Ready for the big bang? Tomorrow night, dazzling fireworks displays will light up skies across the US, both in tiny towns and big cities. That includes Boston, where the team at Pyrotecnico produces the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. To learn more about the booming business, we spoke with Matt Shea, Pyrotecnico's northeast regional manager. Q: How long does it take to plan Boston's Fourth of July fireworks? What does that process look like?We pretty much start planning the following year's show on July 5. We talk about what we liked and what we'd like to do differently. Two weeks later, we have a meeting where we talk about what to do next. Then we go on our merry way and work on all our other shows ... This year, we'll produce about 600 shows just in the Northeast … Then, around February, we start working on music, and in April, we get into the weeds of it ... This show is shot off five floating platforms, or barges, so you have to plan things like equipment allocation and you have to make sure we have enough quality product that a show like this requires ... My final show design was done about two weeks ago, but I'll keep tweaking up until the day of the show. It's a project you keep coming back to, like when you're writing a book. You're not just sitting in front of a typewriter for a long time — you're coming and going. Q: What's the key to a successful show?For a show like this, you want to produce it in 10- to 15-second scenes. So you want to make sure that the choreography design is clean, the packing of all the shells into the boxes is clean, and the day of the show, plugging all the electric matches is also clean. Because if we have a shoot where most go off — there's always some that just don't fire — that's success. When I see some of the photographs that are taken and if it looks like what I had envisioned in my head when I designed the show, I'm super happy ... Also, there's nothing more amazing than hearing the audience cheering loudly at the end of a show. It's something you don't experience often and to that degree. Q: Was there ever a time when a fireworks display didn't go according to plan?The famous one was around 2014. We shot the fireworks show on July 3rd because a hurricane was coming in on the Fourth of July. But the hurricane actually ended up coming in on the evening of July 3rd, so we shot it not only one day early, but also 45 minutes early. We were ready, but we got a lot of wind and rain right after the show. When you're given those conditions, it does become difficult to make a perfect show. But we got it off and we did our best. Q: Why are fireworks so integral to big celebrations like the Fourth of July?They bring out something that is very deep in our soul. Something primitive. It's explosive, it's loud, it's colorful, it's hitting a lot of your senses. And when done right, you're putting it to music, which almost gives it feeling. That combination is what makes fireworks amazing — and really does bring out the little child in all of us. | 
