AxeElf
07-08-2023, 08:47 PM
I suppose by now you all are tired of fireworks videos, but this post has been a long time coming. It's also probably going to take a long time to get through it, so feel free to bookmark it and revisit as your time and interest allows.
I first joined this forum in May of 2019 after probably lurking for a few months before that. My first real fireworks "show" on the Fourth in 2018 consisted mostly of having fused together 12 or 13 "sets" of 4-6 fireworks each, all in little bundles that I would run out to the street and then clear after each had fired. Each "set" had its own little song snippet that went with its performance from a boombox on the driveway--so it was my first attempt at a "pyromusical"--or at least "musical accompaniment" of multiple products fused together--and I still bought all of my product retail.
Through my own pursuit of the hobby online--and in no small part due to reading and participating in the forums here--by 2019 I was buying cases wholesale online, and began growing my cue collection for a Chinese firing system. I used a percentage of the product for shows of increasing complexity in 2019 and 2020 (I probably posted some of that footage here in those years), but by saving some back each year and ordering anew each year again, my cues had grown to 200 and my stash had grown to impressive dimensions by the time I began planning my 2021 extravaganza, which I call "The Best Backyard Fireworks Show Anyone Has Ever Seen."
And so it was around May or June of 2021 that I got into an argument with someone or someones here (I honestly don't remember nor care who) who felt that a really good pyromusical just couldn't be done with all consumer-grade product, a Chinese firing system and talon igniters--you know, all the amateur stuff--because that was exactly what I was planning to do! And well, things got a little heated and I probably said some things I shouldn't have said, and the end result was that I got myself banned from the site just a couple of weeks before I could have posted my show.
Now, I'm not here to reopen any arguments, but it turned out that this was the last large-scale cue-fired show I was ever able to manage to do, because of my declining health issues, and frankly, just doing this one (I literally did everything by myself) nearly killed me. And while it wasn't perfect (maybe you CAN'T do a perfect show with amateur equipment after all), there were some parts of it that were awfully grand, too--so I appreciate Dave granting my request to be reinstated, so that I could share some of this, my best work, with a community of people who can actually appreciate it--even if it is from a show that is now two years old. (Facebook likes only go so far.)
YouTube wants to mute parts of the vids for music copyrights, so I'm linking you to the videos hosted on my Google drive. Don't worry, they're safe.
This first one is the Reader's Digest version--a 13 minute highlight reel from the show (including the full 2-song finale), with a 2 minute intro including some pre-show drone footage. I was trying to give an idea of the layout of the five firing stations and the patriotic barn where the audience would be seated, but neither my drone piloting nor the drone camera are very good, so skip the first couple of minutes to go straight to the highlight reel if you want.
15 Minute Highlight Reel (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b4AmYEDMTSxmAwqVgutipqAnob9g9h8t/view?usp=sharing)
The following links delve further into the various parts of the show, for those who might be interested in seeing the full thing. The only exception is that I don't really have a good mix other than the highlight reel of the opening two songs, but these links contain pretty much everything else in the show.
Higher and Higher & Star Spangled Banner (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l80Y2YAYyDmHHk_EfaG5ORZMlerHRazm/view?usp=sharing)
By "Higher and Higher," things were pretty much back on track, although the timing wasn't always the greatest. By the time Jimi's version of the national anthem kicks in, the show really starts. It's getting almost fully dark by now, and up to this point, the fireworks have mostly been going off only 2 or 3 at a time. But as we get later into the "Star Spangled Banner," stuff is starting to get real.
Get Outta Your Mind & Great Balls of Fire (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A4d2X0Y3E7VX4RnfHNML-8hbfLc-eYo9/view?usp=sharing)
On "Get Outta Your Mind," you can see that the fourth station didn't fire. This was really a bummer, since the firework for the second half of the song was fused from the first, so when station 4 didn't fire the first firework, the second one obviously never got lit either. Given that the timing of the second firework is entirely dependent upon fusing from the first, I thought the timing of the other four stations was awfully impressive--all four of the fused fireworks went off at just about exactly the same time! All five stations are firing for "Great Balls of Fire"; I just wish they were a little more in synch--again, something I can't really overcome with amateur equipment--but it was a fun little piece anyway.
