seemed to have left you in suspense. Heck, even near midway into the show, there was a piece that felt like a real ending! I personally enjoyed the finale, but I thought that maybe it would have been better to combine the entire thing. Nevertheless, I thought it was an excellent and thrilling ending, and the sequencing was very enjoyable with the pace and between each intense part during the finale.

It's too bad that smoke build up (not sure if this was the same case from La Ronde) sort of covered some aspects of the show, particularly in the end.

The winds were breezy before the display because of the nearby thunderstorm. If you noticed, the winds before hand were moving towards the storm because of inflow, and then the latter breezes were coming directly from the t-storm as formal downdrafts, which worried me if the storm lingered on too long. However, some moderate winds would have been most welcomed to clear up the smoke, in which case, it's too bad that smoke build up (not sure if this was the same case from La Ronde) sort of covered some aspects of the show, particularly in the end.

I was having a deja vu when the show was delayed because of what happened in 2003. Regardless, the competition is really heating up and we had such a strong effort from both teams thus far.

I'll have more details later today in my report. What a crazy night; I got a quadruple treat: 3 thunderstorms and a fireworks display!

Trav.

A fabulous display from the English team, returning to Montreal for the 1st time since 1985. My full report is now up in the 2007 reports section. What luck they had with the weather!

Paul.

Les Britanniques ont produit un excellent spectacle. Il est dommage que Pains Fireworks ne soit pas revenue à Montréal plus tôt! La thématique "Jour et nuit" se traduisait très bien dans le spectacle, tant par la bande sonore que par l'anneau géante (similaire à celle de Luso Pirotecnia en 2002) et le choix des couleurs.

Le troisième tableau, "Here comes the sun", au cours duquel le soleil entra en action, était très réussi. L'anneau a produit plusieurs effets pyrotechniques, mais quelques-uns auraient dû être répétés. En effet, il était facile de les manquer étant donné l'abondance de pièces qui éclataient partout. Cela nous aurait permis de mieux apprécier ces effets spéciaux.

L'un des segments, vers la 10e minute du spectacle, avait les allures d'une finale tellement l'intensité était élevée, avec cette accumulation de serpents sifflants, ces gâteaux éjectant des pistilles bruissantes et des bombes multibris créant des grappes d'étoiles multicolores spectaculaires. Cela laissait présager une vraie finale plus forte enore, mais les Anglais ont choisi de terminer avec une relative sobriété, misant sur des bombes de comètes rouges et oranges. Une finale réussie, différente de ce que nous avons l'habitude de voir.

La synchronisation était excellente, tout l'espace des rampes de lancement a été utilisé avec succès, exploitant la largeur du site de tir.

Bref, il est difficile de retrancher des points sur cette performance qui pourrait bien être récompensée d'un Jupiter. Mais il reste encore six concurrents à venir...

Le texte d'une courte entrevue et quelques photos sont maintenant sur PyroPlanet:

http://www.pyroplanet.com/Article408.html

Fred

Hi Guys,

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch Spain's display last week. However, the amount of material present in England's display was enough for two displays. Wow! The amount of large caliber shells was amazing. It felt like finale after finale. However, the true finale was a bit disappointing since I was expecting a enormous amount of salutes..... Anyways, the quality of the shells was very good. It's ashamed that the smoke blocked a bit of the color's intensity. The amount of different effects were quit large. In fact, it was a bit too large. The circle/moon/sun/pizza/eye/... was drowned by the large amount of effects appearing at the same time in the sky.

The synchronization was extremely well done. It did not feel mechanical at all. It was very fluid. The fluidity was helped by the choice of music. Every song was beautifully matched to the theme. Like Fred said, it is very hard to remove marks from this display. Even the symmmetry was perfect. The large shell mortars were very cleverly aimed to the sides in order to create a larger space in the middle of the display. This is a very simple but extremely effective way to create a bigger display without needing more shells. All in alll, I greatly enjoyed this display. It would nice if I got more time off work in order to watch all the displays. Well, that's what happens when you work in the video game industry....

