A Halloween Retrospective

Unfortunately, my camera decided to break and the battery on the camcorder became inoperable so there's no real photos or video of the haunt. The one to the right was a little dark so I tried adjusting the photo settings and got something more along the lines of the ones below, even darker and more washed out. Then the camera chose to die.

Here's the only bit of video I was able to get before the battery went kablooey.

As can be seen (or not), the yard display was very dark so next year I'll need to get more flood lights to set an eerie tone for the yard and then highlight individual props, tombstones, etc. with the LED spots I made. Viewing the yard from the sidewalk directly in front of the house it looked okay, but it became apparent as soon as you walked up the path that it was very dark. Time to go read Skull & Bone again.

In all Halloween was better than it's been in past years. First, I didn't run out of candy this time (a first!) and we had more trick-or-treaters than in any year before. In prior years we've had anywhere from 10-20 kids, but this year we almost hit 30. We actually would have had more, but I enforced a strict "no costume, no candy, no exceptions" rule this year and actually turned a few older teens away who thought they could get away with getting candy while walking home from wherever they were coming from. I didn't include them in the totals.

By 8:30 p.m. though all of the ToTs that were going to come had come, no doubt because it was a school night. So I was able to run and return a Redbox movie, but upon my return found two adults strolling through the front yard with their dog admiring the display. One of them said they had come by last year with his granddaughter who ended up being too afraid to approach the house and would only look at the display this year.

There were a lot of compliments this year, and it was nice to hear as one group of kids left and were heading to my neighbors (undecorated) house, someone shout, "You've got the best house in town!" That was gratifying.

There were a number of new props I displayed this year, including my ScareFX-style Rockin' Granny. It did generate a bunch of scares as I had set it up to go off with a motion sensor so that was fun, and I enjoyed my Flying Crank Ghost. I thought it looked nice moving on the front porch. However, what seemed to creep out most people was my "wall crawler" Monster Mud prop, which actually became a roof crawler.

I had him situated at the end of the eave, looking over the roofline and illuminated him with a flashlight on Halloween night. However he was up there the entire month. As two brothers walked by during the afternoon, one stopped and said, "You've got a lot of really great things out here, but the one that really creeped me out the most was that one," and he pointed to the roof. "The first time I walked by I felt that something was watching me and when I looked I saw it sitting up there and it scared the hell out of me."

A lot of the kids were actually scared to come up the walkway because of it sitting up there, and my wife wants a bunch of similar props to display up there next year as if they're climbing up onto the roof. 

The graveyard is really just the scene setter and doesn't seem to carry much weight, at least not as much as the other props. I guess it provides the ambience for the other props to give their chills. But next year I need height. Almost all of my tombstones were of a similar (low) height, so I plan on introducing some obelisks and maybe a sarcophagus similar to the one the Davis Graveyard displayed. That would look splendid in the yard.

Other than the wind that ended up whipping up late in the morning, there wasn't much to complain about. The breeze really didn't threaten the props, as I heard a number of haunters say happened at their homes, but it made it impossible to use the fogger I had at the ready. I had been hopeful because the day dawned bright, clear, and still but by 11:00 a.m. a steady breeze was blowing making it impractical to use. That's two years in a row now with no fog.

The only prop I wasn't happy with was my reindeer/cat/rabid dog prop. The movement was much to subtle to bring any notice to it and I was unable to synch my iPod with it to have it snarl and growl. Because I had hooked up the player to the motion sensor as well, the "Play" button needed to be hit each time it was activated. I tried taping a nut to the play button but that didn't work either so I'll need a better option next year.

In all, I was happy with my display. The props, the look of the yard, and the increased number of ToTs that came by all made the work I did all year long satisfying. I think some better lighting options next year, a few more props (still want to make my gravedigger), and perhaps introducing ambient sound will make it even better. This was a learning year for me -- such as learning to make sure my camera works before Halloween -- and I'm looking forward to an even better effort next year.

A Preview

Here are a few photos I took with my cellphone of my yard display (fine time for my digital camera to stop working).

