Hell Setup Day and Show was Last Night

[PyroWalker]

Yesterday was setup and show day. There was rain in the forecast, and I didn't have a lot of help, and no experienced help. This was my biggest show. A 500+ cue 800 DMX Flame cues, 14-minute, Finale 3D scripted, PyroMusical. I started at 6am and 2 helpers started at 9, and the final 2 at 3pm. It started pouring down rain and storming pretty good at 11:30am. Luckily, I got everything covered up. We had a break in the rain at about 1pm but we knew it was going to be short lived. So, we did what we could. It didn't just rain, it was a down pour. We hadn't had rain in 2 weeks. The rain finally stopped at 3pm and we finished. At 4:40pm the power went out. We didn't get power back on until 8pm. Audience was going to arrive at 9, show was at 10. We ended up running the PA system off my dad's truck generator. I had already planned to run the flames off a small portable gas generator. Even though we had power at showtime, I really liked running the speakers off the generator, and I may buy another one just for that purpose. (Its really quiet). It makes dealing with long cords less necessary.
I had a drone set to film, but it was having technical difficulties, and the crowd was getting antsy, so I was told it didn't get the whole show and wasn't flown high enough. I haven't seen the video yet, but.... BUMMER!
The final awfulness was that my stationary camera likely had the ISO set too low, and I am afraid the whole show is too dark!! I haven't had a chance to look at the video yet, but I am already sad that I won't have good footage of this show. I don't know if anyone in the audience captured it.


In the end, 3 fountains, 1 comet, 1 fan cake, 1 slice and 1 shell didn't fire. One AOP compound cake got through half and didn't pass fire to the last 2 pieces. I only had a small amount of black sky due to the compound cake. The rest was probably only noticeable to me and not my audience.

However, the show was spectacular. I was kind of shocked at how well it went given the difficulties. The timing was spot on for everything.

Lessons learned from this show:
1. I can go longer, but not bigger in my current space.
2. I absolutely need a bigger team or longer dry time to set up. Even though I had everything pre-fused, getting it placed, wired into the Cobra's, and the cords ran and everything tested was much longer than I thought. By comparison, my show last year was 90 cues.... So,.... over 5 times bigger.
3. I need to find waterproof address labels. Since some of them did get wet, it made it harder to get things plugged in correctly. This was time consuming.
4. Painter's plastic drop cloths are amazing for covering the fireworks for short term. We had rolls and rolls of them and we used fresh ones every time we re-covered between rain.
5. I need to script my positions different so I can have the modules addressed in a more convenient way. I had cakes and slices in the same positions, and they were addressed interchangeably. So, that was another pain and time-consuming mess in the field. Next time, they get their own modules and won't share.

I definitely need awhile before I am ready to do another show on this scale, even though I have a full show already scripted and the product in my possession!
If any of the video footage turned out, I will post.

Signed, ONE VERY TIRED and SORE, but satisfied Pyro.

[Okimarine]

Glad everything worked out overall for you, Cant wait to see some video.

[PyroWalker]

Here are some clips my friends took with their cell phones.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Pqkhstzz3XI?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/AP2pwNrij9g?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/0dIl4TbzT4o
https://youtube.com/shorts/m3jyzlFf68o?feature=share

[Arles]

Sounds brutal, glad you were able to still pull it off.

[Jay_]

The vids that you posted all looked really good. Glad you survived

I can really relate to your setup nightmare as I remember my first attempt at a pyromusical. It was a disaster setup, but my mind was blown when the show started.

I can promise you, we have all underestimated the amount of work that we had left to do on site. We all have gotten rained on or had the weather force our hand into doing something that we didn't want to do. We all have had things not fire as planned (still do today).

I like that you listed your things learned in the show. The best advise that I can give is to put everything on slats and have as much pre-wired as you possibly can. Attaching slat cables on the 4th, not wiring igniters in will save you a bunch of stress and ease your setup considerably.

Also, do everything that you can to prioritize and be organized in terms of setup. This starts in your script, but make yourself a list of things to do and take care of them one at a time. Not just on the 4th, but in the days leading up to the 4th so your work is directed at the most important tasks that are left to do.

