2012- Day Zero- Halloween is a definite GO!

Well congratulations Ghouls! We survived Frankenstorm with not too much more than an inconvenience. I can't believe it's actually going to happen. After 2 years of preparing this build, no question this is the most spooktacular ever! I promise to have pictures and video over the next couple of days. It's just too crazy right now getting things done at the last minute, but I have tested extensively and had plenty of time for that. It's going to go very smoothly. Believe it or not I am actually going to need a ghoul helper in the control room! Never had that happen before. We also have an actual entrance door to the haunt with light and sound while the guests wait to go in! Today's schedule calls for taking some tarps off of the vortex, connecting the end of the haunt to the vortex, putting up some more webs, obviously cleaning up, putting the night crawlers on the corpse (don't forget we have some high schoolers who think they're real tough and nothing can scare them!), more testing and a couple of run throughs before the guests arrive. Much more to come. Stay tuned and Happy Haunting to Ghouls everywhere!

2012- Day 19 Hoops done!

Attaching arms to the base. You can drill an extra hole in the base to run the wires through.

All 3 hoops reassembled!

It took 3 days to get the vortex hoops back up. Not too bad. We have the system down pretty well by now. Last thing will be the bridge and of course testing with the motor. Be careful though with the windy weather. We left one side of the canopy open to make the hoop assembly easier but this allows wind to get in there and potentially lift the other side of the canopy like a sail. That did happen with one significant gust! Meanwhile progress continues on the chandelier. A couple of arms are seen here attached to the base. I glued the arms to the base with some loctite cement and also used 1 or 2 screws per arm which allow for extra fixation into the pvc inner tubes.

2012-Day 26 Latexed corpse hands

Corpse hands after latex application

Now we're starting to see something! This definitely works. You take some cotton balls, break them up and use them in combination with the latex to produce what you see here. Lots of fun! Although as I mentioned earlier, it does take time. Give yourself at least a half hour per hand. The latex takes a couple of days to dry. While it's drying you can pinch the surface and do some molding to create wrinkles.  Get a quart of the latex here. That should be enough. Merlin says in his directions (see last post) you can use carpet latex. I would get the real stuff. I don't think it will cost you any more. Looks better and cleans up with water very easily. Next we will do the forearms and paint. Monday is a holiday and we should be starting to put the canopy up for the vortex. More work planned for the mansion hallway as well. Have fun Ghouls! Getting down to the wire now!

2012- Day 38- Pepper's ghost test

Moving peppers ghost test showing actor on the cart being pushed from behind

Finally we finished the lighting and lightproofing and did a rudimentary test. I have a diagram of the set-up below. When people come out of the elevator they will see the amber lit vacuform panel backdrop at which point a spooky blue light turns on to reveal the 'ghost'. This actor will stand on a cart that is pushed by someone behind it. This will create the moving ghost effect. I first tested it with a prop fixed to the top of the cart to see if the projection is right.I then tested it with the help of my 2 sons. Unfortunately they are too tall for the job! However I did see enough to determine that the effect does work. The lighting is appropriate and the view from the elevator will be the correct vantage point. There are the other logistical challenges which include the moving panel that goes right into the ghost chamber. This is intended to be used to change the set when people go into and then come out of the elevator. It will take much practice to get it to work smoothly!

Diagram of the peppers ghost moving set-up

Static peppers ghost illusion showing the amber lit vacuform panel and superimposed on that is the image of the ghoul head prop created by the illusion as illustrated above

2012 Day 95- Haunted Doors 2.0

Welcome back Ghouls! Last year we introduced the rolling door concept courtesy of my friend James Beach (Garage of Terror). This was a definite breakthrough as in the past we had major issues with doors derailing from floor-based tracks. Very bad! The suspended rolling door eliminates all of this hassle. I presented a way to open and close the doors last year remotely using a pulley mechanism. See this post to review the concept. Now James has a haunt that attracts mostly young visitors from what I understand. The guests for our haunt are much older, high school to adult. I had to make these doors a little more robust. Each door weighs about 25 pounds or so. The cost is around $15-20 per door: a couple dollars each for 2 caster wheels, a 2x2 for framing, 2x4 I beam. 4 brackets each about 99c and hardboard piece about 10 bucks. I present here details on the crypt exit door. This door will be controlled by an operator using a 2x2 handle. He or she can see through the one way window and will know when to open it!

