Finale opinions

[PGHBoom]

I am trying to finish planning my first big consumer show and I plan to end the show with 90 mortars, but I am having a tough time with the false finale. I have watched dozens of You Tube finale setup videos and many seem like they are just left overs from the main show fused together to fire off almost instantaneously. Although you would think they would produce nothing but sky puke, they actually look rather nice. My question is how do you plan yours? Is it random? Is it planned like the body of your show? Do you mix 200 gram with 500 gram? Thoughts and opinions please.

[FlyingDutchman]

I was about to type the same question. :) I would also like to hear this. What speed fuse do you use? Do you mix fuses?

[ras1986]

Lol I puke it. Fast fuse everything. This year I used 500 ft of fast fuse. The audience likes sky puke. No they love sky puke, the whiter and brighter the better. The way I plan my firework purchases..... I buy the best stuff out that year with audience proximity in mind. Max out the budget, when I get it in I unbox everything and then I make my plan. Whatever is left makes it to false and main finals. Lol if you watch my stash video you will see I bought a bunch of stuff and about 1/4 of it is finale and false finals. I think the finale is around 1200 bucks this year.... I think the 1/4 of the budget finale is what I have always done. Even if you are spending 100 bucks...

[PGHBoom]

ras1986,

Can you direct me to your stash video? I am interested in witnessing first hand your epic collection of pyro product.

[chriskrc]

Different speeds in a finale is great but a sky puke is always in there somewhere. Hey watch the product videos and take notes maybe something else will come to mind for your finale. Nothing wrong with coming up with something different.

[mjbland05]

i've been re-watching my videos from last year, and the largest crowd reaction came when the largest number of things were going off at the same time. Now that said, my show is much smaller than most people's here - the finale was a 200 gram fan cake (blitzkrieg, which i am always impressed by for a 200gram cake), 5 other 200 gram, 2 500 gram and 8 mortars. the two 500 gram cakes each shot in volleys of 5, so it ended with 10-10-10-10 and 8 mortars last - all straight up. it looks more like white noise than distinct shells in the video but people loved it.

[Bazerk]

They like loud booms like salutes and crackle also. I know its called sky puke, but honestly, most of my finales have looked ok. This year is going to be on a completely different level. You can watch the few youtube videos I have up there and fast forward to the end. That was all 500g cakes going off at once.

https://youtu.be/iBdCPlZ6_ks (My camera shut off during this show so the finale was filmed with a cell phone which irritates me)
https://youtu.be/AotSDLtzqj4
https://youtu.be/ES0E_kcQhq4 (Try to ignore the drunk idiot who is recording it also)

[ras1986]

ras1986,

Can you direct me to your stash video? I am interested in witnessing first hand your epic collection of pyro product.
https://youtu.be/w_616kkf3F4

[PyroAgent507943]

I use different speed fuse for the simple fact of Cloud cover. Sky puke brings giant clouds of smoke that mask the fireworks. My audience tends to prefer to see the fireworks I'm shooting. I will use fast fuse but nothing faster than 3sec per foot.

As far as cakes used, I mix the cake size to keep the momentum. I'll throw a few 200gm cakes in with my Big 3" cakes to keep things moving also the Big cakes shoot higher and so I don't have to worry about creating a cloud in the area that my large cakes and mortars go off at. My shows are normally over water from land. But I don't have much room to spread my cakes out so I have to angle them.
I've found that sky puke isn't so bad when there is a good spread on the shots.

[3 Fingers]

The main thing I shoot for in a finale is shots per second. I believe I read that the threshold you want to go for is somewhere over 10 shots per second during the height of the finale. That's what makes spectators respond involuntarily because their minds can't process what they are seeing/hearing. That's when they go "Ooooh, Aaaah" or laugh uncontrollably (mind blown). So you have to do some math to figure it out but it's easy enough to do. Just gotta know your durations and shots per cake / rack etc. Use :60 seconds in your equasion and you'll have your shots per second figured out.

The other thing is filling the sky side to side as well as top to bottom. So using a combination of 200, 350 & 500 gram cakes is a good idea. Some zipper cakes for side to side along with straight up cakes. I try to use the busier cakes like Blond Joke or High Falutin that have a longer duration and more shots per cake and then use lots of them. Then I add more shorter duration cakes later in that minute to increase shots per second, plus my mortars at the very end. I try to time it out so that the cakes all end at the same time. A 200g cake straggler kind of looks crappy at the end. Then I'll fire the shell racks at the very end in a glorious sky puke. If you spread your racks out that helps too. I don't bother with a false finale....but I do leave a gap between the main show and finale. They cheer there no matter what you do. My 2 cents. Good Luck!!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I am trying to finish planning my first big consumer show and I plan to end the show with 90 mortars, but I am having a tough time with the false finale. I have watched dozens of You Tube finale setup videos and many seem like they are just left overs from the main show fused together to fire off almost instantaneously. Although you would think they would produce nothing but sky puke, they actually look rather nice. My question is how do you plan yours? Is it random? Is it planned like the body of your show? Do you mix 200 gram with 500 gram? Thoughts and opinions please.

For what it's worth, here's what I have planned for this year.

I have 136 mortars set as the finale broken down as follows: 4 milk crates of 25 mortars each, and 1 x 36 shot fan rack. I have the first two milk crates wired with 4 sec per ft fuse. The second two crates wired with 2 sec per ft fuse. The 36 shot fan rack is wired with 1/4 sec per ft fuse. The first two crates contain single break shells. The third crate contains double break shells. The fourth crate contains triple break shells. The 36 shot fan rack contains 12 x 60 gram Electric Rain shells in the center tubes and 24 x 4 break shells on the outer tubes.

Obviously, the idea is to start off slowly and build up the speed and breaks to a final 36 shot burst which should fill the sky. That's the idea anyway.

Here's a look at the 36 shot rack wired and ready to go.

1082

Preceding the finale is a board filled with 5 Glitter and Doom 500G cakes and 2 Ladolce Vita 500G mortars. Lots of crackle and boom leading up to the slow starting finale, that ends with a 36 shot 108 break burst! Again... That's the plan anyway.