Dan

I really liked yesturday's show. I think it was better than Spain's display. Although I was too busy yesturday and fireworks were the last thing on my mind, I still came there and found it to be a very good display.

I think the best parts of the show were the first 15 minutes and the last 5 minutes. I think the opening was my favourite part. I also think that it was a lot more refresher than last week's show. It looked bigger and impressive. I like it how they made good use of the whole area. The bigger shells felt a lot more intense than Igual's, and they were well used.

I think that they should've improved and worked harder on many parts, because some of them lacked excitement, and thus, they were a bit boring. It wasn't an exciting show throughout. It had its moments, but it was good enough for the amateurs and for the judges I believe.

Their special feature was great. My only critism is that they didn't use it too often.

The song selections were more and less good. Certainly, they were better than Spain's. I'll be honest and say that I enjoyed more the "weird" and simple songs than the average type of music we hear today on the radio, but only during the fireworks shows. Synchronization was good overall.

The finale was very good also, except it seriously lacked some intensity. It was good in length, but just not strong enough. The faux finale was much better than Spain's, and the finale was good.

That's about it. I'll be more concentrated next time!

Rated from Notre-Dame street.

My rankings

1. England
2. Spain

Hello, everyone,

As it first appeared, much of the larger crowd got the immediate impression that this performance was going to turn into a thunderstorm vs. fireworks showdown. Though we are now in the longest days of the year, this was quite a typical dramatic Summer evening after experiencing almost a full week of the season. Like last week, a vigorous pair of cold fronts was viciously coming through making way for the risk of severe thunderstorms in their wake. There were numerous watches and warnings being spawned throughout the day and in the early evening hours in Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec, but thankfully, we were quite fortunate to escape the clutches of the storm activity that was present (forming since 8:00 p.m quite distinctively) as it passed off further to the North and East, only leaving us with partly cloudy skies and some distant bright flashes of lightning that could be seen through the smoke build up in the first parts of the display. Without further delay, the show was set start at about 10:05 with the "long time no see" English firm ready to show off their promising performance: "Day and Night".

The display started extravagantly with quite a few mines of red and overhead shells at mid levels, and this led to an intensified introduction with massive shells seen at high level creating deafening blasts from each of them. The show had numerous effects associated with it and involved a good range. We were treated with many massive shells at high level throughout the show as well as some kamuros, weeping willows and a lot of gold dust, which often times made an appearance in the center of those large shells at the top creating the usual heavy rain kind of noise. In addition, there were many shells of colorful stars that burst elegantly while being later accompanied by other shells that took the shape of bows of red; I was actually enamored by the bow shells because they were often assisted by other shells to the left and right. In one segment near midway (the one that seemed like a fully-fledged finale), huge shells of gold sparkles were integrated with shell of shells that gave off a dazzling array of colors, most notably red, green and white. Other effects included bright shells of bright orange ball stars, crackling mines, screaming serpents, double rings, go-getters, many blue and crimson red mines and mines that gave way to a multitude of swirls. Indirectly, the lightning often brightly filled in the void between the closing of each part at the beginning of the display. Finally, the ring was fantastic and was used very strategically; most memorable effects were the illuminated sunshine icon, the blue moon, the orange sparkling circle (probably depicting sunset) and the flares that could be seen coming from it in assisting the shells that were side by side of the structure.

The low level effects were also quite stunning. The gradual ascending gold glitter fountains across the ground were simply amazing and many spectators were quite fond of the horizontally spinning structures. Before the fountains began to rise, there was a little ironic simulation of a lightning storm, which I enjoyed fully.

Synchronization was simply amazing and the fireworks were admirably on cue, too; this was particularly noticeable in the segment involving the soundtrack "Fire" from the Pointer Sisters. Similarly during the soundtrack of "Blue Moon", a simulation of a "blue moon" was lit up in the ring while later being assisted by multiple blue shells. The music coordination was superb and was fitting with much of the fireworks throughout the display. The choice of music was gallantly chosen because it both involved an enjoyable variety of music and it surely covered what much of the theme was about, but what was most stunning is that much of the soundtrack and effects were focused on the sun and moon, particularly with respect to the sun’s track in the sky during the diurnal part of the day (morning until evening) until the moon was ready to rise. In essence, the impression that I got was that we were taken on a ride with the sun rising and setting, only waiting for the moonlight to emerge brilliantly in the lower sky. This meant that the use of the ring, for example, was certainly an advantageous addition to this kind of display in tracking this cosmic or planetary approach.

