Thread: Omenwood Hotel (Night Spa and Funeral Parlor)

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johnshenry -- can't wait to hear the SPX and see the party pictures! Love the story about your daughter. My daughter was insistant that we set up our science lab in our hotel this year (one of her favorites every year) but I said why would there be a science lab in an old hotel and her reply was "They are guests who "donated" their bodies to science" so....our lab is set up with a little sign saying just that.

Have a great party!

Really awesome can't wait for the pics! I've been following your thread REALLY REALLY close! lol

Well, although I have been flat out, not a whole lot more pics. I am taking tomorrow off work, so I have 2 full days, but I still feel like there is WAY too much left to get done.

I got my 2 buckys, and they are very cool, but really need some work right out of the box as they are anatomical models and have lots of unnecessary screws and hardware. I am not sure I will have time to do anything with them but prop them up.

The good news is we have FIFTY-TWO RSVPs!! And quite a few "newbies".

I have the sound system set up, and am VERY happy with my "opening" SFX and music track. You can preview it here:

Party Intro track ...

That last crash I pulled off a Youtube video, search on "rapture" and "are you ready?". I love the way it builds with the music. When the thunder hits, two 750 and one 1000watt strobes go off in the yard, front and back, pointed at the windows, and one 750 watt one is in the main family room that I can switch in too.

This board with 47 PVC candles goes way up high on the sill of a palladium window in our back sunroom.





Tattered cheesecloth, soaked in a bucket of RIT dye, then drip dried...



Then stretched out to dry.. This stuff took a long time to make, but I am happy with the way it came out.



More pics later. I also hope to do a daytime walkthrough video, as well as a night time before guests arrive...

Well I THINK I am in pretty good shape for tomorrow. All of the "heavy" stuff is done, sound and lighting tested out. The 3000 watts of strobes blasting through the house from outside when the house is blacked out is AWESOME. I swear, Disney/Universal has nothing on me. I will try to get a video after dark tomorrow but before guests arrive.

Tomorrow is just the lighter kind of decorating, and collecting some music/mp3s. I am also looking forward to using my Minions webber.

We have a really good "mix" of people coming too, I feel good about it. The hotel them has been fun to play with.

I hope to be able to upload more pics, but it will probably be Sunday, I will probably be flat out all day.

I put up a chandelier in the foyer and added some moss, then I saw the AC duct next to it and thought, "Hey, it's only 4 screws, why not??"

That party will never be topped.



Ever.



I could not have imagined things would go as perfect as they did. We had about 50 people, some of the best costumes I have ever seen, including 2-3 good friends, who were not wearing masks, who my wife and could not recognize.

The best group of friends ever, and a precarious "mix" of people from 3 different social circles that all clicked.

The Hotel? People were blown away. The opening, the blackout, SFX and music just plain floored people. And what was fun was that by 9:45 people were bugging me "Hey, come on with the music, lets get kicking".... Perfect.

The only psuedo hitch was that right when the party started it started raining. I went out and covered my $80 strobes with aluminum foil and they still worked all night.

Anyway, some pics on the way and video of the event. I put my digital camera up on a shelf and it took 2 hours of video! Tonight we are doing a party for our daughter and her friends. Since my camera do low light really bad, I'll do a walkthrough with the camera before it gets completely dark..

Stay tuned. Still reading the other posts here, glad to see others with big events had a great time. In the end, that is what makes it all worth while...

Wow! glad you had a good time JH..I was hoping you would with all the wonderful things you came up with for your haunt.

Ok, here is the video.

Camera was on one end of the family room. One 750 watt strobe is outside the sunroom on the left, near side. An 1800 watt "Cannon" strobe is at the far end of the yard outside on the left also pointing into the kitchen. Even though they are both triggered by the same audio track, they don't light up exactly the same, which gives a neat effect.

People have glow sticks, and one person has a glass with flickering LEDs that you can see.

At the start you can hear the SFX track with a spark/buzz, then a bang. Then I hit the X10 remote and blacked out the house.

There was ceiling fan in the room that made the chandeliers sway a bit that I thought was cool.

