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 Montreal Fireworks Forum —› 2007 Display Reviews —› Mexico - Lux Pirotecnia, S.A. de C.V. reviews
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Posted: Jul 7, 2007 23:51:31

Post your reviews of the Mexican display here!


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 00:11:19   Edited by: Enkil

Well, the first thing I did when I came back from the fireworks is learn about the firm "Lux Pirotecnia, S.A. de C.V." According to the brochure, it was established in 1993.

In my opinion, the problem with this sort of display is that it is too simple for a competition like ours. Such displays hardly impresses or amazes me. I didn't know what to really expect from a Mexican display since this is the first time I saw one, so I knew it could be anything.

Anyway, I consider this more of a test rather than a serious show. I think even the public would agree with me. At times, they were too silent and applauded only when something big or a fascinating effect was happening. Basically, I think the show lacked substance. It also lacked excitement and professionalism. It's the sort of display that usually amuses amateurs who just come to watch fireworks.

From the beginning, between the start and the technical problem, I knew what I was going to expect. I thought the beginning was good, but there was something seriously missing. The choice of music was just OK. The theme was ridiculous in my opinion. I was curious to see what they would do with such a theme, but I just didn't get it. The synchronization wasn't too good.

The finale was, well, a normal finale - typically what you would expect. It was neither bad or great. Still, I just thought it was OK.

However, I did enjoy a couple of interesting shells. I think it was an OK show, but not suitable for an award in this competition. I think even the judges from La Ronde would agree with me, but I watched it from Notre-Dame street. With more practices, Lux Pirotecnia, S.A. de C.V. could come back with a much better show for our competition.

Rated from Notre-Dame street.

My rankings

1. England
2. Spain
3. Mexico


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 01:45:09   Edited by: fredbastien

First of all, a few words about the technic problem at the very beginning of the show. During the first segment, there were already obvious firing problems. Then, the show was interrupted for a few minutes and Michel Lacroix made a short announcement. The show resumed in perfect synchronization with the music. Following the display, the official statement was that the source of this problem was unknown at that time and that, following Giovanni Panzera's golden rule, "the jury will be invited to judge what they have seen".

I think that almost everyone will agree that the Mexican team will not be on the podium this year. The surprising title "Chocolate" wasn't related to the show at all, there were some repetitive patterns and pyrotechnic effects during the show, and most of the design was basic. I add that it was very difficult, from my seat at La Ronde, to appreciate the anticipated setup pieces because they have produced a lot of smoke. Three small setup pieces on the fifth ramp illustrated Mexican pyramids. A higher structure was on the fourth firing ramp and it came into life a couple of times. I saw a Christian cross and six wheels but, again, it was very difficult to see.

Some parts of the show were very interesting. We enjoyed a segment with a lot of kamuros. Great patterns of low-level crossing cromets and huge nautical shells were great. The show was made of several multibreak shells, bright photoflash and many double colour changing shells (from white to green to red, that is, the colours of Mexican flag). The soundtrack was enjoyable in my opinion, with a wise mix of Mexican and well-known musics.

I believe that the English team is number one at this time, but major contestant will perform in the forthcoming weeks. My expectation are high for the Pyromagic show next Wednesday.

Fred


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 02:00:25

I'm so completely disappointed in the show tonight. Clearly we did not see their intended show as I have a feeling a good number of effects never actually happened. I happened to be in Vancouver last summer on holiday and got to see this firm do their show and win the competition there. There 25 min show last year was very well done although on a much smaller scale then tonights just because the Vancouver competition is set up to be smaller. Tonights show just confused me and my friends. When the burning cross came on I was like what exactly does burning a cross have to do with chocolate?

I can't even believe the amount of just plain ugly effects they had tonight. I don't know if the had just lower quality fireworks but some of them looked like crap.

I do feel really bad for this firm as I know first hand that they can produce much better than this.

