Thread: Custom haunt narration in the style of Haunted Mansion

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For the last few years I've been working on the haunt for our local elementary/middle school. It's been tremendous fun because I get to build props and indulge myself in my favorite time of year. Last year I did a haunted rocking chair (courtesy of an ice cream maker motor) and sacrificed my old sawzall to create a violent shaking effect in my homemade electric chair complete with prison inmate. Being a Disney geek, I also did a Madame Leota projection prop based on some ideas I found here.

So this year my idea was to take photos of the staff, creep them up and age them in Photoshop, blow them up and print them in grayscale, and glue them to masonite to create a haunted gallery. I thought the kids would get a kick out of seeing their teachers as ghostly portraits. I needed a narration, so I created a script based on the Haunted Mansion/Anaheim version. I recreated the pipe organ music track and tried to do my best Paul Frees, only to come to the sad realization that I'm no Paul Frees! Even with my best early-morning pre-coffee effort my voice cannot reach that lower register with any believability. So I decided to farm out the voice track. After searching, I found someone who nailed the vibe and sound I was after. This guy killed it! He's an amazing talent.

I thought I'd share the track. This is the dry narration only. I still need to mix in the organ music, and my daughter doing the Little Leota "hurry back....hurry back..." part at the end. It's been a blast, and I think it's a great way to set the tone and ambiance of your haunt. Here's the track:

Haunted School

By the way, I am using Audacity to assemble the mix, which is a free multi-track recording app. It's pretty easy to use.

If anyone is interested in connecting with the voice artist, PM me and I'll give you his contact info. He did this for me in one day and it was fairly cheap. I sent him my script and he sent me back the mp3 file. He's also really a nice guy.

That sounds pretty good. You guys did a great job customizing the narration. Your narrator has a good voice for this kind of stuff.

I love it! Sounds great, those are lucky kids, it sounds like it is going to be so fun!

Thanks for the comments! It sounds really cool with the church organ music behind it. The track behind the first part of the original narration is fairly simple, just a pipe organ, cello and bells. I recreated it on my keyboard and recorded it. Sounds "dead" on. Ha...
If anyone is interested in the music track PM me and I'll post it. It's fun and instantly recognizable.

The narrator is a voice actor by the name of Bryant Cantrell. I'm working with him on another project related to haunt soundtracks. He's really good at this kind of thing.

WOW! His voice and delivery are awesome! Sounds like he works for Disney.
Very well done and most impressive.

Sounds fine for young kids, but comparing him to Paul Frees is an insult.

Paul was unavailable to do my narration. He was too busy being dead. I think Bryant does an excellent job and to call it an insult is lame.

It doesn't work for me. Paul had a mans voice.
Bury him in a music bed and it will be more palatable.
Sorry

Jeepers. Everybody's drinkin' Haterade.

Whether you like it or not is subjective, but it's a little riduculous to say this narration needs to be buried in a bed of music to be palatable. The guy is clearly good and is a professional voice actor. But that's all besides the point. I didn't post it for anyone's approval. or to solicit critiques. I was just sharing, because I've gotten many good ideas here over the last year and a half. And as my first post here ever, it's a little disheartneing that people feel the need to tear it down.

To the others who didn't come here just to voice your dissapproval, thanks for your comments!