The colors were simply dazzling, although I found some slight repetition in firing scheme in some places while the color selection was not in a huge variety, especially when compared to the amount of golds and deep blues seen in the display. Of course, the colors were still spectacular and still typically showed day and night ideally.

The finale was strong, had excellent longevity and was anxiously awaited, courtesy of the earlier part, as mentioned, that felt like a conventional ending. This concluding segment was broken up into a few parts, often fooling the audience (including yours truly) in thinking that it would reach its climactic point. However, personally I found the finale perhaps a little too broken up and probably would have felt a little more vehement if the entire part was put into one sole entity, but that's not to say that it wasn't intense!

Trav's personal rankings:

-Synchronization: 9.8/10-Simply put that there was excellent and enjoyable synchro all the way through with very minimal flaws.
-Colors: 9/10-Though not a huge spectrum of colors, especially when compared to Spain, they certainly had a good variety. Some colors were a little repetitive and perhaps too concentrated, particularly the use of the gold.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 9/10-The theme was very unique and well thought out, thus much of display was very creative, especially with the use of the ring, even though the ring itself was not totally original in my mind.
-Choice of music: 9.4/10-The music was very enjoyable and had a strong connection with the theme. The crowd was pleased with most of the choices, too.
-Finale/General appreciation-9.3/10-While the finale could have been better under some standards, it was still very pleasing and intensified. At the end of the display, there was nothing but loud roars of approval from the larger amount of spectators.
-Overall: 9.3/10

^^^
Again, I'll probably have to adjust scores later on to accurately compare the participants, but this should still give an idea of where I stand with each display in terms of rank. *These are also my personal rankings based on my viewpoints via De Lorimier and Notre-Dame streets.


This was an incredible performance from the English team and I personally thought that the way the display revolved around the main theme was an absolute success. The fireworks easily matched and the colors were selected very nicely to represent the separate parts of day and night respectively. While the use of the ring was a good addition to the display, I didn't think it was actually original since the idea was used before by Portugal a few times in the past. More importantly, however, the use of the ring itself was totally unique and was a perfect and clever integration to represent that gorgeous illuminated sun pattern and that neat blue moon. However, it was a shame that the smoke sort of drowned some of the fireworks coming from ring at times.

The colors were definitely well chosen to represent each part of the show and, like Spain, contrasted easily with other colors most of the time, particularly in some of the "night time" pieces. However, I sometimes felt that some of colors were a little too redundant for my tastes, particularly the gold. Relating to this, I found the show well constructed and very organized where dedicating part of it as daylight and the other as night; this perhaps followed better with a general understanding theme itself as well. I also noticed that the display was quite ubiquitous and extended at mid levels from left to right of the firing site for a good portion of the time, and from my viewpoint, it seemed like there was a loss in symmetry at a couple of points in balancing from left and right, although the gap was usually filled in quickly afterwards (this is a minor criticism). The display itself was quite fast-paced all the way through and the finale was a real teaser with the multiple parts that made it up. With respect to pace, I noticed that in between the conclusion of multiple soundtracks, the fireworks would resume abruptly after the music came to a climax. In terms of effects, they were generally in good variety, but I'm quite surprised that no girandolas, particularly the gold glittering types, were not used as part of the display in any of the night time pieces, which I thought would have fitted in perfectly.

Despite the pros and cons, I personally would set aside the vivid smoke accumulations since it did not block out most of the display. The ending was somewhat marred by smoke due to the natural rapid firing pace frequency, which usually leads to vast accumulations of smoke. Nevertheless, the smoke did not block out the entire ending and did not phase out the ground level effects all that much in most of the show; everything could still be seen with reasonable visibility. While I believe that this performance is in winning standards, we still have yet to witness 6 other highly anticipated displays, as Fred clearly stated. However, with the strong theme connection, wonderful choreography, enjoyable enforcing music and excellent crescendo between slow to growing rapid transitions; the English team currently has a good chance of having a place on that podium.

