I've been posting about it pretty much since the smoke cleared from the Renn Fayre 2008 fireworks, and on Saturday May 2nd, I finally shot the 2009 show. It didn't quite live up to my high hopes because of weather-related problems, a couple scripting issues, and the fact that it wasn't the dramatic change of last year, but looking back at it, I'm fairly happy overall and the crowd seemed to enjoy it.
Short background for the various people reading this: Renn Fayre is the end of classes party at Reed College in Portland, OR. I graduated last year, and got them to put me in charge of the show, working with Wolverine West Fireworks. This year I came back as an alum to do it again and hope to keep doing it every year they'll have me back.
[This is a very long post, so if you just want the video, skip to the bottom. I've spent so much time working on this show that there is a lot to get out, even if I don't expect anyone else to read this or care. The next section will be setup, then a bit on music, then a breakdown of the show by sections.]
Setup
The basic show was pretty similar to last year. It was e-fired to music (more on the the music later) on the same field, with five positions spaced 40' apart. Last year included a few small 1.3G (professional class for non-pyros reading this) items, but this year was entirely 1.4G, meaning every firework in the show could be purchased at a fireworks stand in Washington (but not Oregon!). I'm continually impressed by the quality of 1.4G, even after everything I've shot. At the right distance and with a well designed show, good 1.4G looks just as good as some of the professional products.
We had the setup better organized than last year, and got on the field shortly after noon to get to work, which was great. We had a good crew of eight or nine people and I can't thank them enough for the hard work of putting to show together.
Above - Blue skies for the moment, with a huge pile of fireworks ready to be laid out and hooked up.
There was light rain in the forecast for much of the day, so we did our best to be prepared. Every item was wrapped in carpet film to try and keep water out, the cakes can then fire right through the plastic.
Right - Cakes at one position wrapped.
Wrapping each item was a very valuable precaution, but took a long time. Each item was already marked with a cue and ematched, which helped speed things up, but many of the ematches were short ones that needed to have their lead wires extended to reach the rails, which also added time to the setup.
We had light drizzle on and off, but later in the afternoon the sky got much darker and we got hit with some of the hardest rain I've seen in a long time. On top of that were wind and lightning, which struck and took down a tree about 200' from where we were working. All we could do was hope that the fireworks already out survived, and that the light plastic tarp covering all the fireworks that we hadn't wrapped yet stayed on. A couple guys got in the trailer, the rest of us lowered the tent and held the corners to keep it from blowing away and exposing more fireworks, all while getting soaked from the rain coming in sideways.
Left - Heavy rain, guys hiding in the trailer and product under the plastic sheet. Luckily we had the fire extinguishers.
The rain eventually stopped and the sky started to clear up, but we had lost a lot of time at this point. Combined with worries about how well things survived the rain, I was getting worried that we wouldn't get everything finished in time. I worked as fast as I could to get the rest of the shells and mines ready to be loaded into the racks, then had to go check the rails to see if we at least had something plugged into each cue, and found several things to fix.
By 8pm we had most of the fireworks set out, but still hadn't set up the audio or done continuity tests to make sure all the electrical systems were all connected and working. The cakes and individually cued shells and mines were almost all in place, so I ran around trying to get all the fountains for the finale buildup plugged in. I also had almost 80 shells for the last cue of the finale that still needed to be quickmatched and loaded into racks, by this point it was almost 9pm and obvious it was too late to get them loaded. We confirmed that all the modules were connected, but ran out of time before we could really check that every item was properly connected.
I was very stressed out at this point, but it was now too late to do anything about it (even to hit the beer garden for a few minutes to try and relax), so I just joined the crowd and hoped for the best.
At least the rain stopped a couple hours before showtime and I got a couple nice rainbow pictures before it got dark...
The Music
Last year, the music in the show was all from the band Explosions in the Sky. I wanted to do something different from the usual classic rock/pop that is used in most fireworks shows, and always felt their music would work well for fireworks. They are all instrumental, which I felt would help keep the fireworks as the focus, rather than worrying too much about the lyrics or meaning of the songs.
