Thread: Help, How Do You Video Your Haunt?

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Every year, I try and capture video of my haunt, and every year I seem to fail. When I video during the day, it just doesn't capture the full experience. I mean, come on, it's daytime. You just don't get the same feel as you do when it's actually Halloween night.

But every time I try and capture nighttime video of my haunt, it just doesn't come out right. It's too dark, or too blurry, and it just doesn't look good.

So, now that I've rambled on, I would like to know what other people have done to successfully capture night video of their haunts.

Please post video and suggestions for nighttime video lighting, camera settings, etc.

Thank you in advance!

Oh, and here is my daytime video from 2009 with my six year old (at the time) giving a brief tour:

And here is my failed nighttime video from 2010. I'm just not happy with this at all, but I want to post it as an example of what I'm trying to overcome.

I have the same problems, ha ha! Really, it all comes down to the type of camera you have. Ideally, it has to have a night vision function or simply be able to see well in the dark. My cheap little video camera shoots in HD - but it can't see anything in the dark!

When I plan to shoot a video on Halloween night, it never happens because I'm running around fixing things or enjoying the experience. I don't even take a video of all my work or all the props activating! So, I usually just tell my dad to take one or two. That doesn't work out very well, because he doesn't know which props are supposed to do something.

I suggest that you should make sure your video camera shoots in high definition and has a night vision feature. This year, I will force myself to stop what I'm doing and take a full, detailed video of the haunt at night!

We have a yard haunt too, and like you, ran into problems. The video cameras simply cannot catch what the naked eye does, and I am convinced that as technology has progressed, the image stabilization feature that was fairly good in older cameras had gone down in quality.

What I have done is a few things.

Video editing software can fix a multitude of sins. From lightening or darkening (depending on what time of day you are filming), you will be able to adjust things to your liking. You can also use a tripod to keep things a little steadier and just scan an area. Another thing you can do is slow down the speed of the video to minimize any jerkiness. Also, you can do multiple takes and take you favorites and splice them in whereever you want them. When I was editing our video from last year and had a part that I didn't like, I just went and refilmed it. No one is going to know that some of your footage was filmed before or after Halloween. If you have already removed your decorations, just set up the part you want to reshoot. I was also able to control the sound by taking the sounds and music we had playing outside and replacing it for what was actually on the video, so there was no background noise from traffic or other sounds. You are also able to make smooth transitions between scenes instead of the camera just starting and stopping.

Also, try filming at different times of the day. You then can view it and see what type of light works best for you.

I would post our video, but it's over 15 minutes long (we had a friend make custom music and sounds and I didn't want to shorten them) and I don't want to bore you or anyone else with it .

Just have fun with whatever you do!

Sorry, forgot to add your yard looks amazing!

I'm another member of the total nighttime failure club.

I'm attempting a major lighting overhaul to fix it this year, will let you know if it works...

Ha, thanks. I was thinking it may help to walk around with a camera and a light source. That way provide the additional light needed to counter the contrast of the haunt lights and darkness. I know there are several things I can try, I just need to set up a test area and try.

my vids suck big time too. I bought a tripod this year, and hopefully, get better pics and vids. PS: great haunt, of course!

I had a good vid this year.my computer crashed and I lost all of my vids.I had no back up.
But like you had the same problem for me what worked was to get my lighting right.
I also filmed about 3 nights and took pictures to.That way it wasn't rushed.