Page 2 - daylight photos and construction.
If you're willing to come this far, it may be fair to assume that you'll be willing to read about some of the details.
Who knows ... you might find something useful or entertaining here.
Click on any image for a larger version.
This section of covered porch faces one street at an intersection in beautiful Webster, Florida.
A street light illuminates this intersection, and does a mighty fine job I must say.
The yard here is considerably brighter than anywhere else, so it becomes the ideal trick-or-treating candy station.
Since this area is the designated kid-friendly place, the Skeleton Marionette was the natural first choice.
Creepy?... maybe ... but not at all scary.
Following the lead of Master Haunter Steve Hickman of Terror Syndicate Productions, erosion control fabric was used
in various haunt locations. This product is definietly as cool as Steve says it is. They longer it hangs, the better it looks.
As you walk toward the (actual) front yard, the porch wraps around the house and the graveyard fence begins.
This "corner" was filled with the Waylighter static prop. Placing him ON the porch brought him up an additional
thirty inches, making him taller than most children. That perspective adds to his good looks.
From this point on, the basically empty front yard was transformed into a yard haunt.
"Trees" were added and camouflage nets were stretched and draped to break the open area into "rooms."
The goal was to make visitors travel from one location to the next. There was no way to see things wthout
stopping at each point.
The Emerge prop was tucked under the branches of the first group of trees.
Even while suffering the effects of that blasted street light, his camouflage cape helped disguise
his presence. Subtle cooler colored haunt lights illuminate the trees and static props nearby, while the prop's effect light
is bright red. That contrast added to the startle factor.
View of the yard from the intersection.
The Soulspill prop was placed at the fence in the first "room."
When triggered, he would lift at a relatively slow pace while the fog started rolling from his mouth.
Once he reached top height, his arms would quickly swing outward.
This guy stood behind SoulSpill.
He's a free-standing 4th class budget Bucky Skeleton from Anatomical Chart Company.
He was made into a corpse prop using the cheesecloth and liquid latex technique ... absolutely nothing fancy.
The backdrop of tree branches, camouflage netting, and erosion control fabric took the haunt lighting to a different level.
The textures all played against each other surprisingly well. The main haunt lights were all cooler colors
of blues, purples, and greens. This prop was illuminated from below at close range with a medium shade of green.
This prop's location along with a good lighting plan enabled me to get better pictures of this prop than any other.
Go figure ...
Consider this a before-and-after set for this prop combo.
The first picture shows the tunnel-view of the graveyard scene, located within the second and biggest "room."
If you're curious enough to move in for a better look at the graveyard, you will put yourself at or near the target
area for these pneumatic props.
The tree line to the right of this scene helps block most of that blasted street light's effects.
Light still trickles along the fence line, but very little found its way to the prop's location(s).
A couple of side views of the graveyard effect ... chilled fog ...
This perforated drainage pipe did an excellent job bringing fog all across the graveyard scene.
The pipe was positioned so that it was out of plain view from the front or corners.
Any exposed pipe was camouflaged with either darkness, tree line configurations, or temporary yard debris.
Not exactly high tech, but effective.
Daylight view of the 2005 pointing Bucky corpse. In this photo, part the Subdued character's arm is visible behind the fence post.
A closer view of some of the textures used to fill the trees out ... various styles of camouflage netting, erosion control fabric, and
mutilated cheesecloth. It's very bright in daylight, and accepts colored light very well at night ... think movie screen ...
A ground-level view of the last "corner" of the display.
Occupying the whole corner, the Bellicose prop started out in darkness thanks to the third and last tree line.
A single green spot light constantly illuminated the trees behind the prop. When triggered, a combination of strobe lights and a red spot light
let visitors know something was coming. His program of motions began and he flailed around wildly while the effect lighting cycled.
Sometimes he was in the dark, backlit by the rest of the display and main lights. Other times he was directly in the red spot lights or
one of two corner strobe lights.
This guy marked the end of the display. He is no longer used as a pneumatic prop, but he still has a home here.
A purple spot light from below made him visible from the corner of the display, but he was tucked into the trees just enough to
make people walk past the Bellicose prop for a better look.
Here is a series of progress shots, the construction of this yard display.
We outlined the shape of the display with the Graveyard Fence.
The area between the fence and house was broken into three main sections from left to right.
To create actual, physical barriers between the sections, tree limbs were "planted" in something like rows.
Any undesired voids in the tree lines were filled with camouflage netting, sometimes supported by lightweight rope
from tree to tree.
More pictures of the trees in place, and the beginning of the detailing process.
Some areas received cheesecloth and/or erosion control fabric.
The porch was dressed in a similar manner.
The joints of the fence posts and panels were covered with Spanish moss, netting,
cheesecloth ... anything to add to the effect. Using the same materials throughout the
display helped tie all the individual places and things together.
By the end of the day, the basic construction was finished.
Closer views ... the Skeleton Marionette's future location and the beginning of the graveyard fence.
And that's it ... the following day, it was time to add props and start tweaking all of the spots that needed attention.
The "instant tree" plan was a gamble, but one that payed off with excellent results. Transforming an open lawn into a
series of wooded/overgrown scenes was an interesting process.
We spent a lot of time hiding the control wires. All extension cords were the green landscape variety.
Nothing seems to stand out as much as an irridescent orange power cord. All air hoses and tubing in the display were black.
The wires between the props and controller were small gauge speaker wire, the size and color blend well outside.
In addition to color camouflage, everything was routed behind props, within tree groupings, etc. Despite the number and length of
these hoses and wires, they were mostly hidden in the display.
The introduction of a DMX lighting system brought a lot of "mood" to the display. The ability to control the colors applied, intensity,
and fade effects via user programmed sequences was a big help. The lights seemed to move around the display. The sequence was slow
enough that most people probably didn't notice it, but one scene could be viewed under four or five lighting conditions, each one
highlighting something different. DMX is definitely the way to go if you want to step your lighting plan up a notch.
Why a display?
The bottom line is that this is all about celebrating the Halloween holiday, specifically the trick-or-treating event.
Setting things as a display gives visitors the option to choose their level of involvement in this celebration.
I don't want to scare everyone. My goal is to provide opportunity in the form of dark-themed artworks.
There is opportunity for anyone willing to test their nerve ... some folks love a good scare.
There is opportunity to grab your candy and run.
There is opportunity to look as long as you like - some folks even took pictures.
If the plan is successful, offering choices allows everyone to get what they want from this celebration.
Thanks for reading along.
See you next year.