I tried to do something similar this year, making the soundtrack entirely from songs by Sigur Ros. Their music is similarly grand but also has some playfulness to it, especially on the last two albums. The lyrics are all in Icelandic or their made-up "Hopelandic," so it didn't distract from the fireworks and instruments. While I love ( ) and their other older stuff, every song but one was from their two most recent albums, Takk... and Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. I was tempted to throw in something more obscure to show the cool kids that I'm not a n00b, but songs like Dánarfregnir og jarðarfarir (or if you want to get super hardcore, Fjöll í austri fagurblá) don't really fit a fireworks show.
The final soundtrack (edited sections of each song):
1. Takk... (Takk...) 30 seconds of the atmospheric intro track to signal the start of the show.
2. Gobbledigook (Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust) Nearly the whole song, I was hoping to match mines to the start and the whole song is just a lot of fun.
3. Inní mér syngur vitleysingur (Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust) Another fun song with some great tempo changes.
4. Hoppípolla (Takk...) My relative pop-culture isolation meant I didn't realize this song has probably been a bit overplayed (I had never seen the trailer for Slumdog Millionaire) until after I was done scripting, but the lyrics and video of the song are great for Renn Fayre. Even if you don't know it that well, it is a beautiful song and works well for a slower section (like the image above from the show).
5. Sæglópur (Takk...) A more dramatic and intense song, with some nice tempo changes.
6. Olsen Olsen (Ágætis byrjun) A late addition when I made the show longer in response to an unexpectedly large budget, a nice break from the intensity of Sæglópur.
7. Festival (Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust) The fast end of this song was used and intended to be a false finale.
8. Glósóli (Takk...) The real finale music. Like "A Poor Man's Memory" from the finale last year, this song has a slow repetitive build followed by a huge crescendo, perfect for a finale. Using this references the intro of the show, on the album this song immediately follows it, providing some form of resolution. The music video is also very cool and fits well with Renn Fayre.
The Show
Direct link to cue sheet here: PDF file
The rain and lack of time to check everything meant that we had a 10-20% failure rate, which was unfortunate. In most cases it wasn't a huge deal, but other times it lead to some black sky, which is the nightmare of all pyros.
If you know the product you can follow along with the cue sheet and video linked below, but for the comments on each section, I will be refering to the time on the videos, not the cue sheet. I mention specific parts and items that worked well, but a lot of it is noting what didn't work, so there are lots of gory details.
1. Takk... - A nice way to get attention and all three fountains worked, with some nice silver sparks and decent height.
2. Gobbledigook - A mistake right away, the mines were supposed to be timed to match the opening guitar chords of the song, and they were all a couple seconds early. This happened on pretty much every mine in the show, which was incredibly frustrating because they were supposed to be my most accurately timed effect of the whole show. I think I screwed up when I translated the script I wrote from Excel into the fireworks script program... Just Light It (UP) is a great cake, but only two of three fired. Next up was supposed to be two 4 Tons of Fun #3 (UP), but they didn't fire, leading to a lot of black sky. As you can hear in the video, I was rather aggravated. At least the pair of shells broke right on cue (1:04) From here I was convinced everything was ruined, and had a hard time enjoying the things that did go right, so that was kind of a bummer. Razzle Dazzle (UP, starts about 1:39) was great, I wish I used more of them. Two of four Golden Willows at 2:30 didn't fire, but it still looked pretty good and the XO1 crackling willow shells at 2:38 were great. All three Killer in the Mist (UP) fired and are amazing for a 200g cake, but a High and Mighty (UP) that wasn't supposed to be here also started firing, so while everything else ended on cue (including a nice five shell volley of XO2s), that cake kept going long past the music.
3. Inní mér syngur vitleysingur - Only two of three Flying Fish with Zoom Power (WW) fired at the start of this song, but it still looked great. The mines at 4:49 were supposed to go a couple seconds later after the pause and right when the music picks up again, but it still looked fantastic and everything ended pretty much on cue.
