Hello everyone,

Please share here your thoughts/comments/reviews for the Croatian display!

Trav.

Perfect weather conditions and maybe the largest attendance so far this season – but still very moderate, with a lot of available seats – were the backdrop of this very good returning show of Mirnovec Pirotehnika. I felt that it pleased a lot to occasional viewers, but it raised many criticisms among those who regularly attend the competition. Personally, I felt very engaged in the Croatian display (I moved a lot on my seat!), but it is hard to ignore a number of weaknesses. Once the show ended, only one member of the Mirnovec crew appeared by the window of the control room and his greeting to the audience – which was even giving a standing ovation! – was very brief, so I suspect that team members were not fully satisfied of their performance.

Nine years after their debut display entitled “Artificial Intelligence” in 2013, Mirnovec Pirotehnika selected a more conventional theme, “Dance with the stars.” The dance theme has been selected several times over the years, typically with a very light storyline (or no storyline at all). It was the case with “Let’s Dance,” the Austrian show of steyrFire in 2018, which was awarded a Silver Jupiter. In contrast, “Visit in a School Dance” performed by the German team Weco in 2000 (Gold Jupiter) had a very elaborated, creative and effective storyline. In the case of Mirnovec Pirotehnika, the soundtrack included 13 titles reflecting as many types of dance, each introduced by a narrator. Each.

The show began and ended in the same way than the 2013 Croatian display, that is, with some narrative and a slightly anti-climactic way. Thus, the official countdown was followed by a text introducing the general theme of the show, without any music (the 15 segments with the narrator had neither music in the background, nor fireworks, except some erratic products). Then, a (I presume) 12-inch shell of red stars with a twinkling pistil was exhibited, still with no music. After this, a 2nd segment of the speech introduced The Twist. So the pyromusical performance actually started about 45 seconds after the narrative had begun. The end of the show was not as anti-climactic as the beginning : the last tableau was very powerful, and the lighting of the Ferris Wheel came back into life as soon as the last fireworks went out, a clear cue that the show is over. Michel Lacroix’s closing words began... but the soundtrack wasn’t finished yet! Indeed, we heard simultaneously the ultimate segment of the narrative, a “goodbye” message from the Croatian team to the audience. From the beginning to the end of all the narrative, the soundtrack lasted about 33 minutes and 45 seconds. From the first to the last pyrotechnic effects, I recorded exactly 33 minutes.

With a such overarching structure, the Croatian entrant remained stick to its theme. The soundtrack featured a broad range of musics, from diverse parts of the world as well as different ages. The (reportedly) French speaker did an excellent recording – while he introduced the samba as a “brazilienne” dance, pronounced in English (instead of a “brésilienne” one) – but it would have been better with musics in the background, like in the Canadian show. It is also obvious that many viewers would have preferred shorter and less numerous narrative segments. It is very rare that each component of a soundtrack is introduced by a speaker. Without fireworks displayed during these moments, the performance was very often interrupted and wasn’t an experience as pleasant as a more continuous one in my opinion – even if the total duration was over 30 minutes. By spacing all segments in that way, it was not really possible to put the quality of the transitions to the test. However, I may imagine that other people did not react in the same way, finding this narrative helpful to add cohesiveness into this extravaganza.

That being said, considering one segment of the show at a time, almost all parts of the display were well designed (I was less impressed with the Sirtaki segment), with a good range of products, several times fired in fast sequences, for example in the Boogie Woogie part. Many pieces had vivid colours. We have seen a number of shells with multiple changes of colours. During the Sirtaki part, I saw one with four changes of colours. While we didn’t see any nautical shells, the range of nautical products was the largest so far this year. I especially loved some rare pieces which were launched over the water, and then vertically shot stars ending in tourbillons (on Mambo No. 5), or erupted in some clusters of red crossettes. The Mambo No. 5 song led to some number-shaped mines (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). We saw a number of very well done barrages made of overlapping V-shaped cakes shooting comets or stars, sometimes to an impressive altitude, including during the tango segment (Accordions Galore) and the finale. On a mix of musics from the Hermes House Band, the finale brought me to scream as the accumulation of white chrysanthemum was soon augmented by a barrage of seven overlapping fans of thick white comets from 10-second cakes, then by a flight of very loud whistlers.

Most of the time, the synchronization was flawless, and included many note- or lyric-synchronized sequences. The precision was impressive in some aforementioned fast sequences of firing. However, it was somewhat weaker during other segments, like on Sirtaki where the pace of the fireworks (many shells of falling strobes) didn't increase as much as the tempo of the music, as well as some times where pieces came into life at the wrong moment.

Indeed, the pyromusical design has suffered of a number of “errors.” I had already mentioned the very first shell which was launched with no music between the general introduction and the introduction of the first dance. During the narrative which led to the chachacha segment (Marimba), a series of shells of red crossettes – apparently supposed to be fired later in that segment – came into life on the left side of the firing area. On Blue Danube Waltz, a cake suddenly entered into eruption, also on the left side. At the end of Dernière danse, shells of red stars continued to burst after the music and during the subsequent narrative. These are some examples, and there were a couple more problems of this type.

