Country participant: Austria
Company: Pyrovision Gmbh Austria
Date of presentation: July 26th, 2008
Unstable weather (quite common this year), courtesy of a cold front associated with a strong low pressure system stationary well to the North, threatened to ruin yet another display with widespread showers and thunderstorms. Periodic brief showers made several appearances well before the show had started as well as leading closer to it, and lightning could be vividly seen off to the East and Northeast respectively at around 9:25 and endured up till about 10:10, although it was clear that this would pose no threat to the display because of the of the general location of the storm cloud at the time. In the end, we were left with partly cloudy skies during the 10-10:30 period, leaving nothing but ideal conditions (including occasional breezy Southerly winds) for the well anticipated Austrian display presenting: “Heaven and Hell”.
For the most part, in an overall notion, I thought that this was a generally fair-good show, but I was not really captivated by it as much as I was expecting to be. Synchronization was slack throughout many points of the display, but I’ve come to understand that this was mostly related to technical problems. Despite this fact, I personally thought there were still many points that demonstrated very enjoyable coordination between the fireworks and music near low level with the use of much of the mines and central clusters of candles.
Choices of music were appropriate with probably some of the most agreeable selections in representing a theme so far this season, and although I wasn’t so much a fan of most of the music choices used, I was quite appreciative of the selection since it was carefully utilized to give off ideal transitional phases in many points of the show that would make it considerable in this regard – some pieces, of course, more prevalent in transitions than others. The best example of what I’m referring to may be ideally tied to the segment having illuminations of heart structures in an elongated line from left to right. Once concluded, this would give way to the more sudden transition in the following piece involving the more Hellish kind of feel associated with both the music and the bright yellow-orange Hell fire torch simulations seen throughout this time. I personally enjoyed some of the segments, particularly one of them seen just passed halfway into the show – I was unsure of the name of that soundtrack at the time, but it starts around 17:45 in Paul’s video – probably the most enjoyable part for me!
The low level effects had an interesting set of devices, including a variety of nautical flares, heart and cross structures, stunning flares used to simulate the Hell fire (I think), and spinning wheels, though of these wouldn’t spin and one seemed to be missing to my left (to the right, from La Ronde’s viewpoint). Colors were chosen appropriately and were mostly used in a mix only when necessary. The design of the display was very simplistic, though organized, and when it additionally came to representation with respect to the theme, it was, for the most part good, but there were a couple of moments where this wasn’t always as clear as it could have been in demonstrating the various aspects of the concept being introduced.
My most negative comments aimed towards the show were that, aside from the slack synchronization at many points, the show itself had a lot of areas where there were too many moments of silence, especially again near the beginning. Yes, Tyler, I realize that a few, not all, of the low level effects were often vaguely distinguished from my viewing position, but after I looked at the video and saw the perspective from La Ronde during the same first few minutes, I still had the impression (in my humble opinion, of course) that this part of the show was much too silent for far too long of a time frame – this wasn’t the only time where the pausing was prevalent during the show either, and so it was pretty easy to lose interest at many points. I personally thought the low level effects were interesting in addition to being uniquely delivered in the way they were used, but frequently they endured for a painfully long time without too much variation at those moments, inevitably leading to the loss of that entertainment factor. As a result, I felt the display was not very balanced, (considering that a good chunk of it was relatively quiet at mid to high level) and therefore was conducive to lacking the vibrancy I, and many of us, were looking for, especially when dealing with such a well devised and promising theme employed here. The music choice was good and again was very well considered, but I felt it was moreso the music delivering the emotions than the fireworks themselves – this was particularly true during that creepy segment with the crosses illuminating across the front ramp. The quality of the products was fair, as were the diversity of effects, but clearly at a lower level as compared to other participants this season – many of the effects were very redundant as well (particularly near the beginning). Into the fluidity of the display, I personally found that too many segments commenced with long pauses with nothing too much happening, even at low level, for some time, which sort of killed the feeling at those particular points following parts that were effectively more active. The theme again was very different in that it promoted such a perplexing and authentic feeling that I can’t say I’ve experienced before in the competition. The selected tracks were excellent to make the premises more dignified, but through the show itself, I wasn’t really always grasping that critical feeling that would commonly get me into the display immensely, perhaps in part because synchronization wasn’t always so good. The finale really was satisfactory, but it did promote a certain broken feeling to it merely because it was divided into a couple of pieces in both differing speed and power. Furthermore, it was not really to the point with a sufficient climactic finish since its pace was more and less steady the entire time, and had then concluded somewhat prematurely while the music still went onto fading.
As Tyler briefly mentioned, I, too, do recall, according to Fred, that the Austrian team had the impression of being afraid after viewing the Australian and Canadian displays, so this may have implied that they were not entirely confident with their display on an overall basis. However, it can be deemed that this is simply part of the learning experience, and that the team will use this newly acquired knowledge to help serve them to improve in areas where they felt were not so successful in this particular visit. Despite the criticisms, though, overall I still think that this was definitely a very original approach, and the atmosphere that was generated was very different compared to what we’re commonly used to for the majority displays in the past. I would love to see Pyrovisions return to Montreal in the near future and make another, perhaps similar attempt in concocting a strikingly formidable, versatile and compelling thematic framework. It’s a real pity that technical problems had to surface and often ruin the fireworks-music connection to an otherwise authentic display, especially since the team offered such a wonderful and enticing concept to work with in the first place. With the level of the competition already as high as it is, I don’t think this display will be awarded with a Jupiter, but I personally feel that the most valuable reward that Pyrovision really got out of this whole ordeal is simply the experience acquired after constructing a display at this level of fireworks competition as well as witnessing more successful performances this season in Montreal, thus assisting them to later rise to the challenge and potentially do an even better job for possible future visits, as well as to other competitions around the globe. Not to say that this wasn’t a good effort at all, but there is certainly plenty of room for improvement.
Trav’s personal scorings (for fun):
-Pyrotechnic components: 7/10
-Synchronization: 7/10 (I’m being fair since there were parts that were nicely synchronized)
-Soundtrack: 8/10
-Technical design: 7/10
-Pyromusical concept: 7.5/10
-Overall: 7.3/10
(Scores will be adjusted before the closing ceremony).
Other than that, I must agree with Pierre and say that the competition is going too fast, as always. June and July are, as I said before, "lightning" fast months, but just make the most of what we have left! I always get depressed knowing that the competition is coming to a close.
Trav.
P.S. Enkil - I saw that storm as well on the way back home, but it seems you may have seen it even better, even though it was brief. We did encounter some heavy downpours once arriving back into the West Island as well.
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