Hello everyone,

Please post your reviews of the of Australian display here!

Trav.

One year later than its initial appearance scheduled in the program of the Montreal competition, Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics’ Shapeshifter turned to be an excellent show. It was one of the largest extravaganzas this season, presented in front of the largest audience so far. Whereas I have written pretty extensively about the weaknesses of previous displays, this show was very strong and I have very few criticisms to do.

The technical design was a major strength of this display and, for this criterion, Howard & Sons likely deserves the highest grade this season. Its setup was a dramatic departure of the usual layout, as the fifth ramp took the shape of a “circular ramp” made of about 24 firing positions, most on pontoons, between ramp 2 and the water area in front of the third ramp. This circular ramp was key in the success of this show, as it allowed for a wide range of firing patterns. It was very effective to make the most of the depth of the firing area. As soon as the beginning of the display, flashes appeared on this circular ramp. Later, flares, strobes, fountains, cakes, mines, and comets lit up, or were launched from it, sometimes in very fast sequences. This ramp played a role in most tableaux. Furthermore, the size of the show also contributed to keep a strong density of products during 30 minutes. However, we didn’t see any nautical piece and I wonder to what extent shells or other effects could have been launched on the water with some pontoons being so close to the third ramp.

The soundtrack included 16 pieces, with many “techno” musics. I enjoyed the music selected for the finale, Dream Chasers, which was the penultimate segment of the Croatian show in 2013, a soundtrack I have listened multiple times during the following years! Otherwise, I can not say the Australian team had the same preferences than mines and, sometimes, I thought the soundtrack didn’t target a very diverse, family audience. However, it was well-done, with short pauses between a couple of musics and nice mixes between most other segments. The soundtrack also allowed for changes between different paces, including a couple of serene musics, which were reflected in the pyrotechnic show.

Indeed, the pyromusical design was also excellent. I believe that all segments of the show were built with a combination of effects at low, medium, and high levels, so the sky was consistently filled with fireworks. Moreover, the pyrotechnic effects displayed at each level matched with those simultaneously fired above or below. For instance, on Never Tear Us Apart, red flares on the circular ramp were echoed above by horsetails ending in red stars. The colour patterns obviously fit with Blue Monday and Green Light : the former segment included blue flares, fountains, and crossettes ; the latter featured huge and gorgeous green and lime gerbs. The ultimate segment, on Dream Chasers, began in a serene way, then its intensity gradually increased and led to a climactic finale which included “slices” of mines shot towards the audience as Dragon Fireworks did in 2018. One weakness of this show was, in my opinion, the lack of an actual theme. I had concerns regarding the non-equivalent translation of Shapeshifter by Les feux sous toutes leurs formes. At the end, it was not a big issue because the theme, no matter following which language we understand it, was a very soft one. While a more careful examination of the songs could lead to some specifications, there was no obvious storyline related to the shapeshifters.

The synchronization with the musics was excellent throughout the show, with many note-synchronized sequences. I like to emphasize that even towards the very end of the finale – which was very intense and included multiple layers of pyrotechnic effects – some barrages were still clearly synchronized with the soundtrack.

The arsenal displayed in this show was very diverse and of high quality. The range and the brightness of colours were very impressive, and a couple of shells and mines comprised a change of colours. On Muse’s Exogenesis Symphony, I have been fascinated by a circular sequence of angled purple mines ending in white tourbillons. Several times, very thick fans of comets contributed to fill the space. The aforementioned green/lime huge gerbs (or short duration fountains) on Green Light were gorgeous. Many semi-circular gerbs of various colors appeared during the climactic finale, and shall have been ignitated in a way to bring more attention towards them. On My People, a sequence of mines of various colours created a rainbow across many firing ramps.

This show began at 10:01pm. For a short moment, I thought that a technical problem had occurred, but I suppose that it was not the case. I also imagine that very few products remained on the firing ramps after the show, as very few problems were apparent during this display (I only noted an asymmetric pattern of cakes nearly the mid-point of the 30-minute show). So it was an excellent performance and perfect weather conditions (with winds from North-West which blew the smoke to the far left of the audience) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my first “on-site” attendance, on July 24, 1994.