Ranking so far
1-england
2-spain
3-mexico


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 02:02:11

Hello there,

I was very surpised with the way this show turned out in the end and, as Fred mentioned, I too didn't see any relationship whatsoever with the theme. There were some excellent colors and beautiful contrasts that went quite well with the music, but I honestly just couldn't establish a correlation between the music and the theme. Despite the problem witnessed at the beginning, I also noticed that there were already signs before hand with the firing before things halted. Things seemed to be starting off well, but I noticed the problems quickly after, and then I thought something might occur soon after.

I personally loved the choice of music, but again I didn't see a distinctive connection to the theme. The effects were actually quite dazzling and in great variety, but it's also true that many of these were quite redundant. However, I personally thought that the finale was pretty neat altogether.

In any case, I'll write my commentary later on today.

Goodnight.

Trav.


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 16:20:26

My report is now available on PyroPlanet:

http://www.pyroplanet.com/Article411.html

Fred


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 19:01:25   Edited by: Smoke

Greetings,

Yet again, unsettled weather threatened to interrupt another display, but unlike last week, it was a warm front that made its debut through Eastern Ontario and Southern Quebec, bringing with it some bands of light to moderate precipitation, although nothing to the severity level we’ve seen last week Wednesday. The cool conditions and the breezy winds made it a little uncomfortable, but the winds lightened and left us with nearly calm conditions. Near 10 p.m, things were looking bright for the grand return of the Mexican team and the skies were filled with stars and some surrounding low level cloud, giving way for this anticipated team to present their interesting display: "Chocolate".

In commencing, the show began with some bright low level mines and some very unique shots of large and loud unique shells in the center that released a distinctive rich gold color. However, I noticed that the firing was not on par with the music altogether, while the rhythm of the firing was slowing some. This then led me to believe that there were problems associated with this predicament, and it was not surprising to me that there would be a following pause due to whatever problem may have been present (so much for 777). More on this later. The effects themselves were in good variety and I was enamored by many of them; they include screaming serpents integrated with large shells at high levels in one or two segments, many shells of swirls that had light purple stars at their center (or farfalle shells), and most notably, there were sightings of long lasting flares of red and green that both transitioned into sparkling stars of silver as they trailed towards the river. There many shells of scattered shots of purple and yellow, green and red. Large salutes often were seen both integrated at times with the shell of shells and multi breakers while salutes exploded in clusters at mid levels as well; and then there's my personal favorites: the extensive use of the double-ascension gold glittering girandolas in the more tranquil areas and the glorified unique simulation of the purple and light red photoflashes near the end, which reminded me of the good 90s disco. The feeling simultaneously gave way to a typical apocryphal scenario, which made me feel as if I’m in another dimension and, in this case, served as good nostalgia.

The structure was a nice addition at ground level with the red cross, the 1 spinning wheel (which was followed gradually by 3 others; 2 on top and 2 on the bottom), and the first appearance of the small bright white ring near the beginning. Other low level effects often included some low level cracklers, sparkling fountains and mines of red and green ball stars, along with later mines of serpents and swirls that sometimes exploding into bright flashes and loud assisted booms. Others included large brown and white mines that made a thundering echo.

Synchronization was actually mostly well done and it went practically perfect with the music, so this made it very enjoyable for me. However, there were times where music continued and small moments of silence were apparent at the same time. The choice of music was equally enjoyable, but it did not do it justice in defining the theme; there was more of a sense of it helping to define Mexican culture than anything else rather than focusing on the theme itself.

The colors were well chosen, but many of them were a little too repetitive for my tastes, especially the patriotic colors and the whites and browns, too. The effects revolve around the same argument as the colors, but the general design of the show was fairly good and a lot of the effects were outstanding. Some of the color mixtures with the effects, particularly with the shell of shells parts, were also nicely done, but there just simply was too much redundancy in many aspects.