Three Themes (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dC_bNkkVv6wpMHzKyXQ7BYOAoAwc65uY/view?usp=sharing)
I would consider this trio of songs to be the "meat" of the show; each song spotlighting its own firework theme. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" features fireworks with strobe effects, creating entire fields of diamonds sparkling in the sky. "Octopus' Garden" features fireworks with fish effects, flooding the sky with flying fish. From about the bridge onward, NOAB jellyfish explode periodically above the flying fish, just at the upper limits of my camera. "Firecracker" features fireworks with crackling effects, recreating a Milky Way galaxy of sparks. One of my biggest miscalculations of the show is having a pair of 2000 string firecrackers, one on each of the 2nd and 4th stations, going off near the end of the song. I was hoping it would be like, "Oooh, firecrackers!" but they were just a drop in the bucket of all the crackles that were going on at the time, and unless you're looking on the ground for the little flash of the strings going off, you'd never even know they were there.
How Great Thou Art & Rock Medley (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jx1QFdq8Mi6Zf4QvKRmOIyhczVgws_vI/view?usp=sharing)
My father was the guy in our community who everyone asked to sing at their weddings, funerals, whatever... He was the guy. And one of his favorite songs to sing was "How Great Thou Art." He died in 2017, but my 2021 show was the first time my mom was able to attend one of my shows. This one was for the family.
The Rock Medley was just a way to use up some product and fill some time as we build toward the finale, which probably really begins with the few seconds of black sky in the middle of "Cum On Feel the Noize."
Rock Show (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qAeoGZA949vuhfzcZAMugqAi_Y02g_eY/view?usp=sharing)
This is the same 2-song finale that was in the Highlight Reel, spanning "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "The Greatest Show," but if you want to jump right to it, here it is.
I had someone who worked for a professional fireworks company come up and tell me that was the best finale they had ever seen, so I'm kind of proud of it.
There was a little fire that started on station 2 and added a couple of unplanned effects during these pieces, but nothing that was too distracting from the overall presentation.
They are hard to make out behind/above the cacophony of the finale, but once you see them, the majesty of the dual Mother of All Bombs NOABs at the end of "The Greatest Show" is really impressive. Viewing it in person, the finale simply took up your entire field of vision, from horizon to the top of the sky, from your left to your right.
It was amazing.
And I will never do anything like it again.
I hope you have enjoyed it; I have enjoyed watching several of the videos posted here over the past few days.
I first joined this forum in May of 2019 after probably lurking for a few months before that. My first real fireworks "show" on the Fourth in 2018 consisted mostly of having fused together 12 or 13 "sets" of 4-6 fireworks each, all in little bundles that I would run out to the street and then clear after each had fired. Each "set" had its own little song snippet that went with its performance from a boombox on the driveway--so it was my first attempt at a "pyromusical"--or at least "musical accompaniment" of multiple products fused together--and I still bought all of my product retail.
Through my own pursuit of the hobby online--and in no small part due to reading and participating in the forums here--by 2019 I was buying cases wholesale online, and began growing my cue collection for a Chinese firing system. I used a percentage of the product for shows of increasing complexity in 2019 and 2020 (I probably posted some of that footage here in those years), but by saving some back each year and ordering anew each year again, my cues had grown to 200 and my stash had grown to impressive dimensions by the time I began planning my 2021 extravaganza, which I call "The Best Backyard Fireworks Show Anyone Has Ever Seen."
And so it was around May or June of 2021 that I got into an argument with someone or someones here (I honestly don't remember nor care who) who felt that a really good pyromusical just couldn't be done with all consumer-grade product, a Chinese firing system and talon igniters--you know, all the amateur stuff--because that was exactly what I was planning to do! And well, things got a little heated and I probably said some things I shouldn't have said, and the end result was that I got myself banned from the site just a couple of weeks before I could have posted my show.
Now, I'm not here to reopen any arguments, but it turned out that this was the last large-scale cue-fired show I was ever able to manage to do, because of my declining health issues, and frankly, just doing this one (I literally did everything by myself) nearly killed me. And while it wasn't perfect (maybe you CAN'T do a perfect show with amateur equipment after all), there were some parts of it that were awfully grand, too--so I appreciate Dave granting my request to be reinstated, so that I could share some of this, my best work, with a community of people who can actually appreciate it--even if it is from a show that is now two years old. (Facebook likes only go so far.)
YouTube wants to mute parts of the vids for music copyrights, so I'm linking you to the videos hosted on my Google drive. Don't worry, they're safe.
