July 4th at Disneyland (1 Viewer)

[mike cummings]

Here are 2 Youtube files from our Fourth of July show at Disneyland yesterday.
YouTube - Disney's Celebrate America! 4th of July Concert in the Sky 1

YouTube - Disney's Celebrate America! 4th of July Concert in the Sky 2

unfortunately, the wind was not favorable and we had to stop the show with about 3 minutes remaining. A real disappointment for the crowd as well as the pyro crew at the park, but we dropping alot of debris on Ball road so the fire department called the show early.

We used the air cannons we use for our nightly fireworks show as well as several additional black powder guns for the show. I was shooting all the pyro that was on the castle and had to cut several items to avoid getting fallout in the crowd. In the end, we felt we gave the guests a good show and kept safety as a priority.

 

[none]

Mike, I have always been interested in fireworks(anything that blows up for that matter) How do they do them, are they hooked in unison & controlled by a computer as to when they will fire?
I assume the days of people with flares lighting them off are gone.Those ones in the video that looked kinda like Saturn with one exploding in the center & a ring around it were cool, I've never seen that before. That brought back some good memories. As a kid we used to put our lawn chairs up on the roof & watch the Disneyland fireworks every summer night @ 10:00 pm.Thanks for the videos.

 

[Suzanne]

How fun!! Great Job!!
Ive been in that fall out before on Ball Road before. Traffic was so bad we couldnt pull into that big hotels parking lot to park and watch the fireworks like we usually did, and our car got covered with like burnt ash of leftovers, no prob, we loved the show. Fond memories as a kid watching the FW at Disneyland, and then taking my kids for the drive over on a bored summers night to park and watch!
Im just curious, if they stopped the show due to the fallout, where normally does the fallout go? Does it usually disapate more when there isnt an air current dragging it down or?

Anyways thanks so much for sharing the utubes!

 

[G'ginna]

What an awesome show! Thank you!

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Great Job Mike! That is one of those jobs that must be as fun as it is work. Did you finally bust up that miserable union that was imposed on you all?

 

[mike cummings]

Mike, I have always been interested in fireworks(anything that blows up for that matter) How do they do them, are they hooked in unison & controlled by a computer as to when they will fire?
I assume the days of people with flares lighting them off are gone.Those ones in the video that looked kinda like Saturn with one exploding in the center & a ring around it were cool, I've never seen that before. That brought back some good memories. As a kid we used to put our lawn chairs up on the roof & watch the Disneyland fireworks every summer night @ 10:00 pm.Thanks for the videos.

Yes Mike, we use a computer system called Pyrodigital to control the timing and firing of the devices. This is synced with a SMPTE time code feed that ensures all of the PD systems in the park are in sync with each other and with the musical soundtrack. We also use SMPTE to sync up the lighting effects as well as the equipment that controls the Tinkerbell rig so that we get a consistent show every night and also ensures that Tink is never positioned over a firing position when a firing cue is active. For this July 4th show, we had 3 PD systems running in the back (one for the air launched fireworks, one for the black powder guns and one for the fireworks positioned behind Toontown) as well as the PD system I was running at the Castle for all of the items shot off that position.

Hand fired shows are still done, but not very often as they tend to be more hazardous to the pyrotechnician ( but a huge adrenalin rush) as you are up close and personal to the fireworks and in harms way if you have a detonation in the gun.

We use several pattern shells that produce different different effects like the saturn rings and the stars at the beginning of the show. We also have smiley faces and cube shapes we use.

Normally the fallout from the shells falls back down on property, most of it back onto the air launch field (which is where the pyro crew is during the show, but we are wearing hardhats as well as flame retardant clothing so its all good). We have areas backstage that are deemed as safe fallout areas and have members of the Disney Fire Department monitoring the fallout to alert us if we are falling outside of the parameters. This is we sometimes have to stop a show in the middle of a performance. Trust me, we always want to shoot a show to completion but sometimes it isn't possible to do safely due to touchy wind conditions. Obviously we will not shoot if the winds carry any fallout into the park which is what a south blowing wind will do. Fortunately the prevailing winds are to the north so more often than not we can shoot.

And yes Bobby, we filed a suit with the NLRB against the union and was successful in getting them out of the department .

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

. . . And yes Bobby, we filed a suit with the NLRB against the union and was successful in getting them out of the department .

Now, there's a separate and distinct, good cause for an "Independence Day" celebration! Congratulations!

 

[mike cummings]

This one took me a while to find but it is a behind the scenes look at the pryo department at Disneyland that they filmed a few months ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQuR_PBPE4g

The person speaking in the piece is John who is a good friend and the lead foreman of the fireworks show. He has been doing pyro at Disney for over 20 years, extremely knowledge in fireworks and an all around great guy to know.

This video shows the old school way of hand firing the show with road flares and also includes shots of the current air launch system we use at 1:14 and then again at 3:27 in the clip.

Enjoy...

 

[none]

Mike, That was an AMAZING video. Man you got the best job in the world!
You get to blow stuff up & go to the Happiest place on earth every day!
When we go to our local fireworks show on the 4th I usually spend more time watching where they set them off then in the sky.Thanks again for the video! Mike

 

[willy]

How can you not like that, Mike??? Geez..you wouldn't expect Disney to be anything but pyro on steroids eh?

That reminds me of a show I watched about the pyro world championship something? They world pyros' get together for a showdown!! And with puters now..sky is the limit.

Thanks Mike..that is awesome.

I hope to someday see a display like that.

 

[Alan]

I hope to someday see a display like that.

I should hopefully be checking out Mike's handiwork in September!!

 

[d'kid]

Nice Mike, very nice.

d'kid