They are stills. I used a remote shutter release and opened the shutter as the fuse just hit the hole. After the boom I closed the shutter. They are about 1/2 second to 1 second exposures. Like I said above, there is only a tiny load in the cannon, a poof really, not a boom. The camera is set so that it barely exposes the dark surroundings in that short time but captures all the fire, start to finish. It is the same technique used for shooting fireworks.