Greetings,

Just got back from what I call.....a very beautiful and highly successful display. The entire thing was fairly intense and I was truly enamored with especially the gorgeous sequencing and well timed shots of the various mines and meteor comets! Also, some of those white meteor comet candles really rose high in the sky, making me initially believe that they were shells ready to explode!

I also loved when the structure illuminated on ramp four, especially when assisted by the red flares side by side. The display also was very wide from right to left at times compared to previous displays, but rarely ever lost symmetry. However, there were moments were things were particularly a little too much fired towards my far left, which felt a little off-balance. A wonderful selection of effects were employed, and the audience seemed to be most taken up by the multitude of shells of single rings (as well as one or two double crossed rings) of various colored stars along with ring shells with the star pattern in the middle at one point. I also loved that occasional low level centered circular pattern of rainbow colored stars as well as the fans of kamruos. The variations of go-getters were also most intriguing. In addition, at one part, during the earlier smoke build up, we saw these occasional bright flashes coming from low level, like fast sequence of lightning within the cloud of smoke - I was guessing that these were bright silver nautical strobes. A lot of the variations of horse tails were also used, but I enjoyed it moreso in the segment with the music of "Singing in the Rain". And of course, as promised, the show started off very noisy after the countdown!

The soundtrack was also carefully employed and I was really surprised to see how well the fireworks integrated with the theme altogether, which is where I had my doubts. I personally thought that the use of the strobes from time to time really made it appropriate in representing the theme - kind of like just getting ready to roll out the red carpet. Many of the songs themselves were personal favorites and I particularly loved the Ghostbusters, Mission Impossible, Titanic, Indiana Jones, and James Bond theme. Synchronization was well done, but there were a couple of parts where things didn't seem to ignite on time, most notably around that segment where the same soundtrack was used during the French display. That said, again, some really breathtaking sequencing was seen at low level for much of the time, particularly during the Mission Impossible, James Bond and Indiana Jones segments.

And the finale was amazing, as well as lengthy - the transitions of colors really reminded me of what the U.S did in 2003. I really enjoyed it, especially seeing that the entire show was already so powerful and colorful.

My only concern with the display was the fast building up of smoke near the left (my left) towards the ferris wheel's side. Luckily the winds had gotten a little stronger during the time as compared to earlier in the day.

Anyhow, more details later today! I'm guessing that the crews at La Ronde as well as that of the Portuguese managed to get everything together in time, as well as having the necessary time to test everything accordingly.

What a glorious evening this was, and as promised, nice weather conditions to go along with it! I hope everyone enjoyed the show as much as I did. The competition is really heating up now!

Cheers,

Trav.

Oh God......this was one beautiful display of fireworks, from start to finish......and this is really the kind of finale I look for.....a build up which intensified rapidly.....I loved the bright red that was all over the sky.....a powerful and noisy finale, topped with salutes.....I just screamed at the very end because of all the feelings stirring inside of me.

There's just one thing I have to say:

"And the winner is..........PORTUGAL!

1. Portugal (for the best display and also best finale)
2. Sout Korea
3. Italy
4. France

This means that in my opinion, the fireworks are getting better each week!

What a beautiful evening.....Portugal will be hard to beat!

Have a great week everybody....

Pierre

I had such a fun day! Tyler and I were at La Ronde today, but we were barely able to do the rides! There so many people everywhere, and it was difficult to walk around (good for La Ronde, though). The lineup for all major rides was insane! We had to wait TWO hours for one ride. That's not normal! I don't want complain about the already dead looking ops, but it is simply crazy to wait that long for one ride. Anyway, I still had a great time!

We did the ferris wheel, mainly to look at the setup, which I really didn't get much from. To me, it looked like any setup I've seen before, and it didn't seem super impressive, or maybe, I just didn't get it. Anyway, I could never judge a show simply by looking at its setup. However, I saw the special feature, and "The End" letters, but Tyler and I couldn't read it from the ferris wheel.

