Pyrotechnic Choreography and Execution 101
Introduction to pyrotechnic choreography by Edward Vasel.
Introduction:
Founder of Pyromania / Pro-Am Pyro Competition
Writer for PyroFan / Pyrotechnic Magazine
Lead choreographer and shooter on 5 award winning pyromusicals.
2011 Fargo, ND PGI – Best of Show.
2012 LaPorte, IN PGI – Best of Show.
2010 NFA Springfield MO – Pyromusical Champion.
2012 NFA Stevens Point, WI – Pyromusical Champion.
2013 Changsha, China – International Symposium on Fireworks.
2015 Gillette Wyoming PGI Grand Public Display – Best of Show.
Finale Fireworks Software, advanced user, beta tester, and simulation designer.
APA UN0431 Articles Pyrotechnic Committee Member
Technical Advisor for Dominator Fireworks, product development, and marketing.
Vice President of National Fireworks Association 2020-
On the following pages we will discuss the 5 main aspects of a successful display.
- Sound track, music selection and editing.
- Venue / shoot site / audience / site map
- Product selection / Pairing effects to sounds.
- Choreography
- Preparation and execution.
Definition: Pyromusical. Since there are no “hard” requirements (other than music and fireworks) that qualify a display as a pyromusical let’s agree on the following and understand the separation between shooting fireworks to music, and a pyromusical. A pyromusical should, at a minimum several times during the display and ideally at LEAST once per song contain a section of pyrotechnic devices that are precisely timed to beats, or are mood matched to the music, creating relative emotion in the spectators.
While we all love a highly technical display with thousands of single shots perfectly timed to beats, most budgets don’t allow the massive cue counts required to maintain this pace. Even in large displays with unlimited budgets the fact that comets and mines commonly used to hit those beats are some of the biggest smoke producers means this must be considered when scripting any display and highlights the importance of knowing the three main types of choreography you can use to compose a display. The one thing we cannot control is the weather so learning to mix technical, emotional and visual choreography along with layering and well thought out song order is vital to increasing your chances of a successful show.
3 types of choreography:
- Hitting the beats of the music with pyro, can be shell bursts, mines, comets, gerbs or flame pots perfectly timed to a beat.
- Matching effects to sounds. The simplest example is using long duration effects such as brocades, falling leaves, wind bells and others to slow songs, but on the flip side maybe a zipper cake could be used with a screaming fast guitar solo.
- Just as it sounds, a very common example would be shooting red comets to “rockets red glare” during the National Anthem. Another example could be “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” with white strobe shells.
So we know what a pyromusical is, we understand 3 variations or types of choreography we can use so let’s get down to business and break a display down from start to finish.
Section 1: Sound track, music selection, and editing.
What comes first, sound track or product list?
Soundtrack! You WILL get much better results if you produce a sound track FIRST, and then secure the pyro to match the music vs forcing product you already have to match a soundtrack. Not to say that it cannot be done and create a nice show, but it is not the preferred method. This means for a 4th of July display the fall and winter months should be spent producing soundtracks, followed by a product “wish list” that you can chase down come spring demo season if buying domestically.
When creating a soundtrack, you must decide who you are shooting the show for. Is it for yourself? Is it for you’re audience, maybe a town display? Is it a bride and or groom? A sporting event? If for yourself, no problem make yourself happy! Shoot to whatever music YOU like, and YOU are passionate about. If it is a paid display for a sponsor, get to know them and their expectations, as it is them you need to make happy, whether you’re feeling the show or not.
Almost every genre of music has a wealth of tracks that can work with pyro whether it be rock, country, classical, hip hop or instrumental / epic.
Music selection.
This can be one of the most crucial pieces of the planning, as choosing songs that sound good together or flow well can and will make editing and scripting decisions much easier. To keep things simple, we COULD stick with one genre of music, or choose cross genre songs that work well together and make a nice, safe display. Some of the most interesting shows in my opinion, have had a great soundtrack that crossed genre’s and especially mixed vocal tracks with instrumentals, try to avoid being predictable. Some songs that work well for an Independence Day display could be:
Star Spangled Banner (Various Artists)
Coming to America (Neil Diamond)
Made in America (Toby Keith)
Firework (Katie Perry)
God Bless The USA (Lee Greenwood)
(What order would you put these songs in?)
