Hello there, fellow enthusiasts,
It appears the weather has taken its toll on the Argentinean team, especially with the heavier rains during the past week associated with heavy to mature thunderstorms (and strong winds on the night of presentation), but thankfully enough, the display could be safely fired at about 10:16-10:17. The winds were incredible throughout the day, only bringing brisk and, at times, violent gusts in the area. In fact, there were times when things like branches and other forms of debris would be hurled in the air and thrown at a distance with powerful force. This type of scenario only led me to believe that the display would be cancelled that night while my thoughts were always in a pessimistic state of whether or not the winds would diminish on time. I did mention to Fred that the winds should die down by the time the display was ready to fire, but it appeared that they did not subside as much and I figured it would stay gusty all night long. They were indeed heading off Eastward towards the Maritimes, but it still appeared to linger in Southern Quebec since the entire low pressure system was slow moving while still holding a steep gradient force between converging airmasses. In any case, at least the winds started to weaken to acceptable and adequate levels for the display to set off mid way into normal firing time. I was actually paying much attention to the radio for weather updates and if there would be cancellations for the fireworks while mostly during the day, I was listening in for updates from TWN (The Weather Network) and Environment Canada. Surprisingly enough, the crowd was probably the largest so far where I was, but the winds made things very chilly despite the 20 Celsius reading on the Molson clock. Furthermore, the skies were mostly clear, with some low level stratus clouds, leading to rapid escape of heat. As a result, many people were very uncomfortable because of these cooler conditions. In fact, there were a lot of people leaving before and during the show. Finally, as I said before (and as Paul said in his report), we had a constant reminder of Kimbolton (England) in 2003, except without a harsher delay and without the rains afterwards.
The practical part of this display was definitely in relation to the fireworks and the thematic establishment while the differentiations in pace were taken to a similar, yet different, approach, especially with their theme connection tied to "emotions". The opening of the display was quite dramatic with a launch of several middle level shells accompanied by some mines and candles at the bottom. I particularly liked the opening and the following segment since it sort of made for a picturesque scenario.
The colors used were mysterious and very patriotic with many massive shells of blue and white as they made their way to varying heights. However, a lot of the colors were, in my opinion, overused, especially with the white and blue, but this still made things enjoyable with the music.
The music choice was great, though I found the "Don't cry for me Argentina" soundtrack too repetitve, but the focus was the differing pace variations. The rest of the music was well enjoyed by the audience and was neatly tied to this conceptual implementation. Synchronization was nicely done, but didn't have as much equilibrium in the lasting appeal, but still had some very tight spots where it worked very well.
The construction of the display was adequate, but not as distinctive between the low and upper parts and thus imbalanced. Most of the display was more and less serene (especially with the integration of the nautical effects), but it still was a notorious and dominant factor in this display. However, as a result, there was a lack of balance between different levels of the sky.
The effects used were delightful, especially with the variations of weeping willows, though this idea was a little redundant. Some were breathtaking, especially as they trailed downward burning to either red or yellow stars. The piece I was quite enamored and impressed about were the use of the scattered ball-stars, especially when the pace increased in perfect ascension for it allowed a delicate bright mixture directly overhead of yellow, green and red as they magically squandered while leaving people in much zeal.
There was also the use of extensive glitters, which was ideal for this type of display. Some of the effects seemed to have burned out too quickly to show much of the appeal, but this may be entirely due to the winds.
The finale, as I said, was pretty much well done with excellent crescendo, but still lacked that internal enthusiastic final blow feeling. The ending salutes (not photoflashes, as I've previously mentioned mistakenly) were not loud from our viewpoint, which may be also due to the winds, as Paul said. However, they did keep on going a little longer after the ferris wheel turned on. The intensity was beautiful, as well as the colors and scattered ball stars! I would have personally enjoyed the ending barrages of salutes much more, though, given if there was upper level action to accompany it; that would be astounding and rather nefarious. The penultimate area of the show was also well concocted in relation to the ending since it kept us on our feet while not in total circumvention. The kamuros were nicely fitted in while the previous introduction to the ending with the two side by side brilliant shells of sparkles that made that "heavy rain noise" were most welcomed!
Travis' personal rankings and display criteria rankings:
-Synchronization: 7.5/10-Though I felt that the overall connection between the fireworks and music was essentially imbalanced in some areas, I still believe that the tighter link in the bottom effects were excellent in many segments, which somewhat makes up for imperfections.
-Color: 6.5/10-Perhaps the weakest part of the display since it was not as flamboyant while there was not too much color variations seen here, especially when compared to the color transition approach with the other displays we've seen.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 9/10-This was a very artistic and original display while I feel it was the strongest point of all criteria. The way the show was demonstrated to us was very different and the concept was tightly fitted into a superior thematic link. As a result, especially with the lower effects, creativity was abundant, not to mention in harmony with the music. However, many effects, such as the weeping willows, were redundant, but I liked the attempts of the yellow, green and red mixture of the busting scattered ball-stars.
-Choice of music: 8/10-Since I mostly thought the presence of a soundtrack appeared more than once quite repetitive, it still allowed for fluctuations in beat and thus a variety in intensity. However, I'm sure there could have been a wider choice of music since this could have actually helped with a more ranged selection of music rather than playing a song more than once in variations. The other music, however, was totally excellent and worked well with the fireworks.
-Finale/Overall Appreciation: 8/10-Not such a bad finale, but it could have been better, especially with assisted action via the higher levels of sky while the continuous barrages of salutes were firing. The overall appreciation was superb and it had good lasting appeal. I’m sure you were thinking the same, too, Pierre! We all did roar our approval at the end of the display.