I really liked Portugal's show. I would say that it was even better than South Korea's. Just the way it was organized and planned was impressive. There were so many complex and enjoyable segments. I think I enjoy a show a lot more when it is very complex. I also enjoyed the soundtrack. Almost every theme song I heard was fun to listen to, even though I hadn't heard a few of them before. I did feel that there was a relationship between the show and the theme, even though this type of theme isn't too original. I'm still impressed! One of the highlights of the show was beginning of the Mission Impossible segment (I think) where mini fountains were lighting up from left to right, and then, suddenly we saw massive candles (terminology may be exact here, I know). I just thought that was amazing and unexpected... liked it a lot! The synchronization was also very good and nicely done. Tyler and I agreed that they could've made some segments a bit better, because that's personally what kind of refrains me from describing this show as "excellent." Also, perhaps, there was a few technical problems, although I'm not too sure.

Then again, I just wasn't too impressed with the special feature. I mean it looked nice and interesting, but I felt that the sphere feature they had in 2005 was a lot better and exciting. I think that feature was a huge success, and they should've used it more often, as I had said in my review.

Tonight's show was also a pretty intense show, although contrary to what Paul said, we didn't find the beginning of it very intense lol, but it was a nice and captivating beginning! The quality of the pieces and the vividness of the colors were the best I've seen so far this year. The pieces seemed so "eager" to go up in the sky and explode!

The finale was pretty kewl, too. The length of it was very satisifying, but we agree that Italy's finale was somewhat more intense, whereas this one wasn't so much. I just really enjoyed how neaty the shells constantly went up and exploded throughout the finale. Still, I enjoyed every second of it, but I don't think it was close to what they did back in 2002.

After the show ended, the park was still extremely crowded, and the lineups were still as bad as they were in the afternoon! What's even worse is that they were closing the entrance of the lineups, even though many people wanted to go on the rides. When we arrived at the Monster, it was still a two hours lineup, and we weren't allowed in. I just found it a bit unfair... I think Six Flags should allow the rides to stay open until the great mass of the public leaves the park. It was so disappointing to see that happening everywhere! Really sad, considering the fact that in the past, the park used to stay open until the wee hours of the morning!

But I still had a lot of fun today! And a big special thanks goes to Tyler for joining me. I know how much you wanted to see this one, sooo glad you saw it from La Ronde!

My rankings - rated from La Ronde:

1. Portugal
2. South Korea
3. Italy
4. France

Hey Pierre,

Glad you loved the finale and display as much as I did! You're right, though, that Portugal is one fierce competitor this season! With 5 entrants still remaining, things look to be getting even more hyped, especially now hearing the interesting news about both Australia and Canada.

Hey Enkil,

Yes, about the general size of the show, I felt that Spain of 2004 (Caballer), as I was discussing with my cousin, had a larger performance by comparison, although Portugal's display was clearly more successful. Similarly, the structure that was used on ramp 4 didn't really stand out to me as much as what was done with the ring back in the 2002 performance, or as you assessed, with the innovative pyrodome integrated during their 2005 show.

Regarding the finale, it had fortifying length, but sort of lacked the vehemence that Italy had mustered during their finisher. Portugal's ending had an excellent debut and good crescendo, but it ended a little too abuptly - I was actually expecting a huge climax following the extreme transitions of colors! Nevertheless, this was certainly a finale to remember for the books.

As for the beginning of the performance, I personally thought that it really started with a nice noisy bang, as compared with the previous entrants this year, so everyone around me, including me and my family, all were in awe when those salutes set off just following those introductory loud shells.

What a fantastic evening this was.

Trav.

I am glad to see the positive opinions regarding tonight's display are already trickling in.

I have to begin by saying that I could very well be slightly biased in my reviews this season as the first two (I missed South Korea's display) were watched from Notre-Dame and tonight I was at La Ronde with Enkil.

