First e-fired show and first pyromusical

[CozmicRooster]

Last year I stepped up my game and fused 2 boards of cakes and milk crate racks for a pretty good 5 minute show.

This year I built 4 30shot fan racks and invested in 2 Firetek FTQ16x64 modules. Still had a few milk crates in there but I?m working on that for next year. Having the fan racks made such a difference in the overall look of the show.

Some of the timing wasn?t as good as I would have liked but overall I?m very pleased with the result of my first real production on this level. 3 of my 25 shot racks didn?t fire. One because I had to improvise with a straw to mate the FireWire match to the visco on the rack and pushed the match past the end of the visco so it didn?t light. The other two didn?t fire I think because the way I wired them up. I had 3 racks that were supposed to be wired in series but I ended up wiring the two racks in parallel then wiring those in series with the primary lead. The result was the first rack fired and the second two did not. The interesting thing about all that though is that the show may have been better off for it. I didn?t even really notice them missing during the show except thinking the finale wasn?t quite as intense as I thought it would be.

Please don?t hold back any constructive critique. I?ve learned a lot already for next time but always appreciate a more experienced perspective.


https://youtu.be/wqiKm2abpnU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqiKm2abpnU

[mikepete777]

Nice job, looks like firetek is a good system to look at.

[Birdman]

Nice show! If your video and soundtrack match up I can overlay the audio for you. Just takes a few minutes. PM me if you're interested.

[CozmicRooster]

Nice show! If your video and soundtrack match up I can overlay the audio for you. Just takes a few minutes. PM me if you're interested.


Cool. Thanks. I’ll PM you. I wasn’t able to get the sound system close enough to to the audience because of equipment limitations. That too will be take care of next year. It was just loud enough though for it to work.

[WithReport]

CozmicRooster you did a great job. Did you have any rails in parallel?

Although the steadiness of the camera was much better than most, if you want to record, share, and review your shows, I'd recommend spending a bit on even an inexpensive tripod. But that has nothing to do with the show. As for the music, make sure the audience can hear it and then learn to dub it back over the video. I usually have a camera near the speakers, still, but I want to hear the fireworks, too. I saw one video posted recently. They just replaced the audio with the music and lost all the noise of the fireworks - not my preference.

You had a good mix of items. You could tell the calmer horsetails and crossettes coming in with sounds of silence went well, followed with some loud cannisters (I think). One though would be to try to repeat that again in the show. You typically can find a layering of effects that works well and repeat it 2 or 3 times within a song. Maybe with a few changes. Sometimes that is very difficult with consumer cakes. don't be afraid to match cakes or pull fuses to customize the timing and or effects. I have 4 rows of cakes that were never fired - I ran tape over them to ID them and will just save them for some other time. I have a couple boxes of odds and ends for other projects. I try to label them all so I know what they are. Or for example say a fairly consistent paced 25 shot 20 second cake is a bit too long. What if you only want 17 seconds. Will then maybe match the 4th tube. You can choose to fire heavy on the first shots as it will also back burn through tube 3, 2, and 1, or pull the fuse between 3 and 4.



Nice job, looks like firetek is a good system to look at.

I would highly encourage you to lookin into it. IMO, it has been great. Without a doubt is has the most features and is the most flexible of the systems out there. The new FTQ modules are out. With shipping issues, covid, chip shortages, etc, I think it has been a bit challenging meeting needs, but I have no regrets with it.

[CozmicRooster]

That was video taken by one of my friends on his phone. Unfortunately I don’t have any decent recording equipment, but I’m looking into going with GoPro for next year.

I was unable to get the speakers any closer to the audience this time due to equipment limitations. I wasn’t able to get the USB extension cable working properly so I had to leave my phone connected to the module locally at ground zero. So one speaker was about 50ft from ground zero and the next speaker was about 70ft from there. It was actually just loud enough that it worked ok. @Birdman helped me out and dubbed in the original audio track and the link to that is below. It’s much better.


https://youtu.be/XG5hexAEYrs

I poked and matched everything except the 25shot racks I fused, which were the only ones that failed. 3 of the 5 didn’t light and I’m about 99% sure it’s because I didn’t cut the connecting tube (straw) long enough. I even matched several cakes into sections or individual shots for specific effect.

Thanks for the feedback. Lots of lessons learned, but it wouldn’t be much fun if there wasn’t something to work on for next time. Overall I’m very happy with the result. Looking forward to next year.

[WithReport]

Glad @birdman helped you out with the overlay. You spend all that time working on a pyromusical - it's worth it.

I realized my prior comment was maybe a bit confusing. I was trying to provide some positive feedback. I realzied you had poked and matched, I meant "don't be afraid to custom match cakes..." You always hear follow the fuse to the first tube and poke next to the fuse. But maybe it works better for your application if you poke the last tube, the middle tube, the 3rd tube, both first and last tube at the same time, etc.

I gave the straw approach a go for the firs time this year - worked well. All my chains went and all my fountains - except one which was due to other reasons. I've had success with other approaches too, like simply splitting the visco andlaying the igniter between he split and wrapping with tape.

And you should be happy with the results. My fist scripted show was pretty simple (much simpler than yours), but I still enjoy watching it.

[CozmicRooster]

I gave the straw approach a go for the firs time this year - worked well. All my chains went and all my fountains - except one which was due to other reasons. I've had success with other approaches too, like simply splitting the visco andlaying the igniter between he split and wrapping with tape.

Yeah it was a last minute fix I hadn’t quite thought through at the time. I got everything else wired up and plugged in then realized I forgot to sort out how to light the visco. I had someone quickly grab a straw off the buffet table and I went to work. I like your idea about splitting and taping. I’m probably going to try several methods and see what I like.