Country participant: Portugal
Company: Grupo Luso Pirotecnia
Date of presentation: July 12th, 2008
Partly cloudy skies coupled with very warm temperatures and moderate humidity were the backdrop for most of the day leading up to the evening. With the weather being ideal and the rains at least a couple hours away, the “stage” was set for Portugal’s “And the Winner is…” to fire away, promising much complexity, creativity and plenty of excitement with its massive setup. Seeing that the smoke was accumulating rather quickly for much of the display, it was fortunate that the winds began to increase slightly in speed just around dusk.
The display began with a noisy start, as promised, following the first set of gold go-getters, and much of the show in its entirety was designed with segments concluding with a thunderous finish. Touching on the effects themselves, there was a huge variety, including many go-getters, crossettes, single ringed shells, kamuros, a multitude of shells of bursting stars, photoflashes and particularly many variations of the shells of horse tails. Of course, the orange-red illuminated circular structure built on top of ramp 4 was nifty and most captivating when the red flares across ramp 3 (I think) would assist it from the right and left – these would also become brighter accordingly in response to the different pitches in the music “Zurathusthra”. I also thought that one particular effect deserved much attention – this was the unique elongated pale candles that rose elegantly into high levels of the sky, as if giving off the impression that they were shells about to explode into those typical bright white meteor comets of silver stars – of course, this wasn’t the case! This was quite stunning, in my opinion, and it really stood out as something newly integrated to any show I’ve seen. There were so many other pieces to comment on (if I went into all of them, this report would be longer than it’s going to be), but some effects that also seemed to get the audience’s attention were that single elongated line of loud crackling nautical mines, or perhaps bombs, at one point, and also that semi-circle of rainbow colors towards the center that dazzled the audience frequently during “Be Our Guest”, as in this picture provided by Robert Burch:
http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/cgi-bin/photogen.cgi?Pics2008/Burch/ pt-005.jpg,402,600
The design was ingenious and introduced many new innovative ideas in both transitions and creativity through connecting the music and theme. I personally thought that much of the segments perfectly matched whatever soundtrack was playing at the time while constantly enforcing the thematic premise. There are numerous examples that I can pinpoint easily enough, but the most dazzling attempts came directly from the Mission Impossible segment along low level with the fast sequences of the mines and candles. The low level effects themselves were also awesome, but I was mostly flattered during the part where the slowly passing of the smoke buildup would be occasionally illuminated by the bright nautical strobes during “Jaws”, creating a simulation of a strong electrical storm. I then pondered this fact and figured that the smoke accumulations at the time actually worked in their favor for this effect to stand out more than it already has – a real blessing in disguise. Another piece definitely worthy of mentioning was those rapid firings of single ringed shells of various colored stars. The finishing touch to that segment led to an even faster rate of those same effects, but then later assisted by shells of single rings with a star pattern in the center – there were even one or two shells with two intersecting rings (I believe that’s what they were – either that or a smiley).
Relating to the design, colors and effects were often chosen very carefully during each soundtrack. For example, the soundtrack that was used from the movie “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” - the whistling present in that track would result in fans of screaming serpents coupled with graceful meteor comet candles. The falling leaf shells later in this part also did it justice. Also, the Indiana Jones segment with the overhead barrages of broccade shells and the photoflashes in between them was an equally appealing scene, as were those photoflashes seen during the James Bond theme. And yes, there were a myriad of colors during this display – very exquisite and eloquent for a good portion of the performance.
Synchronization was superb. The music and fireworks, particularly at low level, connected beautifully, and I really thought that the theme was well enforced in this regard. The choice of music was very enjoyable – many people around me, including myself, really got into the Ghostbusters (how nostalgic), James Bond (big fan), Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones (also a fanatic) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly segments.