But putting that aside for now, I must say that I greatly enjoyed Luso's "And the Winner is..." I didn't quite know what to expect going in considering all the hype about the elaborate set up coupled with my questioning Luso's choice of theme. Tonight I learned not to doubt a competition veteran such as Luso Pirotecnia!

The display featured plenty of originality: an atypical, moderately-powerful start to the display; the film projector sound and lake-level strobes; use of the rapid-fire partial sphere; and the ridiculously entertaining, creative, standout Jaws and Mission Impossible sequences. Also, a subtle trick that I haven't noticed other firms using, which occurred just after the intense "Be our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast sequence, involved letting the smoke build-up be directed away by the wind as Luso began their "As Time Goes By" sequence on the far left of the sky (for people watching from inside La Ronde). I was really impressed by this simple method I believe Luso took into consideration when designing the display and also potentially knowing the wind's tendency in Montreal to come in from the SW (right Trav )

I had a significant concern that Luso Pirotecnia would not be able to fully brand the "pyromusical tribute to the greatest films" idea as their own as it has been done so many times before (on a lesser scale, as recent as three weeks ago by France). In my opinion Luso really did not pay homage to films on this night, but rather they tipped their collective hat to select musical pieces from memorable films. I make the distinction because I felt that three weeks ago, France merely exploited what we already associate with familiar musical pieces or sound bytes (from film, television and elsewhere) whereas tonight, Portugal really made a point of infusing the music with their own imagination.

The finale was good too... but finale's aren't all that important.

I am tired and those are my thoughts for now.

Before I go to bed, I want to say a big 'thank you' to Enkil for kindly inviting me to join him at La Ronde today - I sincerely appreciate the gesture.

Goodnight all. Time to look forward to Australia!!!

Tyler

Salut les fireworks addict

De retour après avoir raté le feu de la Corée. D'après ce que j'ai lu
cette nouvelle firme à Montréal a présenté un excellent spectacle.

Moi aussi Fred j'attendais la firme Luso avec impatience.
Quel spectacle!!!! Les Portugais nous en ont mis plein les yeux et les oreilles.
Ces gens étaient vraiment bien préparés et on pouvait deviner aisément leur poursuite déterminée vers le plus haut sommet.
Un spectacle bien concu avec une trame sonore de musique de film bien fignolée. On se souviendra que cette recette avait fait le succès entre autre d'Eric Tucker et de Royal Pyrotechnie en 2003.
Un arsenal de pièces variées, dont certaines originales , une utilisation maximale des possibilités du site , un beau mélange des couleurs et des formes ont ébahi les spectateurs présents.
Luso nous a présenté un spectacle sans bavure avec un rytme soutenu et progressif , des transition assez harmonieuses entre les divers segments en faisant preuve d'originalité et de créativité .
De plus ils nous ont offert un bel équilibre entre les passages plus intenses et les pièces musicales plus douces avec une synchronisation vraiment très efficace.
La progression de l'intensité devait nous amener à un bouquet finale formidable et il en fut ainsi. J'ai adoré ces changements multiples de couleurs uniques.
La barre est haute pour les prochains concurrents.Je crois que Luso
se méritera un Jupiter avec leur performance de grande qualité.

Vive Luso.

Roger

I'm still in the process of writing my report but the video is up. Many may recall how I am wont to write WOW in my notes - well, you can hear me shouting WOW quite a few times during the display!

Out of interest, the display had approximately 5000 shells, with 3500 on ramp 2 alone. According to Vitor Machado, about 30% of the shells were used in the finale alone - so figure around 1500 in the last couple of minutes! We were also discussing the cost of certain effects, not so much in terms of dollars, but in terms of time. Apparently, the floating nautical shells (some rows of 4" and some of 6"[img]http://montreal-fireworks.com/forum/img/smilies/wink.gif[/i mg] took five people an entire day to set up - all for a few seconds in the display! It was a very good effect though - as was the very fast line of short duration gerbs that shot across ramp three during the start of the Mission Impossible music.