As for the finale, I found it was personally the best one so far this year with many teasers and a feeling that it was always going to end quickly, but of course, it didn't. There were excellent crescendo and beautiful color choices that really captivated the audience most of the time. At the beginning, I thought it was going to be a series of one big umbrella of kamuros, but it really blasted off after that series of red and green transitioning stars following the clusters of kamuros.

Trav's personal rankings:

-Synchronization: 8.5/10-While the fireworks were generally fluid with music, there were some parts that were either off track or just nothing happening for brief moments.
-Colors: 8/10-There was a reasonable variety shown, but some were just too concentrated and perhaps even a little hackneyed, particularly the patriotic colors that were quite apparent for most of the display. However, there were some brilliant color contrasts, which often became quite impressive.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 5/10-This was the weakest section, I think. I thought the concept, or idea, of the show was a little poor mainly because there was very little effort to enforce and build around it. There were strong points, however, with many effects in terms of creativity, especially the little structure at ground level, but again this did not build on what was intended to be demonstrated: the idea centered on "Chocolate". A lot of the effects (especially the girandolas and photoflashes) and contrasting colors were very enjoyable, nevertheless.
-Choice of music: 7.5/10- The music was actually very enjoyable, but there was a problem with its consistency in relation to the theme. Also, most of the selected music made it sometimes difficult to give off effective and dramatic transitions in speed. Finally, the most of the music gave off similar feelings because of their rhythm, in my mind.
-Finale/General appreciation: 9.4/10-The finale was quite exciting and had a lot of build up on it, but it was also very pleasing because of the faux finale series before hand, which was, in my opinion, a little more vehement than England’s. As always, there were roars of approval moments after the large volleys of salutes and accompanied shells ended the performance! It was amusing when the little extra crackling mine after the Ferris wheel came on caused many people to turn around and thinking that more was to come (I love when that happens). Besides the difficulty at the beginning, they often received positive responses throughout the show, too, especially with many of the glamorous beautiful effects involved.
-Overall: 7.6/10


^^^
Again, I'll probably have to adjust scores later on to accurately compare the participants, but this should still give an idea of where I stand with each display in terms of rank. *These are also my personal rankings based on my viewpoints via De Lorimier and Notre-Dame streets.

Despite what was said, this was a particularly interesting display because it was very traditional, very patriotic and was a well concocted and enforced good representation of culture. However, the major problem that we're dealing with was that the show was disorganized in the sense that there was no relative build up and design around their central thematic premise and the fact that there was little variation with special effects in support of that. I personally enjoyed the display because it was quite exciting at many points throughout and I was dazzled at the good mixture of the flamboyant colors (deep purple and bright yellow shells, in particular) seen in the penultimate piece as well as late in the climatic segment. Much of the effects was also very well demonstrated and was at times quite authentic, but I was quite surprised and baffled to see a good deal of redundancy with their usage, particularly the appearance of the kamuros and the shells farfalle shells. The music was enjoyable, but the dilemma in this criterion was that the rhythm was, to me at least, remarkably similar, or at least the feeling, so to speak. Furthermore, I simply could not establish a link with the selected music and their theme, which sort of took away some of the enjoyment, especially when compared to the way England supported their theme beautifully with "Day and Night". The design of the show was typically good, but not on par with what we're typically used to, mainly what was seen in recent years in terms of complexity in direct relation to creativity.

In essence, the display was fairly good in my mind, but I got the impression that it fell apart because of its lack of consistency with the theme. The theme itself was apparent, but there was little effort in representing it with many things that could have been taken advantage of, particularly with that structure positioned at ground level. As canuck mentioned, much of the effects served little relevance (like the red cross) to what was supposed be demonstrated, and similarly to this, there was quite a bit of repetition in firing scheme, effects and colors, which did not really suit the theme as well. Finally, I felt that there were moments where there was a lack of balance from left to right (at mid levels predominantly), but this is a relatively minor criticism.

