Hi everyone,

Please share here your reviews/comments of the Hungarian display!

Trav.

On this perfect summer evening, the Hungarian entrant NUVU delivered an excellent debut performance and it appears as a serious contender for the podium. The setup of this nearly 33-minute extravaganza was complex and challenging for the team and the local pyros who assist the contestants : many were still very active on the third ramps around 7pm, for instance to install letter racks, and on the second ramp (even past 8pm) to setup two towers. I am afraid that we didn’t see the whole display designed by the team as we could see the basis for a third tower, and the illustrations of the Hungarian crown announced in Paul’s and Mylène’s interview reports; the interviewees had presciently evoked a scenario where a lack of time would cause such missing elements. In addition to the fourth permanent ramp and to the fifth ramp made of five platforms closer to the audience, NUVU has added two series of 15 pontoons on each side of the firing area, between ramp 3 and ramp 5 – in this review, I am going to refer to these perpendicular alignments as the 6th ramp.

That was a very ambitious setup, which allowed for an innovative and effective technical design. The sixth ramp really highlighted the depth of the firing area, sometimes with series of flares or fast sequences of flashes, sometimes with comets shot vertically or in converging patterns as during Bryan Adams’ Summer of ‘69. It created a 3D framework which I enjoyed a lot. This 6th ramp came into life several times during the show. Both towers featured various pyrotechnic devices but their role was less prominent than the 30 pontoons. They contributed to the opening segment with semi-circular fans of comets. Later, they featured flower-shaped fountains. During the finale, the fans of comets from these towers were lost among everything else.

About the quality of the pyrotechnic material, the richness of colours in this show was simply outstanding! First, the colours were numerous and so bright, it certainly contributed to mitigate the impact of the accumulation of smoke between the firing area and the on-site audience. Second, there were so many pieces with several changes of colours! We saw colour-changing mines, something rarely displayed in Montreal. The stars of some shells changed of colours four and even five times. Certain changes were subtle, for instance between different shades of purple or blue (I am afraid that videos don't do justice to such changes). During the ultimate segment, I said “Wow!” when I saw a shell whose pistil changed of colours at least four times. It is unfortunate that a such beauty was drowned in this very active finale.

The soundtrack was original with many Hungarian components, including an English-version of a patriotic song of Helldiver recorded specifically for this display, according to a Facebook post of Nuvu about one week ago. A such information should have been highlighted within one of the preshow announcements. I was extremely surprised and pleased to discover an Hungarian version of famous Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria, that is, Magyarország by Oláh Ibolya. The editing between this Hungarian and the original versions of Alegria was extremely well-done, as well as many transitions during the first half (or so) of the show. However, some transitions during the second half were too long and they caused “empty” moments.

The pyromusical design was excellent and it featured many symbols. That was especially the case during the Do-Re-Mi song crafted for kids (a funny segment), where notes were illustrated by letters made of stars shot from racks installed along the third ramp. Other symbols were created with stars vertically shot in very fast sequences, in order to create some shapes in the skype, like a treble chef during Do-Re-Mi, the shape of birds which soar on Demjén Ferenc’s Fly, Fly, and the number 69 on the music of Bryan Adams. Beyond the most active segments, I appreciated a lot some serene parts of the show, especially on the musics of Havasi Balázs Spring Wind, when the flower-shaped fountains appeared on the towers, along with wonderful sequences of gerbs on the 6th ramp, other piano note-synchronized mines and gerbs, etc. Generally speaking, the synchronization was excellent during the display, except that pyro was somewhat late at the start of some parts or stopped somewhat early at the end of other segments.

Hungary is the 30th country represented in the Montreal International Fireworks Competition. Thus, the national anthem played for the first time and I thought it is a beautiful piece of musics.

It is a shame that no more people have attended this show. The parking at the northern tip of the island was empty, the park was not crowded at all, and the audience was somewhat sparse in the grandstands. In contrast with previous fireworks days this year, the park has opened at 1pm instead of 2pm; it is unknown whether this is a permanent change.

