Hi guys,

Please post your thoughts/reviews of the Italian display here (after the show, of course)!

Trav.

Now that was a show! Too bad for the smoke or else it would have been perfect to my eyes. But it was perfect to my beloved ears lol. The last 5 mins were pretty much a complete finale. More details to come, need to relax ... way too much excitement for one night

Can it be compared to the Ipon finale? I think I may just have hit a taboo topic on this forum hehe.

Dan

What an incredibly exciting and powerful display by Vaccalluzzo! I don't believe that I've been that excited by a display in quite a while - sort of turned it back to 90's style! Really, the show was filled with energy and noise, and many of those large caliber shells often produced a thump in the chest (and t-shirt), as did the multitude of shell of shells and multibreaks! And what a finish that was - the faux finale was so convincing, especially with the time already a little past 10:30 p.m. when it had finished. People around me prepared to pack up and leave, but it wasn't long after that the real thing was established! After the real conclusion, I said to myself that Vaccalluzzo pulled a Spain 2001 with the pause between the faux and real finales! Perhaps Italy 2012 will join my listing of most memorable finishers!

In terms of other aspects of the display, the synchronization was very nicely executed, largely with respect to the timing of the shell of shells, as well as the low-level comet sequences. The range of musical choices was ideal for transitions, but I felt that Portugal's attempt at choreography was more creative and complex, at times. The selection of effects were fair and pure Italian fun, although I personally felt that the firing scheme was sometimes a little repetitive (not that I didn't enjoy that!).

As forecasted, the smoke was blowing very lightly from the NE (and even ENE) by late-evening, pushing smoke variably toward sections of Notre-Dame street, more so for the main section of the viewing area heading North, rather than to the South. The cloud of smoke at the end of the display was massive when looking West and Southwest, especially after the strong finale.

Thank you for this fabulous display, Vaccalluzzo - you have truly made a strong, positive impression and captured the hearts and souls of many Montrealers tonight!

Trav.

Here is some footage that I had taken of the Italian display (viewed from Notre-Dame/de Lorimier street):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euJg-OinuJc

Can it be compared to the Ipon finale?

Dan, in my mind, though Vaccalluzzo's finale was incredibly strong and surprising, IPON's (both from 1998 and 2004) still remains a fair deal more intense, as well as enduring! Perhaps if there were more emerging colors in Vaccalluzzo's finish, it would have felt even more grand, but, of course, I certainly cannot complain with what I had seen tonight.

Trav.

The Italian new entrant, Vaccalluzzo, did a good performance tonight. However, in contrast with Dan and Trav, I have mixed feelings because I believe Vaccalluzzo's extravaganza had two main (and interrelated) problems which are difficult to ignore in the competition.

First, the display sometimes lack of complexity and had an exhibition style. That was maybe more obvious during the first half of the show. On Céline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" (Luso's narrator might have said that we had heard this hit too often...), for instance, we basically saw the same kind of shells, one after another, for about 2-3 minutes. Vaccalluzzo might add complexity with a broader range of products within each segments of the display and a more efficient use of the available space, especially the lake and highest altitude (the show was lower than usual; I often have to move up my video camera to capture high-level effects, but it was not the case tonight).

The second issue is related to the soundtrack, which was not effective. My opinion has nothing to do with the sort of music, instead with its technical design. Many (most) songs or musical pieces were presented in extenso, whereas most pyromusical designers, these days, carefully edit them by choosing relevant segments from each music. It makes a more fluid and rhythmic show, also pushing the designer to create more diverse and entertaining effects. Furthermore, the narrative was inefficient. For sure, the literary theme motivated this strategy, but I (and many people around me) have not understood most of the narrative, only some words here and there. Anyway, the narrative segments were too long and numerous. It was a strike departure with the Grupo Luso Pirotécnia's one, which was kept short, few numerous, and recorded by a professional speaker. The exhibition style, the partially unedited soundtrack and the narrative prevented me to feel engaged in this (almost) 34-minute show.

On the other side, Vaccalluzzo's performance was excellent for the quality of the pyrotechnics and synchronization. I was impressed by the level of complexity of many shells: shells of intertwined rings added by a cloud of falling leaves (or something similar to that), countless multibreak shells, etc. The range of colours was also interesting, with many bright and rare colours (lime, limon, turquoise, pale orange...). Vaccalluzzo may have exhibited the best products this year with Aoki Fireworks (while Italian and Japanese styles are very different). Synchronization was also excellent: not only the fireworks went with the music, the choice of pyrotechnic products often matched the type of musics by its movements in the sky.

For these reasons, Vaccalluzzo is somewhere in the second third of my ranking (with Canada and France), Grupo Luso Pirotécnia and Sugyp being my first and second choices.

Whereas the synchronization of the fireworks was excellent tonight, it was another story with the master of ceremony. Michel Lacroix was away and his substitute missed the countdown, beginning it at the same time than the start of the show. The person in charge to switch off the Giant Wheel was even more latecomer. Other type of latecomers continued to arrive into the grandstands as the show began tonight, thus disturbing a part of the audience. Finally, there was also an issue with the soundsystem, as the base sounded too powerful at the beginning of the show, but the problem was later fixed.

