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So due to school and work, I was unable to do much in line of a professional haunt or any of the fun stuff, but one of my friends who I worked with before working with before I began to work witha professinal haunt, and have worked with since I chose not to be involved with this haunt anymore, was putting on a haunted house for an elementary school, and asked if I wanted to help. I had to jump on the chance, assuming I was able to get that weekend off from work, which I managed to get! After being involved with the planning stages, from ideas and what worked when they did it last year, we finally were able to start the building process.
We arrived at the elementary school around 2:30-3 pm on Friday and began to unload the trailer, and within 15 minutes, we had our first free standing structure, and it felt nice (we unloaded panels as we needed them). By around 5 pm, we have about 75% of the structure up, and let me just say this....if we were working on the haunt at the previous elementary school we did it at, it would be around 6 hours before we got the same amount of structure up...we were making great time.
We began got the bracing up, and then when some of the group (we had a couple of parents in the PTO help out with some of the building, along with the school principal), I began to work on getting my FCG hanging...I chose to have my ghost hanging from a basketball hoop. After working to get the fishing line untangled and dealing with other problems, I finally had it working right. So I went to help out with bracing.
Was I ever over-confident....I was working on bracing and asked one of our friends if she turned off my ghost (as I kept it running) and she said no...so my friend checks on it, unplugs it, and when I got done with the bracing I was putting up, I went to look at it...the arm ended up hitting a screw that it was avoiding the whole time, and that cost the arm to bend 180 degrees, and get stuff....I was, needless to say, fuming and wanting to go on a cursing tirade....but since we were at an elementary school, and the principal was around, along with 2 kids and their parents, I held it in, and fumed for about 30 minutes before finally relaxing...don't worry, we fixed it the next day.
At around 11, we called it a night, all the bracing up, the light fixtures were up, and we were making great time (at the previous school, the amount we got done in less than 9 hours would have been at least 14-15 hours easily).
We arrived the next morning and began to work on detail work and getting the lights all working...which also went at a great speed. It was shocking to see how fast the time was flying by, the next thing I knew it was about 6 and I needed to get into make-up (I had planned on getting into make-up around 4:45), so I was unable to use liquid latex to blend in the edges of my foam latex prosthetic, but the kids didn't mind lol. I did grab something from my car and noticed a black tie...and thought...that could work well for the costume. So after asking a few people, they agreed it might work really well...so I added it to the costume and I loved the look...it made my clown more distinguished lol.
The night went by fast...after what felt like 30 minutes, I realized was really over 1 1/2 hours...wow. We took a break between the first show (and I think I sent a kid to therapy, just by waving and walking out of my hiding space where he could see me - it was a group I wasn't supposed to be scary in and I wasn't honestly lol) we chatted about the first shows' memorable scares, which is always fun. Then we got ready for the 2nd show, which we could be as scary as we wanted :)
The first group in the 2nd show, well, I sent them through the curtain and into the cubby hole that had the stereo equip. on the floor, causing the cd to skip, but their reactions were priceless!!! After a couple of groups beginning to fall back into the cubby hole, I began to jump onto my barrel in my room, to prevent them from falling in that direction, and I was getting even more scares by doing that...which was awesome!!!
By the end of the night, we took a lot more photos (all on my myspace, takes a long time to resize them for hauntspace...ask me for the link) and a few of us went to ihop to have more fun and talk about the memories...I love doing that...
We are already talking about next year, and one friend and I have discussed doing a pro haunt next year also...so we'll see how things go, and I can't wait to scare more people.
I know that a friend and I have decided that sometime in the future I am going to dress up as my clown and we are going to get some photos taken in downtown Austin, who cares if it isn't Halloween lol.
Well, I made a post in the hauntspace forum trying to figure out what would be a great starter prop to build, and the overwhelming response was for a flying crank ghost, so I went for it.
I looked up different instructions on websites, and then I ordered the gear motor. I had to get semi-creative because the recommended gear motor was discontinued, and a similar one was not available anywhere in the US. I did find another one that was similar, and got on the phone and ordered it, and they said there was 1 in the state of Texas, in Houston, so they could ship it to Austin and I'd get it in less than 48 hours...I thought 'Awesome!'
So now comes Friday (I ordered the gear motor on Wednesday) and I began to buy materials, and the gear motor came in!
