Thursday, May 7, 2015

Renn Fayre Fireworks 2015

I don't have a different way to introduce this post when it's pretty similar to the last few, but another great Renn Fayre fireworks show is done! This was year #8 and I learned of both the existence of a Renn Fayre Czar handbook, and the fact that I am in it. So I guess that makes my show an Official Reed Institution!

As usual we shot from five positions with 1.75" shells and mines and 200g and 500g cakes, though this year no 1.3G cakes were used. The biggest change from last year was the weather, unlike last year it was absolutely perfect! Warm but not too hot, ground totally dry, and a nice gentle breeze during the show to clear the smoke.

The theme for 2015 was "Miami Boom Boom" and unlike most years, I decided to actually try to choose music that fit the theme. My original plan was to use all Cuban music, which I know nothing about, slowing down the rest of the show design significantly. I ended up just listening to random Cuban/salsa mixes on youtube and when I finally found a song I really liked and thought would fit well, I looked up the artist and found out he was Puerto Rican! I hand waved that away by saying there are a good number of Puerto Ricans in Miami even if the largest population in the US by far is in NY. At that point I was running short on time and gave up trying to stick strictly to the theme, so I ended up with two NY-based Americans of Puerto Rican descent, two songs from a New Orleans Jazz band, and one song from an actual Cuban! The songs used were:

Galactic - Hey Na Na
Tito Puente - Salsa y Sabor
Galactic - Karate
Mario Bauza - Ifa
Eddie Palmieri - Oyelo Que Te Conviene

The show looked great overall and I'm pretty happy with how the choreography turned out. The pace of the product matched the music pretty well, the shell and mine hits happened in the right places, most stuff started and stopped when it was supposed to, and the product looked good. Standout items that were new to this show were Deviant, Flash, Boneyard, Imperial Wizard, Patriotism, and Raging Ninja. As with last year there were a few points where I put more 200g cakes in than were needed and things got a little pukey, but overall everything looked good. Next year I want to try a little harder to create some more distinctive sections with unique effects, but that partially depends on product availability, which is limited by the timing of the show and the fact that I'm organizing it from CA.

I'm very happy with how the finale turned out, even if it didn't go perfectly to plan. The finale last year worked well and I designed this year in a similar way, but added even more big breaking cakes to go along with the mix of 200g, fans, mines, and tailed items. The last song ends with a big crescendo then a few horn blasts and the goal was to have all the cakes end when the body of the song did, allowing for 5-10 seconds of dead sky before the volley of 40 shells (last year had only 20) but as usual, 1.4G cakes tend to run longer than you expect. As a result, there was no actual dead sky between the last cakes and the shell volley, but all the cakes did end before the shells broke so it still looked great with no stragglers.

Other than some design tweaks, the other main goal for next year is a real video camera! Until then here is what I've got:

 

Until next year!