Fred

P.S.: It seems to me that people who compare the Vaccalluzzo's finale (and faux finale) to the mythical Igual's one in 2001 or some others performed by Ipon don't need to go so far back in the past; just remember the previous Italian display, produced by Pirotécnia Morsani in 2011, and you will find a more engaging and intense display than this one.

Here is the video for Italy - July 27: http://www.burchcom.com/2012/index.html

If you want to download and save a copy to your hard drive, right click on this URL and select "save target as":
http://www.burchcom.com/2012/italy2012_qtp.mp4

Warm temperatures (about 24 C in the metropolitan area during the display) and borderline moderate to high humidity, accompanied by mostly clear skies (a few isolated bands of cumulus clouds), were present for the Italian debutante, Vaccalluzzo S.R.L. However, the alternating light NE and ENE winds (a contrast from Portugal's breezy conditions) were not so cooperative for those on Notre-Dame street, as smoke was heading almost directly in that direction (and, therefore, slowly pushing "away" from the audience at La Ronde, rather than to their left), affecting sections just North of the bridge on that street, as well as occasionally de Lorimier street (see cloud of smoke at the end of my video footage). Consequently, the display quickly took on a murky/hazy appearance not too long following the opening piece, but most of the show could be seen reasonably well.

This was a very exciting display by Vaccalluzzo, certainly one of the more energetic performances in recent years! Correspondingly, the relatively large audience in attendance (in my viewing area) released the most cheers of approval of all displays presented thus far!

In addition to the deafening nature of this show (perhaps somewhat amplified by the wind direction), we were treated with a fair variety of high-quality products, including a multitude of stunning shell of shells and multibreaks, farfalles, double-ring shells, variably-sized horsetails, large caliber shells, and kamuros, along with elegant and energetic sequences of mines and comets, to name a few, at low-level. Synchronization was very good through the vast majority of the display, and I particularly found that the choice of effects used really flowed well with the key elements that characterized the musical selections. In particular, the sequences of mines were fluid during "Freedom" (my personal favorite segment), as did the timing of the shell of shells and multibreaks used at numerous points of the show. As a result, the choreography was the strongest aspect of the show, for me, as well as the good diversity of colors (sometimes very rich and well mixed) and choice of effects used for representation.

In spite of the high level of enjoyability that I had experienced with this display, there was one principal issue that quickly came to fruition, and that was the lack of a sound thematic premise. Though it was clear that the goal of the display was to portray the various chapters of "The Prophet" (as per Paul's interview), no distinct hints or clues had been signaled throughout the display in how this theme, as well any crucial elements that may have engendered it, would be elaborated through the music and the subsequent pyrotechnics. As I had mentioned in my initial posting, the diversity of music was effective for transitional points - however, to me, it was nothing more than just that, with no real foundation to justify the different levels of change in both rhythm and pace. Consequently, like Fred, I, too, felt that the musical choices elicited virtually no meaningful essence. Perhaps some preliminary research would have assisted for a more comprehensive overview of the theme, but it is with a fair likelihood that I still would have encountered difficulty in trying to grasp the music-thematic connection. The narratives, as also pointed out by Fred, were a little too enduring and did little to expound the theme. That said, I had originally welcomed the periods of narration as a means to better understand the intention of the display (and some reasoning behind it), but, unfortunately, I did not benefit much from these sections.

Other than the theme, I also found that, as stated previously, there was a little too much in the way of repetition during the show, particularly with respect to the use of the shell of shells. As much as I loved their frequent appearance, this did, somewhat like Portugal with their numerous go-getters and horsetails, reduce the overall complexity of the display, as well as contributing to a periodically redundant firing scheme. On a more minor note, at the beginning of the display, the feeling was anti-climactic due to, as Fred also mentioned, the countdown taking place while the show had already started, with the gradual arrangement of red flares being illuminated at the surface in the process. This feeling was further augmented by the slow start of the display.

Overall, minus the narration and lack of a well-established theme, I (and so many others around me) thoroughly enjoyed this debut display of Vaccalluzzo in the Montreal fireworks competition, and I am certain that we all look forward to future participations! However, as I've said with previous displays, it's difficult to say how this show will be ranked towards the end, but I do believe that, because of the choice of effects, the competitive choreography, and a fairly enjoyable music selection (coupled with many moments of excitement), Italy also stands a chance for a Jupiter award. Certainly a high level of competition this year.

just remember the previous Italian display, produced by Pirotécnia Morsani in 2011, and you will find a more engaging and intense display than this one.

Agreed. Italy 2011 was certainly a fantastic display, with many strong emotions successfully evoked, a well constructed theme, very enjoyable music, and a slightly more vehement conclusion than this year's Italian finale. I personally found both the Italian displays of 2011 and 2012 about equal in overall intensity, but, indeed, I do concur that last year's performance was much more engaging! I would also argue that Canada 2009/2010, Sweden 2010, and to some extent, France 2011, to name a few from the recent past, shared these attributes.

