In one of my latest projects, I directed a fireworks show "Symphony in the Sky" as part of Sentosa's new branding "The State of Fun"
Check out some behind-the-scene pictures, or scroll to the bottom for the full video!
This project was indeed a huge challenge. While I get to play with pyrotechnics in my normal shows, this was the first time I work with huge outdoor fireworks!
Sentosa has been a really special place for me. For many years, I performed at one of the hottest attraction in Singapore, the 30-Million dollars production "Songs of the Sea" at Sentosa. Click here to read my previous blogpost Songs of the Sea
Songs of the Sea presented its final show on 4th May 2014 and is now being taken over by a new show called "Wings of time". Produced by Yves Pépin's company ECA2. I have been a big fan of Yves Pépin & ECA2's creative works. This was one of the reasons I got involved in Songs of the Sea. The feeling of standing on a rock, singing your heart out to millions of dollars worth of effects while a daily crowd of 2,000 audience cheers you on from behind is a feeling that's beyond what words can describe.
This production felt like a grand finale for me while we say goodbye to Songs of the Sea. Not only did I get to put this show together, I get to perform in it. The smell of salt water and the sea breeze in my face feels all so familiar...
Putting up a show this scale wasn't easy, it took me everything I learnt from the past decade of my career to pull it off, and not without the great team I get to work with. My "partner in crime", Glorious (S) Pte Ltd. The guys at Glorious has been extremely busy with several projects going on at the same time, and one of which includes the installation of pyro & fireworks in "Wings of Time". Despite this challenge, they had been very patient with me and had done their jobs at the highest level of professionalism.
This beach will soon turn into the epicentre of the State of Fun..
Early stages of putting the show together, the hours we spent in discussions..
Arthur, many sleepless nights, huge pressure and deep in thoughts...
Putting the music into visuals...
We got Dezz Moey & Kenneth Lyen to compose the music, with arrangement by Iskandar Ismail. With so much changes at a tremendously tight timeline, and having to put out scores for the entire orchestra proves to be a huge challenge. But they did a tremendously wonderful job!
Props were fabricated for the official launch sequence. Maggie made this chest from scratch! Amazing!
Five Hundred "State of Fun" balls to pop out of the chest when Mike Barclay (CEO, Sentosa) opens it.
1,340 Floating Cubes, 500 Pyrotechnic Cues, 60 Lights, 24 Speakers, 20pc Live Orchestra & 8 Powerful Lasers, all for a 10mins act!
Constructing the floating stage... & rigging of equipments
View of the beach from the furthest point
The heroes behind the scenes.. We do all the talks while they do all the work.. Drawing one square on paper could equate to hours of work and hundreds of KG of liftings..
Our 8 extremely powerful lasers!
Setting up the fireworks!
500 cues with almost a thousand rounds to be fired in this 10 minutes.
Scary looking explosives lined the stage, just a few feet away from where I would stand.
Safety checks to sure our "State of Fun" balls are fire retardant.
Only when the night falls were we able to do our lightings/lasers programming.
It rained several times during our setup that has caused much delays.
And on show day, just an hour before showtime, we were greeted by heavy rain again.
Lucky for us it was just a passing shower. The rain cleared and we were good to go half an hour before showtime.
My mom came to support!
Final checks were done and before we knew it, it's SHOWTIME! There's no turning back now, once the timecode starts all the pyro cues will fire.
IT'S SHOWTIME!
!WATCH THE FULL VIDEO!
This has been an amazing journey...
A huge, sincere bottom of the heart thank you to all my angels and heroes for making this show a success!
Regina, Hendriaty & the folks at Sentosa, My angels Arthur & Adam,
Angie, Ronnie, Alan and everybody at Glorious Singapore. Kelvin Alakh, Adrian, Ryan Tan, Alycia, Maggie, Sheryl, Shi En, Bang Wenfu, Dezz Moey, Kenneth Lyen & the entire orchestra. I might have missed out a few name but a huge sincere thank to everybody who had sands under their feet and in their shoes the past weeks!
Thank you guys, for making my life AMAZING!
With love,
- Kiki Tay