Country participant: Australia
Company: Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics
Date of presentation: July 19th, 2008
Very warm and humid conditions came along with a very buoyant and unstable airmass, giving way to isolated rains and thunderstorms, one of which hit parts of the island during the day, and the other a brief rainstorm that hit the metropolitan area just around 8:00 p.m. However, following this, mostly clear skies with a few dense cumulus clouds here and there dominated the remainder of the evening, although some stronger winds in addition to a more favorable wind direction (for folks at La Ronde, at least) would have been appreciated for the highly anticipated Australian team from Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics, the same firm of which seemed to have weather-related problems with their debut in 2005.
This was a well designed performance and was technically crafted in a very authentic manner, perhaps both in part because a couple of the effects were unusual in that they were seemingly new and the fact that the show was fired in a mostly creative way. The diversity of the effects to enforce this wonderful design was excellent, often in a delicate mix, and at times, blended in an intricate manner. The display had a gorgeous set of farfalles, red and yellow flares, nautical strobes, gerbs, go-getters, shells of green and red strobes, heart shells, bright mines, crackling pistils, and a good variety of horsetails. The most striking of the features were definitely the rising tails near the ending of the display.
Synchronization was nicely done, and I found the choice of tracks to be relevant, even though some of them were not as appealing as compared to others that were employed. I The most beautiful and enjoyable segment, for me at least, in this sector came directly from “Proper Education”. The segment started off gracefully with one set of gold mines of red strobe stars, soon to be followed by well sequenced nautical strobes and another set of the same mines. Then gerbs creating flower petals lit up accordingly from center to right and left along the front ramp. This then was led by small brief gerbs and one rapid shot of mines of purple stars. All this was then followed by barrage after barrage of thunderous shells of variations of green to red stars, quickly picking up in pace as the whole thing came to a close.
The way some of the effects were utilized was more than satisfactory. Some great parts particularly were attributed to the angled fountains seen near the beginning in “Nothing Else Matters” as well as the way this segment had ended with green and red shells of falling leaves with background kamuros, with eventually lots of brilliant red strobes with cakes bursting into red and green stars mixed in with wide mines of gold just before the finishing touch. The conclusion of this piece was also perplexing. Closer to the end, an unusual effect sprung forth with one single burst of stars scattering, eventually ending with a fairly elongated horsetail trailing to the lake with red and green stars later making an appearance. This pattern continued until barrages of shells of pale meteor comets were fired above leading up to large shells of green and red central strobes and then to conclude with fast sequences of breathtaking mines of screaming serpents with more barrages overhead shells of strobes comprised of bright reds, ending the segment with a powerful finish.
The finale was powerful. At first, before the conclusion, following the more subtle piece of slower pale candles coming from the left, right and center, one bright set of mines of predominantly red stars were followed by a series of Z cakes along the front, bursting into small green go-getters. These were then assisted by some shots of farfalles toward mid level, which continued for a little while, and then followed by large shells of strobes. After a sort of long pause, the finale commenced with those new effects of the rising tails emerged with much force. After this pattern, a wide fan of candles of red stars exploded widely, giving way to a first barrage of shells of meteor comets, some with red stars. This was soon combined with bright mines and low level shells of bright green star strobes, soon to be integrated with one gigantic burst of white comets near the center, spreading out in all directions quite ubiquitously, and joining up with the already chaotic sky above. Barrages of shells one after the other continued for a good while longer, picking up more in both speed and power as the music hastened in pace, eventually covering the entire sky in a bright red, yellow and green mix as enormous shells fired at an unbelievable speed in the last few seconds of the finale, bringing the entire thing to a close with one loud volley of salutes. Obviously, soon to follow were roars of approval from a much smaller crowd, although the level of cheering would make you think that was indeed a full house!
This was a very unique display, and like Portugal, it was bound to a lot of nostalgia, only just employed in a very different way. I personally loved the transitions in pace in between segments, most notably the much slower speeds seen in “Adagio for Strings” in between the more hyped segments of “Nothing Else Matters” and “Proper Education”. The choice of music, in general, was equally enjoyable - there were even some popular ones amongst the music choices, such as “Down Under Unplugged” or “Don’t Dream, it’s Over”. Aside from the relative intensity of the show, some pieces were very well executed, such as that of “Light My Fire”, where very bright flares of red would transition to yellow and then back to red, then to fast transitions from back and forth in a mix of red and yellow in direct accordance with the rhythm and feeling of the accompanied music (the smoke actually did it justice in the video for this piece). The quality of the products were superb - the farfalles seen during the opening in “Sparkling Diamonds” were exquisite, as were the sky-filling crackling pistils (that extreme sizzling noise) and the variations of horsetails throughout the show, just to name a few. There were some unusual effects that really caught me off guard, most particularly the rising tails. Of course, most of the display was also quite exciting because of the vast amount of segments always concluding with such a thunderous finish to eventually the inevitable frequent cheers of delight from the audience. The finale was powerful and quite colorful, filling the sky from all directions. Though the length was a little bit on the short side, it was still very much satisfying, if I do say so myself.
I do have a few criticisms, however. While synchronization was generally excellent, some pieces just seemed to lack that tight connection that I was looking for with the music – this was often the impression that I got throughout many points of the show, particularly at low level. This is not to say that the performance was poorly in sync (you guys would kill me if I even dare say that), but rather that there wasn’t as strong a connection as compared to Portugal, for instance, during many segments in that display, like that of “Be Our Guest” or “Mission Impossible”. The thematic link was also a little hard to detect at some points during the show in accordance with fireworks themselves, moreso than the music, so I had a hard time pinpointing this establishment since it wasn’t always so clear. I would also mention the low level effects that were obstructed (as shown in the video) by the occasional dense smoke at times, particularly during the segment of “Nothing Else Matters”, where the small front gold mines would quickly drown away into the smoke, as were the central gerbs in the background there. However, it would be hard for me to actually go as far to consider this as a true negative aspect since I saw everything so well from Notre-Dame, although I do not know how this would be considered with respect to the judges. This relatively minor, just reaching the climax of the “Down Under” piece, I noticed that the deep blue stars interspersed in between the shells of kamuros (also the first set between the fans of candles to the left and right) tended to fade too quickly once they had initially exploded. Similarly, this was also the case with some of the finishing kamuros near the ending of “Adagio for Strings” – these were almost invisible after the blast. Finally, just before the finale had started, there was an elongated pausing as the music went on – I’m not sure what happened there. Other than that, I noticed that there was just a little too much use of the horsetails as well as some selected colors, namely the red and greens.
Despite all of this, I thought this was a very strong performance, and most of these criticisms are relatively minor anyway. A fabulous effort from the Australian team, and hope to see Howard & Sons return to Montreal in the near future!
Trav’s personal scorings (for fun):
-Pyrotechnic components: 9.3/10
-Synchronization: 8.7/10
-Soundtrack: 8.5/10
-Technical design: 9/10
-Pyromusical concept: 9.5/10
-Overall: 9/10---------->Good job.
(Scores will be adjusted before the closing ceremony).
Trav.
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