We had a nice misty morning yesterday, though it doesn't show up quite so well in the photos. Then last night I was out trying to take night photos with the phone (yeah right!) and was toying with the settings. Ultimately it ruined most of the shots I took so I'll have to retake them again soon. I'm going to try my hand at capturing some video this year too, and will post it here as well.

Really, other than my rockin' granny and my FCG, there's not much movement that really requires video, but I'll try to capture the grand sweep of the haunt! My 50-feet of American Dream will undoubtedly appear far more expansive than it really is.

R&R: Repair & Recovery

Yesterday was seemingly a long day. Starting early in the morning, I began the work of tweaking the props that had determined to fail on me the day before. It started off with a couple of successes: the FCG just needed to have some bolts tightened and the LED spotlights all lit up after some suggestions from my make-and-take drinking buddy niblique71. I just need to pick up some extra wire to finish hooking them up.

Things really started to bog down when I began working on my rockin' granny. Though I thought the motor had been wired for the slowest possible setting -- and from the pictures on Monster Guts website it looked that way too -- I disassembled the mechanism just to make sure. I switched out the wires then reassembled everything after confirming I did have it as slow as possible. Actually, I had to do it twice because that's when I found out there was a "blank" connector too.

Have you noticed a pattern here? I do everything in multiples? Take apart a prop only to have to redo it again later. Run to Radio Shack dozens of times. You'd think after doing this time and again I'd start to slow down and try to get it right the first time. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

After getting the granny mechanism back together again, I noticed that the bolt that connects the arm bar to the wood upright was wobbly, probably from the wild rocking motion putting a lot of pressure on it. As it was only 2 inches long or so, the lag screw was getting loose. So I removed the lag screw, but the washers on the bar had somehow fused themselves together, so I had to unmount the whole thing from the motor and take a cold chisel to separate them to remove the screw from the arm. Once that was done, I found a 4 inch or so lag screw and bolted that back in, figuring the extra length would help minimize any loosening of the mechanism. It did seem to rock a lot smoother after that.

Perhaps the biggest achievement was simply moving the rocking mechanism from the front of the chair to the back of the chair. That slowed down the movement from wild to simply manic. One of my other M&T buddies, hpropman, who's an electrical wunderkind, also suggested moving the location of the lag screw up, even as little as 1 inch, to help regulate the movement. That will be one of my objects today.

After fiddling with that for a good long while, I tried to convince granny to keep her legs on. Double amputees are great fun and all, but it wasn't the look I was going for. First the PVC inserts were too long and prevented the chair from rocking at all. After cutting them down, I tried using PVC cement to keep the pieces in place. But using PVC pipe with CPVC connectors doesn't quite cut it -- and as always, I was too lazy to run to the store and get them. So instead, I battled for a good hour or so trying various ways to keep them attached.

Granny's nothing if not determined and she managed to kick off her legs at every turn (or rock). I finally gave up and decided to break down and go to the store and get new connectors. That's the other part of my objective today. At least her arms remain intact.

After that annoyance, I waited for the sun to go down so I could properly position my spotlights. I have to say I'm happy with how they look. The blues are bright as hell, as are the greens. Reds are less so and I may have to double (or triple) up my ambers. I have one pointed at my "pumpkin kreep" prop, but it doesn't illuminate it as much as I want. Perhaps moving it a little closer will help. It's no Skull & Bones lighting display, but I'm pleased nonetheless.

Last, my wife and I took a ride over to Hackensack, the next town over. In years past there is one block where almost all the homeowners put up colorful Halloween displays. And I mean "colorful" in a pejorative sense. It was always too cutesy and cartoonish for my tastes. It seemed as if everyone had the same wooden soldiers out, and I always wondered what that had to do with Halloween anyway. But to each his own.

I was expecting pretty much the same thing this year and was really surprised to see things had taken a turn for the dark. And by that I mean most of the displays were downright creepy. While one or two houses had Shrek or the Wizard of Oz wooden cutouts, the vast majority of homes had gone with graveyard and/or zombie scenes. One even was using pneumatics (which scared the crap out of me because I definitely didn't expect it when it lunged at me). I have to admit I was downright jealous. A number of the yard displays were really quite good, and I saw one display that my wife and I agreed we were going to have to steal.

