Very interesting interview with Yanick Roy of Royal Pyrotechnie, competing for Quebec/Canada this coming Saturday.
To cut straight to the technical aspects (I'll return to the music etc. later), Yanick is using a lot of IPS techniques. For those who are wondering, this is a methodology for rapid assembly of a show, particularly the low level effects. Being local to the competition site allowed Yanick to take advantage of the IPS methodology and assemble complex positions for ramps 3, 4 and 5, as well as two 20 metre high towers that will be located on either side of ramp 4. Ramp 3 itself will have 25 firing positions, which I think is the largest number so far this year - of these 25, 13 are major and 12 are minor and they feature products from Vicente Caballer, Zaragozana, Panzera, as well as close proximity material specially built for Yanick by RES and NextFX out of the US. I noticed a lot of fan racks and some assemblages of special low-smoke fountains. Some of the special effects will be used to reproduce the famous fountains at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
Ramp 5 will consist of 7 pontoons and feature mainly close proximity material from RES and NextFX. For the shell portion of the show, Royal are using their own line of Chinese shells, Dancing, as well as shells from Vincente Caballer and Zaragozana in Spain, Panzera in Italy (including specially made "large sausages" as Yanick put it) and shells from Rozzi in the US. Yanick said it will be a very large show, with over 200 shells in the 1.1g category. The show will use around 205 FM-16 firing modules controlled by 9 Pyrodigital Field controllers (one being a backup). Yanick said he wants to make sure the show is fired irrespective of any technical problems that may crop up during the display.
Overall, Yanick said the show will be about the same size as his Gold Jupiter winning show from 2003, but that it will be organized quite differently, based on the experience he's had in the past few years winning top prize at many other of the world's most famous pyromusical competitions. Yanick emphasized that he drew heavily on this experience in designing this show and he said that it will feature only peony shells of red, green, blue and yellow. Finally laughing at this joke, (of course there will be more diversity than that), he noted that his style is such that there is never any repetition in his shows, as well as a seamless musical track that took several days to assemble in the Studio Tam Tam, run by Serge Péloquin, who is the sound producer for Royal's pyromusicals.
The musical selection is based on film music, but designed to create a range of atmospheres and emotions for the audience and will include some well known titles and some others less well known, together with music from three Quebec films. After listening to parts of the soundtrack, I can imagine how all those firing positions and two towers are going to be used to great effect!
I asked him how he felt about competing in this special edition of the competition. He admitted competition is fierce this year but noted that competing in Montreal is like being in the Olympics - you don't go to just take part, you aim to win a gold medal, and that's what he's setting out to do. He also noted that winning the Gold Jupiter in 2003 had a very positive effect for him and his company and put them on a world stage as well as greatly enhancing his reputation locally. Let's hope for fair weather for Saturday night!
Me and Yanick in front of the firing site layout diagram
