My 2021 4th show....Everyone loved it. I would love a redo!

[Birdman]

Several lessons learned this year!

Setup took about 8 hrs and was much more work than previous years. Not only was I using double the cues but I didn't put the prep work in I did other years. I usually have everything either poked and/or wired and the wires labeled with the mod and cue number. Setup went so easy other years that I thought I could skimp on the prep and do it all on the 4th. I thought that using mostly AP would be easier but since there is a lot more bracing involved it was more time consuming. I was also shocked that some AP did not have e-ports.

Before anyone points out how close the water cake fountains are to the audience, our boat which only had a couple of people on it, was the closest boat. All other spectators were at least another 200 feet further back. My father and I did testing and we knew the maximum distance that cake could shoot. We were back with the other boats which was almost twice the maximum distance that cake could fire. I was getting an error testing my signal and had him move up a bit. I think I just needed to give my mods more time to sync. because when I finally got a reading it was strong. My father allowed the boat to drift closer as the show started and I was yelling at him to back it up but he insisted we were fine (he was right). I edited out that drama and that's why the video starts where it does. The video makes it look like we are close but we were a good distance away when they landed. We're slowly drifting towards them the whole time. I don't think I'll be using water cakes in that fashion again. If I do I will make sure we are anchored!

After that drama the first 3rd or so of the show was going fine until I put my phone down and lost my connection to the speaker. This caused my audio to pause and it was struggle to get the audio and script in sync again. I would get it close to sync'ed. Then I would forget and put my phone down and it would do it again. I edited my video so the main audio track matches. You can hear some of the live audio in the video where it didn't match up. I'm still bummed about it but everyone else says it was still the best show I've done.

I also must have not wired some cues correctly because a couple of things did not fire or fired at the wrong time. I had all green cues on the remote before I started the show? During the second track (I wanna rock) the parts between the chorus were suppose to be 130 shot glittering comets with fan slices. In the first sequence the comet cake fired but one or two fan slices didn't. During the second sequence the comet cake didn't fire but the fan slices fired. I haven't done a full analysis yet but I think some of my mines misfired (blew out their base as discussed in another thread). The zipper cake at the beginning of the last track fired in 2 seconds and was suppose to be at least a 25 second cake.

I did train a couple people this year so they can be of help next year. I taught my son how to fuse the finale racks and another guy how to brace and connect the wires to the mod cues. If I have everything labeled next year I should be able to trust them to help me setup.

Lessons Learned:

I need to get an Audio Box or upgrade my remote to SMPTE!

Prep as much as possible before the 4th!

My shoot site is really only big enough for one or two positions.

I need to get racks for single shot AP and slices (took way too much time bracing them).

I need a GoPro Camera!

A lot of the video is out of focus and the audio is wonky because of the multiple out of sync audio tracks.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/572329508

[Salutecake]

I'm North of you Birdman, battled some things, but the rain was relentless. So this year I built 2 slice holders, I would show a pic of mine but already put away, and not sure if they advertise here so won't mention the company I took the design from. Started training 2 people last year, only on consumer stuff, this year what a big help, I had all my cans poked and the helpers poked the cakes and mounted to the boards. So at the smaller end of the pond, 4 land locations consumer cakes - another 4 smaller land locations 2 on one side of pond 2 on the other side each with there own water cake, 300 Saturn missals and 2 500 gram cakes at each location, 4 docks, each dock had 2 racks of 10 3" shells, 2 racks of 8 4" shells, 1 40 rack of consumer shells. and 1 each display cake. 504 cues filled, had some cakes (4) hooked up parallel only half went off. So 4 cakes and only 2 consumer shells did not go off, everything else did. The rain was killing us trying to keep things dry but the window opened up around 9 till about 10 after 10. Our usual camera person didn't show up this year but people got a lot of pics.
Yep start early, train some help. But however it run, enjoy!

[esgrillo]

Looks good... your lessons learned are on point, do as much as you can in advance, audiobox, gopro

[mguerra]

Oh man that Orinoco Flow was cool as hell! Never would I have thought to use that with pyro, but it was splendid. Forget the GoPro, get a Canon HF R800 and put it in Fireworks mode, with a good Rode external mic. No more of that out of focus "focus hunting". Now as far as putting that Jimi edit in there that was bold and a few folks would not like that but I did! When I first heard that from Woodstock I did not like the raucous noisy parts that weren't part of the melody. But later I came to understand that Jimi was making the sounds of warfare, bombs dropping and exploding, there's an ambulance tone in there as well. I hear it differently now and I feel Jimi feeling it. Was it an angry anti-war feeling or more of a sad lament? We will never know, but I sense it was more sadness than anger. For an excellent analysis of this go to the youtube channel "Wings of Pegasus" https://youtu.be/lYuHgdWJ1kM I really can't tell you how much I appreciate you putting Jimi in there. It's been 51 years since he died and I still miss him. I saw him in July and he passed in September, what a loss.

[esgrillo]

mguerra, have you used a GoPro for filming? I have used a similar Cannon camcorder in the past, it works good but the field of view was much smaller than GoPros I use now. IMHO after using both, I believe the GoPro performs better overall. The picture quality is excellent. I have a couple of Hero 5s and a new Hero 9.... they all take great quality video.