Soundtrack editing.
A great soundtrack can be RUINED by bad editing. There are several ways you can edit tracks into a smooth piece for scripting to, but there are no “hard” rules to follow. It is greatly dependent on each individual track. I generally like to start a show fairly intense to set everyone back in their seats and send the message that they are in for something special. The rest of the show, depending on duration should have highs and lows and a thrilling finale. I’m not sure where I read it, but someone said that the human attention span for a firework display does not go much past 20 minutes, and after seeing hundreds of displays I would have to agree. Even as a fireworks lover, the 30 minute displays almost always have a section or three that seem forced, or were there to save cues or just kill time.
My philosophy has been, You’re better to leave them wanting more, than have them wishing it was over” Below are the three basic tools I use for blending pieces in creating a soundtrack and notes on each.
Fading in / Fading out: Great tool, I commonly use this for transitioning from one genre of music to another or transitioning different paces in music such as slow to fast or vice versa where silence is needed between pieces.
Hard cut: (Switching songs with NO break) Powerful in the right places, such as hip hop songs with a similar beat. I like to catch the audience off guard and switch songs without them realizing it until after it has happened.
Blending: (Could also be called overlapping) When two songs are similar enough you can overlap the end of one with the beginning of another. Fading can also be useful here. Again, this is extremely dependent on the tracks, and the timing and cuts must be perfect, do not try to blend Hallelujah with Heavy Metal! This is where you would use silence in between.
Song writers are artists themselves, when they create a song, they are telling a story. Almost every song has an intro, 1-2 mid sections, 2-3 chorus and an ending. Often the intro and the ending will work well for pyro as is, if you need to cut sometimes the best place is cut from the mid sections and chorus.
In closing for the soundtrack and editing section, I would add that most songs should be edited down to anywhere from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 minutes. Don’t try to force 8 songs into a 10-minute show. On the flip side, don’t drag out 2 songs into a 10-minute show. Very few songs can be played from start to finish to carry the highs and lows needed to take the audience on the ride you’re wanting to achieve. There are exceptions for shorter shows, in 2010 we scripted a 6-7-minute show to Meatloaf’s “I would do anything for love” and it worked well as it has great highs and lows and switches from fast to slow several times. Another example might be Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” a very long song with several highs and lows.
For editing software, I use the free program Audacity, it does all I need and does it well with not much of a learning curve. A great soundtrack starts with high quality music files, buy them from Amazon, don’t try ripping them off of YouTube or some black market MP3 download site unless you are 100% confident of its quality.
Section 2: Venue
Whether it’s your backyard or the Palms at Dubai, the venue MUST be considered next as it controls SO many factors about your display. I think for pyro to be used in any expression in synch with music you need a minimum of 3 positions for frontage, 1 position could work for shells, if you can angle them. Ideally you would have at least 5 frontage positions and 2-3 shell positions. In larger competitions or PGI type displays we have used 21 frontage positions and 7 shell positions with some shows having up to 47 total positions. We also like to use proximate positions, a row placed in front of the front positions for smaller effects such as gerbs, fountains, strobes, flames etc. Let’s go right to the below information on spacing guidelines and you will see how much the venue affects your display and planning.
I like to start with the LARGEST effect in my line (lines are, front to back – proximate, frontage, and shells) to determine spacing. If I have 3 shell positions, and my largest shell is 6” and a 6” shell on average breaks about 500’ in diameter. This says that I would need 1,000’ from my left position to my right position to avoid overlap in shell breaks if shooting form all 3 positions at the same time. (500’ for the center break, and 250’ of the left and right breaks) This kind is space is ALMOST never available for common displays. It is ok to overlap shells at times such as a fast song or a finale, but you never want to “step” on showcase shells such as beautiful brocades or willows by covering them with basic peonies or brighter shells like chrysanthemums.
