I met with Christian Howard, who, with his brother Andrew, were the guided the design and production of this show which was supposed to have competed in Montreal in 2018. Due to some unfortunate problems with the logistics of shipping explosives, one of their containers could not arrive in Montreal in time and so they had to withdraw from the competition, despite another container (from Italy) arriving in time. Fast forward to to 2019 and the container which didn’t leave Australia did leave in time to arrive for their performance this year. Stuart Bensley, who was the main designer of their shows in 2011 (Bronze Jupiter) and 2008 (Silver Jupiter) designed this show, their fourth participation, but is not in Montreal this time.
Christian said that all of the pyrotechnics are unchanged from last year, but they did take some time to refine the script with the latest version of Finale 3D, adjusting timings and angles. As this is very complex display, the Howards provided me some background information to save time in the interview:
ShareShifter Pyrotechnic Stats
- 3 x FireOne Systems
- 230 modules
- 6708 effects
- 6017 individual cues
- 166 Firing Positions
- 40’ container of specialist pyrotechnic set up equipment alone.
- 30% Parente Italy product material
- 70% Yung Feng , Vulcan and our other factory suppliers in China.
For the concept of the design, it was inspired by their previous visits to Montreal as well as work they do for arenas and stadia. The Chinese products are specially selected from criteria developed by the Howards in terms of colour, brightness and low-smoke as well as the effects themselves. Christian said they’d always wanted to do this type of design in Montreal but there is some secrecy around the concept. This is the press release they gave me:
ShapeShifter Creative Concept
Inspired by some of the obscure angles and sequences we fired from Ramp 4 in our 2011 Montreal display, we have expanded this thought process to create a unique combination of pyrotechnic symmetry, lines and movement around Lac des Dauphins. ShapeShifter was born from a remix of 360º concepts and firing techniques we have developed on projects with audience in the round over the past few years and adapted especially for the Le Rhonde site and audience.
Although Montreal is not in the round, the site does have a depth that has not really been explored previously as a firing Ramp. To stage this experiment, we are installing a new ramp of 24 positions that links Ramp 2, 3, 4 and 5 together to form a 364m circular ramp.
The music is collection of cinematic and contemporary artists we have previously worked with and arranged to provide both power and poise and allow the display to flow seamlessly around the site from scene to scene.
Our previous experience had given use us a fairly good idea of what works in the round on a site this scale and the initial design was scripted on paper as the soundtrack was mixed. Finale 3D software was then used to visualise, refine and address the effects in a manner to make installation fast and efficient before the final scripts were exported into FireOne FOUF.
Designed in late 2017 for opening in 2018 then bottled and then re-cellared* like a good Barossa Valley Australian Red wine….finally its time to pray for a slight breeze and enjoy in the ShapeShifter Show 2019.
*(due to dangerous goods freight company logistics issues preventing container being sent to Montreal)
The oneshot mounting system was developed with Vulcan and the foil on the tubes is specially designed so as to remain in place – reducing the cleanup post-show and making the products much more environmentally friendly for marine and aquatic environments. Together with the special firing site design, this will allow the team a new dimension in the ability to product shapes (with special modifications to slice cakes etc.). Christian noted no southern hemisphere occidental company has won the Gold Jupiter (Howard and Sons have won both bronze and silver) and so it’s clear they’re going all-out to bring the top prize home to Australia this time.
Christian said, at the end of the interview, as an invitation to the audience to attend at La Ronde “Come and see the shapes be shifted”. The weather forecast is good for this final competitor of 2019!