Firework shows: Inside the hours of work that go into your ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’

As one tilts their head back to admire, one might wonder: How do they do it? How do professionals design, plan and execute such erupting artistry? And how do they learn?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to a few industry experts to answer those questions.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Jason Humphrey

Credit: Photo courtesy of Jason Humphrey

The art of fireworks design

“I’m going to ruin the magic for you,” joked Drew Espenshade, vice president of sales and marketing for Finale 3D, a leading software program that helps professionals design fireworks shows and has clients in Atlanta.

In mid-June, he gave a Zoom demo of his company’s design program. The split screen looked similar to a video editing program. In the upper-right box, a library full of firework types was ready to drag into a virtual show. On the left-hand side, Espenshade input his desired venue (for the demo, Truist Park).

The screen populated with a 3D image of the stadium with an A-Town skyline at dusk in the background. He could toggle to 2D as he desired, or change the night sky.

Credit: Courtesy of Drew Espenshade, Finale 3D

Credit: Courtesy of Drew Espenshade, Finale 3D

Espenshade demonstrated how he could arrange the fireworks stations as he wished, angle them, load them with fireworks and test his creation. He could drop in music, which appeared as a waveform at the bottom of the screen, allowing him to synchronize the firework types with the climactic points of the song.

The program can also import drone show arrangements designed in outside programs to overlay atop the fireworks for a complete concept.

“After you’ve done the artistic portion of the design, the program helps you through the process of preparing all of the plans and documents and instructions and compliance materials that you would need to actually produce the show in the real world,” he said.

The program exports a script that is then loaded into an electronic firing system that triggers or ignites the fireworks automatically using a wire-based igniter and cotton soaked in black powder (a kind of gunpowder).

“Most shows now are what’s called ‘scripted,’ which means there’s not a human being actually doing anything during the show other than just monitoring things,” Espenshade said.

Humans do, however, load the firing system according to a map the program produces and need to know codes and regulations (more on that later).

There are many different firing systems available on the global market. In the last decade or so, Espenshade explained, the technology has become so accessible and cost-effective that even small neighborhood shows can use an automated firing system.

“An individual could go buy a little bit and shoot a show in their backyard,” he said. “Or, these systems can be big and complex enough to be used in some of the biggest shows in the world. Whether it’s from the London Eye or in the Sydney Harbor … it covers the entire spectrum.”

Because programs like Finale 3D (which soft-launched in 2009) start the design process in a virtual space, some artistically minded people began playing with the program with no access to real, physical fireworks. This prompted Finale 3D and another industry partner to, four years ago, introduce a design competition called Pyro Jam.

“The competition doesn’t require actual fireworks at all,” Espenshade said. “It is based purely on design.”

Each January and February, Pyro Jam competitors design their shows virtually following a set of rules, a predefined location for the show, a set of usable fireworks and a budget.

Each contestant submits their concept virtually. A panel of judges picks the top three. Those shows are produced in real life in Maryland in August. There’s $5,000 in cash prizes for the top three places.

When Espenshade was growing up, however, there wasn’t anything like Pyro Jam. He had to pursue his passion with hands-on experimentation.

At 17, he convinced his parents to take him to Montreal to watch L’International des Feux Loto-Quebec, one of the world’s most prestigious fireworks competitions.

“I think everybody probably has an experience in their life where they think they’ve died and gone to heaven. … For me, that was it. I just thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen,” Espenshade remembers.

Shortly after, he joined a club called the Michigan Pyrotechnics Art Guild.

“I met people who kind of took me under their wing and I met someone who ran a professional display company — a really small company at the time,” he said. “I worked my way up to being the display manager for the whole company.”

In another role, he was responsible for the supply chain, which meant traveling to China, visiting fireworks factories, seeing demos of new fireworks, deciding what products to carry and handling the imports.

“Professional fireworks in general, or even amateur pyrotechnics, is very much a learn-as-you-go, apprenticeship kind of thing,” Espenshade explained.

“It’s not something you can really sign up for a class in a traditional setting, in university or trade school or something. Usually people kind of just stumble their way in.”

The business behind the art

Like Espenshade, Brent Munnerlyn also stumbled his way in to the industry. As a young adult, he started in retail sales of fireworks but was invited to help shoot shows with a few professionals across the country. He learned by watching and helping.

“There’s no formal program. There’s no college. It’s an apprentice program,” he said. “Each state has a different requirement.”

For the past 15 years, Munnerlyn has been the owner of Munnerlyn Pyrotechnics, a South Carolina-based company that does shows across Georgia and several other states.

As a business owner, Munnerlyn trains his staff of roughly 120 people through a course provided by Pyrotechnics Guild International. PGI is an independent nonprofit organization for which Munnerlyn is an instructor.

“PGI is the gold standard for certification of pyrotechnicians,” he said.

In a PGI course, the primary focus is not hands-on. Rather, it’s learning the National Fire Protection Association code. The NFPA code is typically what local fire marshals use to regulate outdoor fireworks shows across the U.S. The PGI course he teaches is a 12-hour day with eight chapters of code.

“It’s a lovely read,” Munnerlyn joked. “Some of it’s confusing. Very confusing. The code gives you the standard, but then gives you exceptions to the standards. … My job (as an instructor) is to make sure guys understand the exceptions.”

While PGI is not required by states, it is widely respected in the industry and is sometimes used to supplement or prepare for state-required licenses.

Companies have their own policies, too. Munnerlyn requires his staff to understudy for at least six shows before they can lead a team or shoot a show solo.

On a typical weekend, Munnerlyn said, his company produces an average of about five shows. On July 4, however, his team will set out in a fleet of trucks to shoot 60 shows in multiple states in one night.

“That is a heavy lift,” he said. “On July 4 we’ve got massive amounts of product and equipment and shooting racks that need to be transported to sites. It all needs to be hauled with DOT (Department of Transportation) and ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) compliance.”

The back-end design (which Munnerlynn primarily does himself using Finale 3D), the paperwork, transportation and logistics, Munnerlyn explained, is part of the art of the fireworks business.

“We have some shows with 800 labor hours. … Those shows might have eight people on them for two or three days,” he said. “People don’t really see that side. They see a show that lasts 20 minutes, but that show could have 60 to 100 hours into it. Times that by 60 shows on the Fourth, and it’s an immense amount of people working together to make it happen.”

Another aspect of the business Munnerlyn has been passionate about educating others about is the sourcing of fireworks. Roughly 80% of his fireworks, he said, come from China.

“The tariffs are killing us,” he said. “Thirty percent more we’re having to pay for product. Yes, it gets passed along to the consumer eventually … but we also have to have the cash flow to do that up front. That’s what people aren’t seeing.”

The notion that fireworks manufacturing could be brought to the U.S., Munnerlyn said, is unlikely.

“That will never happen,” he said. “There’s been several companies to try to open up manufacturing in other countries such as Brazil and Cambodia and India. They haven’t been successful. There’s not enough talent to produce fireworks there and the environmental conditions are not right.”

In April, President Donald Trump imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese products, which the countries agreed to roll back to 30% for 90 days beginning in May. Munnerlyn said he typically imports 20 containers from China per year.

So if the 30% tariffs continue through next year, Munnerlyn said each container will cost an additional $45,000 for a total of $900,000 — money he’ll need to have before he’s paid by customers.

Munnerlyn has been working with advocacy groups in Washington to push for relief.

“I hope something washes out,” he said, “If not, your smaller companies will be gone.”

Whether it’s the art of the design, or the art of the business, that lights up professionals like Espenshade and Munnerlyn, they share a common passion: to light up the sky, and the faces watching from below.