Despite what was said, it is obvious that my argument is constructed based on a well concocted thematic framework merely because this is the essence of all the performances and it is therefore very important that the entire show revolves around this. That said, this was still an enjoyable performance from our long awaited Mexican team, and there were many moments that were quite exciting and most thrilling. However, with the level that England is at (and even Spain to some degree), I'm afraid that Mexico may not make it on that podium given the circumstances (of course anything can happen; remember the results of 2005), especially with the remaining participants set to still present. Moreover, with the statement "the jury will be invited to judge what they have seen", I suspect that the problem at the opening will probably work against them, although extra time was given since the display closed at about 10:33. As Fred also said, after the pause the fireworks quickly resumed with nice synchronization; in my mind this made a returning good impression and may denounce any implications of that statement altogether because it certainly did not set us off track from the excitement of the performance. It still was also going with the flow once it resumed as well; an excellent recovery, mind you.

The general idea of the show could have had a little more distinction and thought to have a better well enforced design because the chosen theme, as I somewhat initially expected, exhibited constraints in the display to be effectively diverse, but unfortunately there wasn't much connection. It may have been better off if the display was constructed under a central focus of Mexican culture due to much of this performance being very consistent with patriotic colors, (let alone the music choice itself), so I think it would have been more successful in that regard. However, it was nice to see a good effort from the team, especially after their faithful entrance after 22 years; I was only a year old in 1985.

On a side note, I noticed that there were comments of smoke accumulations seen moreso from La Ronde's perspective, which rendered some points in the show nearly inconspicuous, particularly the effects of the structure positioned closer to the ferris wheel. From my viewing perspective on Notre-Dame and De Lorimier, we could see practically everything, including the red cross and the 4 spinning wheels. While some additional winds would have been welcomed, I believe the main story was obviously with its direction.

I'm still curious as to what may have caused the problem in the opening piece of the display.

Trav.


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 19:20:08

From my viewing perspective on Notre-Dame and De Lorimier, we could see practically everything, including the red cross and the 4 spinning wheels.

I'm afraid that you didn't see everything: as Paul reports, there were 6 spinning wheels (I suspect that you didn't see the lowest). You are right: with the smoke issue, I'm sure that you enjoyed a better viewpoint for once!!!

On a side note, I was in the ferris wheel just before 9pm and I was surprised to see cars moving on Notre-Dame Street. Is the street close to the traffic during the show?

Fred


Posted: Jul 8, 2007 22:08:31   Edited by: Smoke

Hi Fred,

I noticed in your earlier comments that you also mentioned 6 wheels as well. If that's the case, then the lower section must have been completely covered by dense smoke at the time from our view. Despite this, I can safely say that everything else was quite visible, so we were quite fortunate.

As for street closures, I noticed that this year they've been letting traffic flow later than usual, but I also found it more surprising yesterday since it was also a weekend. We did come by car yesterday and we arrived there late (around the time you specified) and De Lorimier was still flowing with traffic. Perhaps they've changed up some regulations, which can be beneficial since I can travel there a little later. But yes, the street is closed during the show.

That was a nice report you wrote, by the way.

Edit: I adjusted my score on the performance just to justify some of my reasoning.

Trav.


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 07:45:03

Trav, I'm afraid that the police service closes the street later because the attendance may be smaller. Do you feel that there is less people than in the past years?

Fred


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 08:31:08   Edited by: canuck

I feel like that there are many more people attending this year compared to last year.


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 14:27:05

I feel the contrary lol. I think there are somewhat less people attending this year's shows, but I believe that this is because of the weather threats.


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 14:42:56

I guess maybe its because I was one of the few crazies last year to attend all the shows, even the rained out ones like France. It honestly felt like there were 20 other people with me that night lol. But I really do feel that from where I watch them, notre dame, that there have been a lot more people attending the opening shows.


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 18:20:54

For the number of spectators, don't forget that the first two shows this year were on Wednesdays that were outside of the July Construction Holiday. Previous years have had the first few shows on Saturdays. So this may account for the perception of a smaller audience.