The only drawback was that the number of homes participating in the display had dropped by more than half. Maybe it's still early for some of the homeowners, but there were not nearly as many displays as in years past when the police would come for crowd control and close down the block to all full pedestrian access. Parking was always a problem at night because of the vast number of people that would come to gawk, but this year there was plenty of space.

Here's an Associated Press video about the Clinton Place extravaganza from 2007:

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/428801 (sorry, wasn't able to get the clip to embed)

Now back to work!

And just a side note: When you're sitting alone at home and the mummy you in your living room -- you know, the one that responds to movement -- suddenly goes off even though you're sitting in the dining room (as it did just now), it makes you think that my little ghost visitor has returned.

Summer Winds

I guess we should be thankful for this "Indian summer" we've been granted. It certainly makes it more enjoyable to set out props in the yard, though when your thoughts are turning to jumping in the pool it hardly makes it seem like Halloween is less than three weeks away.

The yard is coming together. The tombstones in the graveyard are up (a few more are waiting to be finished), the flying crank ghost is up and running (more on that in a minute), and granny is rocking away in her chair. I put the finishing touches on the LED spotlights I made this year and began running the wiring to them. So why is it all coming apart at the seams?

I've been testing the FCG and letting it run for hours at a time to make sure that on Halloween all is okay. And it has been, until yesterday afternoon when one of the lines for the arm decides it wants to get entangled in the motor screw. What the heck makes it suddenly do that?!

That would've been okay, but I went to make sure that I had properly set up the wiring for the LED spots and went to connect it to the computer power supply powering the FCG when I noticed I didn't have a proper connector. I checked the (five!) other computer supplies I have figuring I'd harvest a connector from one of them, but none of them had one either. So off I went to Radio Shack to get one.

I once read a parody of the Shack's business on The Onion, which ran an imaginative interview with the company's CEO Julian Day.

"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is. You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."

Parody, yes, but it hits pretty close to home. But thank goodness they do sell all sorts of doodads. I was able to find my connector but upon getting home I realized I needed a female connector, not a male, so back to The Shack (good thing it's just minutes from the house). I got the female connector came, back home and went to install it, when I realized I actually did need the male connector!

Now before you think I'm a complete idiot, let me just say that I was always under the impression that a male connector slid into a female receptacle, and that's why they were named as such. Not so with these Radio Shack parts. It's the opposite. When I showed the two parts to the employee helping me, he was baffled too (for your own edification, the picture above right is supposedly the male connector, while the one to the left is the female, even though the one on the left slides into the one above. I'm guessing it has to do with the prongs inside the connector).

So back home for a third time at which time I realized my computer power supply's (female) connector didn't fit The Shack's (male) connector. The latter had a slightly different shape and no amount of "helping" would make it go. So, it was back to Radio Shack again where I just cancelled the entire transaction. I'm just going to wire it directly to the PC battery, but by that point yesterday I was too friggin' agitated to do more.

Between the FCG and the stalking I was doing at Radio Shack, I was pretty well aggravated by this point. Which brings me to my ScareFX-style rockin' granny. Maybe it was the unseasonable weather, but granny seemed like she wanted to stand up and walk right out of her chair she was rocking so violently. I don't remember her having done so previously when I tested it out.

My good fried Noah Fentz, who runs the Katzper's Haunt (an award-winning basement walk-though haunt), had opted not to have his granny move using the ScareFX mechanism because he thought it looked too unnatural. While I believe in certain circumstances the "crazy lady in the chair" movement can be effective, I see his point after watching mine rock violently. But I set it up with one of the motion sensors I made and it should really scare the bejesus out of people. I know it did my wife. She didn't realize I had powered it up and when she walked onto the porch she jumped as it started moving. So I'll have to find a way to keep her legs attached (yeah, that was one of the pitfalls of this wild rocking, she kicked her legs off).

In reality, the yard display is coming together and the "setbacks" yesterday are really just tweaks. But when they come as they did in threes -- the FCG, the LEDs, and the rocker, as well as three trips to Radio Shack -- I had had enough and went inside and had a few cold beers. I would've anyway, but it was a good excuse to calm down from my frustration. And I'll be back at it today!

