Some pictures of my haunt and quartet

**HalloweenBob** · 11-01-2007,07:04 AM

Didn't get a lot during Trick Or Treating, but managed a few during and some just before.

Here we go:

Here is "Sindy Skinless and the Decomposers in their Graveyard setting just before Trick Or Treating started

And another angle:

Here's one from a few days earlier showing the group in the graveyard with my fence up:

A little alteration of my street sign using some white and green reflective tape:

It used to say "SCHOOL" St.

Here are some people who gathered out by the graveyard to see the show:

You can see videos of the group perfoming on YouTube:

YouTube - More 3 axis skull Quartet
YouTube - 3 axis skull Quartet REVISED

Then we move into the "Haunted Barn". Here's a wide shot of what you see when you walk in the door:

This shot does not show any of the lighting I used. (The flash washed it all out) or the smoke rising out of the open coffin. (I hadn't turned on the smoke machine yet) I have cameras and microphones set up in the barn, so I can see what costumes they are wearing and hear what they say. The skeleton head is animatronic. His head moves back and forth and the jaw moves to my voice. I hold conversations with the Trick or Treaters when they come in and can answer them back when they talk to me. I talk through voice changer software in my computer back in my house in the control center. The skeleton'e hand also jerks back a little when I push a button, so I do that when kids reach up and touch his hand.

The whitche's cauldron is where the candy is. Also, it is full of glow necklaces which add green glow to the fog. My sister dresses as a witch and gives out the candy from the cauldron.

The mirror is a piece of one-way glass that has a monster mask behind it moving around. When someone looks in it, I throw a switch which sends out a scream and turns off the candles on the outside of the mirror at the same time that it turns on a strobe light on the other side of the glass, making the monster face visible.

There is also a Ouija board set up that moves around by itself all night

The barn is full of sound effects. A scary organ music track plays in the background. A speaker mounted in the stone wall behind the cauldron plays a bubbling cauldron sound, another below that plays a crackling fire sound. There is a speaker hidden in the wall right below the mirror hat plays the scream, and a speaker right in the coffin behind the head plays my voice through the voice changer software.

To get in and out of the barn, you must cross over "The Pit". The Pit is a 5 foot deep hole I dug with a trench off one side containing a hose to feed Chilled fog in and another hose which connects to the leaf blower. A red light sits in a small cave cut into the side of the pit near the bottom. It is placed in this cut out area so that you don't see the bulb when you look down, just the light from it as it colors the fog. You can see the picture of the grate covering the pit here:

It is filled with chilled fog illuminated by a red light at the bottom. When someone crosses over it, I throw a switch that activates a leaf blower hooked up to a long hose that is at the bottom of the pit facing straight up. This shoots the fog out of the pit and all around them.

Here is an example of it in action:

Inside the barn, opposire the Ouija board is this setup:

It includes the Jack-o-lantern, a speelbok filled with more candy that talks when you open it, and one of those changing portraits.

More Behind the scenes stuff in the next post...

**bloodhungry blond** · 11-01-2007,07:07 AM

So cool, you really have a nice set-up. BTW my kids love the you tube video of your quartet, they are 3. We have to play it again and again!

**Scare Shack** · 11-01-2007,07:07 AM

Looks very well. I like "the pit".

**jdubbya** · 11-01-2007,07:14 AM

That is simply one of the best things I've ever seen! What a fantastic job on the quartet and the songs/movements/details are incredible. Everything is in in sync and you can see by the expressions on the faces of those watching in the picture that they're loving it!
What a great Halloween memory you have created!
Awesome!

**bayoubrigh** · 11-01-2007,07:14 AM

Excellent job HalloweenBob! Love the tuxes on the skeletons - very nice touch. Also very nice leaf blower grill - did you get some screams with that one?

**buckaneerbabe** · 11-01-2007,07:16 AM

Everything looks fantastic HB!!!! I can't wait to see what you come up with for '08.

**HalloweenBob** · 11-01-2007,07:35 AM

So here's some behing the scenes stuff.

The stone wall has a hidden door in the center which you go through to run the dry ice machine and the sound effects in the back.

Here is a shot of the dry ice machine:

You can see th TV monitor that switches between 3 different camera views next to the fog machine. It is a coleman camping stove with a steel boat gas tank on top. (No gas in it) It is filled with a gallon and a half of water, so the coleman stove can keep up with keeping it warn. There is a fan blowing down into it, and the fog comes out the dryer hose. You drop in the pellets of dry ice right into the actual main opening of the tank a few at a time. Works real well.

Outside the barn and down the street a few hundred feet is my house. Strung across he street and aimed directly at the barn is a string of four 1000 watt strobe lights. They are all synched and go off to the sound of thunder played at 600 watts from an upstairs window of my house. They actually flash first, then half a secong later, you hear the thunder. I have them set up to flash at realistc intervals and to pulse several times on and off. They don't just go on steady. They look like real lighting and are VERY bright.

Inside my house is the real "control center".

Here is the whole setup. I also have a monitor where I see the same things as the one in back of the barn. Next to the monitor are all my audio sensitive switches that trigger all the props when the sound plays. Here's a close-up:

the amplifier on top of the TV is just for my voice as it goes out to the skeleton in the barn. All my other amps are in my basement wired up through cables that run out my window, down to the amps, then across two yards and over to the barn 150 feet away.

On my desk is my Microphone, and a small box I built that has a MUTE switch for my headphones, two swtches for changing the camera angles between all 3 cameras, and another switch that controls the twitching of the skeleton's hand when I see people reaching for or touching it.

The mute switch is needed because the voice-changing software results in a half second delay. This is picked up by my mics in the barn and comes back to my headphones and I hear myself back as an echo.

Thos makes it really tough to talk, so when I'm speaking, I hit the mute switch. The rest of the time I am listening to what is being said in the barn....so here's the pic:

Then, there's my sampler board. It has 5 separate smaplers on it. I am only using 4 right now, but I have one more for future expansion. All these sound effects play on demand when you hit the button. All but one trigger props as well with my audio switches. The one that does not is the sound of an angry, big, barking dog. That is just a sound played through a big speaker hidden in a bush off in the woods next to the road in the dark. I hit that switch as people walk by.

Other sounds trigger a banging coffin lid, A screaming groundbreaker corpse, and my one-way mirror in the barn.

Other sound effects like my thunder track and my background wind track play independently through CD players hooked right up to amplifiers and each hour long track is set to repeat.

The sound effects in the barn also play independantly on repeat through CD players and play into a 6 channel RANE MA6 amp. This amp has 6 separate 100 watt audio channels. I have one in my barn, and one in my basemant. I also have a 950 watt pro DJ amp in my basement to run the thunder sound effects.

The singing quartet out in the graveyard is self contained. It has it's own computer system out there with it running the show automatically controlled by macros, and it's own sound system made up of a pair of 150 watt powered speakers on stands.

I guess hat's about it. Had a great Halloween this year.

Now, what will I do next year?????