Professional Display Fireworks Nightmare (Video + Pic Heavy)

[Waymon3x6]

Guys, long story short, I am new and never did a professional display. Itching to get into the business, I called up the company that does the annual pyrotechnic display for my town's jamboree festival which happened yesterday (5/18). I spoke with the man in charge and told him I was interested in basically shadowing them while they set up, so he invited me out. I thought I was just going to lift racks and maybe fill a few, but this experience turned out to be much more "hands on" than I anticipated.

Below are some pics (many more - only allowed to upload 5 right now) followed by an HD Video of the shoot (with timings so you can skip to the good parts). Looking forward to continuing this hobby during the summer!

http://s13.postimg.org/f4cymihdz/photo_1.jpg

http://s13.postimg.org/srs7m7q87/photo_2_5.jpg

http://s13.postimg.org/k8df2779j/photo_3_4.jpg

http://s24.postimg.org/igf8zyhw5/IMG_0241.jpg

http://s24.postimg.org/rj3q6zhn9/IMG_0245.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CVbELICJUM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0CVbELICJUM#!
0:42 - First Shot Problems
1:15 - Warning Shot
1:30 - Start of Show
3:10 - Hand Lighting 6" Shells
5:35 - Shit Hits the Fan
7:20 - Shell Misfire
9:10 - Handfiring 6" Shells with 9v Battery
11:15 - Handfiring 6" Shells with 9v Battery Dialogue
11:55 - Misfire
12:45 - My Shells Go Off
18:00 - Finale
20:55 - Insane Cake
22:50 - Wiring Dud Shells that did not Shoot

[Westpapyro]

Great job, way to get your foot in the door. Sounds like your on your way to doing something you and many others here enjoy.

[hollywood1]

I agree excellent job on your first day. Things will and do happen but keep on trying and enjoy it

[displayfireworks1]

Excellent post, complete with pictures and video with time event markings. I wish I could get more people to post like this.
One of my first few experiences sounded and looked very similar to this one, only it was a hand fire display. When you are the main shooter the pressure of getting the display off correctly in front of thousands of people can sometimes run high. When things do not go smoothly, sometimes you start to yell out all sorts of things. The moments immediately before the first shot can be very intense.
This is always the problem with electrical firing, there are going to be errors and the errors are many and they are usually human errors, someone forgot to turn the module on , they coded it wrong, a wire got kicked and unplugged etc. Once you wire everything up, it is what it is when the display starts.
This looked like a decent size display; I also noticed there were some higher quality complex shells in the display. Thanks for sharing your experience.
If you want to post more than 6 pictures or videos you can always just make another post adding the pictures. There is a short time delay between posting to prevent spam.

[smilli]

Nice store man:)
Big coincidence, it shot my first proffesional display to yesterday haha!

[Waymon3x6]

Thanks for the replies guys! There were about 10 of us that set up the show, and I found that each person I spoke with had a cool story about how they got in the business. From overhearing a few guys talking about firing their show at a bowling match to simply driving by and seeing the truck parked in front of the shooters house and knocking on the door - everyone had a unique story! Dave, thanks for your helpful replies on the forums and off, hopefully I can be as successful in the business as you some day! Being present allowed me to see just how much work goes into a show and just what exactly can go wrong; like you mentioned, someone can pull out a wire or forget to turn on the module (in fact that happened to the guy who was firing and they couldn't figure it out a while back. Many of the spectators were on their way out and they found out a half hour later that someone forgot to switch the modules to "fire" from "safe"). Keeps you on your toes though, I love it.

Here are a few more pics.

http://s10.postimg.org/pconzlfih/photo_1_1.jpg

http://s10.postimg.org/6o6mc9oll/photo_1_4.jpg

http://s10.postimg.org/przxsm1ft/photo_1_6.jpg

http://s10.postimg.org/876luzkjt/photo_2_3.jpg

http://s10.postimg.org/44k69nft5/photo_4_2.jpg

http://s10.postimg.org/xc6szvyrt/photo_4_3.jpg

[PyroManiacs]

Excellent video, very eventful! Good Job!

[Pyro Nation]

What camera did u use for recording?

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Well, you sure got a heck of a first shoot under your belt! Seems like everything that could go wrong--did. Most shoots aren't like that. Glad to see you got some "hands on" experience. Great video--I felt sorry for the guy shooting the show. We all know how stressful & frustrating things can get. I had to laugh when he said about the guys firing the shells with the 9volt battery "I'm glad it is not me". Ditto!!

[mike2255]

Why did they not check for continuity before the show started? or when they found out they could not fire the shells, have somebody run over to make sure the module was set to arm? the lead pyro seemed to be a little unorganized for this show....

[Pyro Nation]

In the video he even said he should of checked, HELL I thought that was a requirement. I dont think there was ever a time I have not checked. Id rather check and run a tad late than not and have a fiasco.

The cobra would of told u something was wrong..!! LOL

[mike2255]

Completely agree. Especially when it's a safety factor. He has people in there hand lighting shells, hitting shells with a battery, and shooting from a panel. Not to mention jumping all over the place on the panel. How is that not a safety issue??

[hokester44]

Damn, I got stressed out watching it. Nice recovery though.