The technical design was pretty conventional, with material installed on the ramps 1, 2, and 3. There were a lot of firing positions along the third ramp. Early this week, Paul reported from his interview that fifth ramp was supposed to be part of that show as well. There was absolutely no pyrotechnic product on the five pontoons in the middle of the lake. I hypothesize that a number of effects fired from five positions along the third ramp (e.g., a set of five cakes of multicolour stars ignited on Mambo no. 5, and other cakes during Country Roads) were initially supposed to be located on the fifth ramp, where the proximity with the audience would have increased their effectiveness. When I rode the Ferris Wheel between 6:30 and 7:00pm, many pyros were still working on the third ramp.

Overall that was a very good show. I felt engaged in the display several times and I had a lot of fun to watch it. The finale was also spectacular! However, the flow was regularly interrupted by the narrative and there were some errors throughout the show. That being said, the 2013 debut extravaganza of Mirnovec Pirotehnika had similar anti-climactic opening and closing moments, and it was awarded the Silver Jupiter.

So, my personal ranking so far :

1. Nuvu (Hungary)
2. Feux d’artifice Orion (Canada)
3. Lieto S.R.L. (Italy)
4. Mirnovec Pirotehnika (Croatia)
5. Sirius Pyrotechnics (Mexico)

This show occurred in a competition where all other contestants had also various weaknesses, so I feel the competition is still tight between 4 out of 5 participants. To make predictions may be very hard this year.

Fred

Well, I'm very surprised by the Croatian performance. Her last entrance was a very good one and the given information about the complexity of the show made me believe it could be the ultimate chance for Croatia to get the gold. Nothing could be more untrue.

First of all let me adress one thing I've been thinking about too much lately. It doesn't only concerns the Croatian display but the whole fireworks design industry. I feel fireworks designers are nowadays too worried about the use of single shots and focused on having perfect timmed ground effects, focusing too much on the timming and forgetting about the feeling and emotions of the music . I'm not saying single shots are bad, I actually LOVE single shots, but I feel most of the displays in the last years lack some kind of emotion, they look too scripted and they all look too similar. There is a lack of uniqueness and personal style in the shows. The croatian display is a perfect example to explain this situation since they did a totaly different approach in terms of design in their last entry and it really worked MUCH better using 4000 less cues.

What happened? Here is my opinion on the subject and my review:

Compared to the 2013 show this season display looked empty. There is plenty of moments on the display were shells are the only thing firing. There was no balance between ground, middle and high level. I believe the main reason is they focused too much (almost all the time) on creating fast yet short one shot sequences when the music had some clear rhythm but forgeting about the low level during the rest of the display and most important forgetting about the overall feeling of the music. Moreover, some of the one shot sequences were repetitives and overdone, being almost impossible to follow the peace of the music since there were too much single shots on the sequence. Most of the segments were structured around the single shots and forgetting about the emotions or the overall feeling of the music being played.

I really enjoyed the big walls of single shots created during the waltz segment. Powerfull, fast very well placed.

They had also a hard time holding the interest through the dispaly. Narration was too long and overused. I guess they use it in case there is no wind to avoid smoke accumulations but there are other ways to do it. The narration was not needed since the theme was simple enough. Narration in general in anti climatic, specially when the show is over. The second half of the display was suprisingly uninspired, some segments looked very empty. The long narration between songs, the weak closings of the segments and the emptiness of the show made the second half quite unexciting.


I'm not saying the show was bad at all, I'm just a bit disappointed. Their 2013 display was somehow more conservative yet powerfull, it was very balanced and I was wondering if the increase of cues could be the refinement of that style. But it ended up being the contrary. I feel they lost the essence of their style tryng to sinch every note and forgetting about the emotion and overall feeling. And I'm not here for it.

I think a lot of designers should reconsider the way they approach the shows because I feel we are losing uniqueness.

After re watching Croatia's show. First half of the show was decent and enjoyable, but then the second half the show I ended up feeling bad for the competitor.

What I loved where the segments (La bamaba, Mambo no 5, and Boogie Woogie) where the shells and timing was fantastic. Also, another what else I love this show is the feeling of going through the different dance styles and music.

Aside from that this show was more "interesting". With so much product errors this was a hard show to watch and I agree with everyone here about the dialog being way too long.

I give them the credit though of the ambition and taking a risk of this show.

Lets hope they compete again soon.

My personal ranks:

1. Canada
2. Hungary
3. Italy
4. Croatia
5. Mexico

This year's competition feels more interesting and odd. I am curious to see who wins this year.

My report on the Croatian show is here: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1779

It's a shame we can never know how the full design would have been. The team simply ran out of time and I don't even mention the setup errors in the report as this is what happens when you're tired out and against the clock. A good effort that was definitely enjoyable, but these shows that are punctuated with narration never do it for me, unfortunately.

http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1779

Paul wrote in his report: Nikola told me at least 150 slice cakes were still on the truck at display time.

