Hello everyone,

Please post your reviews of the South Korean display here.

Cheers,

Trav.

Due to professional duties on Thursday, I postpone my detailed review of this very good show, which featured excellent products and some very rare effects.

It is not clear to me whether Hanwha is or is not a contender for a Jupiter. It really depends of the upcoming performances.

We also had a demonstration of the importance to keep drones away from the audience!

Fred

My report: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1502

Hanwha Corporation’s material was properly delivered in Montreal, in contrast with the misfortune experienced by the South Korean team on its previous appearance in 2008. In my opinion, the result was a very good display, with special mention for the excellent pyrotechnic material. I was very excited when I read, in Paul’s interview, that Japanese pieces were part of the South Korean arsenal. One explained me, after the show, that few companies are willing to buy the distinctive Japanese products owing to their price point, and the consequent challenge to find customers ready to pay for them. I assume that peony shells with complex patterns of colour changes seen on “Start a Fire” were from Japan, as well as the rare smiley face shells turning into heart-shaped ones (changes of colours are frequent, but I don’t remember such changes of shapes)! Some shells of falling leaves (or short horsetails) also changed of colours four times, which is unusual for this type of product. The display also featured some (Italian?) cylindrical shells. The colours were often very vivid, which contributed to the brightness of the show despite the smoke which blew towards the grandstands.

While many individual pyrotechnic effects were sophisticated, the technical design of the show was also very complex. In addition to a fifth ramp augmented with some scaffolding, a series of reportedly 4-meter poles were installed along the third ramp, and a 72-meter crane displayed several slices of effects, topped with upwards mines, and two cables supporting a waterfall effect on each side. The poles allowed for interesting squared and angled patterns of gerbs on “Celebrate,” as well as a second level of flares above those appearing closer to the ground during other segments. On “Happy,” some sorts of gerbs apparently rolled along cables tighten between the scaffolding on some platforms of the 5th ramp. The devices at the top of the crane briefly erupted towards the mid-point of the show, on “Start a Fire,” but it really came into life on the “Sabre Dance”, where complex “rotating” shapes were created by fast sequences of one-shots. As Paul commented, it was high enough to allow a full 360-degree display. The waterfall appeared at the beginning of the ultimate segment on “Never Enough” for about one minute. Also, on La La Land “Another Day of Sun,” multicolour fans of mines oriented towards the audience, along the third ramp, reminded me two sequences of the 2018 Philippine show.

Nonetheless, the technical design also suffered of some problems. In addition to all the aforementioned special effects and structures, the South Korean team used some sort of drone, at the beginning of the penultimate segment of the show. With a bird-shape lightening effect (apparently not made of pyro), the remotely controlled device flew above the lake from the left side of the audience. But as soon as a gerb lit up, the device crashed into the lake. (I don’t buy the “intended effect” interpretation at all, as the crash began immediately when the gerb lit up.) It also appeared that some firing positions didn’t came into life during the last minutes of the show, mostly on the right side of the fifth ramp, causing some asymmetries. Finally, I found that the show lacked of density a couple of times. For instance, it took about 10 seconds to see the first pyrotechnic effects once the soundtrack started at the beginning of the show, and other brief moments lacked of pyrotechnic whereas the soundtrack could allow for more.

The soundtrack and the pyromusical design were very good. The former had some excellent transitions. Their were musics and pyrotechnic effects in the background of the three or four narrative segments. However, the choice of musics was not particularly bold, with some songs heard several times in the competition. (“Don’t stop me now” will be, by chance, part of the Italian show, three days after.) The pyrotechnic pieces were often well chosen to go with the musics or some sound effects : the double ascension girandolas on “Mary Poppins,” the strobes on the sound of thunder, etc. The show was organized around a pretty loose theme, which was emphasized by a narrative, but not so much effective in my opinion. The synchronization was excellent, with several note-synchronized sequences and, aside my reservation about the density of the show, the fireworks really followed the pace of the musics.

Overall, that was a very good show. I find it hard to predict the probability of Hanwha to reach the podium. The display was strong enough to get a good chance to be among the winners, but small weaknesses might be too numerous to convince me, at this early stage of the competition, that it is going to be on the podium. We will see.

Fred

A warm Summer’s evening featured mostly clear skies (some remnant high-level cirrus) a late-evening temperature of about 26 C, including during this first competitor’s display. Humidity was borderline moderate-high and induced a humidex of 31-32 C, but light WSW winds meant that the smoke would often be accumulating and gently moving towards central and right-hand sections of the La Ronde audience. Together with the higher humidity, this caused the display to frequently appear hazy from La Ronde.

This was a very entertaining display devised by the South Korean team. The splash of color was quite mesmerizing and was so often in such a delicate, yet rich, mixture. We observed some intriguing effects over the course of the show, such as shells of smiley faces transitioning to heart shells in “Happy” (this reminded me of Sweden 2016 to some extent, except that the smiley involved a large and distinct happy face at low-level, which we had wanted to see more than just once!), and the elaborate waterfall effect that appeared at the beginning of the final segment. The sequences of gerbs during “Celebrate” were extremely well executed in terms of the intricate square- and cross-like patterns that they assumed. We also enjoyed some note-tight sequences during portions of the show, augmenting the degree of precision in portraying subtle details of certain soundtrack. The central tower structure was also well utilized, and that, in itself, offered some additional opportunity to showcase tight choreography and sequencing! In that regard, the musical choice was quite enjoyable (sometimes immersive!), and I found it to generally evoke the correct emotional feel from a thematic premise such as this. For instance, I was particularly emotionally drawn to the display during the concluding piece of “Never enough”. The serenity of the waterfall effect emerging, and then the manner in which it faded to give way to a sudden rush of shells of glitters as the music reached its climax was simply fantastic. The carpet of flares during the beginning of “Ne m’oublie pas” was further a sharp transition from the activity featured by the previous segment.

Another segment that I was rather fond of was “Thunder”. The opening of this segment began with a couple of rounds of salutes as the sound of thunder roared at the beginning of the soundtrack. The choice of effects to represent thunder and lightning was relevant during this segment and generally did justice to highlighting a standard thunderstorm. I also found it appropriate, too, for this to be present in this first display of July, for July is the lightning capital of the year.

I also wanted to outline a few negative points. Firstly, the thematic premise seemed somewhat simplistic. For this reason, while the musical selection was enjoyable, it was not always clear to me to what extent some of the songs were relevant. Also, some of the transitions were not always clean, and some concluded rather abruptly. In one instance, the “Happy” segment concluded as though it was a cliff-hanger, as was the following piece, “The Starlight is Falling”. I found that so much more could have been done to end these segments before the music had completely faded. Similarly, the display might have also benefitted from some soundtrack editing for the purpose of shortening the length of some of the soundtrack, leaving room for others to be incorporated. At a couple of points, too, some firing positions did not come to life, inducing some brief moments of asymmetry, although this was not significant. I would have also liked to see the central tower structure used a little more in other segments, as well as other attempts to capture signature elements of some other soundtrack, like what had been shown in “Celebrate”. Finally, while the finale was certainly intense and emotionally enticing, it was a little short before the actual climax was reached.

In general, this was a very enjoyable display that is in contention for a Jupiter award. The music was quite enjoyable, and the diversity of effects and colors was superb. The quality of the products used was further of very good quality. It would have been fantastic if there were more attempts to explore other soundtrack with a larger degree of precision, but at least there were a few where this was obvious.

Trav.