Please post your reviews of the Japanese display here!

Trav.

That was a surprising show from the Japanese recruit. Following interviews reported on Paul's and Mylène's blogs, where I learnt about Aoki's limited experience with international competitions, I have been afraid that we might experience a typical "fireworks with music" show instead of a genuine pyromusical. I was wrong.

Clearly, the strongest component of Aoki performance was the high quality of the pyrotechnic material. It was pure pleasure to watch these beautiful and numerous flower-shape shells. Richness of colours was incredible: colours were vivid, diverse, and we saw so many shells with changes of colours, ones after others... I counted four colour changes for some shells, but Simon told me that he had counted ever more colour changes for others. Having so many home-made pieces also helps to bring original stuff to the competition. Thus we enjoyed some rare (and surprising) species, like these Niagara falls which tardily lit up with small colour stars, and horse tails with go-getter endings!

The soundtrack sounded Asian, but not exactly the stereotypical Japanese music. A great soundtrack, with orchestral segments, and many sudden changes of beat perfectly reflected in fireworks. For instance, I found the opening very slow, but it was just a way to surprise the audience with a sudden pace increase with spectacular sequences of mines across the firing ramps. Synchronization was perfect through the show. Apart some flame effects which had wrong colours here and there, it was flawless, with no (obvious) technical problem through this 32-minute show. Don't try to find a theme, or a clear concept to this show and its soundtrack: that was a very traditional pyromusical display, with atmospheric music. But this haven't prevented some contestants to win (i.e.: Royal Pyrotechnie).

However, the show suffers of some minor weaknesses which make me believe that Aoki will not be on the podium this year. The most important is the repetition of pyrotechnic effects and patterns. A wider range of effects would be welcomed for next Aoki appearance in Montreal.

In conclusion, that was a great display, produced in front of a large audience, much larger than usual opening shows thanks to the late date, summer weather and a 3-day weekend.

Fred

I found Aoki's show very disappointing. They relied too much on their products without giving more attention to the choreography and the show itself. As already expected from Japan, the products were top notch but that's pretty much all that's good in the show. Synchronization wasn't really present most of the time but they were quite effective during the times they were there. The one shots were less than what i had in mind when i saw the incredible cue count. The "mountain" shapes that they used were very impressive and they were even more effective because of the large caliber of one shots they used. This said, it got repetitive half way in the show. The shells choreography were made more in an exhibition style than a pyromusical style. The display would have worked even without the music and this isn't a good impression. Many times in the show, the shells were just left alone without any ground support which gave the feeling of emptiness which made the show boring. There wasn't much fun in the choreography, aside from the farfalle section near the end. The finale was alright and very typical Japanese with lots of ground work while the sky's being filled with silver.

Overall, i was expecting a lot from aoki and i felt that they could have done a lot better, specially with so many cues available at hand! They wasted them on individually cuing each shells This is too bad since i love most of the shows they've done in the past! Their shells are always great to look at and also when they use really fast mine and comet sequences! They're also the masters of color changing products

Vander

Very good debut performance from Aoki Fireworks. The first 15 min of the display was very well done. Excellent choice of soundtrack! Synchronization was good, but some parts could've been better. Finale should've been longer! Overall, a very respective show for a first timer. There were crazy amount of people at La Ronde last night!

My own feelings range between Fred and Vander's opinions.

The quality of the pyrotechnic material was indeed exceptional, with rare shells such as the aformentioned horsetails to go-getters, with a transition that occured where one would normally expect the horsetail to extinguish, and some seven-colors stars on high caliber shells.

The shapes traced by comets and mines were quite complex, with the mountains observed by Vander and some trangle shapes produced by firing from the center to the exterior sides of ramp #3 at an ever increasing angle. I believe this technique was used by team Australia last year, if my memory serves me right.

Yet, I found that the synchronization work, though excellent, was more of a mechanical nature than a technique used to express emotion. Fred compared this display to Voilà, but I feel that the latter used synchronization better with regards to the Wall-E and Bummel Petrus sequences, which evoked particular emotions in the audience instead of firing strictly to a note-for-note purpose.

I also found the finale to be on the weak side due to its very short duration. It was powerful alright, but it lasted a little more than 30 seconds, with a very short ultimate bombardment. There was also no proper crescendo to introduce it, as the penultimate volley of shells before the finale were multibreaks fired two at the time.

I also noticed wrong products, especially one-shots, at places, which were made even more apparent due to the firing patterns used.

This was an enjoyable display, but for these reasons, I don't think we'll see Aoki on the podium this year.

The French report, pictures, video and post-display interview are available at Pyro Québec.

The video is on the dark side, so I guess I'll have to bump the settings somewhat next time. I set this exposure to avoid overexposing color shells, but the kamuros and horsetails basically disappeared... f/5, 1/60 s, ISO 1250 it will be next time !

STL

Glad to see people are back with their own opinion !

As Canada-day long week-end is made for display in Knowlton and sunbathing on the extra day, for now, it's only the pics. Report will come later : Mylene et Artifice

Countdown has started for Swiss...