This first one is the Reader's Digest version--a 13 minute highlight reel from the show (including the full 2-song finale), with a 2 minute intro including some pre-show drone footage. I was trying to give an idea of the layout of the five firing stations and the patriotic barn where the audience would be seated, but neither my drone piloting nor the drone camera are very good, so skip the first couple of minutes to go straight to the highlight reel if you want.
15 Minute Highlight Reel (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b4AmYEDMTSxmAwqVgutipqAnob9g9h8t/view?usp=sharing)
The following links delve further into the various parts of the show, for those who might be interested in seeing the full thing. The only exception is that I don't really have a good mix other than the highlight reel of the opening two songs, but these links contain pretty much everything else in the show.
Higher and Higher & Star Spangled Banner (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l80Y2YAYyDmHHk_EfaG5ORZMlerHRazm/view?usp=sharing)
By "Higher and Higher," things were pretty much back on track, although the timing wasn't always the greatest. By the time Jimi's version of the national anthem kicks in, the show really starts. It's getting almost fully dark by now, and up to this point, the fireworks have mostly been going off only 2 or 3 at a time. But as we get later into the "Star Spangled Banner," stuff is starting to get real.
Get Outta Your Mind & Great Balls of Fire (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A4d2X0Y3E7VX4RnfHNML-8hbfLc-eYo9/view?usp=sharing)
On "Get Outta Your Mind," you can see that the fourth station didn't fire. This was really a bummer, since the firework for the second half of the song was fused from the first, so when station 4 didn't fire the first firework, the second one obviously never got lit either. Given that the timing of the second firework is entirely dependent upon fusing from the first, I thought the timing of the other four stations was awfully impressive--all four of the fused fireworks went off at just about exactly the same time! All five stations are firing for "Great Balls of Fire"; I just wish they were a little more in synch--again, something I can't really overcome with amateur equipment--but it was a fun little piece anyway.
Three Themes (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dC_bNkkVv6wpMHzKyXQ7BYOAoAwc65uY/view?usp=sharing)
I would consider this trio of songs to be the "meat" of the show; each song spotlighting its own firework theme. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" features fireworks with strobe effects, creating entire fields of diamonds sparkling in the sky. "Octopus' Garden" features fireworks with fish effects, flooding the sky with flying fish. From about the bridge onward, NOAB jellyfish explode periodically above the flying fish, just at the upper limits of my camera. "Firecracker" features fireworks with crackling effects, recreating a Milky Way galaxy of sparks. One of my biggest miscalculations of the show is having a pair of 2000 string firecrackers, one on each of the 2nd and 4th stations, going off near the end of the song. I was hoping it would be like, "Oooh, firecrackers!" but they were just a drop in the bucket of all the crackles that were going on at the time, and unless you're looking on the ground for the little flash of the strings going off, you'd never even know they were there.
How Great Thou Art & Rock Medley (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jx1QFdq8Mi6Zf4QvKRmOIyhczVgws_vI/view?usp=sharing)
My father was the guy in our community who everyone asked to sing at their weddings, funerals, whatever... He was the guy. And one of his favorite songs to sing was "How Great Thou Art." He died in 2017, but my 2021 show was the first time my mom was able to attend one of my shows. This one was for the family.
The Rock Medley was just a way to use up some product and fill some time as we build toward the finale, which probably really begins with the few seconds of black sky in the middle of "Cum On Feel the Noize."
Rock Show (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qAeoGZA949vuhfzcZAMugqAi_Y02g_eY/view?usp=sharing)
This is the same 2-song finale that was in the Highlight Reel, spanning "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "The Greatest Show," but if you want to jump right to it, here it is.
I had someone who worked for a professional fireworks company come up and tell me that was the best finale they had ever seen, so I'm kind of proud of it.
There was a little fire that started on station 2 and added a couple of unplanned effects during these pieces, but nothing that was too distracting from the overall presentation.
They are hard to make out behind/above the cacophony of the finale, but once you see them, the majesty of the dual Mother of All Bombs NOABs at the end of "The Greatest Show" is really impressive. Viewing it in person, the finale simply took up your entire field of vision, from horizon to the top of the sky, from your left to your right.
It was amazing.
And I will never do anything like it again.
I hope you have enjoyed it; I have enjoyed watching several of the videos posted here over the past few days.