Official 'what went wrong/lessons learned' thread

[Shockwave199]

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For me it was all about pesky audio problems this year. All of my cd players refused to repeat. Infuriating.

Lessons learned

- NEVER rely on batteries to run cd players. They rip through batteries quickly.

- Never under estimate how long things will take. I thought I had everything under control, but I never saw the clock move so fast in my life as I did today. Hours went by like five minutes. Made it just in time.

Dan

[Mizerella]

I waited to long to test fog! Not one worked no time to fix so I had to run and grab a cheap one just so I had something!

My biggest lesson I can not rely on anyone for help! If I am going to keep doing this no more actor reliant scenes. No one showed up to help tonight except my mom in-law and she was awesome. My husband even though I begged him to get home early this one night showed up after 6pm.
I think I may do Terra's chroma depth panels next year anyway. I've been wanting to anyway so this is just further motivation.

Also I got to get better sensors or foot pedals for my stuff. I hate scares being ruined by noise setting of a prop too early.

[rotokid]

Well all in all it was a booming success but There where some very important things i learned this year that i should have learned long long ago. I do a very large yard show and it usually takes myself and 6 adult family members about 8-10 hours to get everything set up wired and checked. From now on we will be having a training well ahead of the big day. I added allot of new electronics, props, and lighting this year and everyone stood around waiting for me to explain the new items. I couldn't very well tell one of my sisters (who has no wiring/ lighting experience hey just go setup the lighting trusses, make sure you attach the dimmers, the gobo projectors go on the end, and don't forget to daisy chain the DMX cables before we lift it. So the final connections on new 16 channel main board was done with a little flashlight and several attempts. I have to say they gave it there best even when I started to get a little testy.

[Scatterbrains]

If I am going to keep doing this no more actor reliant scenes.

My actors did a great job tonight, but I either need to get twice as many or drop the idea altogether as they couldn't keep up with the crowd since they manned multiple positions. I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment as it's simpler to manage things when you know you'll just have static stuff, instead of trying to figure out where you can get actors.

Another lesson...programming the lightorama is very time consuming. This cannot wait until September. Need to try and do a song a month so I don't get burnt out.


The other thing, no more running any out of town races in October..I lost way too many setup days to that

[DexterSinister]

Figure out where I need power for the things I haven't yet put out. Run the extension cords and make sure outlets are where I need them in advance of the final setup. Come up with a better power distribution arrangement to avoid the tangled rats nest.

Likewise for the speaker wires; put them in place ahead of time even though I'm not putting the speakers out yet.

Get a power supply for the laser effect instead of relying on batteries.

Buy a minimal amount of candy and come up with cool stuff that's easy to keep for next year. Way too much candy left over.

There's not enough time at the last minute to break out the bunch of battery operated clip-on LEDs and place them strategically. Set 'em up early or forget about it. (maybe the TOTs will get clip on LEDs next year)

Find a way to keep the friends who are gathering (to TOT as a group) from loitering in the driveway and keeping the motion activated prop running continuously and spoiling the surprise.

Can't have too many Jack-o-lanterns. The movie Trick-R-Treat got that right. No matter what your theme, lots of lighted Jack-o-lanterns just look right.

A little fog juice goes a long way.

All of those were minor and didn't detract from the haunt.

[bl00d]

Lesson learned not to walk away from my haunt even if it next door

Group of teenagers ran through it stealing what they could.

They also stole all of the candy.


Lil did they know that I run and workout everyday so I chased them down and got my stuff funny having a zombie chase after you lol

After catching them I told them I have you all w/ stolen property I am calling the police and you were also caught on hidden cameras.

pulled out my cell phone they begged and pleaded, pretended to start calling the police, but instead I gave them one option, I call the police because they stole my props n candy or they can return the props back and all of there candy that they have dump it into a garbage bag and hand it out to TOTers while I supervise.

They chosed my option and I hope they learned a vaulable lesson.

[GobbyGruesome]

ˆWell played! That night turned out a little different than what they were expecting.

[Ghouliet]

I learned I would like another fog machine in my graveyard next year and I also need to do a better job of lighting up the spider area in my yard. Extra back up light bulbs are a good thing to have on hand, I had one thank goodness and you can never have too many batteries.

[The Red Hallows]

More battery operated lights for our floating pumpkins.

Another American DJ 1200 fog machine. I love the one we have, but my husband and I fight over it.

[talkingcatblues]

One thing I learned was not to count on having all the prep time the calendar says you have, because some weekends that *seem* free are going to be eliminated by unexpected family obligations, the weather, having to redesign something and start over, etc.

Also if any of the "eliminated" time had been at the last minute, which it could just as well have been, I would not have gotten nearly as much done as I had wanted to. So I should really try not to last minute it, although that's very hard for me to do.