Country Participant: Canada
Company: Fireworks Spectaculars Canada
Date of presentation: July 18th, 2007
The threat of thunderstorms and moderate rain showers made yet again, for the 5th time running this season, an appearance for this debutant Canadian display. With some flashes and strokes of lightning in the distance and some very thick ominous cumulus clouds overhead (a scenario that reminded me of Canada's bad luck in the past), we ended up being spared with mostly partly cloudy skies, a relatively light Easterly wind (as expected) and a good deal of humidity and moisture with a constant temperature of 22 Celsius. With the largest crowd so far this year, it was clear that we were all looking forward to the first appearance of this Canadian firm: Fireworks Spectaculars Canada! On a side note, despite the thundershower not affecting us, I found the few distant lightning flashes appropriate to indirectly represent the theme of the show.
The show experienced approximately a 3 minute delay perhaps due to the thundershower in the distance, but if it wasn't weather related, then I'm not sure of the reasoning behind the delay. In any case, following this, it was clear that problems were already presenting themselves when the series of shells were being fired here and there associated with some lower candles followed by a fairly elongated piece with red flares illuminating brilliantly along the ground. Not long after, the show came to a halt followed by a report stating that a few more minutes of patience were required until the problem was rectified. This delay lasted until, or almost 10:30. With the obvious turmoil taking place, the show was finally set to start, and it did with much power, easily captivating the audience once more after such a frustrating pause.
In enforcing the general construction of the show, there were quite a few effects witnessed, such as farfalle shells of purple stars, single rings of green and red stars (these made an appearance from the multi-breakers, too), crackling pistils, weeping willows, shells of multi-breakers, and kamuros. Other personal favorites were the often loud rapidly fired colored shells of yellow and green mixture that subsequently burst into other stars of the same color while being integrated with bursts of titanium salutes. Similarly, there was also a part with titanium salutes at mid level while a repeated set of salutes were fired near low level that also was there to assist them, which both created two distinctive echoes one after another. There were often times rapid shots of shells of different colors of red, white and green, which at times made it feel as if there was a mini ending taking place.
Near or at the penultimate part, there were some of those gorgeous white and yellow photoflashes that once again gave the idea of the 90's disco! Finally, there were an absolutely beautiful couple of pieces demonstrating the popular gold glittering double ascension girandolas!
Low level effects were particularly interesting and personally, in my mind, had some of the best sequencing to date. Mines and candles of red were commonly seen and were perfectly on cue with the music. We experienced glittering fountains, mines of swirls, mines of screaming serpents and salutes and rapidly sequenced candles that really nicely spread out from left to right. Bright flares or red, the nicely sequenced bright balls of a lightning simulation right along the front just before the finale, and then of course the nice glittering structure of the waterfall in combination with a green-lit tower directly underneath it (I believe situated on ramp 4) all were seen in this display. Finally, there was also a structure way to my left closer to the Ferris wheel (I couldn't make out what it was, though). Personally, some of the most enjoyable parts of this show occurred at low level because of such dramatic sequencing with a careful selection of music.
Synchronization was flawless all the way through, most notably via low to mid level. A lot of shells at high level were also fired in a unique manner, to me at least, compared to some of the other attempts I've seen so far this season. I thought there were some excellent transitions from time to time, but some of the pace in terms of slower speed, particularly in the first quarter leading up nearly to the halfway point of the performance, was a little too concentrated rather than being interspersed. However, I found the representation of the music-fireworks connection incredibly well done. The choice of music was appropriate, but perhaps a couple of soundtrack lasted a bit too long in nature compared to others, which I suspect may be responsible for the longer lasting slower pieces seen near the opening and a little after. Nevertheless, the music was in excellent diversity and allowed for a good deal of creativity.
The colors were simply excellent and in nearly perfect harmony with the music. While the theme was very well unique and introduced some strong premises, it was not as strongly enforced or represented as I had hoped, but at least most of the show was centered and well built around the theme that it was indeed enough to be understood. The general construction and quality of the show was well represented and certainly had many strong points with transitioning colors and effects. The show was possibly the most balanced I've seen so far this year and maybe even for a long time. Like England's performance, though somehow differently, much of the sky was used most of the time from left to right and bottom to high altitude; much of the show was very widely presented, which made things very interesting.
Now for the finale. I was, for the first time in a long time, shaking like crazy because I've nearly forgotten how good a real ending feels. Honestly, I haven't seen something like this since France 2005. The finale was soooooo tremendous and so long, colorful, loud and intensifying that it caused me to constantly yell out "GO CANADA!!!!!!!" The finale started off with an, as stated above, introduction of incredible sequence of bright lightning-like flashes from the left and right (I think this was on ramp 1) and then suddenly became concentrated and more rapid towards the center, eventually giving way to rapid firings of shells, mines and salutes in a mixture. Not long after, bursts of shells that separated gallantly into ball stars of different colors were soon followed by other upcoming frequent barrages of shells and loud salutes that were starting to make my ears ring. Continuing with this trend, an increased pace of barrages of shells of red and green made an appearance. Soon after, barrages of salutes from low level started to become part of the chaos while everything kept firing with so much speed and power that the fireworks seemed as if they were out of control. Just when it seemed as if it would end, more thunderous salutes were fired along with more shells and titanium salutes at the top for a good while longer until finally the show ended with the loudest volley of salutes I've heard so far this season. The finale must have lasted nearly 2 minutes, but all I could remember was sweating and screaming for more. I seriously haven't been so excited like this in a long time; it felt so good. I was thinking of Pierre and all of you in what you all were thinking at the time!