The Portuguese team got a well deserved standing ovation in the Salon des Artificiers after the display. My full report will be up later today - in the meantime, enjoy the videos and my shouting!

Paul.

Hey Travis,

Can you imagine if the next displays get even better than what Portugal served us this past Saturday? Woof, we'll be in for a WONDERFUL EXCITING time! Yes, Australia's and Canada's teams look like they're going to show us the great stuff.....probably because they both want to celebrate your Birthday...before and after the fact?

Paul,

Once again, thank you for spoiling us with those full 30 minutes clips of each of the displays. I am really enjoying them. Do you think you might be able to put your hands on the 2004 display by IPON S.R.L. ?

Until Australia's show, have a great week everyone!

Pierre

Bien que j'ai environ 120 feux d'artifice du concours montréalais derrière la cravate, celui de Luso Pirotecnia m'a plongé dans un état de choc difficilement descriptible et qui a persisté un long moment après "The End". Mes attentes étaient très élevées et elles ont été pleinement satisfaites. Dans l'histoire de la compétition, si les années 90 ont été celles d'Eric Tucker, la décennie actuelle pourrait bien être celle de cette firme portugaise qui démontre une maîtrise exceptionnelle de l'art pyrotechnique.

Pour une fois, quantité et qualité formaient un duo parfait. À nous tous qui nous demandions ce que Luso avait en réserve après l'anneau de 2002 et le pyrodôme de 2005, la réponse est venue peu de temps après le début du feu: un ensemble de 8 arcs lançant des séquences de mines très denses. Luso Pirotecnia a une signature. La voilà.

À l'instar de Pains Fireworks l'an dernier, cette performance (d'or?) présentait une dose de créativité très bien mesurée: suffisante pour se démarquer des autres concurrents, pas trop afin de ne pas déstabiliser un jury un tantinet conservateur. En plus des arcs, que dire de cette séquence unique de jets sur "Mission: Impossible", suivie par un barrage de bombes nautiques judicieusement positionnées sur le lac!

La synchronisation et le mariage feux/musique ont été impeccables tout au long du spectacle. Bien que quelques pépins techniques soient survenus, ils n'était pas suffisamment importants pour être remarqués par l'auditoire (rien de comparable avec l'échec du Can-can dans le feu sud-coréen). Tout l'espace mis à la disposition des artificiers a été utilisé. Bref, il faut se creuser les méninges pour retrancher des points et s'abstenir de décerner une note parfaite. La principale limite de ce spectacle, à mon avis, a été le manque d'originalité de la bande sonore. En puisant dans le répertoire des succès cinématographiques, on s'enferme généralement dans un environnement musical très américain et on engendre un fort mimétisme entre les concurrents. Cependant, force est d'admettre que cela fait aussi applaudir les foules.

Fred

Pierre,

That's exactly what I was thinking, my friend - I can't even begin to imagine what those displays would be like if assuming they were to be even better than Portugal's display! During this finale, I was actually wondering if you were going crazy, and it looks like you were! After that conclusion, I said to myself, "happy birthday, Pierre!" lol

And yes, I am treating both Canada and Australia as birthday treats, but particularly Australia since it is occurring just before. hehe I hope to see something with much vehemence and intimidation!

As for IPON 2004, I believe I had sent you a clip of it before, but if you need it again, or if you've misplaced it, I'll happily send it to you once more.

TRae,

Yes, the winds were coming out mainly from the SW, but there were some occasional intermissions to the SE , which I thought was a little interesting, to say the least. But yeah, the winds have a tendency to come out from the SW during this time of year, assuming of course that you're in a warm sector of air, as during Portugal's show. Gotta love that direction.

Trav.