Video demonstration of crypt exit door from outside and then inside the crypt! Notice how the mechanism is quite smooth. I put a 2x2 cube on either end of the track to act as stops. (see image below)

Components of a suspended sliding door 

You can add weight to the bottom if necessary as sometimes the doors will sway if not weighted down. The plastic on the right is there to prevent light leaks from inside the crypt

2x2 handle for opening and closing

Door is unmounted here showing the caster wheels bolted to 2 brackets which sit on either side of the 2x4 I beam (when mounted of course). You might have to drill an extra hole in the bracket on the bottom to secure the bottom portion. These brackets are very thin and easy to drill through

This is the inside of the same door as seen from within the crypt. I used a vacuform panel surrounded by pieces of foam from an old hot tub cover which when painted black look like old stone slabs!

2012- Day 114

The following is a brief tour of the Halls of Doom, again largely left intact due to last year's freak storm. This was unexpectedly creepy going in there to see what we left behind as we begin the journey to Halloween 2012. I may not need any fake spider webs at all! It was very dark in there as you can see.

2012-Day 136- We're Baaaaaaack!

Welcome back all you goblins and ghoulies from Halloweens past! We are BACK again for Halloween 2012! Can't believe it! The Nightmare before Christmas 2011 came and went..and we definitely survived. So now a couple of things. You will notice the posts have the year first before the day countdown. I thought this would make more sense since it is the 3rd (or is it 4th?) year of the blog. The next very important thing is to look at the images I have for you today. Anything "spooky" you notice about them? Yes that's correct! We never took down the haunt from last year! WHAT! I made a very strong case to the mayor of Halloween town. (Guess who that might be!) My take on it was this: I went into the haunt after the cancellation from last year's freak snowstorm. I looked at all the magical stuff we put together: The haunted elevator with it's detailing and intricate pulley system, the crypt room with the crush wall and painstaking paneling details, the pepper's ghost mechanics including the track we finally got to work smoothly etc etc. Bottom line was this: there was no way this could be taken down and put up exactly the same way. Does anyone think that Da Vinci could repaint the Mona Lisa EXACTLY as it was..OK a little exaggeration, but you get my point. Since we were going to do the same build anyway, it would have been a disaster to have to take this stuff down. It would never have worked. So my case was considered and the Mayor consented. Thankfully the winter was very mild as we did not have a garage!

Back panel of the elevator to the right

Crush wall. I did take down the exit door from the crush room

Entrance hall

And now it's back to work. Just because there was no take down does not mean we're finished. Noooooooo! It means we need to go one step further.
1) Better video coverage. I do have a new camera so we should have time to do this better
2) Upgraded mansion entrance hall. We have extra foam etc we can use and will replace the chandelier with one 'more appropriate'. Better scares for that section
3) Finish the crush room detailing. The back wall was not really done
4) The one capital expense this year will be a web gun. The store bought webs just don't cut it
5) Added sound for the pepper's ghost
6) A nicely detailed haunt entrance doorway with great fx sound and light
7) PLENTY of time to test and retest the whole set. No excuses this time

Day 6- Some front hall details

The entrance hall is a standard mansion set with the pictures along each wall. Please refer to the plan diagram in post on the right side of this page. Last 2 images show a quick and dirty 'drop panel'. We will have a picture mounted on the black board. The wood is a very dense particle board. I used some aluminum frame pieces from a shower door we took down for the side slots and greased the insides. We will have a ghoul actor stand behind the picture. As the guests go by the latch on the backside of the board is slid over to the left and the board falls with a crash!  The panel can be 'reloaded' using the eye bolt and latch. Very simple and cheap and took about 30 minutes to build. We also have our standard haunted chandelier. I wanted to make one but didn't have time so instead we are using a prop I have had for several years. It does have a shake feature which we will activate using an X10 module.

Day 89- Framing complete for the 1st half

Now 1 month into it, we achieved almost all of our goals to this point. Today we finished framing for the cave or zone 3 and all of the hoop plywood has been waterproofed and will be ready for assembly when I return in 10 days. The images below show the framing details for the cave. Most of this room will have low traffic as the actor stands in the back corner and walks forward to surprise the guests, then they will turn to head down the next hall. Therefore we have just 2x2's framing this section mainly for form. Slight irregularity will enhance the cave effect. The vortex hoop segments are also shown here in the top image coated with Thompson's water seal. That's all we're going to do. There are 16 of these segments to a hoop and they are bolted together in overlapping fashion. The bolt holes have already been machined as you can see in the second image from the top.