aftigz02
07-14-2016, 11:40 PM
Hey everyone, first post for me but I've been ghosting this site for awhile learning techniques from your posts and I thought I finally had a show I was willing to show to everyone. Dave graciously allowed me to post my show this year and I'm excited to both learn from you guys/gals and for me to share my experiences with setting up my show. First off, I'm not a professional, but have been doing shows for my family every year for the past 14 years or so. Getting bigger and better every year, well at least I think so. ;) This year I finally graduated from backyard shows to where a local RV campground allowed me to shoot at their private property. This is a private show with all consumer cakes/shells and I didn't receive or make any money off of it. The show is embedded below if you want to skip to the video but here are a few details first.
Setup:
Site was across a lake which was about 350 feet from the main audience viewing point.
Restrictions: There was a interstate behind the shooting site and some dry grass next to the farthest shooting position which you can see in the still pictures at the beginning of the show. (The show actually caused a very small grass fire at the end of the show that we promptly put out with our buckets of water, but goes to show why you should always be prepared.)
8 Cobra modules were used
~700 feet of shooting wire
~420 talons were used in the show
~200- 200g cakes
~90- 500g cakes
~230 shells
Layout:
I had the first module at lake edge with two very close firing positions (~10 feet apart)
Then I had three firing positions for the middle of the show at about 45 feet apart from each other.
For the last part of the show I had 5 firing positions about 50 feet apart from each other. (200 ft between most left and most right positions)
Firing:
The show was fired in the manual fire mode instead of scripted with the 18R2 from cobra as I like to have more control over my show which comes in handy as you can see with my issues below.
Issues
Due to an issue with the talon ignitors my entire first module didn't light at all and I missed the entire first song. (video was edited to cut that part out) I eventually figured out a work around and spent the rest of the show trying to re-time the show based on the missed parts. (I actually got the first module to fire later in the show, so it wasn't a complete loss.) Even though most of the show is on cue there are still some areas I would like to improve on next year.
Due to the same issue above I had about 40 cakes not fire throughout the show. (Which made for a cool after show the next day. ;) But, it's a price of doing a show with non professional ignitors.
Takeaways
I should have spaced the firing positions even more then I did as the breaks bleed over more then I would like during the show. So maybe next year I will go with 70 feet between positions.
Have a better backup plan if a module doesn't fire. I'm sure you have all been there, but there is nothing quite like the feeling when you have black sky during your show. I'm just lucky I was able to figure out the problem and it wasn't in the middle of my show.
Add more comets/mines to the show as they were big hits with the crowd.
Add more shells to the show as the audience always like the bigger breaks they provide.
Parting shots
I can post my cue listings if you guys are interested with fireworks used and further expand on things if you guys want. But I wanted to keep the first post sort of simple. Just send your questions my way and I'll do my best to reply in a timely manner.
Please let me know any constructive feedback you guys/gals have as I would like to continue to improve my show each year. Also I'm looking for any improved methods of timing consumer cakes effectively.
Video:
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNbVTAqsNps
.
Thanks to everyone who views! Hope you all enjoy and I appreciate your time looking over my post/video.
Respectfully,
Tim
Setup:
Site was across a lake which was about 350 feet from the main audience viewing point.
Restrictions: There was a interstate behind the shooting site and some dry grass next to the farthest shooting position which you can see in the still pictures at the beginning of the show. (The show actually caused a very small grass fire at the end of the show that we promptly put out with our buckets of water, but goes to show why you should always be prepared.)
8 Cobra modules were used
~700 feet of shooting wire
~420 talons were used in the show
~200- 200g cakes
~90- 500g cakes
~230 shells
Layout:
I had the first module at lake edge with two very close firing positions (~10 feet apart)
Then I had three firing positions for the middle of the show at about 45 feet apart from each other.
For the last part of the show I had 5 firing positions about 50 feet apart from each other. (200 ft between most left and most right positions)
Firing:
The show was fired in the manual fire mode instead of scripted with the 18R2 from cobra as I like to have more control over my show which comes in handy as you can see with my issues below.
Issues
Due to an issue with the talon ignitors my entire first module didn't light at all and I missed the entire first song. (video was edited to cut that part out) I eventually figured out a work around and spent the rest of the show trying to re-time the show based on the missed parts. (I actually got the first module to fire later in the show, so it wasn't a complete loss.) Even though most of the show is on cue there are still some areas I would like to improve on next year.
Due to the same issue above I had about 40 cakes not fire throughout the show. (Which made for a cool after show the next day. ;) But, it's a price of doing a show with non professional ignitors.
Takeaways
I should have spaced the firing positions even more then I did as the breaks bleed over more then I would like during the show. So maybe next year I will go with 70 feet between positions.
Have a better backup plan if a module doesn't fire. I'm sure you have all been there, but there is nothing quite like the feeling when you have black sky during your show. I'm just lucky I was able to figure out the problem and it wasn't in the middle of my show.
Add more comets/mines to the show as they were big hits with the crowd.
Add more shells to the show as the audience always like the bigger breaks they provide.
Parting shots
I can post my cue listings if you guys are interested with fireworks used and further expand on things if you guys want. But I wanted to keep the first post sort of simple. Just send your questions my way and I'll do my best to reply in a timely manner.
Please let me know any constructive feedback you guys/gals have as I would like to continue to improve my show each year. Also I'm looking for any improved methods of timing consumer cakes effectively.
Video:
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNbVTAqsNps
.
Thanks to everyone who views! Hope you all enjoy and I appreciate your time looking over my post/video.
Respectfully,
Tim