Designing The Show

While other designer's dreams are brought to life through paint, textiles, wood and a myriad of other media, the vision of the pyro-musical designer is expressed in explosives. For this unique designer, the sky is their palette, bombs are their media and music, their inspiration.

The pyromusical designer is a relative newcomer to the world of fireworks. For hundreds of years, it was the shell/bomb maker who was the artistic force behind any fireworks display.

Now, the focus of attention has shifted towards an overall vision of a fireworks "show". Synchronization, structure, coordination and rhythm are the new standards. The shell/bomb maker is still a very important player in the process, working behind the scenes to create a repertoire of bombs that explode with precision giving the desired effect. However, now the shell maker gets his/her direction from the designer.

Even before the designer begins, a number of important factors shape the show, including budget, location, length, weather, safety issues and specific directions or a "theme" the client or competition has put forward. Once these have been established, the long design process begins.

Selecting the music
The design process starts with the music. The designer and his or her team invest a lot of time listening to music and have usually developed a bank of music they find inspiring and conducive to pyrotechnics.

Once the music is selected, a soundtrack is built. The soundtrack is constructed to conform with the time duration that has been set by the client or competition. It is important the soundtrack not only have a homogeneity to it, which allows for one feeling to make a natural transition into another, but that it also has both high points and low points, with which to shape the show.

Designing the show
Once the soundtrack is built, the designer begins to visually create the show. Listening to the music, they take note of the colours, forms, shapes and rhythms that come to mind. These will ultimately express themselves in the fireworks used.

Then the soundtrack is cut, section by section. Each section serves as a frame within which the show is built. Accent points in the music are targeted, and these become the points to which the special effects are synchronized.

In the pyroarchitecure, the designer treats the water and the skies as vast building blocks, designing the tableaus of the show from the bottom up. Smoke plays an important role in shaping the design. Since the tableaus are created on different levels, something high and spectacular must be followed by low images like aquatic bombs or a cascading waterfall to allow the smoke to dissipate.

The designer and team must then cost out the show to determine whether or not it is within budget. The designer then returns to his or her vision and makes any necessary changes.

With all revisions made, the designer transfers his/her ideas onto paper. The designer then begins working with a master bomb maker. The designs use both existing bombs and specially configured bombs created especially for a specific effect the designer has in mind.

On average, it takes a show designer about four to six hours to plan the fireworks spectacle for each minute of music for a 25-minute show - meticulously synchronizing the fireworks to cues on the recorded soundtrack.

Firing the show
Today's fireworks teams use computers to develop the script, synchronization and timing of the show, and more and more teams also use them to fire their shows electrically from the firing booth. Some teams opt to fire them individually so as to be able to react immediately to changing environmental elements such as humidity (which can make a fuse burn slightly slower). Other teams have the computer run the firing of the entire show.

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