13 posts tagged “plans”
In other news, Rod and I went down to Portland to present to the event committee for the Renn Fayre show and everything is on track.
I also placed on order with Spirit of 76 for some fireworks. Quite a few of the items aren't in stock, so we'll see what gets in before they ship. I ordered these items (splitting some cases):
200g:
Night Vision (BP)
Clipper (BP)
500g:
Reach for the Sky (Winda)
Hot Wire (BP)
The New Hotness (BP)
Spicy Hot (Firehawk)
Jail Bait (Winda)
Cyborg Duel (Cannon)
The Matador (Cannon)
I'm also splittings cases of Grand Chariot (Cannon) and Strong Man (Winda), and hopefully getting a case of Magnum Power (Winda). Should make a nice little pile! I'll shoot some at the group shoot, others will be saved for my own uses, and possibly even for next year's Renn Fayre show, how is that for planning ahead?
I took a trip with Rod today down to the Wolverine magazines in order to pull product for my upcoming Renn Fayre show, as well as get some other stuff down there and do a little test (more on that in a post up soon).
I was worried about everything being in stock because things are a bit low, but was able to find almost everything I had scripted. The only things missing were one Big City Lights (used mainly as filler and replaced with a Heavenly Delight) and two Platinum Pro 8's. I might find some elsewhere, otherwise they will be replaced with a couple Falling Water Chutes and Blue Tie with Brocade Mine (hardly equal, but I don't have too many gold/blue items to choose from for this segment of the show).
I also added a couple things, the show is never done! I got two more High and Mighty to add more big breaks to the finale, as well as a United Pyro shell kit with 48 single/double/triple break shells called Mega Pyro Pro, which I plan on quickmatching for a finale barrage.
On Thursday Rod and I are going down the Portland for a meeting with the event organizers, shouldn't be too eventful, but it will take care of some necessary business.
Yesterday I borrowed a laptop from Rod at Wolverine and worked on moving my script from my draft excel file into ScriptMaker. I'd never used the program before, but it was pretty easy and straightforward. Then it has to be put into CueMaker and other steps I haven't done, but hope learn eventually, before the final thing is ready. I kept the script pretty much the same as my last draft, but keep thinking something should change. I think the body is all ok, but I'm worried that the finale needs more, even after my last shopping trip for extras. I might see about adding shells to the very end and adding a couple cakes with larger breaks like High and Mighty to the start of the finale. But endless tweaking has to stop eventually...
Tomorrow I'll go to the magazines with Rod and pull the product and mark cues, hopefully the inventory sheet I worked from is accurate or some changes will have to be made to the show! We also plan on doing a fun safety test, but I'll hold off on saying more for now...
The fireworks season is just starting to ramp up with new products landing in the US, various PyroU group buys, and so on. Up to now things have been pretty slow, so it was nice to get out on Sunday and do some fireworks shopping for my upcoming Renn Fayre fireworks show.
Next up was Stilly's, where I met up with Frank. I planned on getting several big-breaking cakes to fill out the finale, plus a few other 500g to finish the new section I was adding. I got three New Dimension for the end of the finale and a BMF and Pure Seduction to add some big breaks to the start of the finale where it is mostly 200g cakes. I was planning on using Wide Angle and two Lord of the Rings, but LOTR was a lot more expensive than I was expecting and then I totally forgot about Wide Angle when I replaced LOTR with two Big Fireworks Pro Blue and one Pro Red. I also picked up two Vendetta for the finale. When I got home and realized I forgot about Wide Angle, I reworked the section to start with the two Vendetta and a few shells, then the Curtain Calls and end with Pro Blue and Pro Red, so it all worked out.
I was hoping to pick up a few extras to shoot and scratch the itch a little, but the timing didn't work out so it was too light to shoot anything. Oh well, I was just happy to get everything I needed! Now that I have these items worked into the script, it should be totally done, except for any minor fidgeting that I will do out of compulsion until the show finally happens in almost three months...
Edit: I almost forgot! On the top right is a Dark Science fountain by Brothers. I asked Frank about it and he tossed in in for free, so thanks to Frank! It apparently doesn't quite live up to the demo video but is still pretty cool. I'll bring it to the next WA group shoot. I also bought nine 200g Megabanger comet cakes from Steve that I will use on a board for the show...
I graduated from Reed last year but want to make helping on shows a tradition to give back to the school in a unique way, so I'm very happy. Hopefully I'll be able to help them get another show there also.
Time to start planning way in advance again...
It'll be mostly (maybe entirely) 1.4G, but it would be cool to get some big 1.3G cakes if possible, especially their Brocade Waterfall (direct video link) fan cakes.
I'm hoping to use more shells this time for a little more precise timing at points, maybe some single shot mines as well. Hopefully I'll have their full cake selection to choose from, so I'll have to keep an eye on that. Last year much of the show was pretty saturated and I could easily use fewer cakes at a time without harming the show, I got a little carried away at points last time.
I want to do it to music again, though I don't have it all worked out yet. Last time was all Explosions in the Sky, which worked pretty well. I'd like to stay with that style of music to avoid the usual classic rock stuff at most fireworks shows. I'm thinking of using Sigur Ros, but I don't know if I could do the whole show with them, I might find a few other bands as well. I think Glósóli will make a pretty sweet finale song...
