WHAT AM I DOING FOR HALLOWEEN....YOU ASK?
Believe it or not, my Halloween began in June!
I was approached by the Theatrical Club from the big town south of us whether I was interested in helping them host a "Haunted House" in the old Zeller's store at the mall!
Seems my reputation as a "Scare Master" has spread further than here...
And I said YES....of course! [there goes that ego thing again...;}]
BUT.........with restrictions this time...:)
I offered to loan them the use of my stuff and help them out with what I have learnt so far.... but NO major construction, like wall building!
Happily they wanted to do all of it themselves! :)
The first stuff to leave was my 4 binders of Halloween Ideas and other haunts I've done....these are 3" thick binders!
That still didn't scare them...;)
That was their first warning of what they were getting themselves into....
So, in June, I had to dig out my Halloween stuff and figure out what I had so I could figure out what size of vehicle it would take to get it there....plus list them! Man was I happy that I had made a list of my stuff already when I did that "Haunted Museum" in Devon [AB] 08'. All I had to do was update it!
Sounds short?
It wasn't! It was also HOT AND MUGGY where I had stored it! whine, whine, whine
But I DID get it done...only to have HALLOWEEN stuck in my brain from that point on....;}
Cute decorations snuck out early...
I even beat the vendors in getting the decor up faster....:)
Anyways...
They were going to need two trucks with 8' boxes or a big grain truck!
Not all of it was mine!
My brother "Tank" and "SewLady" gifted me [they say dumped] with their collection [half a truck load]. Seems their children have decided not to "DO" that sort of thing? My grand kids drool over mine...:) Their loss....not really because I have kept a list and when they come to their senses I can gift it back.
I did whip up a big prop for their new venture because they had an actress who wanted to do a scare....the "Well" from the movie the "Ring"...
Turned out not too bad...looks scarier in the dark
All of my "haunt" stuff left here at the end of August....
Should have taken a picture of the happy moment...;)
The last I saw of it was the unloading at the site.
Talk about HUGE space to fill....they had lots to cover!
Turned out, it was to be downsized quite a bit from the original plan...which was to cover the whole building.
Which ends up to be a good thing!
Fast forward [finally] to last night...
Up until now, the only thing extra that I have done, besides the other previously mentioned stuff, was to write a 5 page instruction manual on building and running a Haunt. I called it "Haunt Making Tips - 101"...;}
Which nobody has read....from what I saw when we got there?
Pod, JD and I toured their "haunt" set-up and were impressed by some of what they have done so far, but has left us wondering how they are going to pull it off?
They have lots of people...at least a dozen and not much is done? Our haunts [3 yrs] was mostly just her and I doing the set-up [3 floors] and decor. In Devon, there was just 6 of us with one week to do it.
One of the main points that I stressed the most about was SET UP THE WALLS BEFORE YOUR DO THE DECOR!!!!!
We got to see a LOT of decor and little of the walkway!
We had hung back so we could view it alone without anyone explaining anything and all we got to see was chaos! Hopefully it's because they haven't really gotten together much and they will find their rhythm soon?
When first walking through their doorway one was faced with a huge open space [main sales floor area] with LOTS of pillars. A huge 10' x 10' covered over Greek gazebo looking thing, is the first thing we saw...this had 2 steps. Steps are hard to manage in the semi darkness especially to people like me who's eyes are getting bad. It has nothing to hold onto to step up with? Hopefully they will go around it?
After that...not sure? We went to where we saw light coming from....a door leading into a small hallway with two room to your left. One was fully decorated with none of the items that I own...I won't say what...yet. Not sure if they plan for anyone to go into the room or not or it just might be just a visual one before the scare? The next one wasn't set up yet but we knew what it was anyways. The hallway elbows and continues down to the next open area with a couple of more rooms. The hallway is a "black light walk" and they had taken the time to cover the walls/ceiling all black...hopefully the tape holds when it gets hot in there.
Then we see semi decorated areas with
After that things were chaos!
They did find two guys to hang the black plastic that they had for the walls. Tank can attest to how hard that was with all the wiring that we had to do for theirs [Devon].
Try doing it without wires or guide wires?
[I can hear you laughing T]
How about doing it while they turn the lights off and on? ;}
Yup the designers were testing their lighting areas while these poor guys were trying to see what they were doing....on top of 10' ladders!
?
Haven't a clue how they are going to finish the end of the haunt?
One of our reasons for going was to let them know, in person, that we weren't going to be available to help with the actual haunt on the 29 & 30th but will on the 28th, their opening date...due to our town finally getting their
And to pick up costumes, etc.
Was not impressed when I saw how my stuff was being treated! Don't know how anyone could find anything in that mess in the back? If it was the back?
We got what we needed and quickly left them to their chaos!
I know their director wasn't too happy with our decision to not be there those nights but was graceful to our faces....hopefully after we left too? I feel their worst night will be the first night anyways and they ARE going to need us for the timing for sure with the crowd. Our town alone won't make it those nights either and odds are they will on the opening.
I can foresee a phone call a couple of days before start up [hope they prove me wrong].
This is one haunt I AM HAPPY I AM OUT OF!!!!!
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