New Years revolution
FEBRUARY | REVIEW
Jim Donald, director of production, Jack Morton tells Access
that handling London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks was a blast
How did Jack Morton originally get
involved in the event, and how do you keep
the contract year after year?
We first tendered for the Mayor of
London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks in 2004,
after our creation of the Athens Olympics
opening and closing ceremonies. We won
a four year contract and since then have
retendered every three-four years. Each
time it’s a competitive pitch process, so it’s
of course essential that we stay at the top of
our game.
What changes have you made to the event
through the years, logistically and in terms
of technology used?
In 2004, the event was designed very
much as a media moment – there was a
desire to create an event that would put
London on the map globally and show
London as a centre of excellence for such
events. Logistically, as the event has grown
exponentially in popularity, we’ve needed
to focus on crowd management measures,
moving people further along the event
footprint to avoid overcrowding. This format
developed through to ultimately creating
a large-scale ticketed event over the past
five years. It now operates in the way you’d
expect any large scale event to happen in the
current climate, in order to ensure the safety
and security of all attending.
Another big challenge logistically is
to ensure London, which is of course an
ever-evolving and growing city, remains
operational for everyday business as long as
possible. Roads are not closed until 2pm on
the day of the event and the London Eye is
only handed over to us at 4pm.
In terms of technology, there have been
significant changes over this period as you
would expect. In 2004, the show design
was created in and communicated to the
client and broadcasters through storyboard
sketches. Today we are able to design and
communicate the lighting and firework
design through a fully integrated animation.
In terms of the show itself, technological
advancements in firing systems allows us to
create a more fully synchronised show using
GPS and time code to trigger each of the
6000 cues through the 11 minute show.
How has the event been received?
The event has always been well received ,
attracting an increasing number of viewers
year on year and becoming quite a national
institution in people’s homes – as well as
those lucky enough to see the event live. This
year viewing peaked at over 13 million on
the BBC.
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