Fred

Again I would like to thank forum member Mylene Salvas for tirelessly providing livestream of the shows on her Facebook page so even fans on the other side of the world could see the glory of these high level pyromusical shows in Montreal in real time.

I must say I was visually stunned by NUVU Kft's debut display in Montreal specially their aerial shells - those brocades and willows with tightly packed stars/tails and their very long burn times just puts me in awe. I also loved their double layered farfalles although they're not as perfect like the ones that IPON of Italy used to make - it's been a while since I last saw this effect in Montreal. The colours of effects are amongst the most vibrant I've seen in Montreal in recent memory.

It's evident in their pyromusical design that they want to bring home a Jupiter (this being of great honour for their country) and they delivered. There are few mistakes with the ground level choreography and I think the sky lettering in the do-re-mi segment is just too overdone - that most of the successive sequences broke apart (thankfully not the important parts in the song). The consistent patterns of mountain shapes and waves on ground level segment after segment looked repetitive as well though I still enjoyed them alot and save by the great interplay between the ramps (all of which were used here) I wasn't really bothered with these shortcomings. That said I hoped they used more candles.

The soundtrack is really great and refreshing, personally loved the last 3 songs including the finale. Though I hoped the finale was bigger, it was still great because the golden willows shells filled the sky completely and had exceptionally long burn time making it look like there were more shells in the final barrage than there actually were. Also the finale song is not that powerful so for me it didn't really require huge barrage of shells.

In recent years shows in the first half of the competition tend to be just OK or completely lackluster - and for some reason the final three displays in the schedule almost always tend to be the ones that end up running for the Jupiters. Hungary's debut display is one exception and considering the passion their team put to create this amazing display - I will be sad if they don't get invited back in the awards ceremony unless the next shows could impress me more.


melvin😁[b][/b]

My review of this excellent display!

http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1708

Paul.

Nuvu did an excellent and ambitious show last night. It was a magnific first entry to the Montreal competition.
I would like to emphasise the best aspects of the show:

First of all the great set up layout, they delivered an inmmersive experience using the whole area available from back to front, from right to left in a very clever way. I love how they managed to use different "layers" using the different sapaces La Ronde offers. In some parts of the show fireworks effects moved in perfect coordination through the space like if they were dancing. I love how they used the artificial ramp created over the lake specially during the first half and during the song "Alegria". I love when the audience can feel the one shots bursting so close.

Second, the amazing products. Specially the aerial ones. The strobe was amazing all the time, SUPER brigh and very rich in particles. The changing color effects and the one shots were great too, in general the products were all outstanding. Rich, consistants and reliable. You can tell without knowing about fireworks they were good.

Overall it was a great show, I wouldnt be surprised at all if they are on the podium cause you can tell it was a very well crafted show with attention to detail with a very nice design. The transition made with Alegria was great. I assume the first half of the edited song was in hungarian and then edited to fade into the most popular version, transitioning to the Quebecois part of the show.

To me this is the only "criticism" about the show. Not really a criticism but something I'm not very fan of. The fact the hungarian music show became a mix of quebecois songs is to me the weakest aspect of the show. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more being only hungarian folk and classical music. The choice for the last song was too tacky for my taste and didnt fit the spirit of the show. The finale was, as said before, not very powerful yet well conducted with those horstails filling the sky as a substitute of a bigger amount of shells.


Overall the show was amazing, well designed and very well balanced between single shots and aerial products which to me is very important.

Congratulations Nuvu. I bet you will be invited again

For a fourth consecutive time, a fireworks day was graced with dry weather this year. The Hungarian display met with a temperature of 23 C, moderate humidity and light WNW wind fields. Although enjoyable conditions, this also created a situation where the La Ronde audience would more likely observe periods of haze induced by accumulations of smoke focused especially at its central to left-hand sections, similar to what was observed over the course of the Mexican show.