Country participant: Portugal
Company: Grupo Luso Pirotecnia
Date of presentation: July 12th, 2008

Partly cloudy skies coupled with very warm temperatures and moderate humidity were the backdrop for most of the day leading up to the evening. With the weather being ideal and the rains at least a couple hours away, the “stage” was set for Portugal’s “And the Winner is…” to fire away, promising much complexity, creativity and plenty of excitement with its massive setup. Seeing that the smoke was accumulating rather quickly for much of the display, it was fortunate that the winds began to increase slightly in speed just around dusk.

The display began with a noisy start, as promised, following the first set of gold go-getters, and much of the show in its entirety was designed with segments concluding with a thunderous finish. Touching on the effects themselves, there was a huge variety, including many go-getters, crossettes, single ringed shells, kamuros, a multitude of shells of bursting stars, photoflashes and particularly many variations of the shells of horse tails. Of course, the orange-red illuminated circular structure built on top of ramp 4 was nifty and most captivating when the red flares across ramp 3 (I think) would assist it from the right and left – these would also become brighter accordingly in response to the different pitches in the music “Zurathusthra”. I also thought that one particular effect deserved much attention – this was the unique elongated pale candles that rose elegantly into high levels of the sky, as if giving off the impression that they were shells about to explode into those typical bright white meteor comets of silver stars – of course, this wasn’t the case! This was quite stunning, in my opinion, and it really stood out as something newly integrated to any show I’ve seen. There were so many other pieces to comment on (if I went into all of them, this report would be longer than it’s going to be), but some effects that also seemed to get the audience’s attention were that single elongated line of loud crackling nautical mines, or perhaps bombs, at one point, and also that semi-circle of rainbow colors towards the center that dazzled the audience frequently during “Be Our Guest”, as in this picture provided by Robert Burch:

http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/cgi-bin/photogen.cgi?Pics2008/Burch/ pt-005.jpg,402,600

The design was ingenious and introduced many new innovative ideas in both transitions and creativity through connecting the music and theme. I personally thought that much of the segments perfectly matched whatever soundtrack was playing at the time while constantly enforcing the thematic premise. There are numerous examples that I can pinpoint easily enough, but the most dazzling attempts came directly from the Mission Impossible segment along low level with the fast sequences of the mines and candles. The low level effects themselves were also awesome, but I was mostly flattered during the part where the slowly passing of the smoke buildup would be occasionally illuminated by the bright nautical strobes during “Jaws”, creating a simulation of a strong electrical storm. I then pondered this fact and figured that the smoke accumulations at the time actually worked in their favor for this effect to stand out more than it already has – a real blessing in disguise. Another piece definitely worthy of mentioning was those rapid firings of single ringed shells of various colored stars. The finishing touch to that segment led to an even faster rate of those same effects, but then later assisted by shells of single rings with a star pattern in the center – there were even one or two shells with two intersecting rings (I believe that’s what they were – either that or a smiley).

Relating to the design, colors and effects were often chosen very carefully during each soundtrack. For example, the soundtrack that was used from the movie “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” - the whistling present in that track would result in fans of screaming serpents coupled with graceful meteor comet candles. The falling leaf shells later in this part also did it justice. Also, the Indiana Jones segment with the overhead barrages of broccade shells and the photoflashes in between them was an equally appealing scene, as were those photoflashes seen during the James Bond theme. And yes, there were a myriad of colors during this display – very exquisite and eloquent for a good portion of the performance.

Synchronization was superb. The music and fireworks, particularly at low level, connected beautifully, and I really thought that the theme was well enforced in this regard. The choice of music was very enjoyable – many people around me, including myself, really got into the Ghostbusters (how nostalgic), James Bond (big fan), Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones (also a fanatic) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly segments.

