Comfortable weather conditions prevailed for the British debutant’s (Pyro 2000 Ltd) fireworks display in Montreal, with warm late-evening temperatures of 22-23 C (in the metropolitan area), borderline low-moderate humidity, mainly clear skies, and largely light WNW winds, although the directional tendencies of the wind affected the audience at La Ronde with respect to smoke (as confirmed by Fred).
My watch, which is roughly synchronized with the time display on the Molson clock (a difference of a few seconds), indicated that the display started roughly 10-15 seconds before 10:00 p.m. Fred had also noted in his post that the display began with approximately 20 seconds remaining until 10:00 p.m. There was, indeed, confusion for viewers outside the park, as the countdown was not heard on the radio station (Rhythme FM), which is why I was initially under the impression that there was no countdown to begin with (Rhythme FM typically airs it).
This was a very good effort for a first display by team England. I found that some of the sequences along low level were very interesting, especially at the display’s debut, with the variety of beautiful sequences of comets along low to mid level. The colors used were sometimes in excellent variety, and the contrasts were, at times, quite stunning at mid to high levels of sky. Some of the transitions, to me, at least, were particularly effective in an emotional context - I felt this the most during the penultimate piece of “Time to Say Goodbye”, as well as the transition to the concluding segment of “Run”, as the nature of both songs really demonstrated a shift from the overall feeling that the rest of the display commanded.
While I did enjoy this performance, especially because of the excitement factor that it entailed, there were some obvious problems that merit attention. I have noted previously (in the first post) that synchronization was generally good, but I noticed that the main problem facing this display was its inability to adequately maintain decent coordination with key components of the music - for example, while I thought that the first segment, in particular, was well synchronized, the fireworks appeared to become out of phase later into the soundtrack used. Another more recognizable example was during the penultimate piece, where the right to left and left to right sequences of angled comets were off with the vocals heard in the music. This problem was prevalent through a few segments, and, as Fred had stated, at many points, it became more and less an easy representation of fireworks with music.
The technical design of this performance heavily lacked creativity, and this was largely because of the limited selection of effects being used - most of this show’s context was based on multiple periods of bursts of 8” shells at high level and sequences of comets and/or candles, and there was very little interplay between effects (this seems to be a problem so far this year). On a related note, as mentioned in my preliminary comments, much of the display showed a few forms of repetition - in particular, the display tended to rely on a similar firing scheme for multiple segments, much like the Czech Republic, but, obviously, in a different manner of representation. Consequently, the fireworks were not always doing justice to most of the music selections being used. Another example of repetition was the central rainbow pattern that was often seen, albeit in various forms, through the first part of the display, which was a somewhat similar concept that was employed for Poland 2010.
Seeing as there were no reported technical problems in this display (as noted by STL, in accordance with what Paul Csukassy stated to him), I am wondering, then, as to why there were a few random brief moments of silence, or, in another instance, during the segment with the nautical fountains, why was there little support at mid to high level during that part (the music involved permitted much activity). Also, it is questionable as to what the purpose was behind the fireworks being fired for several additional seconds following the conclusion of the “The Gael” segment.
I thought that most of the effects were of good quality, but the selection of effects itself was very conservative, including the extreme low level effects (or nautical effects), which were very little in number. The nautical flares and silver nautical strobes seen in the opening were, however, effectively incorporated, but it is a pity that there were not many similar effects during the display in its entirety, as this would have really enhanced the complexity of the performance while offering more substance and vitality to the overall display. I also observed that some of the colors tended to fade rather quickly, at times, or some colors were just not as vivid - in particular, the high level shells of blue, yellow and red stars seemed to me that they were drowning quickly. As before, I felt that there was good balance maintained from high to low level of sky, and the firing angles permitted for some particularly good symmetry from left to right (and vice versa) - the firing angles were limited, however. Finally, the fluidity of the music was generally good, but the transitions, by themselves, would have benefited from some editing, as some of them appeared very abrupt.
One of the principal dilemmas for myself was the lack of a sound thematic premise in this display - as hard as I tried, I could not really make a consistent connection with the fireworks most of the time. The only things that perhaps stood out were some of the choices of effects used, such as the nautical silver strobes near the beginning of the display, or the shells of silver glittering stars frequently seen. The music selections themselves, while enjoyable, did not justify the nature of the theme, so, overall, it was difficult to make that critical link with them as well.
All this being said, again, I want to emphasize that this was a very entertaining display, mostly because it produced several exciting parts (namely the rapid bursts of high level shells), which the audience thoroughly enjoyed. The finale was very nicely crafted (certainly one of the better ones over the last six years), and it had the sort of enduring nature that I had been awaiting. However, with the simplistic nature of the design of this performance, along with periods of repetition (firing scheme, use of effects, etc.), virtually no thematic connection, and a lack of a diverse set of effects (especially at lower level), means that this display will, more than likely, have a hard time picking up an award by the end of the competition, but, of course, it’s difficult to say that with certainty.
Trav.