UPDATE: Forgot to add this little P.S. to my post... On November 28th (the day after Thanksgiving) I will be helping Wolverine on a show in Sumner just like last year. I just heard about it (I had forgotten this one) so I'm excited, I thought I was done with shows for a while since I've got New Years plans...
After nearly a year of planning, my big show is tomorrow, on the second night of our three day end of the year party at my school. People are excited and I'm nervous, it is by far the biggest show I've done with by far the biggest crowd. I'll be helping with setup and take a bunch of pictures, then I'll enjoy the show with the audience. I'll hopefully get a post made with some setup pictures within a couple days, although things will be pretty busy. I have somebody getting video, so hopefully that goes well and I'll have something to post before too long.
!!!!!
I graduate (hopefully) in a month, so school has been keeping me busy, and there hasn't been much pyro going on to post about.
Today was the Homeland Fireworks training course. It wasn't as fun as the EFI training I did last year because we didn't get to light anything, but it was still good as a review and to see people. Not much else to say really... I did see the new Firelinx system, which looks pretty cool. Nothing too photogenic happened, but in the interest of having a visual, here is the one picture I took today, showing some damaged HDPE mortars, inert shells, and a concussion mortar.
The bigger news is that my long planned and eagerly awaited Renn Fayre show is coming up in two weeks. The show is almost ready to go and I have a draft of the cue sheet here. I have a lot of school stuff to do before then, but it's going to be an awesome way to celebrate.
I'll be sure to get lots of pictures and it looks like I've found somebody that can get some video too!
Anyway, yesterday was a meeting with various people from the school and Rod from Wolverine about the Renn Fayre show that I'm organizing the meeting went well and everyone seems excited to have a much better (and student designed) show for the end of the school year.
Speaking of Wolverine, they have a lot of new 1.3G cakes and shells posted on their video page.
Sorry for the lack of posting, school has kept me pretty busy, and it'll probably be that way for a while. I don't have any shoots coming up, but hopefully I'll find at least one this semester to get my fix before Renn Fayre.
A while back I posted about my plan to get my school to switch to Wolverine for the fireworks show at my school's end of the year party. I talked to Rod about it this summer and he offered to let me plan the show if I got it. So I planned the show in great detail, waiting for the organizers to be chosen so I could ask them to switch (rather backwards, but I had fun and spent way too much time on it). They were appointed a few weeks ago and last week I finally gave them a little presentation. The show we currently get is rather unimpressive, and I promised them a much better show.
The budget is fairly small and the location isn't huge either, so I've planned a show using primarily 1.4G fireworks, plus some 1.3G mines in the opener and finale and 1.3G cakes and shells in the finale. It will also be shot to the music of the appropriately named band Explosions In The Sky, who I've always thought made awesome music that was perfect for fireworks.
This is my last year of college, so I'm treating the show as a goodbye to the school and contributing a significant quantity of fireworks along with my time to make it a great show. I have a cue sheet in Excel I might try to post in some form eventually, but it uses a lot of Wolverine brand 1.4G (no surprise there) plus some of the Golden Bear and United Pyro product they carry. That will be supplemented with a bunch of World Class product I'm working on getting my hands on and a bunch of miscellaneous items from Steve. I'll work up a count eventually, but the show will be fired from five main positions, with mostly 500g but some 200g, at least three cakes firing at the same time at all times and usually more. The finale should have around ten 500g big break cakes and two cases of 200g, plus 1.3G mines, cakes and shells. It should be a great show and a great way for me to celebrate graduating!
After some rest and new information, I have revised a few things in this post. Again, this is basically for my own reference, I'll probably lose the scrap of paper I wrote this on pretty quick. First of all, I'm not good and judging distance, but the 25' between positions I mentioned last time is stupid, it should be more like 50'. There is certainly plenty of room to spread out on the field. The main change is that a more realistic budget will require fewer cakes, so I'm going from four 1.4g cake positions to three.
I like four positions because you can cover more sky (obviously), but it also gives you more options when working with angles, especially cakes that shoot left to right and back again. With four you can shoot all one way or the other, two to each side, or two V's or X's. With three, either they all go the same direction, or one goes the other way, and ends up looking sloppy and like a mistake. At least with three positions you have a more definite center to the show for people to focus on. The modifications for three positions aren't in any particular order, just bits and pieces.
I still want to open with Rainbow Crunch, I think I will look at using 6x between the three positions, all firing in the same direction. With Gimmie Shimmy, I still want 4x, so possibly 2x on each outer position, or scab them both closer to the middle so they just overlap. With Swimming Pearls and Hummer, I'm thinking one Swimming Pearls at each position, and a Hummer on each outer position. For Falling Water Chutes, 2x in the middle position, then an H2O starts up at each outer position. 3x Yin Yang would have one at each position, all firing in the same direction. 12x Golden Willows will be 4x at each position angled in V's. 2x Flying Fish with Zoom Power will be in the middle position, focusing audience attention on the middle, then as soon as it ends, hit multiple 3" mines on the outer 1.3g positions. Shred might be worth working in, with 2x in the middle and lifting peony shells over the top after about 20 seconds.
So those are the modifications so far, I'm sure there will be more to come. I still don't have this show lined up for sure, and it isn't for months and months, but I love planning shows!