-Overall: 7.8/10
My personal predictions for the winners so far:
1-Italy
2-Argentina
3-Switzerland
My reasons for this are because Italy had an incredible overall concept and a lasting appreciation while most of the effects were not as repetitive as the other two respective shows. My choice between the rankings for Argentina and Switzerland are still a little skeptical for reasons I will describe briefly in the end.
The last two rankings shown here are also in some contradiction to what some members have chosen.
In conclusion, Cienfuegos clearly demonstrated a fantastic opening while successfully having latter segments that proved to be equally as enjoyable. The music was definitely different and worked extremely well with this sort of display, especially since it was quite traditional. The music alone was most enjoyable and definitely had that rhythmic flow between pace that allows for this type of approach to be implemented properly. In addition, though the same idea was seen with Italy's display, the pace variations were inevitably differentiated because of the strong thematic link with this display. The emotions were nicely displayed before us in different pieces by using different effects. Though most of the display was quiet, this helped to reinforce different parts of the main theme shown here. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the music was original and quite creative with the attempted fireworks cues, especially with the mines and candles moving from right to left at different speeds at times. The middle level was also nicely used, but also gave life to what was being shown at the bottom.
Despite my positive aspects towards this show, I do still possess mixed feelings, which is also in some sort of contradiction. Indeed, the rhythmic flow in this show was superb in relation to the theme, but the problem here was, like Switzerland, redundancy in some aspects. The colors were not really in much diversity as compared with the other two displays, which led me to believe that the fireworks had too much focus on patriotic colors, in particular, especially with the blue and white in many areas. The music was very enjoyable, but had some slacker areas where some shells kept going while some songs stopped. I also did notice that some of firing cues were slightly off in some spots, especially with some of the candles in between. Some of the shells fired also seemed sort of blunt since no color emerged upon exploding (these were the mini coconut trees).
Synchronization was pretty much well done, but still had a sense of imbalance when judged overall. As a side note, there was also, in my mind, a loss of symmetry between the left and right sides of the upper level parts. The weeping willows were also too repetitive, but still reinforced the main theme in the "slower" respect while they were simultaneously rendered beautifully in variations.
The appearance of the song "Don't cry for me Argentina" more than once seems to be a prime consideration factor among many of you, including myself, though I do have mixed feelings about it in its entirety. Of course, there were different variations in pace between the versions of this song, which ultimately led to different forms of fireworks executions. In this sense, it wasn't too much of a repetitive concept. On the other hand, in some respect, I'm more than certain that there could have been more soundtrack choices that would have easily still relate to the main theme while allowing for a more diversified selection rather than solely having different variations of a single song. I personally would have found it more effective if other music choices of similar speeds would have been chosen to take their places since it allows for more possible variations and equally avoids redundancy. Under these circumstances, it was repetitive.
Perhaps weather/wind related, some of the color effects seemed to have fizzled out faster than they should have, but I'm not 100% certain on this. Some effects themselves would have been appreciated in the more serene parts, especially the lack of girandolas, which would have backed up the idea, but moreso the overall concept. Some heart shells would have also been nice. Finally, this show was not as active, though some of the shells and corresponding effects were loud, and therefore, on a personal scale, not as enjoyable as it could have been, especially since there was a lack of action intensity at higher levels of the sky for nearly about 50% of the time. In essence, the show was a touch too quiet for my tastes and, of course, led to some feelings of anti-climax.
In the long run, despite my criticisms, this was still a decent and, on some level, an enjoyable display, regardless of the predominant quiet parts of the show, but I personally would put this display in front of Switzerland mainly because of creativity attempts and a stronger thematic link accompanied by enjoyable soundtrack that also worked well with the concepts. Although I've pointed out the slacker synchronization in some parts of the show, I can sincerely tell you that music connection was very strong within many pieces and worked very well with the distinction of some of the effects, especially with the lower portions. On the other hand, I'd put Switzerland in 2nd for very rich color distinctions and possibly for the glamorous effects used at higher levels as well as the lower effects.
There are many possibilities, but I still personally prefer Italy in first place because of the overall concept while possessing the more distinctive colors (but not as much as the Swiss team's) and the choice of music. The display, too, was quite active and was not redundant. The show was also excellent because of creativity attempts, especially with the mixing variety of the shell of shells and multi-breaker combinations. The surprises in pace variations were also quite astounding.
In other news, I can see that there was some discrepancy between different viewpoints of the show. I want to be clear that I have mixed feelings about this show since I did (as I always do) take possible considerations into account, regardless of what was actually seen beyond all viewing points around the actual firing site. Though it is much tougher to see the lower effects from the other side of the river or elsewhere, it is certainly not totally inconspicuous, but there can still be an estimated or established correlation between "judgement". Argentina certainly presented a striking presentation 4 nights ago, but there were still parts that weren't totally as distinctive when compared to the other two shows, especially in terms of enjoyment, quality of materials and color transitions. However, I personally loved this display mainly because of the rhythm fluctuations with many low level effects and nautical effects, which was strongly connected to the original, and traditional, type of music used. This gave me the overall impression of the creativity shown here, so this puts me in a stage of deciding between the rankings. Ideally, this was a totally different implementation when compared to the other two displays while I'm positive that it could give them the upper hand, so I can't rule out the possibility of them being on the podium at all by my standards. And yes, Enkil, I totally agree that it certainly does depend on how different people perceive a show regardless of viewpoints since the fireworks excite each of us in different ways, especially when it comes to either expectations or our preferences in a typical pyromusical. However, this is always a good thing since it does leave room for debate, as Fred said earlier.
Regards,
Trav.