The display itself was quite enjoyable, and it brought with it some very engaging and interactive moments throughout numerous segments. The colors often were vibrant and would often endure for an extended period before drowning into the night. In addition, the interplay of colors often was dazzling and really brought out some of the signature components of the employed soundtrack. This was especially the case from our vantage point because the smoke did not affect our viewing significantly, much like during the Mexican show.

At the very beginning of the performance, it became quickly apparent that this display would produce exemplary note-tight sequences as the low-level flares quickly raced from left to right and back during the narrated countdown. Indeed, as the display unfolded, we were treated to many fascinating sequences along low-level, when gerbs, mines and flares would delightfully dash across at interesting angles and speeds along the firing site, or astonish the audience when suddenly popping up at a critical portion of a given soundtrack. The “Do-Re-Mi” segment that had appeared shortly after the opening piece of the display was very well executed, although the smoke did affect the clarity of some letters as they emerged, as well as the richness of other mid-altitude effects. The “Summer of ‘69” was particularly well done in the sense that it carried with it much passion and elaboration that mixed incredibly well with the ever so graceful drooping shells and horsetails that had been present. Between these effects existed some large-calibre shells that showed off a magnificent hue of mauve at their centers! To a similar extent, the finale, though I was hoping for a stronger finish, in its entirety was well structured and flowed correctly from beginning to end. Still, I would say that my personal favorite segment of the display was that of “Algeria”, as it appeared both symbolically strong and commanded a distinct sense of emotion coming out of the previous segment.

Undoubtedly, for the reasons mentions above, the display was well executed. That said, one important aspect that was lacking, for me, was the conceptual design of the show, as the thematic representation was not always obvious. The theme had a conceptually complex nature, and so I was previously envisioning more of a journey-like attempt that would visually guide the audience through the evolutionary components surrounding this kind of theme. If such an approach would be been taken, then some (brief) narration could help to articulate the direction that the designers intend to send the display at various points. To that end, I was more so hoping to see an approach similar to Italy 2013, where we were structurally taken through a decadal trip or sorts that showcased the manner in which music evolved over time. In this display, I felt some degree of connection with several relevant soundtracks, but at the same time, there would also sometimes be interspersion with selections that seemed completely random and, at times, placed the display’s purpose out of context.

On the technical side, there were also some unusual moments of tranquility at the commencing of several segments. One notable instance was at the opening of “Fly, Fly”, when there was a somewhat prolonged period of silence as the music made itself known. This briefly produced a sunken feeling that there might have been some form of technical issue, but we were, thankfully, re-assured that this was not the case when the pyrotechnics came to life as they should. During those quiet openings (and closings, in some cases), I was envisioning that the void could have been filled with an arrangement of flares of some sort spreading ubiquitously along low-level, or perhaps some one-shot mines as a choice effect to depict the beating sound of the drums. In terms of closing a segment, there were moments of cliff-hangers. At the end of “Algeria” and “Summer of ‘69”, for example, the display, in my mind, faded much too quickly as the music could still faintly be heard for a decent period of time. Overall, this fairly often impacted the quality of the transitions.

In other cases, I felt like the display would have benefited from a wider scope of firing to really make an effective use of the available firing space. At times, this was achieved, but the firing style would quickly regress into a more constricted appearance along the center when it otherwise would have been more beneficial to maintain a larger width at some points. I would have further liked to see more use made of the two towers to potentially create an even more immersive delivery.

Overall, this was an impressive first display by the Hungarian team. Many segments were fluid and kept pace with the soundtrack, often cleverly bringing the songs to life in an elaborate manner. Although the theme felt out of place at times, the show held up a strong degree of organization altogether, and the music was generally enjoyable. There was also a clever interaction of effects while sustaining a symmetrical appearance from top to bottom and left to right. Upper-level affects were rarely unsupported by lower-level firing and vice versa, so this definitely gave the display a ‘complete’ feel with respect to visual appeal. The product quality was also quite apparent, with frequently strong color richness and symmetry that appeared across the arguably wide range of effects used, and it was further manifested through the endurance of the effects after being fired.

Definitely a strong contender, though there are still four (4) competitors remaining!

Trav.