The finale was stunning in that it possessed good crescendo just following the beginning piece of it. Immediately starting after the massive clusters of kamuros in the previous segment, the finale had begun with some low level intersecting meteor comets with a single barrage of shells of broccades at mid level. Continuing with the low level meteor comets, barrages of shells of silver stars made their debut for a few seconds. The next single barrage of broccade shells signaled the silver color shells would now be quickly replaced by shells of purple stars – still firing at the same pace, though picking up a little more after this point. Lasting for a few more seconds, another set of broccade shells introduced barrages of shells of green stars. This similar pattern in transitions continued but gradually picking up the pace as the colors transitioned from one to the next - the green went to pale and then to a orange-red to an astonishing deep crimson red – the chaotic sky concluding with one final color of white with a finishing volley of thunderous salutes, soon after to be leaving the whole area with some of the loudest roars of approval I have ever heard in recent years. The entire finale lasted for about a minute and 10 seconds. It was amazing in how well timed the color transitions were with the music.
This was a fabulously crafted and highly well choreographed performance from the infamous Luso Pirotecnia, and this particular display really added into their already distinct collection of innovative and complex displays seen here in Montreal.
The strongest points in this display, for me at least, were definitely attributed to the actual design of the show, perhaps in part because it was both intense and really adhered to much of the soundtrack employed in a surprisingly understandable and concise manner. The theme was, in the end, quite a success, despite all the doubts and limitations I had originally set forward prior to the show. The premise offered was perhaps a little less understood initially because it was interpreted as ultimately direct and supposedly gave out the automatic impression that it had very little to work with when it came to the actual representation. The focus wasn’t merely on the theme itself, in my mind, but rather how it honored these memorable films, and sort of rolling out the red carpet for them by incorporating both the fireworks and music, and at the same time creating a very apocryphal environment and having a tendency of producing deep nostalgia. In addition, although the theme may have been commonly misunderstood, it was clear that the Portuguese used both the soundtrack and the fireworks to deliver the necessary emotions successfully – one notable example was during the Titanic theme song. In addition to my previous example of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly soundtrack, the use of shells of horse tails of strobes really made delightful impressions during the “Singing in the Rain” music. The Mission Impossible segment seemed to be the most strikingly delivered with its fast sequences of comets and mines along with very noisy shells directly above, providing the simulation of a convincing faux finale to finish! The various red and silver strobes also seemed appropriate for the theme as well – gives the feeling of announcing a winner at the Oscar’s. Most importantly about this display, the fireworks really brought these popular movies to life in a very dramatic and dignified manner, particularly in defining that calm intimidating feeling felt during the beginning of “Jaws” with the bright nautical strobes, the excitement and prestige of “Be our Guest” (especially with all the cakes of colored stars at the beginning) and the emotional feeling that was associated with “Titanic”. As for the finale, it was rich with flamboyant colors, and I don’t know about you guys, but it really reminded me of U.S.A 2003 in what they did in the end with those deep color transitions.
The only criticisms that come to mind were that, at times, despite the display being ubiquitous from left to right and top to bottom, during the Titanic soundtrack, the shells were fired for a little too long towards my left while not being assisted by anything else to the far right and center (only after some time) which at that point momentarily broke up the symmetry. Secondly, the horse tails were perhaps overused during the display, though this is not so much a criticism since they were relatively diverse. Other than that, though synchronization was very well done, there were a few spots where some shells didn’t quite connect on time with certain cues in some of the songs - besides the one shell firing erroneously at one point, one instance was during the Zurathusthra segment, where a couple of mid level kamuro shells didn’t explode right on time with the climactic part of the song. The horizontal circular structure itself was appropriate but didn’t really stand out as much to me as the ring or pyrodome they had used in the past (this is certainly not to say that the structure wasn’t relevant!). Finally, perhaps at times in between segments, as mentioned with prior displays, some slightly longer pauses would have been appreciated, particularly just following the penultimate part. That said, these criticisms are relatively minor and I personally thought the show was a real success in all criteria – absolutely a contender for a Jupiter.
Trav’s personal scorings (for fun):
-Pyrotechnic components: 9/10
-Synchronization: 9.5/10
-Soundtrack: 9.5/10
-Technical design: 9.7/10
-Pyromusical concept: 9/10
-Overall: 9.3/10 ---------->Spectacular!
(Scores will be adjusted before the closing ceremony).
Phew! I seem to have really written up a “storm” for this display. To think I did this from memory.
Trav.
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