I met with Robert and Fortunato (Forch) Foti, competing for their fifth time in Montreal, for what is my final interview of the special 30th edition of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition.
Robert spends much of his time in China and is responsible for production and quality assurance at Foti’s joint-venture factory there, where they produce their “Icon” brand of fireworks, using formulae developed by the patriarch of the family, Salvatore (Sam) Foti, who is also on the team this year. Forch is usually responsible for display design but for this display, it was a joint effort between the two, though Robert came up with the theme.
Robert told me that he wanted an “all Australian” film, though this is not so easy to do in musical terms, especially as he didn’t want to repeat what they’d used previously. He had noticed, though, that in pieces they’d used before, there was a common theme emerging and that was that the music had been used in films by Australian film director, Baz Luhrmann. So that became the basis of this year’s theme – all the music is from Baz Luhrmann films and this still makes it an “all Australian” concept.
Robert told me that 98% of the products used in the display will be from their “Icon” range, with about 1% coming from their “Q” brand and other Chinese factories (mainly cakes) and the final 1% from NextFX, where they will be using what he described as “short duration effect” comets. I asked if these were “laser” comets and he said that they were.
Largest calibre of shell being used is 10″ and they were able to ship their 1.1g container from China. I asked if they were using any of their Australian-made products and was told that they really only produce special effects items there, along with a line of friction and impact insensitive e-matches (though these are not being used in Montreal). However, Robert emphasized that all their Icon shells use formulae developed by Sam, with a particular focus on good quality colours, particularly in their strobes. We should also expect to see pattern shells in the shapes of birds and koalas, Australia’s iconic bear-like animal (that is most definitely not a bear!).
Since their last participation in Montreal, they have won first prize at competition in Japan, Blackpool (UK) and Brno (Czech Republic) though they told me they don’t do many competition these days, their most visible project being the annual New Year’s Eve display on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
In terms of the design of the display, they told me it is somewhat traditional, so there will be no special structures used, though all ramps will be brought into play. They want the fireworks themselves to be the centrepiece and their aim is always to create an enjoyable and interesting display for the audience, the competition aspect always being secondary to this primary gold. I noted, though, that if they make the audience happy, they will satisfy all the criteria used to judge the displays in the competition!