Fireworks
To add some extra fun to the film, we created the impression that the friendly folk of the firework factory spend all day listening to George Frideric Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks. This is nonsense of course, but a lovely idea that was reinforced in the film by the appearance of a tannoy speaker in the opening shot. The speaker was actually photographed on Plymouth Hoe during a military parade some months after the main body of filming, and the colour of the sky was altered electronically to match in perfectly with the sky behind the factory!
The music that plays throughout the film has been very popular since 1749, when Handel wrote it for King George II to use during a magnificent firework display in Green Park. The plan was to celebrate the end of a great war in Austria, where the King had many interests. However, the celebrations turned out to be almost as dangerous as the war itself: unfortunately a great picture of His Majesty fell onto the custom-made bandstand from which the music was being performed; and, as if that wasn't enough, the huge wooden stand was then razed to the ground - set alight by the fireworks! The musicians ran for their lives, but thanks to a public performance of the music the previous week (without fireworks), Handel's work was already famous.
The firework factory we feature in this film is the last one in Britain. It was set up by the Reverend Ron Lancaster, a retired chemistry teacher-come-chaplain from the nearby Kimbolton School. Ron's fascination with fireworks began as a hobby in his wife's kitchen, but she soon got fed up with exploding cupcakes and Ron was forced to turn to industrial production in 1964. Health and Safety regulations makes it very difficult to run a firework factory legally in the UK, and Ron is the only manufacturer in Britain to have hung around - the rest have all cleared off to China, the ancient home of fireworks.
Better awareness of the dangers mean that the numbers of people injured or killed by fireworks ought to be dropping, but increased use is having the opposite effect on the figures. Most injuries are to children under the age of 14, and about half of those are to the hand - the rest to the eyes, ears and head. The largest number of people to have been injured by a single display accident was 37: this happened on 4th July 2008 when a mortar misfired and sent a fireball into a crowd of onlookers. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that public displays are by far and away the safest to watch. But whatever you do - take care with fireworks!
In our film, the grand finale sequence of fireworks exploding over the Plymouth waterfront was supplied courtesy of the BBC, using archive footage of the 12th annual British Firework Championships; whereas the preceding footage of the display being set up was shot on day 2 of the 13th Championship, courtesy of the organisers. Through the trickery of good editing, the tannoy, the factory, and the firework prepping and blasting shots simply fall together in a seamless tapestry - an example of the typically elegant story-telling style of all Magic of Making films.
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Production Notes
Locations:
Kimbolton Fireworks, Cambridgeshire;
Mountbatten Point, Plymouth;
Plymouth Hoe.