The finale was stunning in that it possessed good crescendo just following the beginning piece of it. Immediately starting after the massive clusters of kamuros in the previous segment, the finale had begun with some low level intersecting meteor comets with a single barrage of shells of broccades at mid level. Continuing with the low level meteor comets, barrages of shells of silver stars made their debut for a few seconds. The next single barrage of broccade shells signaled the silver color shells would now be quickly replaced by shells of purple stars – still firing at the same pace, though picking up a little more after this point. Lasting for a few more seconds, another set of broccade shells introduced barrages of shells of green stars. This similar pattern in transitions continued but gradually picking up the pace as the colors transitioned from one to the next - the green went to pale and then to a orange-red to an astonishing deep crimson red – the chaotic sky concluding with one final color of white with a finishing volley of thunderous salutes, soon after to be leaving the whole area with some of the loudest roars of approval I have ever heard in recent years. The entire finale lasted for about a minute and 10 seconds. It was amazing in how well timed the color transitions were with the music.

This was a fabulously crafted and highly well choreographed performance from the infamous Luso Pirotecnia, and this particular display really added into their already distinct collection of innovative and complex displays seen here in Montreal.

The strongest points in this display, for me at least, were definitely attributed to the actual design of the show, perhaps in part because it was both intense and really adhered to much of the soundtrack employed in a surprisingly understandable and concise manner. The theme was, in the end, quite a success, despite all the doubts and limitations I had originally set forward prior to the show. The premise offered was perhaps a little less understood initially because it was interpreted as ultimately direct and supposedly gave out the automatic impression that it had very little to work with when it came to the actual representation. The focus wasn’t merely on the theme itself, in my mind, but rather how it honored these memorable films, and sort of rolling out the red carpet for them by incorporating both the fireworks and music, and at the same time creating a very apocryphal environment and having a tendency of producing deep nostalgia. In addition, although the theme may have been commonly misunderstood, it was clear that the Portuguese used both the soundtrack and the fireworks to deliver the necessary emotions successfully – one notable example was during the Titanic theme song. In addition to my previous example of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly soundtrack, the use of shells of horse tails of strobes really made delightful impressions during the “Singing in the Rain” music. The Mission Impossible segment seemed to be the most strikingly delivered with its fast sequences of comets and mines along with very noisy shells directly above, providing the simulation of a convincing faux finale to finish! The various red and silver strobes also seemed appropriate for the theme as well – gives the feeling of announcing a winner at the Oscar’s. Most importantly about this display, the fireworks really brought these popular movies to life in a very dramatic and dignified manner, particularly in defining that calm intimidating feeling felt during the beginning of “Jaws” with the bright nautical strobes, the excitement and prestige of “Be our Guest” (especially with all the cakes of colored stars at the beginning) and the emotional feeling that was associated with “Titanic”. As for the finale, it was rich with flamboyant colors, and I don’t know about you guys, but it really reminded me of U.S.A 2003 in what they did in the end with those deep color transitions.

The only criticisms that come to mind were that, at times, despite the display being ubiquitous from left to right and top to bottom, during the Titanic soundtrack, the shells were fired for a little too long towards my left while not being assisted by anything else to the far right and center (only after some time) which at that point momentarily broke up the symmetry. Secondly, the horse tails were perhaps overused during the display, though this is not so much a criticism since they were relatively diverse. Other than that, though synchronization was very well done, there were a few spots where some shells didn’t quite connect on time with certain cues in some of the songs - besides the one shell firing erroneously at one point, one instance was during the Zurathusthra segment, where a couple of mid level kamuro shells didn’t explode right on time with the climactic part of the song. The horizontal circular structure itself was appropriate but didn’t really stand out as much to me as the ring or pyrodome they had used in the past (this is certainly not to say that the structure wasn’t relevant!). Finally, perhaps at times in between segments, as mentioned with prior displays, some slightly longer pauses would have been appreciated, particularly just following the penultimate part. That said, these criticisms are relatively minor and I personally thought the show was a real success in all criteria – absolutely a contender for a Jupiter.