At the top of the stairs, just off the screen is an "H20" projector light that casts a green shimmering light. I could turn it, and the blacklight, and a few other things off with the X10 remote.

The opening track had the 3 songs you hear, then we switched to a laptop running "Media Monkey" in "Party" mode so people could que up songs they wanted to hear. This worked out REAL well, as in years past I felt like I spent the whole night shuffling CDs.

Listen close at about 3:22. Someone opened the booby trapped closet in the bathroom and you can hear the fire alarm going off.

Near the end, I switched the outside strobes off and one on top of the piano on.

Amazing party. Will post some pics to my photobucket later and update this thread...

Here's the Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs2ilME5EV4

Thinking about Halloween today for some weird reason and reading new ideas here. I thought I would add one more post this thread, and do little retrospective.

It was the best party ever.


It was also the most prop and theme intensive one I ever did. As I look back, a LOT of time was spend building those props. The sign took a long time, as did the desk and the set up of the whole front desk. Cool idea, glad I did it, was fun, but probably won't re-use it for a while. Its all broken down, and stored in the basement.

At high level is the realization I just posted in another thread:

No amount of props, sound equipment, lighting, food, booby traps, cobwebs, techy gadgets will ever make a party. Only the people make the party. Sure they enjoy the house and effects, but the party is fun because they are there, not the props and gadgets.


So this year I vow not to overburden myself with making big things. I will re-use somethings I have, "twist" them a little differently, but make a whole ton of new stuff.

At the lower level, here's what worked well:


The Hotel Front Desk: Was a cool into to the house for guests walking in. The old phone, skelly, registration book, lighting all worked very well. It WAS a ton of work, but if I want to use it again one year, its already made and can just be set up.

Distressed and dyed cheescloth: I have collected old sheets, drapes, rags remnants for years, and they look OK, but the real distress cheescloth is awesome. I might just spend all this years budget and get some more early in the year (but I haven't picked a theme for this years party yet). Super easy to hang and drape (see below)

Those little 3M "Command" wall hangers: A Godsend. How long I have looked for something that was small, would hold some good weight and could be removed from the walls without damage. Got the smallest ones on eBay, but several hundred for about $30 shipped I think. Great for hanging cloths on walls.

MediaMonkey Laptop Jukebox: Huge benefit from not having to play DJ all night. I make the opening tracks, usually 2-4 songs mixed together for the opener, and after that let people just cue up whatever they want to hear.

Bathroom Booby trap: Never fails to be entertaining. This year I used a fire alarm instead of a car horn. I made a video of how I implemented it, will upload to Youtube later.

Glow sticks: Used them the last 2-3 years, cheap and give people something to play with when the lights go out.

Lightening strobes outside blasting in through the windows. I was skeptical about this, but the effect was very, very cool. Especially since the strobes didn't react to the audio signal exactly the same. Check it out in the video above...


What didn't work, was a problem or probably not worth the effort:

The bucky on the massage table. Had to build the table out of an old door, assemble and set up bucky, etc. Cute, but not many people noised. Low bang for the effort.

Music selection: I have to spend the time to get a better collection of .mp3s. I will invite people to bring music on a thumb drive if they want something particular.

The ice tube fog machine: I think it kind of worked, but with that many people in the house and all the air movement, you could tell it apart from just non-cooled smoke.

Blue rope light at the top of the stairs: Weak, poorly implemented effect. And I remember getting REALLY pissed just trying to find an extension cord for it and make it work.

The whole Omenwood Hotel sign, front desk, luggage/valet cart, etc: I know, I said it "worked" above. It did, was cool, and people really enjoyed it. But it was a TON of work making it all (remember, I am one person doing all of this), the flickering sign, desk, etc. Sure, I'll use it again, but I won't impose such a level of prop making on myself again.


So still thinking of a theme for this year. Was thinking about "Wicked Wonderland" but since the AIW movie didn't take off, maybe not. If I did, I would want to build one big toadstool for the family room. And I am not sure about how much stuff I already have could be reused...

Hmmm...