A First Walk On The Moon
Designed by Paul Masson; FireOne Firing with 122 32-cue modules
BEM were fortunate to avoid thunderstorms which circled Montreal during the late afternoon and early evening of their fourth participation in Montreal, with perfect weather, and wind, conditions for the display itself.
Marc had promised a strong start and that was indeed the case, the first song ending with finalé-like intensity. Narrative elements of the Apollo program (from Kennedy promising to go to the moon, the launch countdown and audio between mission control and the Apollo-11 crew as well as Neil Armstrong’s famous speech on walking on the moon) were cleverly interwoven into the soundtrack, though in a couple of places the music was a tad loud. The soundtrack itself certainly captured the spirit of the times, as Marc had also promised, and it was well done though one or two of the transitions were a little bit fast.
The pyrotechnic design was somewhat simplistic, though, again as Marc had mentioned in the interview, as there were no special effects, not structures nor anything out of the ordinary. It was a bit disappointing that nothing was done with the launch countdown narration nor anything to mark the launch in Space Oddity – I would have expected at least some flights of girandolas. As there were no pontoons nor use of ramp 4, the range of effects was a bit limited, though BEM used many very colourful slice cakes which contained all sorts of different products, a memorable one being serpents bursting to bombettes of strobes. Synchronization was good throughout, but there were places in the music where the rhythms suggested they be marked with fireworks and this was not the case.
The products used throughout were of good quality with bright colours and interesting effects and the firing patterns were sky-filling, thanks especially to the fan cakes of bombettes and wide fans of shells on ramp 2. I did find some of the tableaus a bit similar, though, ending in mini-finales of kamuros. In fact, there were quite a few finales throughout the display, creating an expectation on the real finale that wasn’t met unfortunately. Whilst the finale was good, it didn’t distinguish itself enough from some of the other intense moments in the display.
Overall this was a well-done and very enjoyable display – particularly for the off-site audience due to the shell sequences used. The theme was interesting and the soundtrack was well done, cleverly weaving in the narrative sections. The audience certainly enjoyed it but I think the design was just a bit too ordinary for the level of competition this year.
