More Fireworks
While we're talking about fireworks and how much I love them, I remembered something that I wanted to share. Back in 1999 going into 2000, I worked on one of the many Millennium specials that were on TV that year. Specifically, I worked on the CBS version that was broadcast with
President Clinton from the
Lincoln Memorial. I was in Washington DC (one of my favorite cities) for two weeks for this show. I was the Tape Associate Director and spent most of my time in editing getting all the tape playbacks together.
One of the highlights was a 26 minute film produced by Steven Spielberg. It was called "The Unfinished Journey" and it was about America's life, cultural and historical. If I recall, it was in 5 sections narrated by
Maya Angelou, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Edward James Olmos, Sam Waterston and President Clinton himself.
John Williams scored it, of course, and it was quite amazing. I have it on DVD for those that feel the need to see a copy. I remember having to ask a music question and called John Williams office and the person on the phone said "Hi, this is John." Yup, the man was answering his own phone and he couldn't have been nicer. G (this was before we were together) was in several meetings with Mr. Spielberg and he said that was really cool too.
Anyway, as you can imagine, the big climax after this movie and after the President gave his "Happy New Millennium" speech was fireworks. The fireworks were timed *EXACTLY* to go off exactly on certain beats of music. Think big bursts during the "1812 Overture" and the tympani hits. Anyway, the only way to time it all out so that the fireworks went off perfectly to the correspond with the last 20 seconds counting down to midnight was for them to have an actual countdown. On the videotape, we have 4 channels of audio. 1 and 2 are the usual music mix that you year. Unless it's mixed in, you never hear channels 3 & 4. The fireworks company had ME do their countdown for them. They gave me the exact words they needed to hear "T minus 1 minute". "T minus 45 seconds", etc. They wanted their countdown to be 1/2 a second ahead of the actual count to allow for the delay. So when the tape was playing back, we had channel 3's audio sent just to the fireworks operators and they would set off the fireworks at the exact time. It went off without a hitch and the fireworks were spectacular! So, in my own little way, I was cueing the fireworks for the Millennium. The rest of the show was completely hellish but that part was really cool at the time, if I say so myself. And it's still pretty cool to think about all these years later.
Labels: Fireworks, Lincoln Memorial, Millennium, President Clinton, Steven Spielberg, Washington DC
Happy 231st Birthday
Happy Independence Day to one and all! I don't consider myself overly patriotic in any way but I do really like July 4th. One of my very favorite things in the world is fireworks, which, admittedly, I'm only watching on TV tonight. I'm watching the
Boston Pops July 4th show that I know people who worked on it. They just played
"Stars and Stripes Forever" which is such a great masterpiece and of course, has perhaps, the greatest piccolo solo ever written. It's quite difficult to play and in certain cases, it's a piccolo audition piece. If you can play the picc solo from "Stars and Stripes" you pretty much can play anything on the picc. I played it in college in Symphonic Band where we had 5 piccolos and we all stood up to play it. I got through it but certainly was nowhere close to mastering it. But I do get excited every time I hear the song, especially when it's the underscore to fireworks like at the
Hollywood Bowl. And according to
Wikipedia, who knew that there were lyrics?
I won't even discuss right now that the Boston Pops show is showing fireworks (which I understand last about 25 minutes) to needle drop music. It just went from Kenny Chesney to the Sesame Street theme. HUH? I've never watching this before and I think I now know why. Fireworks on TV is somewhat boring, and the music snipets are beyond comprehension. I'm not getting it. I guess I shouldn't question to those higher on the production food chain who produce this. Wow, this is not good.
How was your day? Did you do anything special? Did you see fireworks? Were they spectacular? We had C's class from school over for the 2nd annual BBQ Swim July 4th soiree. 8 families which translated to about 35 people here at the house. Most of the time. the kids were in the pool plus a few of the Dad's. I really wanted to go in and cool off (it was over 100 here today) but I was too busy on chip patrol making sure all the bowls were filled. I think everyone had a great time and of course, there was more food than we knew what to do with. We did well on the hot dog and burger count although lots of extra buns. But lots of salads, potato salad, pesto pasta salad, beans, and left over desserts. Okay, that's not the worst thing the world but G's out of town
again for the
Live Earth concert in New Jersey on Saturday. (He flew out tonight) Anyway, that leaves me to eat the cookies, pie and cupcakes. I've got a horrible sweet tooth but no one could eat all that's left. Anyway, we had a great time. I'm exhausted from being on my feet for the past 10 hours. I need to get some stuff ready for scrapping this weekend and I just don't have the energy.
May God bless our men and women who serve this country here and around the world. They're the ones who are continuing the fight for independence. May they be watched over and kept safe so that they can return home SOON. God Bless America!
Labels: Fireworks, Hollywood Bowl, piccolo, Stars and Stripes Forever