All that said, the audience size at La Ronde used to be announced when the city of Montreal ran the park; now those figures are not released. I remember when I first started attending at La Ronde, it was quite often the case that the park capacity of 33,000 was reached.

Finally, a quick grammar lesson for those who don't speak English as a first language. In comparing amounts there is a simple rule to determine when to use much/many less/fewer: for objects which can be counted use "many more" or fewer; for things which can't be counted use "much more" or "less". For example, this year there are many more people at La Ronde, but fewer on Notre Dame. There was less rain than predicted on Saturday. Hope this is useful!

Paul.


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 22:33:15

So now after the grammar lesson I'm going to run and hide under my rock, English is my first language and I still messed it up. Thanks for the correction though


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 23:00:58   Edited by: Smoke

Those of you who watched from Notre-Dame on Saturday night, notice that there were quite bit more spectators viewing the display compared to the previous Wednesday nights, even though there was a risk of rain showers in addition to the cooler weather. I observed in surrounding streets that there also was a great deal of people, too, so the increase in population may be attributed to the Saturday.

However, despite the powerful notion of perception, as a faithful member of viewing the fireworks since 1990 on Notre-Dame, I can safely say that there was an abundance of people attending each show moreso in the 90s, includind the days of adverse weather. Because of the benefits of the park, it is natural that maximum capacity will be nearly reached consistently as opposed to more open areas such as Notre-Dame. I can't really comment on consistency of the bridge's population, but I do know that it can have a population of nearly 100,000 spectators; I know this because it was stated that about 90,000 spectators were reported during the closing show in both 2004 and 2005 respectively on the bridge. However, I do specifically recall that the bridge used to have much more people per display, especially again back in the 90s and perhaps even in the early 2000s (I remember being amazed at the clusters of people up there covering a vast area near the railing alone).

And Fred, I do for a fact feel that there has been a smaller crowd not only this year, but also for the last recent years as well. I cannot say whether this is the cause of the street closures commencing later than usual, but it's certainly a reasonable assumption.

Trav.


Posted: Jul 9, 2007 23:56:38

I guess I lose this argument. Seeing as I was all of 7 years old in 1990 I don't really have much experience with the large crowds from back then. I was more just basing it off of last year which I thought was a bad year for attendance when compared to the past 5 years or so. I still do believe that this year has been better attended so far then last


Posted: Jul 10, 2007 11:13:15

Hi canuck,

I must acquiesce and say that last year's general attendance, in terms of Notre-Dame and De Lorimier, was comparably poor to other previous years, including 2005. However, compared to this season, I felt there was slightly less mainly because of perhaps the first 2 Wednesdays and the weather threats, particularly what was witnessed during and prior to the English performance. By contrast, though the weather was a little cool, I noticed that there were quite a bit more people seen in the area for the Mexican display, most likely due to the fact that it was a Saturday night.

With respect to last year, the schedule was also a little bit tricky, but the first 3 displays all fell on either Saturday or Sunday. According to my reports and as I recall, I recorded that Switzerland had a good deal of people for the opening while I reported Italy's performance to have fewer people (possibly because it was a Sunday). However, Argentina's audience had a returning abundance of spectators, even though that too was also indeed a Sunday.

Again, it may be hard to tell, but a good indication of population around these streets, for me at least, is to observe how long it takes for the crowd to clear out, most notably on De Lorimier, after the displays are over.

And yes, in the 1990s, we were clustered by people for nearly every display, almost to the point where you couldn't even move as you pleased. Ah, those were the real years for the fireworks.

Trav.


Posted: Jul 12, 2007 18:01:58

Well, I don't have much to say about the mexican display, except that I was a bit disappointed by the performance. Not much action during the display and an OK finale. Since I really enjoy watching fireworks, I had fun nonetheless and I don't regret attending this one!

Pierre
 

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