I'm grateful that the thunderstorm did not wreak havoc on this wonderful display, but it's a lucky thing that the show did not delay too long or else the next impending heavy thunderstorm would have certainly caused trouble.

The competition is already heating up quite a bit!

Trav.

Salut les pyromaniaques,


Je m'étais dit que cette année je ne ferais pas de commentaires sur le site de Paul. La retraite m'a fait visiter un peu le péché capital de la paresse mais après avoir vu le feu de PAIN l'autre soir impossible de résister...me revoilà.
J'ai vu la prestation d'IGUAL. J'adore l'impétuosité des Espagnols ,la puissance de leurs feu,l'intensité et leurs bouquets finals.
Pour le lancement de l'édition 2007 nous en avons eu plein les yeux et plein les oreilles.
Toutefois pour la créativité, l'originalité, la recherche de nouveaux effets il faudra repasser. Un feu qui me donne l'impression de déjà vu, une firme prévisible qui aurait besoin de sang neuf pour la conception des spectacles et la mise en scène. IGUAL piétine et manque d'imagination artistique.
Mais j'ai été envouté par le spectacle de PAIN et ce à tous les points de vue. J'aime bien voir qu'une firme a fait des efforts pour utiliser toutes les possibilités du site et l'autre soir cà paraissait .Cà venait de tout bord et de tous les côtés ..un répertoire de très belles pièces ...choisies judicieusement et lancées au bon moment ceci en parfaite syncro avec les éléments musicaux....du bonbon quoi!
Les artificiers de PAIN ont travaillé fort pour mettre en tableau leur concept "Jour et nuit" : une excellente trame sonore, une mise en scène qui nous a fait vivre pleinement la nuance jour-nuit, des transitions harmonieuses en les divers segments, un feu qui a su maintenir l'intérêt pendant 30 minutes en faisant preuve aussi ,et c'est important ,de créativité et d'originalité de bien des facons.
Un autre élément que j'aime retrouver dans un spectacle d'art pyro c'est le désir de surprendre le spectateur et de faire ressortir l'émotion d'un tableau.Là aussi Pain a réussi avec brio. A l'instar de de Fred j'ai vraiment apprécié le passage de "Here comes the sun"....une petit bijou...
Globalement un feu nuancé qui m'a vraiment ravi mettant clairement en scène le concept avec beaucoup de justesse et de recherche artistique. BRAVO Pain...je sais que le jury a du apprécier.

A la prochaine

Roger

Toutefois pour la créativité, l'originalité, la recherche de nouveaux effets il faudra repasser. Un feu qui me donne l'impression de déjà vu, une firme prévisible qui aurait besoin de sang neuf pour la conception des spectacles et la mise en scène. IGUAL piétine et manque d'imagination artistique.

Je suis plutôt d'accord. Le feu d'Igual était techniquement excellent et je souligne la qualité de la bande sonore qui, avec autant d'extraits, a certainement exigé beaucoup de travail. Par contre, j'ai l'impression que les feux produits par Igual à Montréal en 2004 et 2007 étaient moins fougueux, moins créatifs que ceux présentés antérieurement. Celui-ci était le 10e feu de Igual à Montréal et on peut se demander s'ils se sont mis sur le "cruise control".

Globalement un feu nuancé qui m'a vraiment ravi mettant clairement en scène le concept avec beaucoup de justesse et de recherche artistique. BRAVO Pain...je sais que le jury a du apprécier.

Voilà plusieurs années que nous observons les feux et que nous confrontons nos préférences aux choix du jury. Pour gagner, j'en viens à penser que les firmes doivent être suffisamment innovatrices pour se démarquer de leurs adversaires, mais ne pas tenter des expériences qui sortent trop des sentiers battus car le caractère populaire du jury introduit un léger biais conservateur. Entre les deux, l'espace est étroit. Je crois que Pains a réussi à s'y glisser.

Mais il reste six feux devant nous, et non les moindres...

