2012- Day 2 -Riding out the storm

We put a bunch of tarps around the vortex canopy. Gusts are pretty high right now but everything remains intact. Just after landfall now and the storm is moving faster than predicted which will be great if we can get through tonight and tomorrow without power loss. That is the key. I had our elevator operator over yesterday and we went through the sequence a couple of times. I swear I will be flipping switches and pulling pulleys like crazy for 2 1/2 hours straight!
One adjustment we will have to make is the peppers ghost effect will not be moving as we had planned. There is no way we can have someone push the cart at the right time, reposition and still allow for the stone panel to move in and out of the same space. Way too much happening. Plus when we tested the effect the light falls away from the ghost as he moves inward. There is not enough space to get the effect to work right. No matter. The static apparition still looks great and there is plenty of room for that.

2012- Day 3- The Show Will Go On!

I think it looks OK for us. The brunt of the storm is looking like it will hit fairly well south. Basically just rain forecast for Wednesday. I had a couple of the actors over last night to review their scripts. One is stationed behind the drop panel, one is the 'Count' who will greet the guests in front of the elevator and will manage the sliding wall in front of the crypt door, and the third is the video operator who will work the snake projection image. Today I am having the elevator operator over. He has one of the more difficult jobs, namely pulling the elevator panel up and holding it there for several seconds until the guests leave the elevator. I did have to hire someone to do that! Once your haunt reaches the level where you need to start paying people to do jobs, maybe it's time to scale back? A bunch of weatherproofing steps also need to be taken today for the vortex ahead of whatever we get from the storm. Lots of testing over the next couple of days. I hope to have a bunch of pics and maybe some video.

2012- Day 5- 'Frankenstorm' or not

We are going to continue to move forward and prepare to run this build whether it happens on the 31st or not. Last year it was rescheduled for a week later but we were out of town. So I suppose if cooler heads prevail we can rationalize that it will happen but we're not sure when. I don't think there will be snow this time based on the latest forecasts. The question is the wind, how much, will power be out and for how long. You can't make this stuff up Ghouls, but we can't control it so we're moving on with the finish. Not much left to do. There is a foam entry door we need to set up, lot's of weather proofing between the garage and the vortex, one more sound byte for the ghost area, some last minute tune-ups for the vortex, mostly light-proofing and dot painting on the fabric. Finally we need to test everything over the next few days and go over the key actors and workers roles this weekend.

2012- Day 6- Storm threatens the show for second straight year!!

Major storm approaches from lower right heading north

I'm hoping this is just a bad dream Ghouls. The forecast grows worse every day. I suppose the only potential good news is the worst is expected for Mon-Tues which means there is an outside chance it will be improved by Wed. If the town does not call off Halloween obviously we will still run it. If there isn't much wind by Wed we might still be able to run the vortex. I really can't believe this is happening for the second straight year. Might have to rethink this whole operation if it gets scrapped again due to weather. Very depressing situation right now.

2012- Day 9

Vortex with fabric installed

Exit hall framed out

Steps going into the vortex- finally!

Another welcomed addition this year was a set of steps going into and coming out of the vortex. This also added stability to the bridge. The exit hallway was framed. Overall I think we're doing well at the finish here. The exit hall should be finished in the next day or 2 and we should be able to start on the entrance door. I anticipate many hours to test everything.

2012-Day 10- Scenes from the upgraded Mansion

Entrance hall. Notice the 'real' webs! Skeleton and stacked books prop with chandelier a little further back.

Chandelier view from the foyer

Ghouls, this was a huge upgrade from last year! We got rid of the cheesy scene-setter sheeting and replaced it with foam 'wooden' panels you can see on the right. Probably the biggest breakthrough this year was use of a web gun to create the webs. I'm telling you this stuff is amazing! Here is an instructional video from Haunted Props that explains how it works. These webs look and feel like the real thing. We installed the chandelier at the back of the hallway.

2012- Day 11- Air cannon reloaded

Almost the final countdown yet again! We finished putting the fabric up in the vortex. It's holding up fairly well but a couple of the sheets have shrunken a tad, maybe 3/4", so we taped the ends with masking tape and this enabled us to safely stretch it over to staple onto the end hoops. The chandelier was finally hung! Hopefully a video soon. And today's item, the air cannon, was re-installed as shown. I had a similar video last year. I am a complete pneumatics newbie, not counting last year since we never actually got a chance to use the darn thing! A garage haunt is not an optimal venue for serious pneumatic props, but this is different! It is actually fairly easy to operate and very compact. This is the one we're using. Apparently the price has gone up since I bought mine, but again, if you are not an expert in the area of pneumatics I would not try to build one from scratch! Major safety issues here Ghouls. The other component of this set up is of course the air compressor which you will need as well. I'm using an 8 pound Husky brand. If you have never used an air compressor before there are some key issues to be aware of. The big one is the power drain. As I mentioned last year I tried plugging into almost every outdoor outlet we have and was blowing fuses right and left. You are going to have to use an indoor outlet and find one that works by trial and error! We will have to keep the tank inside the garage, but this year I have designed a large work area so there will be plenty of room. Make sure you keep that in mind! Also these things make a ton of noise while the tank fills. Thankfully the cannon does not require a ton of pressure and it looks like one fill should last at least an hour or more. We could refill the tank during the short intermission if we have to. Finally make sure you close the drain valve on the bottom of the tank if you have previously opened it! Last year I opened it before storing the tank, forgot to close it, and tonight I was trying to fill the tank for about an hour and nothing was happening! There was nothing in the troubleshooting directions about it. Somehow I figured it out!