Trav's personal rankings:
-Synchronization: 9.8/10-Simply fabulous with sequenced pieces proving sometimes better than even that of U.S performance. I enjoyed the music connection with the display very much as well.
-Colors: 9.2/10-There was a good selection of colors seen all the way though with some amazing contrasts, particularly that deep purple with the yellow. However, one or two points near the beginning were not as rich, but this was fortunately not extensive in nature.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 8.7/10-While the show was original in the way it was concocted and the way it revolved around its well-dignified chosen theme, I found that there wasn't enough distinction to represent the theme altogether, especially when compared to England. Similarly, the effects in general were not as diverse, particularly in comparison to a display like China or the U.S. However, the quality of the show was simply wonderful and the product was equally delicately chosen for each segment. It would have been nice to see some more effects from that Olympic flame bowl, though, as Fred also pointed out.
-Choice of music: 9/10-I loved the music choice, but just some of them felt too identical while some lasted a little longer than others. Very enjoyable, though, especially with that one soundtrack we heard for during the Canadian performance in 2003.
-Finale/Overall appreciation: 9.8/10-All I have to say is "Wow". This felt like either one massive supercell was in the area, or as if it was a time bomb exploding in front of us! A very dazzling, complex and mesmerizing finale leading only to the LOUDEST roars of approval from the large audience; a feeling that was really absent for good while!
-Overall: 9.3/10-------->Very nicely done.
^^^
Again, I'll probably have to adjust scores later on to accurately compare the participants, but this should still serve as an idea of where I stand with each display in terms of rank. *These are also my personal rankings based on my viewpoints via De Lorimier and Notre-Dame streets.
This was a very powerful display and quite tremendous most of the time when firing shell after shell after shell. Though some of the display was sometimes a little too quiet for my tastes, a lot of the following segments would easily balance that off with some very exciting, thrilling and transitioning pieces. Often times when the pace was slow, the show would later easily turn active (quite efficient in this case) to the point where it was sometimes even more vehement than the American performance.
My criticisms are typically minor for this performance, but my greatest fear at this point (also was thinking strongly about during and after the show) is how much of an influence the extended 20-25 minute delay would be to the judges since it easily delivers the automatic negative perception; a feeling which is so powerful, especially in this sort of competition. Other than this, as pointed out extensively among many of you, the narration simply did not work and led to a lot of frustration while it was taking place since the pauses were much too elongated and barely served any purpose. Thankfully enough, a fair chunk of the display was very active to counteract those pauses and still kept most of us content. The colors were in good variety, but in a couple of areas within the first half towards the middle of the show, there was not as much distinction (this was relatively minor, though). Finally, there was a point where a segment started a little too abruptly after another, but thankfully again, this wasn't the case all the way through the show! I won't really be picky about the one or two defective shells that exploded near ground level, but I find them pretty cool when they occur anyway, such as what was seen in the American performance.
Needless to say, I cannot really incorporate the delay with such a well executed display. A lot of the product used was simply superb and the color variations were excellent, especially when the overhead shells were usually rapidly being fired and transitioning as well from, say, white to green to red. I found the music choice very enjoyable and really brought out both the subtlety and the power feeling in the entire show. The actual power, build up and sequenced setup before the finale was just fantastic and breathtaking and others around me were so delighted to see such an ending, especially since something like this has not be seen in just over two years. I'm still in a maelstrom in where to place England and Canada, but my personal top three choices are certainly those particular two and the U.S. I'm still somewhat leaning moreso towards England at this point because of the good fluidity and construction around their theme and subsequent creativity factors in support of that, but I would certainly be proud and very happy if Canada or even the U.S claimed the gold. My predictions will be stated next Saturday.
A few words about the problem at the beginning, personally the wait was still worth it for such a powerful and promising performance. With this in mind, we should not let this delay cloud our judgment, even though the wait inevitably creates negative first thoughts that can influence your better judgment of the performance. Fireworks Spectaculars has made such a good impression with their display last night that I would love to see their participation in future years with an even bigger glorious return. I found the display very intriguing, possibly the best sequenced so far, had a theme that was reasonably good to work with, took advantage of practically the entire volume of sky, and had such an exciting finale that simply blew us away. Last year in the early part of the competition, similar problems occurred, both with weather and non-weather related factors. Again, as Paul outlined as well, let's hope that no delays such as this are ever seen again because primarily with the statement "the jury is free to judge what they have seen" in mind, it becomes therefore important to keep technical problems to a minimum to acquire the best results and best impressions towards any given display. I sincerely hope that nothing like this occurs for the remaining participants and all competitors in the future.
Fortunately enough, the weather did not ruin such a beautiful and well crafted display.
Just a question, but the activity happening before the delay, will that also be considered? I suppose it will follow that same popular statement, but it was obvious that there was some complications happening at the time while things were being fired, which is why I'm so curious.
Still two highly anticipated competitors are yet to present and if they're strong, it will be far more difficult, trust me.
Next up is France, who's performing on my birthday.
Best of luck to our final two entrants.
Trav.
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