Trav’s personal scorings (for fun):

-Pyrotechnic components: 9/10
-Synchronization: 9.5/10
-Soundtrack: 9.5/10
-Technical design: 9.7/10
-Pyromusical concept: 9/10

-Overall: 9.3/10 ---------->Spectacular!

(Scores will be adjusted before the closing ceremony).

Phew! I seem to have really written up a “storm” for this display. To think I did this from memory.

Trav.

Amazing show by luso! :d Although the theme has been made many times before i thought that their song choice was really great! It was great how they defined each sections of the display with just 2-3 colors rather than having all colors through out the display such as with the singing in the rain (all gold and silver), The good, the bad and the ugly (red, orange, and yellow), Bridge over the river kwai (green) and so on... The way they fire their one shots were quite different from the regular firing (left to right and vice versa).. one example of this would be in the psycho section where the comets where fired randomly in no particular pattern. They also used ground strobes or flame projectors to a new level, like in the good, the bad, and the ugly. Their nautical shells were used to a more "surprise" kind of way which was very effective in making the display more enjoyable rather than just firing them barrage after barrage.. Again roman candles and cakes were put to good use in this display.

The theme was nicely done, it felt like i was in a movie theater specially during the third piece of music after the star wars main title. Throughout the display i felt like i was watching excerpts of the best movies which was probably because of the way they incorporated the fireworks with the music. They could have made a more spot on synch specially with singing in the rain, but they didn't do this, instead they tried to bring you in that scene where the guy was singing on the rain... As for gone with the wind and the titanic section, it was great how they fired piece just on the left for gone with the wind and just on thr right for titanic. I loved the choreography made during the gone with the wind section. During the james bond section i thought they were simulating gun shots through the use of photoflashes which was very effective.

The finale was just grand.. Not overdone but at the same time didn't lack intense-ness. Just like what finales really do, it completed the display without making you feel that you want more!

So far the displays presented has been all great, I wonder if this display will complete the phrase "And the winner is...."

I grade this display 9.75

My rankings:
1. Portugal
2. Korea
3. France
4. Italy

vander

Travis,

About Italy's IPON S.R.L. clip of 2004, I think you had sent me the link to view the video on YOU TUBE recorded by jazzfestlover....is that right? I may be wrong though......but I was wondering if there was such a clip where you can view the finale from very close, without the interruptions (showing the peoples' reactions to the finale) like the one by Jazzfestlover! I have viewed other clips on you tube, but they are all showed from afar.

Thanks Travis....

Pierre

Pierre,

The one I had sent to you was the link provided here by canuck earlier last year. The video owner was "jmb77jm", but this was recorded from Notre-Dame and the sounds coming from the explosions in the video were off by about 3 seconds. However, this video offers no interruptions, as what is seen from that more popular video you mentioned by "Jazzfestlover".

Unfortunately, these are the only two videos I'm aware of that have footage of that wonderous finale. If I come across any related videos that offer a much closer viewing perspective, I'll be sure to let you know.

BTW, your clip from Spain 2004 (Caballer) still leaves me in so much amazement - that was virtually a 3 minute finale...The Portuguese finisher was also quite breathtaking - just listen to the audience's expression in my video.

Trav.

Just to let everyone know my report will be delayed a bit this week - I have some other things I have to attend to first and so will get it completed as soon as I can - at least I got the video and photos uploaded

Paul.

Wouhou !!! Vitor Machado came to visit my blog !!!
Thank you Paul and Fred for sharing my address as I have this weird feeling it has something to do with it...

He said :

'Dear Milene,

I would like to felicitate you for your blog.
We liked very much to read your passionate remark about our show.
Thank you for you comments.

Best Regards,


Vitor Machado
Luso Pirotecnia'

Isn't this too cool !?!

