Thread: lighting help, perhaps some layout design help too

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Hi all,

Among other things I really want to rework and improve my haunt lighting this year. I think lighting is an essential part of any haunt and mine, while functional, is meager at best. I'd love to do somehting a la Skull and Bone, but the biggest challenge is the indirect approach to my haunt. Unlike many houses that face the street, mine sits at a weird angle relative to the driveway and main approach tot he haunt.

To give you an idea of what I'm trying to say, here's what it looks like:

Lost Lake Cemetery

The approach to the candy is through the gate and along the red line, which is actually the back of the house because the front is little more than a second floor porch (treacherous climb in the dark) over a big, steep hill. In other words, ain't nobody coming to the front door. Ever.

I've toyed with the idea of pushing the path into the woods to lengthen the walk slightly, but still the TOTs basically have to approach along the side of the haunt then come through it more squarely. Or, as it stands now, they come in from the side right through the middle of it.

So the question is, how best to light it to maximize the mood setting before they get into the midst of it. Then how to keep the mood sustained so it's not lost as their angle of approach changes. I've actually even toyed with the idea of taking out part of the dog's fence (the green line) and having them approach through the woods, which aren't dense, via a path. But then the little ones don't have the option of just stopping at the garage instead of proceeding through the haunt. Though, Isuppose a sign diverting them on to the driveway could work. You can see this illustrated at the link above by clicking on LLC 2.0 (the blue line is the tentative new approach.)

As you can see, I'm asking for help whilst partly just thinking out loud so others can see the thought process and help with the perspective.

Any advice would be gratefully received!

Thanks,

Rob

The Skull and Bone web site has a great haunt lighting tutorial:
-Skull And Bone-

Originally Posted by DaveintheGrave

The Skull and Bone web site has a great haunt lighting tutorial:
-Skull And Bone-

Yes, they do. But the trick is figuring out how to make it work with my weird approach and yard.

I think that you can take the basic principles from the skull and bone tutorial and apply it to different areas of the haunt. I know that in stage lighting, the stage is divided into acting areas, and each area is lit with a set of instruments. These acting areas often overlap with the area next to it to allow for even coverage....kind of like the final set up on the skull and bone page. You may need to break the lighting up into areas of emphasis in order to control the light better. This will require a lot more lights and wires than a simple scheme; but with the increased complexity comes an opportunity to do some really neat things with the lights.

Of course, it’s kind of hard to get very specific without more info. Plus, a lot of it will come with just getting out there and playing around with light and find out what looks good. I would also suggest going to the library (especially if you have a university library near by) and picking up a theater design and production textbook. These books are extremely helpful when it comes to basic scenic and lighting design. I have an old edition of a text that I got at a bookstore for a few bucks. It can really come in handy to help make sense of lighting direction and how color works, etc.

My suggestion, although not specific is to keep the lights out of places that are too visible. If you know the way people are approaching, put the lights up high behind them.

One of the things that I really worked at was to aviod having people see the spotlights as they approach the haunt. The bright spots draws the eye right to them and ruins the effect.

Many times, I had my scene set up just perfect for lighting. Everything looked great while I was standing there looking at the scene. Then I went back up the street and saw what it looked like when I was approaching and I was staring right into bright colored spots up in the air.

I ended up moving them so that they would shine out from behind buildings and dug holes in the ground and had them shielded on the sides so that basically you could only see the result of the lighting effects, never the lights themselves.

I had a friend walk up and down the street with a walkie talkie while I was adjusting the lights. They would tell me when it was in a position that did not show from anywhere.

Here is a small example:




the green lights are actually buried in the ground in the graveyard in front of the tombstones.

The dirt is dug out in a way that prevents the light from hitting the close up parts and the light is shielded on all sides blocking it from all areas except the stones.

The blur light was actally attached to the fence itself at the base and skims the outside surface of the fence. Because of the angle of the fence and the long chamber the light was stuck in, the bulb itself was not visible from anywhere that people would approach from.

It was very hard to tell where the lights were coming from, but the effect was very visible and therefore even more mysterious.

Originally Posted by HalloweenBob

the green lights are actually buried in the ground in the graveyard in front of the tombstones.

The dirt is dug out in a way that prevents the light from hitting the close up parts and the light is shielded on all sides blocking it from all areas except the stones.

The blur light was actally attached to the fence itself at the base and skims the outside surface of the fence. Because of the angle of the fence and the long chamber the light was stuck in, the bulb itself was not visible from anywhere that people would approach from.

It was very hard to tell where the lights were coming from, but the effect was very visible and therefore even more mysterious.

That could definitely work for parts of the haunt. If I work around the approach and light outward from there to the areas people won't be walking that could indeed solve some of my problems.

There is also a lighting trick that your brain interprets colors as being further or closer to you.

If you want certain props or things to stand out, light them in red and they will appear closer to the viewer.

Blue makes things appear further away.

In real life - when we look at the mountains here in Denver - They appear blueish (some might say purple - as in purple mountains majesty) This is because they are far away from the viewer and the atmosphere absorbs most of the other colors leaving the blue.

Very good to know!

Last year I replaced the porch lights with red bulbs. Looked cool, but now that you mention it, it did tend to prevail and "flatten" the haunt a bit. Maybe THAT is what's striking me funny.

Originally Posted by bradbaum

There is also a lighting trick that your brain interprets colors as being further or closer to you.

If you want certain props or things to stand out, light them in red and they will appear closer to the viewer.

Blue makes things appear further away.

In real life - when we look at the mountains here in Denver - They appear blueish (some might say purple - as in purple mountains majesty) This is because they are far away from the viewer and the atmosphere absorbs most of the other colors leaving the blue.

That is a very handy little bit of information! I'll be putting that to use this year for sure. Thanks!