Altogether, I have seen perhaps 30 Montreal shows. Given some of the criticisms of this show, I wanted to say I thought it was outstanding. I found the rapid angled comet sequences in combination with huge fans to be visually absolutely stunning, and some of the huge high chrysanthemum shells had an amazing structure. Yes, there were a few times that it seemed a bit repetitive, but overall I found the presentation (visually and musically) gripping. For me, the show seemed beautifully choreographed. It may not win a Jupiter, but I would be delighted if it did.

My apologies for this late posting, as I I had been preoccupied with my research thesis, as well as documenting severe weather!

Generally pleasant weather conditions prevailed for the Japanese debutante, but a few isolated convective rains had developed several hours before the display was set to take place. A passing cold front was descending from the NW into S. Quebec, enhancing convection at the time. By evening, instability, as expected, subsided, leaving a few clouds, moderate humidity, and temperatures hovering around 24-26 C. Winds were also gusty during the afternoon hours from the SW but sharply weakened by the early evening period. During the first half of the display, winds initially came out from the East, allowing smoke to actually push towards Notre-Dame street, but for the latter sections of the show, winds gradually took on closer directional tendencies to what had been forecasted.

You will notice that my comments for the Japanese performance fluctuate between what has already been expressed in previous reviews. Overall, I thought that the display presented by Aoki Fireworks was well crafted and certainly held many surprises for a debut display. The show featured a good diversity of high-quality product, enjoyable choreography, an interesting selection of soundtrack, and some fantastic transitions in pace from one segment to another. For myself, the strongest aspects of this display were the musical choices, the fabulous choreography, especially at low level, and the general structure of the show. Although the beginning of the display was somewhat anti-climactic, the sudden burst of shells thereafter was really captivating, something that had been frequent in the segments to follow.

My principal criticisms with this display are redundancy and, as Fred also stated in his review, a lack of a sound thematic premise. For the former, though most of the music selections employed were, for the most part, enjoyable, I was under the impression that the fireworks were often not doing many of the tracks justice, naturally giving the feeling that the vitality of the music was not always adequately brought out as it could have been. As one example, at times, I found that the fireworks were not always following the intricacies in rhythm and pace, something that was, for me, prominent during the more vigorous soundtrack heard for parts of the first half of the display. As a result, the show sometimes did not exhibit the degree of complexity or creativty that I had initially imagined with respect to synchronization, and there were a few moments where attempts at synchronization appeared to be a simple interplay between music and fireworks. The repetition in firing scheme seen through a number of segments also acted to reduce musical representation, and there were also a couple of points where transitions between soundtrack were a little abrupt (such as segment two to three). However, as mentioned previously, the highest level of complexity was best exemplified with the use of the low level sequences of angled mines seen during segment three, as well as for many other low to mid level effects used, allowing for some particularly effective attempts at choreography. The music itself comprised of a good choice of tracks, but I felt that it lost some of its vigor/fluidity toward the latter parts of the show. Near the end, I also envisioned that the performance would have probably benefited from soundtrack editing, as opposed to using full-length (or near full-length) tracks - this may have helped to reduce/avoid repetition in firing scheme.

With the artistic nature that the display commanded, it was evident that the theme was broadly portrayed, but the subtle details that encompassed the thematic framework were not always so clear. While the intent of the theme was generally demonstrated (mostly through transitions in pace, and the different effects used), it was frequently difficult to visualize what relevance the music selections had. Consequently, it became a challenge to grasp the key components that may have engendered the theme. In this sense, it was also a little surprising that the finale was relatively small, and so short - even though I was not expecting a large and vehement finish, I initially thought that with the artistically-oriented approach, the finale would resemble large barrages of weeping willows at mid to high levels, followed by a concluding volley of salutes.

The design of the display was good. In general, the diversity of effects was high, and the color richness was fabulous, but it seemed that the range of color was somewhat limited at times, as there appeared to be more of a focus on red and beige relative to other colors, particularly for parts of the first half of the display. This took a little away from a few early segments with respect to creativity, as a more diversified color selection would have been more representative during those points. Also, while it is true that many sections of the display filled the sky at all altitudes, for some of the initial segments of the display, there were times where high level activity was unsupported by that at low to mid levels, creating a sense of disproportion at those points. The structure of the display, however, was very well organized, and though I did not fully comprehend the theme, the artistry shown was, again, certainly pronounced, and this was further augmented by the high product quality employed. In terms of the products used, I was enthralled not only by the enjoyable low level sequences, but also by the exquisite farfalles, as well as the occasional rising tail shells (always a pleaser) and the massive 12" shells. In addition, the performance maintained excellent symmetry - this was particularly noticeable when fans of comets emerged from low levels (left, right or central, or a combination of the three) to support higher level activity later in the display.

All that being said, this was an absolutely enjoyable debut display by Aoki Fireworks, as it offered many intriguing pieces, magnificent sequences, and a great music selection. It would certainly be a treat to have the team return to Montreal to participate once again!

Trav.

Finally my report is up - it was a challenge to get this done due to working on my Canada Day display on Sunday and being out of town all week.

http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=542