One work around for smaller sites I use, that works well is to use layers and create a pyramid with my positions. If you’re working with 3 positions shoot a 6” shell up the center and shoot a 4” on each side for an interesting effect. The shells do not have to match, but should be related somehow in effect or color. A 6” Gold Brocade with blue pistil centered looks great with 4” blue to brocades on each side for example. If a 4” shells average break size is 350’, then allowing for some overlap and that 6” shell’s additional height with a 4” lower burst height and location to the sides can now create a full sky with only about 700’ total width.
This pyramid can be expanded exponentially, if you have a ½ mile wide shoot site and 9 shell positions, figure your separation for your largest shells and work down in caliber from there. If firing all at once you might be able to shoot an 8” shell from the center position, 5” shells from 4 of the positions and 3” shells on bottom across all 9 positions effectively filling a large canvas without too much overlap, or stepping on other shells.
(See chart of average break sizes, break heights and lift times)
Another important consideration for venue is line of site. The perfect shoot site is wide open with no viewing obstructions from the ground up with the spectators slightly elevated from the launch site for a sense of depth in your lines and viewing of ground effects. Unfortunately, on earth, we have things called trees. Trees can be an inhibiting enemy on some shoot sites as they can greatly limit visibility of low-level effects and a sponsor might not be too happy if 25% of the budgeted product wasn’t seen by most people watching. Consider where the majority of spectators will be viewing the show from and select an ideal visual center line, then build your lines out from there. If at all possible visit the venue ahead of time, stand near the center line at spectator distance and just take it in, you just might see something you can use for creativity and eliminate certain effects that might be wasted.
Armed with the above information about your venue, create simple site map or layout showing spectators lines, proximate line, frontage line, shell line and any other notables about the display site. In this site map include all positions in each line, you may want to use 5 proximate positions, 7 frontage positions and 3 shell positions and name each of them. Naming frontage positions is as simple as F1, F2 and so on but is crucial for scripting and especially during set-up and execution.
Section 3: Product Selection / Pairing effects to sounds.
Now that we have a soundtrack and have thought out the venue, positions, and a general idea of how we want the show laid out it’s time to work on product selection. Knowing your product is a MUST, you can’t create a musical without knowing what each item effect is, its duration or its color. Other factors are burst heights and size and lift times. Most of us have a limited list of suppliers from which we must select product for a display. There simply are no shortcuts here you must do your homework.
This is also where your individual creativity comes into play. We are all wired differently and although 2 good choreographers may use similar product through a display with the same soundtrack, their shows WILL ultimately be very different. Go back to your soundtrack and listen to it start to finish. Identify the sections of the songs you want to focus your choreography on. Make notes on what effects you know you have access to that you think will go well with those songs and sections you identified.
Again, consider the 3 basic types of choreography discussed earlier. Try not to use too much of any one effect or color. It is ok to repeat effects or colors in the show, actually it’s almost inevitable so be sure to switch it up somehow when it happens, to avoid the spectators from feeling they are seeing a repeat of an earlier segment, to different music. Variations can be created by product combos, angles, and pace.
It is almost impossible to create a complete product order ready to be placed until the show is 100% scripted, but we need this product base to even begin scripting. Once you have gone through and identified your technical sections, visual sections and emotional sections and dropped those cues you can now go back and start filling in the empty space in your timeline to complete an actual order.
Here are some basic guidelines for common effects and types of music they can work well with.
Soft, slow or emotional music: Long duration shells such as willows, brocades, crossettes, strobing shells, horsetails and showcase shells. Long duration ground effects such as comets, mines, flame pots and gerbs.
Faster music: Shorter duration shells such as peonies, chrysanthemums, diadems, crossettes, strobing shells (note the last two could be used for both?) Ground effects such as shorter duration mines and comets, ground strobes and flash pots.
Aside from bursting shells to beats, we know that comets or meteors work great with guitar chords and mines work well with drumbeats. These three things alone can turn a display from a standard firework display into a basic pyro musical. It is up to you to create something more, that I am aware of there is not now and likely never will be a detailed guide on how to script the perfect musical. You need to feel music and know fireworks…if that doesn’t make sense to you, you may already be handicapped for our purposes here!. Most great artists did not excel in their craft because someone told them how to do it or because they had a degree in the art. To choreograph a pyro musical you must feel the music and you must have a vision and passion for the art.