4. Hoppípolla - The Blue Tie with Brocade Mine (WW) at the start of this section were supposed to be angled in V's, but I forgot with all my running around. Falling Water Chutes (WW) is a very elegant cake, though only two of three fired at 6:08. The timing at 6:53 worked perfectly, but the intended drama didn't quite work out when only one of three H2O (WW) fired at 7:02. 7:26 was supposed to be two PPS-8 (UP), but I couldn't get them, so this bit was a little repetitive. Almost every shell in the next part fired, and the XO1's looked great as usual. The two Gold Diggin Blonde (UP) were nice, but had a much longer duration than I had scripted, and went over the song. The three 3" Brocade Willows had nice large breaks with good hang time.
5. Sæglópur - The mines at the start of this song were early like the others, they were supposed to go on the piano chords. Three Eye of the Storm (UP) were supposed to fire at the same time, and while only two went, they still looked fantastic. Following that (0:29) was supposed to be three Red White and Bluetiful (UP), but only one fired. It is still pretty impressive by itself, so it wasn't the end of the world. Only one of two Catalyst (RR) fired at 0:50, which was disspointing because I bought two specifically for the show months ago, but it was covered up well by the 200g cakes. The mines in the next section were of course off, with one missing. Only two of three Pow Bam fired after that, but the breaks on that cake are great, so it still looked good. All three Thug fired, with the crackle getting a good response as usual. One of the Yin Yang at 2:14 stopped firing at one row and the third High and Mighty is missing because it fired earlier in the show, but the end of the song looked pretty good and ended on time.
6. Olsen Olsen - Vendetta (GG) is a pretty nice little cake, and the crackle shells at 3:23 broke right on cue, which was great. The popcorn crackle breaks in Curtain Call (BP) starting at 3:40 were absolutely massive and surprised even me (the size, not the effect!), as well as getting a big reaction from the audience. The cakes following Curtian Call were two Pro Blue and one Pro Red (Bigs), but one blue didn't fire and the other one didn't fire the last few shots.
7. Festival - Here you can see why Gimmie Shimmy (WW) is one of my favorite cakes, with great glitter, timing and firing pattern. One of my 4 Tons of Fun cakes was the wrong one (the labels are very similar), but it wasn't a problem and the Pyro Gumbo (PP) added some nice hard breaks. This was intended as a false finale, but wasn't really much bigger than some other sections earlier in the show, so I guess I didn't plan that very well and the false finale last year was probably more impressive.
8. Glósóli - The building to the finale was supposed to be an expanding triangle of fountains, while I didn't get them all set up in time, it still sort of worked. The mines went early as usual, but everything else started on cue. The breaks from BMF (Bigs) were huge and a nice addition I picked up. Three New Dimension (GB) and five Pow Bam added lots of big breaks to the end, but I feel like I didn't have enough intensity or a fast enough pace towards the end, I could have used another case of 500g and one or two more cases of 200g at the very end. If I had time to fuse in the finale barrage shells (30 WC Super Mag w/Tail and 48 UP Mega Pyro) it would have made a big difference, so it was dissapointing that they didn't make it in. I was happy to see that pretty much everything ended right on cue.
So that was the show in text form, which is always fascinating... I was stressed out from a long day of work and getting soaked, so the first few problems really frustrated me and colored my view of the whole show. Going back and watching the video, I'm a lot happier with how things turned out overall, especially given the difficult circumstances. Hopefully next year I'll have a chance to get more things right. After all, I ordered some fireworks several months ago that I plan on using for Renn Fayre 2010!
You can stop skipping the rest of this post, the video is finally here
The videos can also be found in my PyroU gallery.
Part 1 (direct link 55MB .avi)
Part 2 (direct link 50MB .avi)
Thank you to my wife for getting the video. I should also have a higher quality video (all one shot! a tripod!) in a month or so.
Update: A higher quality video of the show can be found here.
Back to main Renn Fayre Fireworks page.
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