Home haunting project is recorded in detail with images and video as we transform a 2-car garage into the ultimate Halloween haunt experience. Inspired by the Disney Haunted House, the 'Halls of Doom' uses creatively creepy special effects, actors and other devices to produce a remarkably spooktacular result.
Halloween 7/24/365
Showing posts with label night vision cameras. Show all posts
Showing posts with label night vision cameras. Show all posts
Daytime view of the newly created haunt entry door
One of the great things we came up with this year was an actual entry door to the haunt. Rather than just a barrier of cut up black sheeting, we built a foam door with 2x2 back frame that could be hinged on one of those garden archway structures. We've had that sitting in the yard forever and have used it for the entrance but never actually put a door in it. Adding a colorful animated prop on the front with some spooky mood lighting and a motion activated sound device really gave this a superb professional quality to it. The younger kids had something to look at while waiting in line. It was really like waiting for a Disney ride! This is definitely our permanent door as I do not think we can improve on it. We added a ghoulish looking hand prop as the door handle and would ask which guest was brave enough to open the door!
The "Halls of Doom" are officially open!
Putting it all together!
The aftermath: checking for any failures and damage after the show
Behind the scenes: the control room hours before the Halls open!
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
