AxeElf
07-05-2019, 01:52 PM
It's not actually my first time putting on a fireworks show, but up through 2017, I had only hand-fired individual items (with no music) for the entertainment of a few family and friends. 2018 was the first time that I tried fusing groups of 5-10 cakes together, scripted to go along with edited snippets of songs--but after a couple of minutes of music/fireworks, there were breaks of a couple of minutes where the next group of cakes would be set up, and the whole show was still hand-fired. So there was probably about 30 minutes of actual "show" that spread out over 90 minutes or so, and even though everyone said it was pretty awesome, a lot of people were getting a little ansy after that length of time, and a few people even left before the end.
So this year was the first year I had ever used a firing system--a 60 cue Chinese system from eBay--so this was the first year I was able to string together the whole show pretty much without interruption. I controlled the music from my phone with Bluetooth-paired speakers (although I overlaid the soundtrack in the video, because the music got kind of hard to hear with all the noise from the fireworks) and sat there pressing cue buttons every few seconds according to a spreadsheet that told me when to press which cues. That means I only got to see about half of the show (as I was looking at my spreadsheet and my phone the other half of the time), but other than a (very) few of the talon igniters not lighting their fuse, and a couple of times when the fireworks outran their scripted music, it all seemed to go pretty well, for my first attempt (with no practice runs or dress rehearsals or anything ahead of time--the live show was literally my first time operating the thing).
My biggest disappointment was that I dreamed too big. I had originally scripted a show that would last just over an hour, but between the heat and my body and the time I had, I ended up only being able to put on about a 30 minute show. On Saturday, I think I was about one more half hour in the 100+ degree garage away from a visit to the emergency room, and I ended up spending most of Sunday in bed recuperating from exhaustion and dehydration before finishing up what I could for our show on the evening of the 3rd. As grand as my plans were, they just weren't worth dying for.
So here is roughly the whole show (minus a few minutes of fountains that don't show up well on camera), dependent on phone camera footage edited together from a few of my guests. As you will hear, I started off the show with a voiceover clip that was offered for free here on this site earlier this year. Thanks for that! It's probably not as spectacular as the shows many of you are used to putting on, but as the next step in my pyro progression, I was pretty happy with how well it was executed and received.
Any comments, criticisms, suggestions or praise are welcome!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qBMW2MeUdrg2qSJE3NaYdF7zdnSPWlLl
So this year was the first year I had ever used a firing system--a 60 cue Chinese system from eBay--so this was the first year I was able to string together the whole show pretty much without interruption. I controlled the music from my phone with Bluetooth-paired speakers (although I overlaid the soundtrack in the video, because the music got kind of hard to hear with all the noise from the fireworks) and sat there pressing cue buttons every few seconds according to a spreadsheet that told me when to press which cues. That means I only got to see about half of the show (as I was looking at my spreadsheet and my phone the other half of the time), but other than a (very) few of the talon igniters not lighting their fuse, and a couple of times when the fireworks outran their scripted music, it all seemed to go pretty well, for my first attempt (with no practice runs or dress rehearsals or anything ahead of time--the live show was literally my first time operating the thing).
My biggest disappointment was that I dreamed too big. I had originally scripted a show that would last just over an hour, but between the heat and my body and the time I had, I ended up only being able to put on about a 30 minute show. On Saturday, I think I was about one more half hour in the 100+ degree garage away from a visit to the emergency room, and I ended up spending most of Sunday in bed recuperating from exhaustion and dehydration before finishing up what I could for our show on the evening of the 3rd. As grand as my plans were, they just weren't worth dying for.
So here is roughly the whole show (minus a few minutes of fountains that don't show up well on camera), dependent on phone camera footage edited together from a few of my guests. As you will hear, I started off the show with a voiceover clip that was offered for free here on this site earlier this year. Thanks for that! It's probably not as spectacular as the shows many of you are used to putting on, but as the next step in my pyro progression, I was pretty happy with how well it was executed and received.
Any comments, criticisms, suggestions or praise are welcome!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qBMW2MeUdrg2qSJE3NaYdF7zdnSPWlLl