Community Corner

Fireworks Expert Reveals Secrets to a Good 4th of July Show

Wynn Kramer, an event producer for Melrose Pyrotechnics, a Frankfort-owned fireworks display company, gives a behind-the-scenes look at how shows are put together and explains why a 19-minute display can take 20 hours to design.

By Joe Vince, Patch Editor

Whether on the Fourth of July or after a Chicago White Sox ballgame, a spectacular fireworks display is something most people take for granted.

Not in the way a teenager takes for granted that the refrigerator stays stocked with food. But taken for granted in the way we think an e-mail message begins and ends by simply pushing the "send" button, gloriously ignorant of the elaborate maze of computer connections and interfaces along the way responsible for making that almost-instantaneous communication possible.

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But that's part of what makes a good pyrotechnics show so magnificent, the fact that the brilliant colors and thunderous bursts look to be achieved so effortlessly.

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Talk to Wynn Kramer, an event producer with , and he'll tell a different story. The Frankfort-owned fireworks display company—its main offices are in Kingsbury, Ind.—handles the Fourth of July shows for and other Lincoln-Way communities, as well as the pyrotechnics for Navy Pier and sports teams, such as the Bulls, White Sox and Bears.

Kramer, who's a Frankfort resident, has been in the fireworks business 20 years after he met Mike Cartolano, Melrose's current president. In fact, Cartolano's great-grandfather started the company, and the family has maintained the tradition through four generations.

"I just enjoy it," Kramer said about why he's still in the business. "You do a lot of different things when you put on the displays for the White Sox, Bears, overseas competitions ... We're quite diverse in the work we do."

Patch asked Kramer to talk about some of the secrets and behind-the-scenes workings that makes a well-done fireworks display magical.

What's the Most Important Thing That Makes a Fireworks Display Great?

The first rule for any good pyrotechnician, according to Kramer, is using the right tool for the job at hand. In this case, that tool is the shell, the actual firework that's shot into the sky.

"The biggest thing is you have to know what the fireworks do," he said. "What they look like, how long it takes [for a shell to detonate], what are the durations."

Each shell has different effect, and it's up to the technician to know what that is and how to put them together with other shells to create an entertaining display, Kramer said.

What Types of Fireworks Shows Are There?

According to Kramer, displays are usually split into two basic categories: musical and non-musical. Designing a show in either category comes with its own challenges.

"Specifically for a musical one, ... you put the music together first," Kramer said. "Once that's established, you set up the pacing. You create different tempos."

Frankfort's fireworks display is a musical show, but the music is provided for the company, Kramer said. In those situations, he explains, the technicians listen to what's been chosen and then pick the shells they think will work best.

Designing a non-musical show goes through a similar process—minus the music, of course—of setting up pacing and tempo, Kramer said. But the technicians end up using more effects and inventory with a non-musical display, he said.

How Long Does it Take to Choreograph a Musical Program?

The average musical fireworks show runs anywhere from 18 to 22 minutes, Kramer said (for comparison, Frankfort's Fourth of July show will run 19 minutes). But the time it takes to design that show in a studio beforehand takes roughly 20 to 25 hours, he said.

Not only are the technicians synching the music to the pyrotechnic effects, they're also laying out in a blueprint fashion where the mortars—the devices used to propel the shells skyward—will be, the number of racks holding the mortars and which shells and how many of them will be used, Kramer said.

That's no small undertaking, considering a show like Frankfort's, which is fairly standard, uses hundreds of mortars.

"We use semi, low-level effects for Frankfort," Kramer said. "They go up 80 to 200 feet. Those are generally shorter duration. They're fast-paced with a lot of shells coming out over a short time span. ... They do add a lot to the show. You've got things that go back and forth, right to left. It's more than shells just going straight up."

What's Been the Biggest Change in Fireworks Over the Years?

For Kramer, the largest pyrotechnic advancements aren't the effects a spectator sees in the night sky, but the safety features a technician encounters on the ground.

"The biggest thing by far is safety," he said. "Everything we do is electronically fired. You're not lighting the shells by hand, and you're in a protective shelter. ... You're totally protected from anything that could occur."

In fact, Kramer remembers the days when fuses were lit by the operators and not by an electronic signal.

"When you light a shell by hand, you don't know if it's going to be two minutes or five minutes [before it goes off]," he said, adding that the sense of danger was something a technician became accustomed to.

What Should Spectators Take Away With Them After Seeing a Fireworks Show?

In an age of 80-feet high IMAX theater screens and holograms of performing dead rappers, an outdoor fireworks show can seem downright quaint. But people stlll keep coming out to the displays, in large part, Kramer believes, because of tradition.

But traditions only go so far, and the fact that Melrose Pyrotechnics creates displays around the year and not simply July 4 proves that people still enjoy watching sparkling, prismatic tendrils dance among the stars, still flock to the feeling that those booming, sonorous explosions are detonating in their own chests.

So when people come out to experience that one-of-a-kind sensation, what does Kramer want them to take away with them when the show's over?

"I guess that they saw soemthing that was pretty good, and they'd want to come back and see it again."

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