I met with Yanick Roy, of Royal Pyrotechnie, and Brad Dezotell of Fireworks Spectaculars Canada(FSC), jointly representing Canada. Though unusual, it is not unprecedented to have a collaborative display in the Montreal competition. Some examples include Panzera teamed with Performance Pyrotechnic Associates (Eric Tucker), the collaboration between Jim Souza, Alberto Navarro and Eric Tucker in the 2001 Pyro Spectaculars by Souza display and, most recently in the 20th Edition, the collaboration between Sunny International and Eric Tucker.
Individually, Yanick won the Gold Jupiter for Royal twice in the two times they competed, in2003 and in 2009 Brad won the Gold Jupiter for FSC the second time he competed in 2010. Since each company was a possible contender to represent Canada at the special 30th Edition, Brad and Yanick approached the organizers to see if it was possible to do a joint entry and their proposal was accepted. The choice of date for their entry also meant that it would be logistically very difficult to do an individual entry – FSC having just completed eleven days of Calgary Stampede displays – with Brad taking the red-eye after the final display and starting work at La Ronde immediately after landing in Montreal. For Royal, this week is their Fete du Lac des Nations pan-Canadian competition in Sherbrooke, where Brad is competing for FSC this coming Saturday.
I asked them if they had ever designed shows together to which they replied that they had both designed the shows fired for the Centenary of Saskatchewan and Alberta back in 2005 – with 15 displays shot simultaneously in every city in Saskatchewan in September 4th of that year.
For this year’s display, they met face to face several times, with the initial meeting to storyboard some ideas around a theme named Rêverie. The storyboarding process included designing some of the structures, initially just an arch, and now five in the form “n U n U n” across ramp 3, as well as initial choice of music. However, part-way through the design process, the team discovered the opening show’s theme, Dreamcatcher, would potentially be too similar to their theme, so they had to return to the drawing board somewhat and came up with the Legends of Fire concept, which, in an 18-minute form, had garnered Royal the first place in the 2014 Philippines International Pyromusical Competition. Yanick noted that many of the pieces of music they’d considered for Rêverie could also be used in the Legends of Fire theme, named Kutuan, which is the Innu name for “place of fire”. In terms of design style, Brad said he is more regimented and Yanick is more free-flowing, and neither is a fan of large shells for the sake of large shells.
There are four thematic sections to the display and the design is such that each designer was responsible for two of the segments which, in effect, meant that they each designed 15 minutes of the show. However, once each part was integrated into the overall design, both designers worked on all aspects of the show so it’s hard to say who designed exactly what. Royal’s technical director, Patrice Guy, also worked on the design, turning the script into a form which mapped onto the firing site for which he was responsible for all the technical drawings and addressing of the products used. Patrice also helped optimize the use of the arches by simulating them in ShowSim, but these were the only parts that used any kind of visualization.
In terms of design elements, Yanick noted that he had seen many interesting displays recently, but found some were too robotic and some were not dynamic enough. He wanted to ensure that their display would find the right balance between technical brilliance and emotional connection to the audience. They both noted that, though the show is large – with Brad mentioning that setup time is the final determinant of the size of a show – it will be a very “clean” show in terms of design. They will play off the different levels (horizontally and vertically) and hope that this design style can mitigate any smoke accumulation problems. Despite the show being 50% more complex than Yanick and Brad’s last Gold Jupiter winning entries, it will be a “smart” complexity.
The show will use ramp 3 extensively with 11 firing positions as well as the five arches. The arches each contain 13 firing positions and there are around 3,000 cues total on ramp 3. This ramp alone is being fired with FireOne Ultra modules – a system FSC use extensively now. The rest of the show will be fired using PyroDigital, including some wireless components on ramp 5. The final cue count is 5325. Products will come from many top-notch manufacturers, with some specially made for the display, including:
- Dancing (China)
- Lidu (China)
- Zaragozona (Spain)
- Vulcan (China)
- NextFX (USA)
- UltraTech (USA)
- RES Specialities (USA)
- Yung Feng (China)
- Pirotecnica Caballer (Spain)
- Pirico (Italy)
- Panzera (Italy)
- Groupo Luso (Portugal)
- IPON (Italy)
There will also be some surprise effects too! With such a variety of sources, the aim is that there will be no repetition of any effects during the display.
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