Fred

Bonjour à tous!

J'ai été agréablement surpris de la présentation donnée par la firme anglaise, le 27 juin dernier!

Sans entrer dans les détails, le moment qui, à mon avis, fut sans contredit le meilleur du spectacle, a été ce "semblant de finale" pendant la chanson "It's a beautiful day" du groupe irlandais U2 ! Après cet intense segment, je me suis dis que la finale nous en mettrait plein la vue....et les oreilles! En effet, nous avons eu droit à une finale intense et relativement longue, mais qui m'a toutefois laissé un peu sur mon appétit. Je crois pouvoir expliquer la raison pour laquelle j'ai été légèrement déçu, malgré le fait que la finale ait été riche en son, couleurs et intensité. La raison est que la finale a commencé avec une grande intensité et a été soutenue, suivi d'une légère acalmie.....pour ensuite reprendre de plus belle! Cependant, cette deuxième portion de finale a été moins intense que la première (le contraire aurait dû être réalisé), nous laissons ainsi sur notre appétit. L'attente (en tous cas, la mienne) était trop grande et n'a pas pu être comblée. Parallèlement, la portion intense que l'on nous a servi pendant la chanson "It's a beautiful day", m'a aussi porté à croire que l'on nous "bombarderait" à la toute fin du spectacle....ce qui fut le cas, mais pas autant que je l'aurais souhaité. Enfin, une performance de haut calibre donné par l'Angleterre, qui à mon avis, à surpasser l'Espagne.

Pierre

Thanks to Rogan Cotes, I have some images of the setup of the "Sun" structure used by Pains. It can be found here: http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/sun.html

I'll be linking this from the main photo pages shortly, as well as including some more pictures of the display itself taken by Rogan!

Paul.

Hey Paul,

I was actually wondering about that structure and hoping to see some photos of it. Thanks for providing such cool images!

I look forward to seeing the others taken by Rogan as well.

Edit: Do you know how high the sun structure was suspended from ground level?

Trav.

Fireworks firm rockets to top
By Roland Batten

A SOUTH Wiltshire fireworks company has become the first UK company to win the international fireworks festival in Montreal.

Against intense competition from major fireworks companies from around the world, Whiteparish-based Pains Fireworks won the Golden Jupiter award at the L'International Des Feux, regarded as the world's greatest fireworks competition.

It is the first time a British company has won the competition during its 23-year history and only the fifth time a British company has been invited to attend.

Eight countries competed for the gold, silver and bronze Jupiter awards - the pyrotechnic industry's most coveted prizes - in a competition that comprises nine shows, spanning six weeks and watched by more than 2.5 million visitors from vantage points across Montreal.

Judges singled out Pains Fireworks for its creative theme, the quality of the choreography and the technical standard.

Based on the eternal cycle of day and night, the highlight of the show was an ambitious firework image of the sun, which measured more than 25 metres wide and was suspended from a crane over the lake at La Ronde.

advertisementIt was the largest fireworks image ever created for the competition.

Among those who saw the show was the British Consul General for Montreal, Anne Jarrett, and afterwards she told Pains Fireworks: "I had certainly never seen fireworks like that before.

"I was delighted, therefore, to learn that Pains had won the coveted Jupiter d'Or, the top prize at this world-famous competition.

"Please pass my congratulations to the team and thank them again, as I did on the night, for a magical experience."

8:00am Sunday 19th August 2007

Source:
http://www.thisissalisbury.co.uk/display.var.1623564.0.fireworks_firm_ rockets_to_top.php#comments_form

You know, I still have the English performance clear in my mind, and it's personally hard to forget how beautifully crafted the show was in its entirety. The organization and development to enforce an appealing and complex thematic approach of the show alone made this display as successful as it was. Beautiful color choices, excellent transitions, good music choice and gorgeous effects (most notably the sun and moon) also explicitly kept the show right on track. The feeling of moving through an endless stream of time also made this show very creative and dignified. Need I say more?

I was confident that they'd take home the gold, and I personally feel that the performance will be commonly referred to, here in Montreal, for the years to come.

Thanks for posting that, Fred.

Trav.