Thread: Ok, how does this sound....

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For 14 years, we have been hosting Halloween parties. 2.5 years ago we bought a new house with a huge open floor plan. I couldn't wait to do a party. But early feelers out last year showed little interested, we had moved 45-60 mins away from most of our old friends. We invited 85 people, got 16 show up. I did minimal effort on the effects/decorations.

This year, the whole thing has completely blown up. Not only do we have 54 so far, they are 54 of some of the most fun people I have met. I worked my way through college as a nightclub DJ, and build a lot of special effects light systems (and I'm an engineer, of course). So this year, I have gone completely over the top, egged on by the huge turnout.

And for the first time, the evening has an "event". A turning point, where the look radically changes. The spirits take control, frighten the guests a bit at first, then the real party starts. Sat is the day, I have most of the major FX in place now and have tested them. I spent DAYS working on a custom SFX track, morphing our kids whispering voices, creating strobe trigger tracks, etc. Also tested my garbage can heater/dry ice machine I made (don't like the typical "fog" machines in the house). Below is the basic script for the "event" It will take me, my wife, my sister and nephew who are visting for the party to pull this all off.





T – 2 hours Guests begin to arrive to our party. We invited slightly over 100 people, so far we have 54 They are all given glow sticks when they come in “just in case”

House is decorated with some Halloween stuff, but lighting is all normal, incandescent. Some props are covered with tattered cloths, and all of the sound equipment is hidden under lumpy cloths….

Main floor is open family room with sloping 22 foot high vaulted ceiling. 11 feet above the floor is a wide opening into the upstairs hallway. Rear sunroom is set up with a 6 foot long casket cooler, complete with kneeler. One large table full of 15-18 lit pillar candles.

Sound system is dual CD DJ console in first floor bedroom off family room. Peavey 1100 watt 8.5C amp and Fender 1100 watt amp power pair of JBL JSX-100 15” cabinets, Dayton Titanic 15” subwoofer, Bose 901 commercial speakers, all in family room. All speakers are covered by cheese/drop cloths and not seen by guests.

Small CD player in sun room plays really crappy, old music via ceiling speakers (“Lost 45s” CD, really bad music)



T -60s Sound effects and music CDs are queued up and paused, amps switched on, levels set.

T - 30s: 15 lbs of dry ice is loaded into the dry ice machine hopper on the 2nd floor hallway. A quick sweep of the house is done by the hosts to make sure that no lighting that is not on X10 is turned on anywhere. Single candles are extinguished.



T =0 An X10 macro is triggered via wireless keypad. <X10 macro event1> ALL ambient light in the house is shut down. About 10 fixtures. The house is black, end to end. Sun room CD player also shut down.

T +1s <X10 macro event2> A small blower motor is triggered and extinguish tables full of pillar candles in the casket room

T+2s < X10 macro event3> Blowers off


T +3s The 7.5 foot dry ice fog boom is swung out over the family room (manually, via “helper”)

T +15s Two CDs are simultaneously started on the sound system. “Thunder” CD hits first with violent “over your head” peal. Signal from that player also triggers two 750 watt strobes overhead. Fades of with deep rumble and after-flashes from overhead strobes. A third strobe (1800 watt Diversitronics 56Q) is mounted on the roof of the sunroom and illuminates the deck and yard off the sunroom with blazing white light.

Very faint Back Organ overture is heard, filtered 400Hz and below, sounds like coming from another room.

T+33s Another peal hits, all strobes flash.

T+45s Whispering voices are heard on sound system. “There are people here”.. “who are they, are they afraid of us?” “Do not torment them. Give them Light and music” <thunder and strobes hit again> All voices masked and filtered using Cool Edit Pro.

T+70s Faint organ music again, other SFX from Sinistersonics track is heard.

T+90s <X10 macro> 9 floor “uplights” all placed in corners with green filters over them and hidden behind chairs, dead plants, etc. come on <X10> them immediately dim back to 0%. SFX continue.

T+110s Blacklight fixture with two 4 foot tubes comes on and illuminates hand prints, lettering and pale faces painted on drop cloths and tattered cheese cloth with “Clearneon” paint. Light flickers on and off.

T+125s SFX: Very deep, sinister voice is heard (on sinistersonics track, not exactly sure what he says). Helper turns on dry ice machine fan pulls hopper bottom and dumps 15 lbs if palletized dry ice into machine.

T+140s with a huge thunder peal, dance music kicks in. huge column of dry ice fog dumps down onto guests below.


Hosts uncover some items on tables that have been previously covered and not seen by guests. Includes “lab” set up with body parts in jars.


Other effects to be turned on later as the night goes on via wireless X10 keypad I have:

“H20” liquid light/projector from stair well onto family room

8mm projector with black and white film “Bride of Frankenstein” projected from kitchen to high on the family room wall.

Flickering light boxes under lab jars.

Also will have 50lbs of dry ice, more fog later!

how do I get an invitation to this? it sounds AWESOME! way better than what I'm doing. of course, it's not a competition, but your guests will have an awesome time.

Well, my sister is making a video on the whole "what does it take to put on a party like this" thing. We will try to videotape this "event". Hopefully it comes out decent and I can post it on the web after.

I WILL put up some pics after the weekend.....

*bows to the master*

Where did you say you lived???????

Geezums!

Can't wait for the pics, sounds like an awesome time will be had

Wow!! That sounds like a hell of a lot of fun!

You obviously go through a lot of effort. I'm sure that you and your guests (and helpers!) will have a great time.

I can't wait to see pics.

Wow, talk about way over my head! Here I sit wondering if computer speaker wire is the same as any other speaker wire and you have a whole house coming alive. Sounds like FX masters would be jealous. Have a great time and fill us all in on every detail when it's over.

Lil

That is great!!! Yeah, were do you live? I wanna come!!

The outdoor strobe is masterful. Your party is gonna swing for sure!

DB

Thanks for all the kind words an encouragement. I am pumped for this party like I have never been before. I think I have a throng of completely unsuspecting guests too.

Tonight we finally got all the X10 lights set up. Across 4 rooms we have a total of 8 ambient "fixtures", one of them 3 recessed lights in the kitchen (replaced the light switch with an X10 light switch) and one a 5 head track light over the big family room. So tonight we turned them all on, turned on the CD player in the sun room, then I got my wife and said "Watch this..". Raised the wireless remote, pressed ONE button and instant blackness, and silence. X10 stuff is so much fun (I think I counted 28 modules in my "box of X10"). So we looked around then noted a few errant nightlights and digital displays on cable boxes and stuff that will have to be removed/taped up, etc. But NO ONE will think that this isn't a real blackout. A few "appliance" (relay) X10 modules make a pretty loud "clack" when they turn off too, sounds liek a breaker popping or something...

God this is going to be fun.........

BTW I'd love to have all of you over, but I am beginning to wonder where people will stand, park cars, etc. The numbers should swell to about 60 by the weekend.. nothing like a houseful of unsuspecting "victims" huh? And I of course realize that this is the year... if all these people come back next year, they will be wise to the tricks............... I'll just have to think up something new then, huh???]