That's very cool!! It was such a fabulous display I want my report to do it justice - I just haven't had time to get it completed yet (big deadline at work this week which has to take priority sadly). I will post it when I can. So just a note to all the team at Grupo Luso - my report is coming soon - don't worry, it is a good one. The only thing I can say that I didn't like were the dim charcoal comet candles that fired at the start of the finale - they were almost invisible against the bright colour shells above! And that's all I can really think of as a negative - though a transition to a cold colour in the finale would have been fun, though Atlas did this in 2003 (which caused the audience to gasp).

That's it for now,

Paul.

Well ladies and gentleman, that's a display!

The finale was so loud and full of nice shells. It was certainly breathtaking!

My ranking:

1.Portugal
2.Hanwha
3.Italy
4.France
Oh btw, i posted a video of France and Portugal. Check MarzapanSRL on Youtube.

Pat

The only thing I can say that I didn't like were the dim charcoal comet candles that fired at the start of the finale - they were almost invisible against the bright colour shells above!

Actually, when I watched your entire video two days ago and got up to that point, I, too, noticed that they were nearly inconspicuous when contrasted with the first barrages of bright shells that introduced the finale - it was the same kind of idea when viewing from Notre-Dame as well.

As for the color choice of those comet candles, it would have been grand if they had used those seen from the segment of "Be Our Guest" or "Mission Impossible"!

Look forward to the report.

Trav.

I posted on PyroPlanet the report on Luso's display a couple of days ago. Now, I just add a kind of feature story about Mélanie Cagnon, a member of Luso's crew.

Fred

Fred, that's an interesting article, thanks for sharing the link. Perhaps I should put a button in the side menu which will bring up all the pyroplanet.com Montreal reports.

Paul.

Maybe, you should also add the American display's website http://www.rockloves.com/
hehe.

Finally my report is up as are all the photos.

I can't link in the sites for each company. The links at the left are related to the reporting of the competition so it made sense to include Mylene's since she is doing such a great job of covering the competition in French - especially now that we no longer have George Lamon's reports.

Paul.

Paul, thank you for your nice comment and for the addition of a link to PyroPlanet reports on the Montreal competition. I believe that it is important to do some cross-ads, as I always conclude my reports with a link to this website and, now, to Mylene's blog.

I just read your Portuguese report, watching the video at the same time. It was worth to take more time doing the report, it really does justice to the show (as well as a written report can do). I especially like your emphasize on how well transitions from one part to the next were designed, and on the audience behavior: the guy who was sat on your left has a smile as he did read the Ghostbusters segment!

Carefully reading report and watching video always bring me some questions regarding the specific vocabulary to use in order to describe rightly what happen. Having more time to devote to our passion, it would be interesting to produce a comprehensive classification of the pyrotechnic effects. I know several glossary on the web, but no one is comprehensive enough to do justice to the wide range of effects displayed in Montreal...

Fred

I really do also enjoy reading Paul's reports as they are informative and pretty much touches on everything seen in each segment of a performance. The writing style is also quite admirable to me because it reconstructs the entire display, just in written form.

I've become familiar with a great deal of the effects and am getting better at identifying them quickly once I see them (I'm also capable of memorizing a great deal of things at once, too - quite a valuable asset) - this is particularly why when I'm referring to a particular part to support the main point(s) in my reports, I tend to now describe what I saw more in detail by referring to the specific effects that were involved in whatever segment, as well as acknowledging a segment in how it was constructed and how this reflected upon the selected thematic framework in a peculiar way. I actually find this a lot of fun when writing in this way, and I find that it makes one write more creatively and fluidly, which is something I love doing in my work.

Speaking of reports, Paul, I noticed that you're still missing reviews for both the Australian and Canadian displays of 2006. Not to rush them, but it sort of makes the 2006 schedule look "incomplete". Of course, I still look forward to reading those as well, despite being almost two years later.

Edit: Heh....And it looks like the rains and storms spared the fireworks display at Sherbrooke tonight, although heavy rains are closing in! It's raining cats and dogs over here, though, as I write this, and these bands are again heading East.

Trav.