1st Scripted Pyromusical

[PG2159]

Well, my first scripted show to music is in the books. Certainly a few hiccups along the way.

I was lucky enough to have someone record sections of the show. I had my camera set up, but it was inadvertently knocked over and didn't capture any footage. Plan better next year.

I had 2 pairs of canister shells not fire, and about 10-12 cakes. My best guess is related to how many wires in parallel I had. I think some of them that didnt fire were 3 or 4 MJG together in one cue, I had success with some of similar setup, and some that just didnt go. It resulted in some black space, but most of them were in mirrored configuration and the other side would go, you notice a few areas where one cake in R or L is going and nothing in its mirror.

I think I had one cake tip, I couldn't quite figure out exactly what happened.

I used 33 4 cue modules and an orange cube. I was very happy with the final product. Look forward to expanding on it next year. I took the PGI course in april, so hoping to add some 1.4pro line product to give it a little more umph

Other lessons learned include starting prep sooner. I was much to behind the day of. We have a big party at the house and I was down in the field much longer than I would have liked. I think 7 days sooner would have given me time to get the product in a better setup. Smaller cake boards are better than big ones. I'm not stranger to the gym and I was sore for almost 3 days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt0IJ7Ew27o


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt0IJ7Ew27o
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[Engineer Cat]

Good job Peter. Not bad for the first scripted show. I start prepping / poking everything at least at week in advance but don't match cans / shells till the night before. AND I still feel rushed on the shoot day. The Chinese system isn't super reliable. I had it for a year and it didn't fire items every time I used it so I got rid of it. I think 4 MJG in parallel is a little hard for that system to handle amp wise running off 4 AA batteries. Might of worked if ran in series but even the pro systems try to keep you at 3 even though they can handle more.

You are in a lot better shape than I am and BOYYYY was I hurting for 2 days. But on the 3th day, I was working a pro shoot with Steve and Kelli from Celfire and I had to suck it up and it was a really rough day, I expected to be dead till the weekend but I'm feeling pretty good today. Guess I got a pre workout on Sat. LOL

I have one critique. You can move around the field faster if you don't use the scooter. :p
6706

[chopperthedog]

Nice stuff. Set up a couple cakes on different cues and use different remote for the black sky panic on fly moments. I did that this year and had the little white 12 cue remote in my hand and was able to fill in a couple gaps during show that I saw from not turning 1 mod on.


good day.

[PG2159]

Nice stuff. Set up a couple cakes on different cues and use different remote for the black sky panic on fly moments. I did that this year and had the little white 12 cue remote in my hand and was able to fill in a couple gaps during show that I saw from not turning 1 mod on.


good day.

Awesome idea. Never considered that.

[PG2159]

Good job Peter. Not bad for the first scripted show. I start prepping / poking everything at least at week in advance but don't match cans / shells till the night before. AND I still feel rushed on the shoot day. The Chinese system isn't super reliable. I had it for a year and it didn't fire items every time I used it so I got rid of it. I think 4 MJG in parallel is a little hard for that system to handle amp wise running off 4 AA batteries. Might of worked if ran in series but even the pro systems try to keep you at 3 even though they can handle more.

You are in a lot better shape than I am and BOYYYY was I hurting for 2 days. But on the 3th day, I was working a pro shoot with Steve and Kelli from Celfire and I had to suck it up and it was a really rough day, I expected to be dead till the weekend but I'm feeling pretty good today. Guess I got a pre workout on Sat. LOL

I have one critique. You can move around the field faster if you don't use the scooter. :p
6706

can you tell I have girls?

[morrison2951]

Had a blast this 4th! Sucks to have to wait a year to do it again.
6717

[Engineer Cat]

Had a blast this 4th! Sucks to have to wait a year to do it again.

That's why I joined a pyro club. Can do it every month or so!

[PyroFL]

Very nice!

Only thing I would say is it always takes longer than you think to setup a show. If you can start training others to help, then go behind them and double check their work. Even just moving all the product to the field and setting it up in your order will help you save a lot of time.

My favorite part was watching the American flag blowing in the wind by the road as the show was going on.

Great job and I look forward to watching next years show.

[Birdman]

Really nice show! Setup is never easy for a one person crew no matter how much prep you put into it. Even with enough hands it's a lot just to direct traffic and checking work. I'm really impressed by what can be done with import systems these days. Like EC mentioned, I would stick to no more than 2 wires in parallel or 3 in series in these systems, if that.

[mikepete777]

Congratulations on your first pyromusical, looking good

[jtfannin]

Congratulations on year one. This was year five for me and I’m still learning some things the hard way. I have a decent family and friend crew and it’s still hard as hell and stressful. Hang in there it gets a little easier if you don’t add too much at a time.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I was going to ask what kind of elevation you got on the scooter, but I think enough's been said about the scooter. lol..