I believe this is a very interesting piece of information. Not only for the missing 150 slice cakes, but for what it reveals about the conditions surrounding the setup of the show (which were apparent in the interview report on Monday, of course).

As far as we know, this is the second display this year which is not entirely setup by the display time. The Hungarian team also ran out of time, the Hungarian crown being missing (a situation which was anticipated by Ferenc Tóth in his interview).

So I wonder to what extent these situations are due to the lack of experience or the lack of preparation of the competing teams, or also to some budget cuts and/or the shortage of labour which does not spare this field.

Fred

I agree with you Fred 100%. Personality, I feel like there's just a shortage all around the fireworks industry no matter how you look at it. From products to crew this has always been an issue (since the pandemic). Even though yes everything is back to normal(almost). The shortages are still clear as daylight.

Pleasant weather conditions were present for the Croatian display, with a temperature of 24 C during display time that was accompanied by moderate humidity. The light Southerly winds pushed the smoke gently clear to La Ronde’s right, making this truly the closest situation to perfect conditions for a fireworks night this year so far.

After learning increasingly more about the conceptual framework that would surround the Croatian show, my anticipation was substantially built. Indeed, being a huge fan of dance-oriented performances over the years, especially after Italy 2013’s enormously successful delivery, I was really hoping to see a very energetic and complex display to represent the various soundtrack expected in this show.

The display itself, for me, was enjoyable, even though it was obvious that the fireworks were frequently not keeping pace with the music, or lacking the approach to cleverly highlight signature components of the soundtrack when appropriate. On that note, as much as I enjoyed most of the songs used for the display, I felt often a disconnect occurring between the fireworks and music. The songs were generally very engaging and fun to listen to (including a few favorites), but, as mentioned, the fireworks were just not able to essentially “dance” effectively with the music.

At many points, it became obvious that there could have easily been low-level support to highlight the changing flow of the songs. Many of the songs used required being visually articulated in much more complex ways, but this was frequently not the case, unfortunately. Instead, the fireworks were showcased by rather rudimentary firing styles focused to three to four principal firing positions along the site’s center. That said, there were several moments of amazement. Notably, I was astonished by the explosions of color and low-level effects that would just suddenly come to life to elaborate the songs, really capturing the audience’s attention during those particular moments. However, this would not last. What would quickly appear to be a promising demonstration of energy and creativity would just randomly back down (sometimes suddenly), as if those moments ran out of fuel. As such, the interesting rhythms that were once established would correspondingly become lost. The choice of effects was also good in some spots but unclear in others. For instance, the use of horsetails during “Zorbas” just did not make sense and did not fit the spirit of the setting that was present during this segment. The “Zorbas” section, in particular, demanded a much more complex approach in terms of note-tight synchronization to highlight the intricacies defining this song, as well as a better interplay between effects to truly show off the glamor that a segment like this should realistically have.

At the other end of the spectrum, there were times where the Croatian team really dazzled the audience with the correct selection of effects and palette of color to bring to light those songs – in particular, the splash of color mentioned above made a delightful appearance during the “Mambo” segment and was very nicely portrayed, as was in “Boogie Woogie Country Girl”. The “Country Roads” piece, serving as the penultimate section of this show, also featured some robust firing patterns that really helped to amplify the enjoyment of the music, although, again, the flow would be quickly dampened in favor of a more simplistic firing pattern. That penultimate piece really elicited some classic changes in tempo that needed to be more carefully explored through the pyrotechnics in order to bring out the essence of that segment, among so many others.

Also occurring were some firing errors, where low-level shots or random shells of red strobing stars firing on our left would continue after the music would end. Moments of asymmetry would further occasionally occur with the brilliant fans of colorful stars and comets near the surface.

Finally, as posters previously referred to, the use of narration from segment to segment was excessive and did sever the fluidity of the show. I do not believe that the inclusion of narration was necessarily a mistake altogether, but if it is determined by competing teams that narration absolutely must be used, it should follow a dazzling and very convincing opening piece after the countdown to 10:00 p.m. Only after having the audience engaged for the first 30 seconds or so is it appropriate to introduce broadly what the goal(s) of the display would look like. Even so, any narration should be brief and limited in use. During the Italian display of 2013, the narration, I found, was sometimes disruptive while trying to listen to and enjoy the music, even though the narration was probably a necessary step to briefly inform the audience where the display was heading from that decade-to-decade journey. More dichotomous designs may only require a brief period of narration appearing twice. In the case of the Croatian display, I suspect that the thematic and conceptual premises carried with them a strong self-explanatory setting, and so seemingly no narration at all would likely have carried across the message sufficiently well.

The finale was excellent but needed a little more length. Still, this was the second best concluding segment (after the Italian conclusion) so far this year.

Although it seemed very evident that more was intended over the course of this display, I must give the Croatian team credit for doing their absolute best to setup what we were able to actually see. I cannot help but wonder what the display might have been like in its truest form.

Trav.