Breaking the Rules - That’s Me

[PyroFL]

Never been a person to go with the crowed, follow the trend or do what others do.

So this year am going to experiment a few times with the dreaded “No Black Sky” in my show.

If done correctly I believe it can add to your show as long as it’s a pyro-musical only. If you have a pause in a song why would there be fireworks going off? Use this to your advantage to add more depth to your show.

Maybe it will work or maybe it will not, but if it does it should add more ... with less ... to the show.

I’ve yet to see any video of anyone doing this. Has anyone seen a video or done this them selfs? How did it turn out?

Or am the only rule breaker out here ... LOL

[jamisonlm3]

Years ago, I was at a small show that had long pauses. People thought that was the end of the show each time. If I recall right, they actually laughed when the fireworks started again, but that may just be my poor memory. I don't see a problem with pauses in a show, but I do think many people will start to loose interest or get disgruntled with too many or pauses that are too long.

[Jay_]

I think that dark sky will work, but it just has to flow/has to be a main component in the script. It has to mean something to the song, has to compliment the song…that’s my take on it.

I have scripted in some dark sky moments in the past, but they were always pretty brief and typically used it to set up a big event in the script. My other dark sky moments were just by mistake and didn’t make any sense/not planned/detracted from the quality of the show.

[Icooclast]

Years ago, I was at a small show that had long pauses. People thought that was the end of the show each time. If I recall right, they actually laughed when the fireworks started again, but that may just be my poor memory. I don't see a problem with pauses in a show, but I do think many people will start to loose interest or get disgruntled with too many or pauses that are too long.

this is what i was going to say.

i get that way too if there are too many pauses. sitting on a hard bench for 15 min. or so, really hurts

1 year was horrible, don't know how it happened, but we got like a 5 min. show and something went wrong and nothing for like 5 min or so lots of disgruntled and booing people. turns out as everyone was loading up in the cars we see 1 or 2 shots fire off, everyone stops... few min. later another couple shots. i was like 2 blocks away when i heard and saw the finale. and i was on the benches right next to them before all the crazy stuff happened. so, that year sucked. anyone else have events like this at their local shows?

[Birdman]

My original script for this year had a lot of black sky but I couldn't get the very specific AOP I needed to pull it off. I tend to purposely add some black sky moments in my shows. I find some song intros or other parts of songs don't need pyro to still be engaging. I also feel it gives the audience a chance to focus on the music that can get lost in nonstop pyro. It seems a lot of people have a hard time focusing on both the music and pyro. The pause also gives any lingering smoke a chance to clear. Not to mention it's a good way to help stretch a budget.

If done right it's not even noticeable. In fact I've had more than one person suggest I "slow down" my shows because there was too much going on for them to take it all in. The hard part is timing the dark sky so the audience doesn't start to "check out" or think the show is over. Another concern is if a cake(s) firing before you have some planned dark sky has a shorter duration than expected or something doesn't fire. Then a little dark sky can turn into a lot of dark sky. Honestly, I think avoiding dark sky is something we put too much emphasis on. I never had anyone mention to me about having dark sky in my shows, even when it wasn't planned and/or went on longer than expected. It's certainly less noticeable when you have music. I always try to remind myself that we are our own worse critics.

[PyroWalker]

My original script for this year had a lot of black sky but I couldn't get the very specific AOP I needed to pull it off. I tend to purposely add some black sky moments in my shows. I find some song intros or other parts of songs don't need pyro to still be engaging. I also feel it gives the audience a chance to focus on the music that can get lost in nonstop pyro. It seems a lot of people have a hard time focusing on both the music and pyro. The pause also gives any lingering smoke a chance to clear. Not to mention it's a good way to help stretch a budget.



I am with you 100% about it allowing people to focus on the music and take in the full pyro-musical impact. I also script some black sky if it fits with the flow of the show and music. Also, I think there needs to be more thought to letting the smoke clear! Recent big events (cough, cough....Pyrojam...cough) have too much smoke and the effects get lost in the smoke. I really wish more designers (judges) would give consideration to this smoke factor. Just because you CAN use set pieces or lots of fountains, doesn't mean you should if it obscures the sky with so much smoke you can't enjoy the rest of the show.... Black sky and a good soundtrack at the right places can fix some of these issues.

