Perhaps the biggest factor in shaping our modern displays has been time. Despite an ever greater increase in facilities designed to make better use of time and cut the length of time needed to achieve various tasks. It seems to become an ever more precious commodity. The majority of our displays are now rigged and fired on the same day. The majority of the fusing and preparation takes place int the factory, long before the display site is ever reached, leaving only the final assembly and placing of Roman Candle barrages and racks of mortars into their positions on the display site itself. Gone are the days when marquees would be erected on site and great teams of men would spend several days in preparation. Even a relatively large show can now be prepared by just two or three men in a day. Certainly the electrical firing of displays helps, but even now it may come as a surprise to some that we still fire smaller shows by hand.
The basic formula for our modern displays relies Roman Candles and star shells. In its simplest terms, the Roman Candles are set out along the width of the display site and fired continuously to from the basis of the display. Star Shells are then fired over the top of the Roman Candles to add power and variety. Except in the largest shows, Star Shells are not fired continuously, as seems to be the pattern for a modern typical North American display. Clearly it is down to taste, but using Star Shells only seems restrictive, as you are forced to rely purely on the variety between the effect of the shells, and lose the added dimension that use of Roman Candles can give. We start with smaller caliber shells, say 3” in diameter, in large numbers, slowly building up to the large caliber shells, though we rarely fire anything larger than a 10”. Often the last shell of a sequence, timed to fire as the Roman Candles finish is long buring, acts as a bridge to start off the next sequence.