Halloween Begins

It's an inauspicious start -- certainly no Davis Graveyard -- but my little (dark) corner of Halloween has begun. I began setting up yesterday, planting a pair of corpses on stakes in the garden and erecting a few tombstones. Today, it was putting up the cemetery fence and a few more tombstones.

This is the first year I hollowed out a groove in the back of my tombstones and glued in a PVC pipe. After sliding it over two pieces of rebar hammered into the ground, that sucker wasn't going anywhere! Why I didn't do this last year I don't know. I ended up spending a good hour doing the same to all of my tombstones and now I just need to get some more rebar.

I liked it so much that I did it to my cemetery fence. This was actually a stockade fence I cut down last year and fashioned into a shorter, more broken down version, but I had attached wooden stakes to it which I pounded into the ground. Since the stakes were 2x2's, they made some nice aeration holes in my yard. After the PVC-rebar success I enjoyed with the tombstones, I removed the stakes, installed PVC, painted it over, and placed it on rebar. Again, a far more sturdy result than what I had last year.

Still, there's lots more to do before it's all set up.

Time Flies

Excuse me, but how did we get to the point where there are less than 100 days till Halloween? I guess only a haunter would be worried there's only a little more than three months to the holiday, but some of those best laid plans I mused over after last year's spooktacular -- Build a skull every other day! Make 3-5 groundbreakers! Build haunt walls! -- I'm faced with the reality that life does somehow have a way of intruding. I'm not even close to where I wanted to be.


But I shouldn't be too hard on myself. After all, while I didn't work as diligently as I had wanted to, I still managed to make two new papier mache corpses, a Stolloween-style dragon, a ScareFX rockin' granny, the mechanism for a flying crank ghost, 30 LED spotlights, a couple of tombstones, and this weekend I'll be completing a PIR motion sensor prop trigger. So I haven't been completely slothful. I've attended the NJ/PA Make-and-Take every month (though I missed the rafting trip) and I've gained some really useful skills that I never would've tried previously (soldering, anyone?).

And importantly, I do still have three more months to go before Halloween is here. Last year, in just one month's time, I was able to build two groundbreakers and a Monster Mud reaper, a bunch of PVC flicker candles, and a whole bunch of interior decor items (a menagerie of "witch jars," for example). I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make one or two MM props and a few more groundbreakers before I run out of time.

I think my grandiose plans may need to be scaled back a bit, but even if I don't get to everything, my yard haunt will have been taken up a notch again. Another block in the building process.

And there's always next year!

Halfway to Halloween

Damn! I went the whole month of April (and a week or two in March, too) without posting anything.

Following the inundation of rain last month, my posting here got disrupted and I found it difficult to get back on track. Still I've been slowly working on props and learning new techniques at a local make & take group (thanks, Hauntforum, for introducing me to a great bunch of people).

I've been thinking, though, about what it is we do. Of course there's a large component of selfishness that goes into the props we build and the scenes we create. The admiration from family and friends is nice, and there's the part that allows us to have an outlet for whatever creativity we possess that doesn't get a chance to be expressed in other means in our regular lives.

But a large component is the joy and happiness we get from sharing all of this with others. Yes, with our friends, families, and trick-or-treaters, but also with each other. Without the generous nature of others I would never have been able to create -- or even to make the attempt to make -- the props I have, however poor the effort has been to the original design.

Because SpookyBlue (and others) provided some detailed instructions on how to do papier mache, I was able to make ground breakers and can plan for other props to populate my haunt this year. Due to Pumpkinrot's incredible talent, we have a high ideal to shoot for in our own creations, and because of a regular stream of links to other haunters' haunts and props on his site, I've found many other talented artists to emulate. Stolloween has given me some new ideas on where to take papier mache next. The Hauntcast podcast gives me a dose of monthly haunting fun that keeps me occupied -- and smiling -- as I work on my props. And the people I meet with monthly at the M&T have been teaching me new techniques that I can add to my display and take the haunt to another level.

In short, the Halloween community is a very giving one, despite our otherwise selfish reasons for doing what we do.

