2012-Day 80- Crypt before and after

We finished the crypt upgrades which were basically a ceiling repaint with gray and then gray speckled paint, followed by placement of vines onto, and hanging from, the ceiling. I was able to screw a couple of large roots into the ceiling frame and then secure the lighter stuff with twine. I think it came out pretty well. We will place webbing from the gun in there as well. Looks like we will need that foyer actor to also make sure people go in there, because I don't think they will want to now! It looks a lot more dense than it is. There is still plenty of room for at least 6 guests. I had to be sure not to obstruct the ceiling in the path of the moving wall.

Crypt ceiling before additions

Crypt after repainting and adding 'details'

2012 Day 88- Crypt upgrade plans

I did happen to be at Disneyland earlier this summer and believe me I am taking mental notes every time I have the opportunity to go out there! All of the props and sets are carefully analyzed. I don't mind the lines for that reason. It gives me plenty of time to think about possibilities! This year it was the Indiana Jones ride that showed me the way to making the crypt more tomb-like! Of course Ghouls, the hanging vines! They're everywhere! So while the vacuform panels and the fake stone as well as the corpse are all great, we can definitely ramp things up. The ceiling needs some work. I mistakenly put the shiny gray side of the foam boards facing down so when painted black they were still shiny and we didn't have enough time to do anything about it. Well now we do! We need to repaint the ceiling a neutral earth tone and what I plan to do is go outside in the back of the property and gather up a bunch of twine, which we do have incidentally, then hang that in various areas around the crypt and from the ceiling and paint those as well. That will make a huge difference as well as the webbing created from the gun! I think it will be amazing when it's done!

Current state of the crypt ceiling. Foam boards painted black but way too shiny. Needs some work!

2012 Day 92- Control room chaos!

Time now to make order out of chaos! I walked into the control room and confronted a literal bird's nest of cables, cords and switches. What! Where does all this stuff go and what does it control!!? The switches are nothing high tech. The extension cords plug into the switches which then plug into the strip. I do have an X10 remote which is used to turn on the crypt crush wall sound and light effects and I believe the elevator light and exit sound . First thing to do was turn on everything and make sure it all still works. And yes, so far so good! I tested all 3 cameras and no problem there. At least 4 sound boards are still functioning fine. Lighting for the foyer and crypt were also checked. A dvd sound system is set up for the crypt and this just replays 2 sound bytes over and over. We also have 4 pulley bars and 2 additional pulley ropes to reposition the  crush wall after it is deployed! Two that are shown here open and close the crypt door, one operates the crush wall and one not shown opens the elevator doors. Got all that Ghouls! Now I need to make a map of everything especially the switches etc to remember what operates what!

The basic control room breakdown. This is where all the action is!

DVD player sites on top of the monitor for Camera 3 - the Crypt. You can see the front of the crush wall recorded live!

Camera 2 monitors the inside of the elevator. You can see the X10 remote (small white box) sitting in front of the monitor.

This is the Foyer and also entrance into the Crypt as shown by Camera 2