Thread: If you could only give one piece of advice to a new prop-builder...

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I went to a few haunts around town tonight as they are starting to open, and caught up with a bunch of old friends and haunt owners. After walking through the haunts and marveling over their new creations and ideas, I began wondering...

If you could only give a new haunter a single piece of advice, what would it be? I get asked that a lot, what single core piece-of-advice should a new prop-builder NOT be without? That's a tough question!

There are so many things that come to mind, and quite a bit of overlapping into other areas of haunt infrastructure!

But, if I could only give one answer to the question of advice to a new propbuilder, it would be this:

LEARN TO WELD!!!

Obviously, this is an expensive endeavor to some degree, and not attainable to some due to their age and lack of funds, but welding is the ONE thing that I think can elevate a prop to the next level. A welded prop will last a long time, especially if it is running all season in a pro haunt! If you are a high-school aged kid, you should check out to see if a welding class is offered in your high school! If you are an adult, check and see if there are any 'continuing education' or trade classes offered in your area. Since I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I was lucky enough to find a class fairly close that got me started in the right direction! That was years ago, but it has paid for itself 100 times over (the class was only $75 for a month!).

Let me ask you guys, what one piece of advice would you give to a new prop builder?

Start small and try to make your props out of things you have laying around.

Prop making 101

Always take your time and never rush a project just to get it finished. IMO that is the most critical part of prop building.

Remember that halloween props are supposed to look old and decayed. Making mistakes while building and painting your own props tend to make it look better

Mine would be "Audio is one half of the full experience". I can't tell you how dissapointed I am to see a great set or scene with NO SOUND! Watch any horror movie with dialog, but no music or sound fx, and it will only be half as scary as it could be. And learn to weld too

What will set your props apart is how you light them and what sound u provide to your haunt.

Quite often beginning propsters focus solely on the prop -- then they set it up and well, kinda blah. A bunch of props thrown out on the lawn.

LIGHTING, SOUND and MOVEMENT will elevate your props to the next level and provide the "Wow" factor we all hope for. It might just be a red spot, strobe and a cd player with some spooky music -- but this will help volumes in creating a total scene.

Happy Haunting!

There is some great advice there guys, all I would want to hear. Yes, find the easiest looking project to build and start there, here is one of my first props.

Take the time you think it will take to build any prop and multiply it by 7.

start preparing nov 1st for the next halloween.

I wouldn't say there is one word or one piece of advice I could give someone. I would be torn between this and that. Maybe dedication and imagination? But one of the main things is thinking outside the box.

Welding, electronics, computer knowledge, and circuitry all play a part in extreme haunting. But lets face it...we really didn't learn this overnight. So I'd go with persistence...and make your props cooler then anyone else.