So, as we've hit the halfway to Halloween marker (shouldn't there be a celebration or something?) I just wanted to thank all my fellow haunters for providing me with the inspiration to take my own haunt to the next level. I have a long way to go to match your level of skill and dedication, but it's a fun journey I don't mind taking. I'm looking forward to the next six months of prop building and then the Big Day. Has it been six months already and do we really only have six more months to go? I gotta go. I've got haunting to do. Thanks!

Rich

Going Medieval

I think I've mentioned before my dilemma with Halloween decorating: where I prefer a darker, moodier, atmospheric tableau my wife tends towards lighter, cuter designs. Where I like rot and death, she prefers quaint and kitsch.

So far I've given her the run of the inside of the house while I've been allowed to take over most of the front yard. Some of our yard props are still too lighthearted for my taste, but we have an uneasy truce that allows me to have control over most props (probably because I'm the one making them!).

This year I want to take my display to a higher plane, and I've been musing about how best to achieve the effect I'm looking for. I've previously said I was looking at various ideas, such as a Grand Guignol theme along with a medieval one. I've decided now against the former because I think that would rely too much upon blood and guts. One of the charms of the Grand Guignol theater was the level of torture and gore they brought to the stage. Since I'm looking for something creepier than just oozing blood, I've decided I will go with a macabre medieval set. For some reason, the period encompassing the rise of the Black Plague in medieval England seems appropriately atmospheric enough.

"The plague, I hear, encreases in the towne much, and exceedingly in the country everywhere." -- Samuel Pepys

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that death was literally at everyone's door. The village of Eyam in Derbyshire is perhaps best known as the "plague village" because of its willingness to seal itself off from the outside world when the plague arrived there. Of the 350 villagers that lived there prior to the Black Death's arrival, only 83 survived.

"How many noble men, how many beautiful ladies, how many light-hearted youth, who were such that Galen, Hippocrates, or Asclepius would declare them the healthiest of all humans, had breakfast in the morning with their relatives, companions, or friends, and had dinner that evening in another world with their ancestors!" -- Boccaccio

Death and ruins seem to be an appropriate feeling for Halloween, decay and decrepitude. Thus I've decided to expand my Halloween haunt to include my side yard where I'll be able to channel trick-or-treaters to venture to get their candy. So I've begun sketching out ideas for how I'd like the side yard to look.



Passing beneath an arbor, you travel along a narrow stone path that opens up into a wide patio area. An elevated, wrap-around porch is on your left while a tall picket fence runs along the right. I'm envisioning a stone arcade of ivy and moss-covered gothic arches lining the lower wall of the porch. Above will be the tattered remnants of aged banners.

Since I also want to try my hand at using some of the new papier mache methods I've discovered to build larger, human-like props I think I'll be able to incorporate one or two back here as well. The picture above shows my sketch of a plague doctor, the poor souls whose duty it was to visit the houses of the ill to see who had the plague and who did not. From what I've read, they weren't real doctors at all (the real ones had fled the cities), but merely brave individuals who were appointed the task of sealing up a house with any infected individuals inside.



The creep factor comes from their outfits. Dressed in long robes to protect their skin from exposure, they wore great beaked masks that were filled with aromatic herbs to fend off the foul smell of the dead and dying. Their eyes were protected as well with goggles and their broad-rimmed hats protected their heads from any airborne attack. One or two of them standing around the patio (or peering back over their shoulders at you while they tend to the dying) might be creepy indeed. Plague-bearing rats climbing over everything would be part of the scene.

These two sketches are the start of my ruminations as to how I'd like the haunt to develop. As more ideas arise and as the prop building develops, I'll post more thoughts here.

Rich

Haunt 2010 Begins

Today I began working on my haunt for next year. I wanted to get right back into the prop building again before the embers of excitement that I felt before Halloween this year cooled.

I've been casting about for a theme for my haunt because I don't want it to be just a jumble of props here and there. I want to create an atmosphere that's chilling all by itself and I think I've settled on an idea that can continue to play out over the years.

The Bastille
France's notorious prison, The Bastille, I believe lends itself to the image I want to create, aside from having French roots myself. While the legend of the prison was actually far worse than the reality -- imprisoned nobles actually lived quite comfortably, with their own servants brought in -- it is the legend we remember. In particular, it is the fall of the Bastille, and the subsequent Reign of Terror, that offers much of the impetus for the haunt, with the vast use of the guillotine to exact a certain amount of justice. While I had wanted to call the haunt "Reign of Terror," one already exists using that name so I'll need to cast about for something different.