I got the majority of the materials and then began to construct the frame (I used the instructions from kickthefog.com - thanks for the link Pete!) and I worked for about 6 hours doing the frame and the motor crank - had to work through some problems and do all the sawing by hand with a hacksaw. I got the frame and motor crank finished and was happy...so I called it a night at 1:30 am - after only planning to work until around 12.
I then began to work on the ghost frame and the head (I used a skull) and the LED lights. After working through a problem with the LEDs, and getting it worked out, I began to take the cheesecloth, with everything that needed to be done completed, and draped it.
After everything was hung up, I began to run it, and it looked great. I didn't use a blacklight because instead of spending more money, I could just use my friends'. I got photos and will hopefully be adding them tomorrow...
...But I can say that after making the flying crank ghost, I now have an even bigger obsession with building props and whatnot...and my mom even said that I'd have straight A's if I put as much effort into my schoolwork as I did with the prop lol.
I am going to school for the wrong thing lol...gotta love being young and stupid huh...but I look forward to my next prop to construct.
Tags: Flying Crank Ghost
Wow....I had a meeting with some people for the haunted house I help run this past week and it was great getting to see some familiar faces and relive some memories from the haunt. If you ask me, that is one of the things that makes haunting one of the funnest (is that a word?) hobbies/professions.
I know that I am not the only one who enjoys going out to a Denny's or IHOP in partial make-up right after a night of scaring and chatting and discussing the night, not to mention a meeting that takes place after each night (not sure how other haunts are but the ones I've worked wth and I have helped run have had a meeting after closing for the night) and just getting to hear about scares other 'monsters' had that night, it just gets me ready to get back out there and scaring. Wow that was a long sentence (ok I am getting off track...)
I find that whenever I get down, wishing it was haunt season, I can look back at soe of the scares I have helped to create or took part in, and a smile just creeps across my face. Some of the best memories are getting the bigger guys in groups because they are the ones that don't expect to get scared, and, no offense intended, gay people, because their reactions are overdone and it is sometimes hard to stay in character when I make the scare. But, I even find myself smiling when I am waiting in a room or out in the waiting area running things, and I hear the screams from inside the haunt.
I don't know about you, but I have said it for the past 7 years, working in a haunted house is actually one of the best cures for stress that I know of. If it works that well for me, then I am sure it works great for others, and that is why I try to start planning characters and rooms on November 1st, after all, there is no rest for the wicked right? I won't lie, there are days when I do not even have a single thought regarding the haunt industry, but honestly, those days are few and extremely rare, almost as rare as Gene Simmons turning down $5 for him to do nothing.
Anyways, those are my thoughts for now, and as always, happy haunting.
So, I am sitting here, and just thinking....college is almost done for me, I graduate in December, and I need to get serious about getting a real job. Luckily, my friend is the owner of a company that he has his Spirit Halloween stores run through, and we have talked about a prop company, and I think we'll do it, but I am hoping to get it all taken care of soon so I know I would have a job when I graduate.
But anyways, the name of the blog was making a character, and I have found myself drifting off a lot and thinking of different characters, and how they look and whatnot.
One thing that I have found that really helps me is to think of a basic backstory for a character, and that way I can see where the character comes from, what type of mindframe the character has.
Once I get that taken care of, I tend to get a basic look and put it down on paper, just a whole body look, very little details involved. If something doesn't seem right with the character, it is easy to fix. For instance, a character I am designing, a clown, originally had hair that was 'poofy' like Heckles and Twitch's hair, but as the character evolved, the straight hair look seems to be the best look for the character, and so that will be the final look, but that is not to completely erase the 'poofy' hair, it may make an appearance once or twice.
After I get the basic design of a character done, that is when I begin to work on the little details, like possible weapons, more detailed make-up designs, types of shooes or boots, eyes and teeth. After all, one of the things that I believe is that the small details really set one character apart from another, even though a lot of patrons do not get the time to look at every little detail.
Once I get the details worked out on a character, I tend to work on getting into character, working on a voice, and in one case (my clown) a catch phrase, but who knows, the catch-phrase may work, it may not.
But yeah, just some rambling on my part, and if this information has proved helpful for you, then awesome. I feel that the haunted house industry is a special industry, because in about 95% of the cases that I have seen, all the haunted house owners/workers get along great and will help each other out with some information....minus giving away some special secrets regarding upcoming seasons which is easily understandable.
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to send me a message and if I can help, I will. If I am unable to, I can either refer you to someone more knowledgeable or I can ask them for you.
Until my next blog, happy haunting.
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