Section 4: Choreography
Timing. It is imperative you know your products “appear” time, which is different than lift time. We could call it burst time but it doesn’t only apply to shells. There are times when I will lift shells with tails as the effect I want related to the music, other times we can use the actual shell burst. Several effects such as a brocade to blue tip mine or a crossette break may develop seconds after the actual lift and these small details should be considered when dropping cues into a script, don’t limit yourself to lift and break times only. Timing your effects, you are always better to be .25 second early than late with an appear time, unless you are using pyrotechnic sound as an effect.
Using sound as an effect. Sound alone can be dramatic, and we are not always talking salutes. I will never forget watching a barge display in Portugal where a display company shot a sequence of beautiful color changing meteors. The meteors, the sequence and the light in the sky was NOT what caught my attention, it was the cadence they created with the lift charges, it was amazing how well it matched the music playing. While visual timing can have as much as a ½ second margin for error, sound timing needs to be more presice.
Sensory reactions: colors, lights and sounds. Three more tools we can use to expand on the 3 types of choreography. We discussed, technical, visual and emotional choreography now you have to decide which of the 3 sensory reactions created by pyrotechnics you want to use to create the emotion your looking for in your audience.
Black sky. Is not always a bad thing! It can actually be pretty powerful when used correctly and is a great tool to use for building suspense. It works really well and is a must if using a false finale, to do it right you must end the music and let the sky go black for that great “encore” performance that is the finale.
Angles, sequences and runs are all ways we can get creative to make interesting visuals in the sky. For most pyro musicals, and this is true even for very large shows with wide fronts a LOT can be done with 5 angles. For example, 35* left, 15* left 0* 15* right, 35* right. For racking purpose consolidating angles can greatly lower the amount of racks needed and ease set-up. For adding additional angles use wagon wheels or fan type devices, these work well with up to 13 angles, any more than that and you really don’t get good separation between effects and that’s enough shots to create a solid bow of touching mines.
Less is more. Finish.
We have covered the 3 basic types of choreography and sensory reactions, we have an ideal site layout and a general product list, time to start scripting! We want to start the show off fairly intense and technical to let the crowd know something pretty cool is coming. We chose songs and ordered and edited them to create a flow of highs and lows, with a powerful finale. It’s your display, your creativity and you have no hard rules to follow. I have seen it asked several times and I hate to even put numbers to it but if we must, then let’s use a 1-10 rating scale in each of the 3 types of choreography for marks to shoot for as a general guideline ONLY. Let’s use a 5 song show with an intro as an example and discuss which of the 3 types might work well and at what intensity. There can be MANY variables.
Intro: Fireworks are usually not needed during a voice intro, but quiet gerbs or flames with background music can take the production value up a notch and make it clear right out of the gate that this is not going to be an average display. AN example might be a memorial show.
Opening song: It usually works best to start off with an upbeat and somewhat technical track. It could work well to combine technical with visual. Don’t show all your guns, but get all eyes on the production. A good rating might be to start with a technicality rating of 5-6. Do one or two comet or mine walls to a strong drum hit, hit some shell bursts to key beats and maybe a mine or comet sequence. For visual
remember the pyramid, but keep it small and save the full width of the shoot site for later in the display or even the finale. You can also showcase single shells here well. It can work well to end the opening song with a mini finale and then let the sky go dark and clear before the second song starts.
Second song: The second song can be of a lower technical rating, 2-3 is plenty. Hit a few key beats, break some shells at key times but drop the technicality and pace from the opener. Concentrate more on the sky with shells vs low level or ground effects, allowing the lower levels of the air to clear of smoke. The second song can be a good place to raise the visual rating to a 5-6. I normally would not enter emotional choreography into a display this early.
Third song: In a 5 song display, this is where we would want our emotional track. Unless the show was a tribute and required it in an intro or opener we don’t want to shift gears to hard. Emotional choreography works well with slow or powerful songs and many instrumentals. Long duration effects as mentioned earlier like brocades, falling leaves and windbells used with the right music can cause a lump in your throat and tug on the heart strings. Ground effects can be VERY powerful in emotional choreography. Think gerbs and flame pots again here. We want an emotional rating of 8+ here. Technicality can drop to a 1-3 rating.