After the nobles were beheaded, the heads were placed on pikes and planted around the city. That sounds fairly creepy and opens up possibilities all on its own. And the Marquis de Sade was a prisoner in the Bastille at one time (as was Voltaire). And the Man in the Iron Mask had taken up residence there until his death.

As I write this, though, I begin to think about the possibilities for the Tower of London. That was truly an evil place and torture is part and parcel of its existence. I may need to think about this a little further.

Another thought I had at the time of mulling over the Bastille was a theme of the Grand Guignol. This was a macabre theater that ran from the late 1800's until the late 1950's, early 1960's that had as its purpose terrorizing theater goers with violence, death, mayhem, and taboo subjects. It's said that early on patrons would pass out from fright at what they saw, such as various forms of torture. It finally came to an end after World War II because it was said it couldn't compete with the horros served up by real, modern warfare and the atrocities inflicted by the Nazis.


A rare film clip I saw showed a mad doctor using a hacksaw to cut off a woman's arm. This was over-the-top horror, with lots of blood, which I'm not exactly into featuring, but the theme does offer a lot of possibilities. Obviously I need to think about the further still.

Yard Haunt Plans
What I'm looking to do is expand my haunt. Right now it is positioned only on my front lawn and certainly additional props can be added there, from headstones to zombies, but I'd like to extend the haunt around to the side of the house as well. I think forcing the trick or treaters to walk through the graveyard and up a narrow haunted side yard could increase the creepiness of the haunt. And my wife is correct when she says our display needs to be creepier. That will be the focus of my projects this year.

And to start I'll be making corpses that will be hanging from poles, as if they had been tortured and left to die on the stake. The ravages of time and nature tearing and rending their flesh. A series of them hanging along the side of the house seems like it could create the right atmosphere.

Since I'm not running a haunted house, but rather a walk-thru haunted yard display, I want atmosphere. I want to have chills developed just by looking around at what is presented. I will look to the masters on the web for inspiration, but I can already tell that some of the plans I had previously sketched out in my head will be changing.

For example, I had wanted to do a Pumpkinrot-like scarecrow with a leering pumpkin head. He got that look just right and it was something I wanted to transfer to my yard. However, as I've looked around the web, it seems everyone has such a scarecrow in their yard and it's no longer such a novelty, at least to me. I know my wife wants me to make one, and I'm sure most people would not have seen one like that before (so it may still find its way in some form or other), but I'm looking to create something unique and simply copying what has been done before doesn't excite me so much.


Who knew that get a Halloween display just so coudl require such deep thought. While I'll need to spend some time thinking about the overall progress I want my display to take, building zombies and corpses can certainly fill in the blanks until an overarching theme is found.

Rich

A Light in the Darkness

Cribbing from an idea found on the HalloweenForum discussion boards, I picked up five clip-on LED spotlights, the kind the would be appropriate for book reading. They're bullet-shaped and made of plastic, so they don't look like they could light up very much. What a surprise then when I found that they helped reveal a lot of the props (including the zombies) that were previously hidden in deep shadows because of the brightness of the large spotlights I have illuminating the haunt.

From the sidewalk, the graveyard is bathed in a ghostly blue light while from the porch it looks like the yard has sprouted fairy lights. Even better, though, is that they have helped make my animatronic mummy actually work.

One of the problems I've had in the past is that during the evening hours there wasn't enough ambient light to activate the motion sensor located on the mummy's belly. I took one of the mini-spots that was getting dim (they're battery-operated) and placed it on the porch aimed at the mummy. If it was a new spot the porch would be too bright, but because it's getting dim it doesn't change the spooky look of the porch but is bright enough to allow the mummy to activate when someone walks in front of it.

I got my other lights working too. They kept tripping the GFCI outlet and after trial and error, I figured out it was that one of the fixtures had accumulated some water and that's what was causing the short. Swapping out the fixture for a new one and the problem was cured. Now my neighbors can come by and appreciate the yard without knocking on my door at 10:00!

Rich