[jdels]

I did about a 8 second pause last year right before launching 2 water cakes. Heard lots of "Whats going on! Was that supposed to happen? That can't be right!" Lots of comments after show about that moment.

[PyroFL]

Great input everyone

The black sky will not be more than a second a few times during one song with is a test for 2023 Fourth of July. The big stop will be almost 1 second long.

At 1:32 www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0 to give you a better idea.

Mostly looking to test for my opener next year, where if I can get it to work this year I believe it will be amazing for next year show

2023 Opener

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxf7dLRUcY0&list=RDpxf7dLRUcY0&start_radio=1

[Engineer Cat]

The second song I'm using in my show has a breakdown area that calms down and then ramps back up. So I slowed down how much is in the sky during that time to create some black sky. I think it helps to creates some anticipation with this particular section of music.

If you go to 4 mins in my concept video below you can get a feel of hyped up music breaking down to slower music and black sky sections and the back to loud fast music.

As long as I script it properly it should work well.


https://vimeo.com/715464603

[ssmith512]

I had purposeful black sky in my show last year. Near the end of the show I had a medium intensity barrage that lasted 10-15 seconds or so - kinda like a "mini 'pseudo' finale", then nothing, no music no fireworks for a solid 10 seconds. Crowd "assumed" that was the end of the show, and just about the time they started clapping and hollering the real finale started that was super intense for 30 seconds. It worked well in my opinion.

Anything less than 5 seconds I dont really consider to be a "pause" or "black sky" during a show.

[Salutecake]

So a lot of good points, and a short pause gives the audience a way to embrace what just happened and also to give a little applause. I've mentioned this before, as a kid, it seemed that at the local fireworks show you could almost fall asleep between shells, now in most shows you can't catch a break. Another consideration is the length of the black sky, So 5 seconds may not seem like a lot of time but if you just gave the audience an intense barrage of fireworks they are pretty pumped up and the 5 seconds before the next shot might seem like an eternity. So not black sky, but usually in a show I use about 1.5 second for a 3" inch (1.3) shell between shells - by the time one launches and explodes the the next is launching and exploding. Now I do try to put a fancy section in, about 10 shells that either have like a smiley face or heart shape and then some big long burst or willows, falling rain stuff that I give about 2 to 2.5 seconds in between shots, thats gives the shell a little longer to fully unfold and to let the audience take it all in. So Black sky, sky puke and any other technique all work when put into perspective.

[cduesman]

If it's more than 5 seconds, you might consider doing some ground effects like a gerb, flame pot or strobe pot. They can go well with a quiet section in the music and keep the audience engaged.

Chris

[esgrillo]

I usually just use strobes for my slow transitions but its only good if you're doing something at least in the 5-10 range. They make no real noise so that helps too. If you can time black sky for that 1 second pause... you are a master.

Id probably do the opposite and have a couple of fan slices hit at that second.

[Scotty Rockets]

I think it can be done and actually be dramatic. Imagine a epic type cover song that has a lot of peaks and valleys and has a 1-2 second pause moment within the song, you can do
a comet/mine sweep pattern that leads right to the pause, dark sky, then the song picks up you continue with something that’s eye catching again.

[MontanaMike]

We always put a "false finale" in our show about 2/3 through, with a new song that has a soft beginning... this year that spot is occupied with Queen's "Don't STop Me Now." There's a big barrage that should end right before Freddie Mercury sings "Tonight, we're gonna have ourselves a real good time...." and during that time, some low level fountains are going off. Then when the song gets to the "havin' a good time, havin' a good time" section, the real show starts up again and builds towards the real finale.

Anytime a song ends, that's a good spot for a quick bit of black sky. If the next song coming up has a great "downbeat" then try to get the next bursts on that moment.

As I've noted before, I always edit songs down to short bits and mix them together so we have spots for a lot of these quick breaks in our show.