So my personal ranking of this 35th edition of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition is :

1. Howard & Sons (Australia)
2. Grupo Luso Pirotecnia (Portugal)
3. Atlas Pyrovision (United States)
4. Hanwha Corporation (South Korea)
5. BEM Feux d’artifice (Canada)
6. Parente Fireworks Group (Italy)


My Jupiter predictions appeared on the thread dedicated to that topic, as well as some general comments :
http://montreal-fireworks.com/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=24& topic=3356

Fred

Ideal weather conditions were present for this anticipated display. Indeed, skies were clear, humidity was low, and the late-evening temperature, including during display time, was 22 C. Winds were also light, at about 8 km/h (slightly stronger at higher altitudes), and were blowing towards portions of the La Ronde audience. However, as opposed to the expected WSW tendency, a light NW flow occurred, at all altitudes, for the evening, as mentioned by Fred above. Although the smoke was still displacing towards the La Ronde audience, this meant that instead of the smoke moving towards right-hand and central sections, it moved towards the left-hand sections, causing the display to appear hazy for those positioned there.

The Australian performance certainly did not disappoint. We saw a huge arsenal of products (rare this year) used in this display, and a fantastic splash of elaborate and rich color mixtures! The sequences of comets, mines and strobe lights/flares were simply stunning, with very interesting firing patterns being showcased along low- to mid-level with these. I was additionally extremely happy with the inclusion of photoflashes, tail-ring shells and arch-like sequences of colored mines along low-level. Being a fan of farfalles, this show featured numerous rounds (and briefly intense bursts) of these. There was also a high density of shells in this display, much like in the Canadian and American shows. However, in this display, lower altitudes were scarcely compromised. While bursts of shells would erupt, this would be carefully balanced by complementary effects at lower-level, keeping the sky often overwhelming with activity and, indirectly, better capturing key elements that comprised most of the soundtrack. The selection of music itself was also quite enjoyable, as it featured many robust and engaging tracks. Not only that, but it seemed like the pyrotechnics flowed really nicely with the overall pace of the music, something that had been lacking substantially this year. Indeed, I felt very engaged with this display, and the pyrotechnics were quite immersive! The segment near the end that included a mixture of one of my personal favorite songs “Land Downunder”, was well done, and I enjoyed how that part in the song, “Can’t you hear the thunder?” was represented. While in some segments the interplay of effects could have been a bit better, they frequently made sense in relation to the soundtrack and were often blended carefully. This was amplified by the larger color diversity, and I suspect that the already high color vibrancy was brought out further by the low humidity that characterized the evening.

My only real negative points with respect to this display were related to the lack of any sound thematic connection, as was expressed previously in this forum. Therefore, as enjoyable as this display was, it felt awkward in the sense that there was no firm foundation on which the show was designed. As Fred mentioned, the musical selection further offered no interpretable venue to really capture some semblance of a link between the music and theme, which caused the meaning to be further elusive. That said, we have observed very successful displays in the past where there had been a very poor fireworks-theme relation. One notable case, as I recall, was Canada’s “Voila!” 10 years ago, in 2009, by Royal Pyrotechnie. However, the delivery of that show was strong and emotionally-enticing, enough to earn them the first prize that year. As such, it stands to reason that this show may be another example of this type of situation. Another negative aspect was that there were little to no transitions that evoked a variety of distinct emotions, and so it was difficult to be emotionally-drawn to this display. With such a theme, I would have expected a display that “shifted” more discernibly in rhythm and pace, but there had been no real detectable instances of this. Also, while some of the transitions were clean from one segment to the next, a few were a little more abrupt.

Finally, on a very minor note, the finale was excellent, although I felt that it needed slightly more crescendo before reaching that final climax. Still, this takes nothing away from this already successful conclusion, and it was easily one of the better finales we have seen this year (along with the American finale) and in recent years!

Overall, this was a very successful display, as it featured many exciting sequences, and a musical selection that was very interesting to work with, despite a very unclear thematic framework. The range of products used was very large, and the quality of products was superb. This was also easily the most colorful display, and it featured a very thrilling finale, as well as the most dramatic opening this year (in spite of the show beginning a touch late, at 10:01 p.m.).

Trav.

My final competition display report: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1605

Paul.

Here is my video of this display (other videos will be posted soon):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auV7g9aoyAo

Trav.