Would love to see vid of the whole show.

[PyroWalker]

The vids that you posted all looked really good. Glad you survived

I can really relate to your setup nightmare as I remember my first attempt at a pyromusical. It was a disaster setup, but my mind was blown when the show started.

I can promise you, we have all underestimated the amount of work that we had left to do on site. We all have gotten rained on or had the weather force our hand into doing something that we didn't want to do. We all have had things not fire as planned (still do today).

I like that you listed your things learned in the show. The best advise that I can give is to put everything on slats and have as much pre-wired as you possibly can. Attaching slat cables on the 4th, not wiring igniters in will save you a bunch of stress and ease your setup considerably.

Also, do everything that you can to prioritize and be organized in terms of setup. This starts in your script, but make yourself a list of things to do and take care of them one at a time. Not just on the 4th, but in the days leading up to the 4th so your work is directed at the most important tasks that are left to do.

Would love to see vid of the whole show.

I thought I had everything done before the show as much as possible, but scripting different would have helped setup. I plan to move the setup into my barn next year so I have more room to be organized a head of time. It took longer also because my help was completely new to what I was doing, so I had to teach 4 people and double check everything they were doing until I felt confident they knew what they were doing. The rain really is what caused the stress and delayed things. But in the end, it was a beautiful show in person. Mostly, I am disappointed I don't have good video of the hard work and effort. Plus, I enjoy the show watching it over and over and learning from it. When I am in the middle of shooting it, I am watching for issues, noticing what fired and didn't, etc.... I enjoy it, but not the same.

I have the whole video up on YouTube now. It's terrible footage, but anyone who does fireworks might appreciate the scripting and timing that were near perfect, even if the video is dark and smoky. It was filmed with a fish-eye lense, so it looks further away and smaller than it was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkgMOYwcwOc

[Birdman]

I've been trying to find this post since yesterday! I originally found it under new posts but didn't realize it was posted in the AOP forum when I came back to leave a comment. I really wish I could have seen more of this show. What video you do have looks great. I was going to use the Pure Imagination song from the movie in this year's show but couldn't get the product I planned to use, falling leaves cakes being one of them. I scratch that whole show and scripted the show I shot this year instead. I may or may not use it next year. Leaning on not now that I feel it's lost it's originality.

[PyroWalker]

I've been trying to find this post since yesterday! I originally found it under new posts but didn't realize it was posted in the AOP forum when I came back to leave a comment. I really wish I could have seen more of this show. What video you do have looks great. I was going to use the Pure Imagination song from the movie in this year's show but couldn't get the product I planned to use, falling leaves cakes being one of them. I scratch that whole show and scripted the show I shot this year instead. I may or may not use it next year. Leaning on not now that I feel it's lost it's originality.

I have so many songs I want to use and then others use them. I don't want to let that deter me because I feel each script is unique to the designer. Also, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.... So I try not to worry about using music others have used a lot. I also keep in mind that my audience doesn't watch and obsess over firework videos like I do, so they likely have NO idea what has been used over and over....
Glad you thought my video was decent...It is still my biggest disappointment of the year. The show was SO good in person... Just can't possibly do it justice with a dark smoked out video. I added it up and I had over 1500 gold willows going off in the last 30 seconds, and you can't see a single one in the video....

[PyroWalker]

Here is the link to the whole disappointing video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkgMOYwcwOc

[Birdman]

A real shame about the smoke and camera setting. Still an enjoyable show to watch. Most of us are able to fill in the blanks. At least it was better in person. I really liked your soundtrack so your video has that going for it too.

I'll probably use my pure imagination script next year if I can get the product I need. The original song from the movie soundtrack is pretty different. It was going to be a surprise for my wife (we're big Wonka fans), but I let the cat out of the bag after we watched you're clip. Besides being a surprise for my wife I was looking for something to stretch out the show that wouldn't burn a bunch of cues and product.

[Engineer Cat]

Show looked good to me. I can certainly relate to filming issues so you can only learn from that. I thought I learned last year and then someone swore they would make sure they got good video and that person didn't even hit the damn button to record. So next year I will be doing that myself as well.