[Birdman]

I appreciate the positive feedback!

An offer was made to have drone footage next year. Not going to bank on it. My son who use to DJ wants to incorporate lights but I told him I need pyro help first.

Orinoco Flow was for my parents who are Enya fans. I knew I was taking a chance with the Jimi Hendrix because not everyone sees it as a patriotic song...but it's my show :) Most of my audience was not in the Woodstock generation. My parents are a bit before that and everyone else is much younger. I had several boats pull up and ask when show time was and how they were hoping for another show this year. But most watch from afar and didn't even know it was set to music.

Salutecake, I shoot my show way north of where I live. Weather was fine there thankfully.

[Salutecake]

From some of the pics almost looks like Paupack.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Nice show. Great effects. I use a Go Pro Hero 5 Session to record my shows and I think it works great. I would recommend buying a cheap tripod. Cameras work much better; especially at night; when the point of focus remains the same. Especially with fireworks.

[mguerra]

My GoPro is older, maybe the newer ones are better. I do not like the fish eye distortion some of them seem to produce. The Canon produces sharp clear video, no focus hunting, and you do have to get far enough back with your tripod. I shoot test shells of the highest effects in the show and get far enough back to include the full break in the video. This testing can be done anywhere anytime not just at the day and time of the shoot. Once you get your distance measured, write it down and save it. It is almost always much farther than you think. That's why 99% of the videos you see don't show the high effects at all, or chop off the tops.

[mguerra]

. I knew I was taking a chance with the Jimi Hendrix because not everyone sees it as a patriotic song...but it's my show :) .
On the Dick Cavett show interview Jimi showed his extreme humility and shyness, and made it clear he was a patriot. It's on Youtube.

[Birdman]

On the Dick Cavett show interview Jimi showed his extreme humility and shyness, and made it clear he was a patriot. It's on Youtube.

I've seen that video and many other Dick Cavett interviews of artists from back then.

[EdwardH]

Birdman. Wow. Please remember that we are our worst critics. The show was wonderful. Yes, as others have said, the Oronoco Flow was beautiful. You are a true pyrotechnic artist! The comets with tales were breathtaking. I used slice holders purchased on line, but the design is easily copied for even a novice woodworker. Just to be extra sure, I wrapped duct tape around securing the slices together, like a cake, then tightened the slice holder which functions like a vice.

[CozmicRooster]

Awesome show Birdman!! One of the lessons I?m learning is less is more. I had 3 fused racks that didn?t fire, and to be honest, I think the show ended up better without them. Still more analysis and tweaks for next time. I?m looking forward to being able to use more professional AP in my shows in the future. I really enjoyed your use of available effects and the pacing of the show. Nice work.

[Birdman]

Thanks again for the positive feedback. I am happy with the show itself. First of all everything fired safely and the vast majority fired as expected and I can hang my hat on Oronoco Flow which mostly came out unscathed from the audio issues.

Here is a setup picture. My site is very rocky which is both good and bad. Good because I can use the rocks to brace most things. Bad because it doesn't give me much level space. I try to get everything to shoot out over the water the best I can, especially the fans and the smaller cakes.

If you notice the steps in the background, that is only about 1/8 of the steps I need to go up and down to get everything in/out of the site. I do get some help lugging stuff around. I don't have much storage to dedicate to pyro on the site which is why I try to limit the number of racks etc. And have I mentioned I shoot in an illegal state? The area I shoot at is extremely pyro friendly though.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5879&stc=1

[Mattp]

Very nice job.. I would love a chance to shoot over a lake like that.. seems every year.. I have lessons learned and ways to correct them.. and then every year.. new lessons to be learned !! .. HAHAHA!!! I had a similar timing issue this year due to me pausing for smoke to clear .. loved the twisted sister timing .. what were those on the “rock” beat??? White Glitter mines?? ..
ps.. love the flag in the middle of the shoot site!!

[Engineer Cat]

Great show Birdman! Looked good to me.

[jtfannin]

Shooting over the water adds so much to this show. Well done.

[Birdman]

Very nice job.. I would love a chance to shoot over a lake like that.. seems every year.. I have lessons learned and ways to correct them.. and then every year.. new lessons to be learned !! .. HAHAHA!!! I had a similar timing issue this year due to me pausing for smoke to clear .. loved the twisted sister timing .. what were those on the “rock” beat??? White Glitter mines?? ..
ps.. love the flag in the middle of the shoot site!!

Thanks....they were Dominator 50mm White Strobe Mines

[WithReport]

That was very enjoyable. Even with the issues you spelled out, that turned out great and a lot of good fireworks. I can have some empathy with the setup. Our typical prep in advanced was non-existent this year and it was ~30 deg hotter than usual the week prior which didn't help.

As for cameras, I use gopros - on a tripod. I have some Hero6s and 8s, but have some old sessions, too. One thing I do is usually put a camera or two in the middle of the field or near the "guns". Not so much for the video, but I pull the audio off of it so you hear most of the fireworks, too.