Shapeshifter
Designed by Stuart Bensley; FireOne Firing with 230 32-cue modules and 6017 cues
Howard and Sons were lucky to have perfect weather during the setup of their fourth show in Montreal and, despite the forecast of calm winds, were lucky to have just enough wind to move the smoke from the low-level parts of their display (upper winds were stronger so the shells were always clearly in view). A little bit more would have been better, but the lower areas were visible well enough most of the time.
It was clear after the first segment had concluded that this was going to be a formidable display. The special circular ramp 5 was put to good use, though the depth of the effect wasn’t quite as dramatic as I had hoped, it was still clearly a different dimension. The use of this ramp allowed all sorts of complex firing patterns and sequences, producing many different shapes – very appropriate given the title.
The soundtrack was well done and cleanly edited. Much of the music I wasn’t overly familiar with, but that didn’t detract from the display at all. A nice variety of intensity and pace was present and this was well reflected in the accompanying pyrotechnics, though maybe some horse-tail type effects were used just a little bit too often.
One thing was clear – the quality and brightness of the products used was outstanding and the choice of colours was very appropriate for the music used too. Lots of interesting effects with whirling serpents hurled towards the audience as well as fan slices (in a similar manner to the effect produced by Dragon Fireworks last year). The display area was used to the maximum, though I was disappointed there were no nautical products at all. Given how close the pontoons were to ramp 3, I would have thought that we could have had some nautical shells in the finale.
Ramp 4 was used well as a complement to ramp 5 – also producing circular effects and I think this display had one of the best combined uses of these two firing positions. Synchronization was flawless throughout – and there were many note-synchronized segments. I did feel, though, that there were places in some of the music where some visible choreography was called for but it wasn’t present, though I can’t recall exactly where I had this feeling.
The finale was magnificent in the way the different layers were used and was one of the largest and most enjoyable of the competition this year. The audience, which appeared to be the largest of the season, rose to their feet and gave the team a well deserved standing ovation. For me, this was clearly the top show this year. It will be interesting to see how the jury reacts, particularly as some of the music was unfamiliar and not clearly related to the theme. We did, however, see many different and interesting shapes!