[PyroWalker]

Show looked good to me. I can certainly relate to filming issues so you can only learn from that. I thought I learned last year and then someone swore they would make sure they got good video and that person didn't even hit the damn button to record. So next year I will be doing that myself as well.

Yes, I have had the low ISO settings happen on a different show, so I should have known better. The rain didn't help as it made me flustered and rushed right before show time. I need to remember to BREATHE and I am adding ISO settings to my check list. I remembered a new battery, but not the settings..... Can't help the weather and smoke.

[PyroWalker]

A real shame about the smoke and camera setting. Still an enjoyable show to watch. Most of us are able to fill in the blanks. At least it was better in person. I really liked your soundtrack so your video has that going for it too.

I'll probably use my pure imagination script next year if I can get the product I need. The original song from the movie soundtrack is pretty different. It was going to be a surprise for my wife (we're big Wonka fans), but I let the cat out of the bag after we watched you're clip. Besides being a surprise for my wife I was looking for something to stretch out the show that wouldn't burn a bunch of cues and product.
Thanks for the compliments. I really spent a ton of time and effort on this show. For most of the Imagination part, I had taken apart consumer cakes to make the slices. I used Raccoon's Ghost Rainbow and Ghost Spirit. I had a Ghost Shell NOAB (American Anthem) that didn't even fire, or that would have been even cooler. I also used slices from Pro-Fireworks Neon Spectrum and Neon Party. I think for the whole show I took apart 51 cakes for slices and 25 cakes for single shots or other effects. It was certainly an effort of love.

[Birdman]

Thanks for the compliments. I really spent a ton of time and effort on this show. For most of the Imagination part, I had taken apart consumer cakes to make the slices. I used Raccoon's Ghost Rainbow and Ghost Spirit. I had a Ghost Shell NOAB (American Anthem) that didn't even fire, or that would have been even cooler. I also used slices from Pro-Fireworks Neon Spectrum and Neon Party. I think for the whole show I took apart 51 cakes for slices and 25 cakes for single shots or other effects. It was certainly an effort of love.

That sounds like too much work for me. I love pyro but I have a lot of other loves to share my time with. But you typically get out of it what you put into it and your show is a perfect example of this.

[Engineer Cat]

That sounds like too much work for me. I love pyro but I have a lot of other loves to share my time with. But you typically get out of it what you put into it and your show is a perfect example of this.

Yea that is a lot of work. A few rewires and cake dissection's is my limit. I'm hoping we can get our hands on AOP slices next year so we don't have to rewire anything. LOL

[PyroWalker]

Yea that is a lot of work. A few rewires and cake dissection's is my limit. I'm hoping we can get our hands on AOP slices next year so we don't have to rewire anything. LOL

It seems like every time they are in stock I am out of money, and when I have money they are out of stock! I made so many slices this year that I think I will be set for next year. Really hoping I have learned enough to make setup a lot easier next year. I have made some changes to the script, so hopefully that helps also.

[Mattp]

Wow,, what video you do have looks amazing,, a lot of special products and effects in their,, no wonder setup was a pain,, plus all the other issues you had ,, I also do the same thing about the music,, in my mind I’m like I’ve seen so many people use this song,, but then remember ,, my audience doesn’t sit and watch every fireworks video there is..LOL ,,, like last year I used the dreaded Katy Perry’s firework,, because of requests from multiple people for it,,, I reluctantly used it,, but they’ve never seen a show with it synced to fireworks,,, it actually turned out really nice and worked great!!

[PyroWalker]

Wow,, what video you do have looks amazing,, a lot of special products and effects in their,, no wonder setup was a pain,, plus all the other issues you had ,, I also do the same thing about the music,, in my mind I’m like I’ve seen so many people use this song,, but then remember ,, my audience doesn’t sit and watch every fireworks video there is..LOL ,,, like last year I used the dreaded Katy Perry’s firework,, because of requests from multiple people for it,,, I reluctantly used it,, but they’ve never seen a show with it synced to fireworks,,, it actually turned out really nice and worked great!!

Thanks! I was really bummed about my video, but everyone seems to think it is okay! So, that is making me feel a bit better.