Country participant: United States
Company: Pyrotecnico
Date of presentation: July 30th, 2008
Once again, unstable weather took its place for virtually the entire day with partly cloudy to completely overcastted skies, along with periods of drizzle and at times steadier, though brief light-moderate rain showers during the late afternoon and early evening. Fortunately, at the time of presentation, aside from the relatively short light rains coming through between 9-9:13 p.m., we were left with ideal weather conditions, including just the right amount of wind, although consistency in speed would have been great at some points to move out some of the smoke at particularly low level, but no big deal. As a debutant representing the USA in Montreal, this new firm's display promised to “rock” and dazzle the audience of Montreal with power, creativity and serenity with their display titled “Rock Loves”, which it did nicely, mind you.
This was quite the true definition of a vehement display, and it’s also not too surprising that the audience was often in awe and frequently screaming their lungs out – the kind of level of excitement that hasn’t been witnessed since Caballer or IPON’s performance in 2004, most notably due to the fact that this display had used an enormous amount of shells, many being 10-12”. This particular display truly had the full package, so to speak, due to it virtually having such an immensely diverse set of products and a widely enjoyable set of soundtrack that was most appropriate for this sort of thematic framework. Most interestingly, the low level structures (the three towers and three arcs) were gracefully used and always had such amazing timing in sequences for whenever they were made use of. One particularly worthy example to make reference is during the commencing of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” where the arcs rapidly fired meteor comets accordingly with the music. On a related note, I personally felt the structures, especially the larger arc mounted on top of ramp 4 really captivated the audience frequently in a very mesmerizing way, likely because of how widely it would spew out brilliant multi-colored stars from its large amount of firing positions (29, I believe) and subsequently creating huge fans that spread out wildly in the process, one of which was just unexpected (near the beginning) and reached as far as the St-Lawrence.
Synchronization was very enjoyable seeing that much of the display, despite how relatively hyped it was, was very rarely off cue and the differences in rhythm and pace were seldom ever lost – the low level effects were often quite supportive in this respect with the vast variety of both meteor comet candles and mines, not to mention again the way the structures were used to enforce such precise timing when it came to sequencing. The quality of the products was excellent and I greatly appreciated how many of the effects were often in a good mix. The effects themselves were most appreciable and many of them, namely some of the shells, were unique – one of which had the same towering idea as those newly introduced tail ring shells used in the Australian display (I understand that they’re both from the same manufacturer) and the other were those massive shells whose comets would squander into an effect similar in appearance to many squiggly serpents (these were often seen in Sweet Child O’ Mine). The variety of farfalles was also beautiful, as were the photoflashes at one point mixed in with the salutes, shells of strobes, the multitude of large shells of crackling pistils (simulating that welcoming heavy rain/deep sizzling sort of noise), the powerful shell of shells and multi-breakers, horsetails (right, Paul?
), the various nautical flares, and of course the large nautical shells! The choice of music, though I wasn’t a fan of just a handful of tracks, was appropriate and the order permitted, quite in a similar fashion to that seen in the Portuguese display, suitable transitional points for more subtle pieces to be introduced, considering how fueled the overall feel of the display's behavior was represented – this was particularly true once the display had phased over to the segment of “Imagine” - I found this to be probably the most emotional and inspiring point of the performance. To point out a very interesting and simultaneously exciting piece, it would have to be that involving the photoflashes and salutes/titanium salutes, where the salutes seemed to be creating a distinctive rhythm of their own! The colors were excellent and chosen accordingly throughout every segment, as were the effects associated with them – some segments they were notably very appropriate. The theme was agreeable and easy to work with, although it was easy to become dubious with respect to how it would be portrayed – this was easily cleared up, however, after witnessing the display! The occasional narration actually worked well and never became inappreciably elongated when introducing those pieces.
My criticisms are, much like everyone else’s, relatively minor, but can be deemed considerable given that, as Fred mentioned, a handful of previous competitors are clearly already in contention for a prize, and so even small negative points can prove to be quite significant determining factors for our winners. Now, this display was very complex and obviously well executed with its overall design, and it’s evidently clear that the available space was utilized to the maximum capacity, and beyond. Though the display was nicely balanced considering that, as was the case with a few entrants this season, it was quite wide from the left to the right and frequently made its way to high altitudes, there was one point where things were, like Portugal (for comparison’s sake), fired towards my left for some time, sort of breaking up the symmetrical feeling at that particular moment relative to the rest of the display, until, of course, things started to eventually fire towards the center. Also, there was a brief pause at one point where it was completely silent for a few seconds before things started resuming again – I hear that, according to Paul, this was due to a “12" shell muzzle breaking and knocking out part of ramp 1 for a period of time" - not sure how that little pitfall will be considered, although it's faithfully true that the judges make their evaluations based on what they see. The theme was certainly well dignified and represented throughout the entire show, and again the music choice was appropriate in support of that. However, as several of you have already stated, I, too, felt the theme very general as compared to other more creative and perplexing themes we’ve seen other competitors this season work with. Therefore, the theme was not totally original, but then one could argue that the essence of the theme was represented through the fireworks themselves, in which case, this is entirely where the originality aspect of it came into play, so it’s a little difficult to keep this into perspective, especially since the display was fired so exquisitely to begin with. Finally, the show was barely ever redundant, but there was one particular point that I felt sort of deviated from the general variations in both feeling and rhythm that we were commonly experiencing throughout the performance – this was directly located during the “One” segment, where the firing pattern was a little too repetitive for my tastes, as well as using predominantly the same kamuro shells repeatedly. Compared to other segments of the display, this one seemed to be almost completely deviant, seeing that it didn’t really do that particular track (even though I didn’t really care for that song) as nicely and as vibrantly, so it felt a little tedious at this point in time.
Overall, this was quite a formidable (perhaps “furious” would do it justice as well) performance presented by Pyrotecnico, and their very display will surely become something of a great reference for future editions at this competition in Montreal. The display was enjoyed hugely, and people around me and all about were frequently enamored by many aspects of it. The finale was no doubt powerful and had some of the loudest finishing salutes that I’ve heard in a long time, although the finale ended a little too abruptly when the shells of varying colors, following the cluster of deep silver shells of strobes, had stopped so soon (still a great finish, of course!). Definitely a contender for a prize, but at this point in time, I still need to give it some thought on who should be Gold Jupiter standards (at least, in my mind) – clearly the US and Portugal deserve that honor, but when it comes to choosing just one of these for the position, we will need time to consider everything carefully! And hey, perhaps the jury may select another competitor that we never even considered – the thrill of surprise!
Trav’s personal scorings (for fun):
-Pyrotechnic components: 9.5/10
-Synchronization: 9.3/10
-Soundtrack: 9/10
-Technical design: 9.2/10
-Pyromusical concept: 9/10
-Overall: 9.2/10---------->Nicely done, guys.
(Scores will be adjusted before the closing ceremony)
And here’s a happy birthday to my cousin, Erin, whose birthday happened to be yesterday (the 30th) – I know the Americans really gave you a real treat with the display – glad you were able to attend!
Trav.
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