Fourth Song: It’s time to pick it back up! Now is a good time to find a good mix of visual and technical. Keep the technical just below the level of the opening song, saving the best for last, shoot for a scale of 3-4. Same for visual widen the pyramid and shoot for a 3-4 visual rating. Although it certainly could, visual here doesn’t need to relate as in if the song says “red” you shoot a red shell or mine wall, just create something interesting using layers, pacing and patterns, something obviously intentional.
5th song, the finale: Here we want to utilize all 3 types of choreography. The emotion switches from sweet or sad in the third song to overwhelming during the actual finale. Technicality should be raised to 7-8. Hit as many beats as the budget and product allows. Break out all the tricks you have for the visual aspect with using the full width of the shoot site, increase shell sizes. If the site allows for up to 6” shells don’t use too many of them until now. Make the pyramid as big as the site allows. The actual finale should overwhelm but this does NOT mean it has to be a total sky puke. Keep the finale well thought out and intentional. Color changing, all gold, variegated finale chains and a ton of salutes are all good finale options. Make sure you know your product and select items that will give you a crisp ending with no stragglers. If we use finale chains of salutes as the last hit match both ends and the center to guarantee the entire chain goes up almost instantly with no stragglers. Avoid longer duration cakes. 3 shells breaking at the same time at the same point in the sky is a waste, remember your layout. Overlap in the finale is more acceptable than other places in the show but shooting shells at such a pace and pattern that you create complete chaos is, well a sky puke.
Putting all of this together is time consuming, but not difficult.
Section 5: Preparation and execution
Benjamin Franklin said “Men don’t prepare to fail, they fail to prepare” and that has never been more symbiotic than with setting up a fireworks display. You can script the greatest show in the world, secure every last device needed to get the show in the air, have perfect weather and simply fail to get the display set-up before show time if you haven’t properly prepared to execute. I am not a proponent of transporting e-matched product, at least not with traditional e-match. The industry is showing a spark (pun intended) of pushing for safer alternatives and although there has been a half dozen new options in recent years such as Solar Flares, I-Match, and laser diode type devices none of them have really caught on in any capacity.
So, what can we do to prepare? For me it starts on paper. I’m a huge proponent of Finale Fireworks and using their labels and reports. Multiple copies of good reports on paper are critical during sorting, racking and set-up. Here are several things you can do days in advance to shorten in field set-up time.
Sort and label all product with cue and module numbers by position, and re-box marking each carton with its field position. It is a huge time saver to pull up on the shoot site in the morning and be able to drive down your lines and quickly unload the product at its respective positions.
Racking, rack as much product as possible ahead of time. This will usually be single shots such as comets and mines. Racking also includes fans or wagon wheel type devices. Dropping 1.3g shells ahead of time is not a good idea for obvious safety reasons but they should be sorted and boxed per caliber and position. If you have a lot of small gerbs, strobes or flame pots it’s a good idea to use plywood boards and glue or tape them down ahead of time, again mark them for position. Consolidate those angles!
For a larger display, have a pre-show meeting with key crew members. Determine ahead of time what is expected of each person and make sure they have a copy of, and understand the reports. We have all been on shoot sites where continuity checks are happening at the last second, possibly where 100% of the product wasn’t shot due to not having time to set it up, or maybe even a delayed show. You owe it to your crew and yourself to make shoot day as SAFE and stress free as possible. Avoiding the need to feel rushed is important to safety.
Visual choreography software.
There’s still some “old timers” scripting in their mind and using excel to create fire files, and some of them do a pretty good job of it. There are also some roofers still swinging hammers instead of using nail guns.
Visual choreography software is a tool, and it’s a good one. I used a couple of methods before the various modern programs and did a pretty good job, I thought. Once I delved into the world of visual computer scripting my displays, and many others took a big step forward in several areas including technicality, complexity and emotional transfer.
If you are new to pyrotechnic choreography do yourself a favor and invest in a good scripting program. If you’re still swinging a hammer, buy a nail gun. For the cost of about 5 cases of fireworks you can get some really good software that will serve for years to come.
Below are some videos of shows I have scripted or co-scripted with some amazing talents over the years.