Of course, Vaccalluzzo's faux and real finales do not match Spain 2001's, just the nature of the surprise that they had employed between them!

This has always been a topic that I love to discuss!

Trav.

Very good show by Vaccalluzzo S.R.L. I enjoyed some segments more than others. I also did not mind that a few segments had a bit of too much repetition. I'm not too sure about the narration and the song selection. It's a bit awkward to mix different genres of music. Adding background music to the narration made it even more incomprehensible. Overall, the display was enjoyable and well done!

Finale was decent, but should've been longer.

My rankings so far (rated from La Ronde):

1. Portugal
2. France
3. Canada
4. Italy
5. Switzerland
6. Japan
7. Greece

Excited for the US show!

Vaccalluzzo!! That has been one of the best shows I've seen fired in Montreal! The quality of the shells were out of this world I saw a few new shells by them such as the 8 break tourbillions and horsetails, sky mine to shell of shells, and polyps with core to shell of shells. The timing of the multibreak shells were also unmatchable, when a pair of 8 break studatas were fired side by side, each of the 8 breaks almost fired exactly at the same time! The timing of the candles were very good but the effects were somehow limited. I saw the red candles with silver mines a bit too much. They definitely used the quality of their effects to their fullest by timing them perfectly to the songs. Most of their shells were going with the music very well even if they were just chains. Some of the double multibreak shells had each breaks timed to the songs too. This just shows the advantages of being a manufacturer, it shows that many of the shells were made exactly to the song's specifications. I don't really mind the repetition of the shells, as each particular part of a song had the same effects and sometimes even the same pattern. I specially loved the times when they would fire studatas one after another! The one shot effects were pretty good although there were times at the beginning where they looked forced. It must have been because of the limited amount of cues that stopped them from doing all out vaccalluzzo sequences but the ones they had were very good. There were a few miswired effects but they did not distract from the show, I agree that the background music during the narrations did not work so well specially when nautical fountains fired then it was obvious that the introduction of the music was repeated. I think these are just minor issues as the show itself was exactly how i think this competition should be all about! Perfect products, perfectly timed sequences, and a good finale Finally, I thought that they should have used a little more nautical effects! It could have been a perfect show but i had to minus point for the repetition and the glitches in the soundtrack.

Can't wait for the US show!

My rankings after Vaccalluzzo's show:
1. Italy (97%)
2. Portugal (95%)
3. Greece (91%)
4. Canada (90.4%)
5. Japan (88%)
6. France (84%)
7. Switzerland (79%)

Vander

My very enthusiastic review: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=660

This was definitely a display for "product whores"

Count me in as a "product whore"

Vander

I'm glad that so many "product whores" enjoyed so much the Italian display! For sure, the quality of Vaccalluzzo's products was great! However, keep in mind that judges have to assess the displays with five criteria and can't (or, basically, should not) emphasize as much as you do on the pyro quality.

As Simon reminds us each week in his reviews, 10 points are dedicated to the quality of products, and 5 points to the synchronization. 30 points are allocated to the soundtrack quality, technical design and pyromusical design. On these three criteria, I believe Vaccalluzzo suffered some weaknesses, as I wrote in my post above. At this stage, Vaccalluzzo is a contender for a third prize. But that's just me...

Fred

I'm sure many fireworks followers have Vaccalluzzo on top of their list at this point! It's too bad that synchronization's only given 5 points, i think it's what makes a pyromusical different from a show with background music! Although soundtrack quality is also important, it's mostly based on a person's taste and should not be scored as high as technical design and pyromusical design. The synchronization however is something that one can see and can easily decide whether it's synchronized or not. As for technical design, i would assume that these are mistakes in firing, wiring and the angles of the one shots.

I'm not sure how a normal person would perceive/compare shells by Vaccalluzzo and the shells by luso for example. If they see a smiley pattern shell facing their way, would they rate it as a more quality product than a vaccalluzzo horsetail 8 break studata with perfectly timed inserts?

Vander

10 points are dedicated to the quality of products, and 5 points to the synchronization. 30 points are allocated to the soundtrack quality, technical design and pyromusical design

So, a total of 45, and not 50. I would have thought that each criterion was weighted equally. It's a surprise to me that synchronization has the least weight, though!

Trav.

The criteria have been revised in 2008, especially to take into consideration some technical evolutions in pyromusical performances. Advances in firing systems have made synchronization, which mattered much more with the previous grid, less effective to decide which displays are the best. Also, more efforts are made in the soundtrack design (with more professional mixing and editing); that was not captured with the previous grid. For a reminder of these changes, see the following thread:

http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum =13&topic=760

Simon's website presents the criteria and states that five points are allocated to the synchronization and 10 points for other criteria. Though the official website Simon refers to doesn't show the weighting of these criteria, I'm almost sure (from previous information my eyes came across) that Simon is accurate.

Fred