This was quite an unusual show. This must be the season for good products since Western like most of the competitors this year also used some really good effects and products.
The theme was mainly portrayed through the songs they used. They could have elaborated the theme much more such as how they divided their celebration of lights show into 3 different parts. Due to them avoiding the use of roman candles, i think that they had a hard time having support in the ground level.
The many color changing shells they used were really nice and i was really expecting them to use those. I also liked their dahlias which had some of the longest hanging times i have seen. At the same time the colors were very clear and crisp even though the shells changed in colors, the colors always had the same brightness. I dont think they used far falles. Their strobes were also very nice specially the green and red ones. The breaks of their shells are as close to perfect as it can get... they must have put a lot of effort in constructing their shells to get this kind of timing. I love the really tall mines that they used. I thought that their play with the firing ramps were well done they could have used it more through out the display. It was very nice how different sizes of comets and mines were used at the same time and they were able to show the depth of the firing area well.
The synchronization was pretty well done although at time it wasn't very clear, most of the time the effects reflected the music very well. I think that this is where the avoiding to use roman candles paid off because the ground level synchronization was really great but as i have said they weren't able to put enough support in the ground level.
Their finale was pretty good. Overall the show's average, i think that many people are just not used to the different approach that Western used. From a technical point of view or should i say pyro's point of view, this show would get really high marks due to their intricate color changing shells, precision of their shells' timing (could be seen in the finale how the shells cleanly changed in colors), and for the hanging time of the stars. For regular people, this show would rank very low because of the way the show was designed. I think that one of the weak points of the show is that the songs western chose did not really allow them to have good choreography. The only songs that they used that could have had great choreography is all you need is love and the elo song.
Here's my grading for Western:
Effects: 9.5/10
Synchronization: 7.5/10
Music: 6.5/10
Technical Design: 6/10
Pyrotechnical Design: 8.5/10
overall: 38/50 (76%)
From all the comments that i have seen i really wonder what a "montreal fireworks display" is really like. This is because if a "montreal fireworks display" is just all big shells, big finales, action packed segments, and average synchronization then i'm afraid this will give a new meaning to the montreal fireworks competition. I think that what western showed us was a very good attempt to change the meaning of a "montreal fireworks display". This is because from my point of view, it was quite a unique show because of all the firing patterns they used and because of the subtle synchronization. I think that if they have watched a couple of shows from the competition then their design could have been more generic because in their minds the shows they have watched is the standards that they should follow then this won't allow them to do something different. They would just show something similar to the past displays. I really wish that more new companies would be invited in the competition, regardless of whether they have won many awards or not.
My rankings so far:
1. Italy - Pirotecnia Soldi (86%)
2. Poland - Surex (85%)
3. Potugal - Macedos Pirotecnia (79%)
4. U.S.A - Western Enterprises (76%)
5. Taiwan - Santai Fireworks (72%)
Looking forward to the next 3 participants!
specially GFF
Vander
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