Besides the cars driving back and forth in front of your audience which was a bit unnerving for me, the effects looked really good! I think you chose them wisely. They really filled the sky nicely. Not sure if you plan on moving up and buying a Cobra or similar system, but I think if you do, you will really thank yourself later. It will make you show orders of magnitude better than what you're using now. They're not cheap, but nothing worthwhile is, right?

Again, great job on your first scripted show! It only gets more aggravating and more expensive from here! :cool:

[PG2159]

I was going to ask what kind of elevation you got on the scooter, but I think enough's been said about the scooter. lol..

Besides the cars driving back and forth in front of your audience which was a bit unnerving for me, the effects looked really good! I think you chose them wisely. They really filled the sky nicely. Not sure if you plan on moving up and buying a Cobra or similar system, but I think if you do, you will really thank yourself later. It will make you show orders of magnitude better than what you're using now. They're not cheap, but nothing worthwhile is, right?

Again, great job on your first scripted show! It only gets more aggravating and more expensive from here! :cool:

Rick, appreciate the call out. I've watched every single one of your videos and have drawn inspiration from them.

While the cars in the road might be unnerving, I don't really have much choice. I think ultimately as my show grows, I will seek options of closing the road down for the show (side note, anyone know how the permit process works in PA? what is defined as the AHJ?). My site setup is 160' from the closest product to the street edge, so I do have distance on my side (long walk to carry all those boards and rack though, ask me how I know). I think as I self critique myself, I wish I would have added some of the the less boom effects, like horsetails or of similar, for slower paced segments-accents. A good majority of the product purchased was based on best case for my dollar to maximize my haul as best as possible, albeit I did try to find a wide variety of effects. I remember a critique from a member last year, might have been you, that observed my show didn't have a blue color break until something like 9 minutes into the show, so I really focused on having a wide variety of color and effects and made sure they were well dispersed in the show. I have access to my suppliers 1.4 pro selection now, which will add in a better single shot selection ie mines and comets, but I don't anticipate to swap out my entire show for that product line, but really as a nice supporting role.

As far as the system goes, man, its such a hard pill to swallow. I really think I had a great return on what I chose. I certainly tested the limitations of it, I also got to figure out what worked, and what didn't for that matter. I do not have the opportunity to do a lot of testing on the capabilities of the system or my technique either. I have a list of things for next year already with ematch length specifically noted in that planning process. I'm just not ready to invest in a top dollar system for 1 show a year. From 12 cues last year to 132 this year, I am rather ecstatic with the results. Frankly, I'm already planning on adding to this particular setup for next year.

[PG2159]

Congratulations on year one. This was year five for me and I’m still learning some things the hard way. I have a decent family and friend crew and it’s still hard as hell and stressful. Hang in there it gets a little easier if you don’t add too much at a time.

Thank you. So much fun. I loved every moment of it. I had so much fun learning new things and watching the long haul play-pay out.

[PG2159]

Very nice!

Only thing I would say is it always takes longer than you think to setup a show. If you can start training others to help, then go behind them and double check their work. Even just moving all the product to the field and setting it up in your order will help you save a lot of time.

My favorite part was watching the American flag blowing in the wind by the road as the show was going on.

Great job and I look forward to watching next years show.

My brother was supposed to help, but apparently getting off on my weekend was trumped by getting off the weekend of his twin sons birthday. So, next year?

[PG2159]

Had a blast this 4th! Sucks to have to wait a year to do it again.
6717

Isn't that the whole fun of it? It felt like Christmas morning to me. I was so excited. We throw a huge party, and frankly, once a year is perfectly cool with me.

[PG2159]

Really nice show! Setup is never easy for a one person crew no matter how much prep you put into it. Even with enough hands it's a lot just to direct traffic and checking work. I'm really impressed by what can be done with import systems these days. Like EC mentioned, I would stick to no more than 2 wires in parallel or 3 in series in these systems, if that.

definitely noted. I will say, I had a 10-tube rack configured with 3 racks in the W orientation, so 10 degree left, vertical and 10 degree right, wired in parallel, and they all went. I tried 4MJG in 2 spots, one went and one didn't. I would certainly be comfortable with 3, but 4 is not an option any more in my opinion. Thanks for the appreciation.

[FWGuy]

Great job on this! My back starting hurting again just looking at the pix...

[PG2159]

I was able to get additional footage from a drone my friend had, and put together a full clip of the audio, position right and center, and additional I phone footage.

https://youtu.be/ocWKnqIlghY

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