Random crap with Uno.

[Buster's Uncle]

Wow.  That is the creepiest thing ever.

[Unorthodox]

http://youtu.be/RYP1AVcQTws

Friend of ours.  Thing to keep in mind is this is done in Chromadepth, so there's a reason for the sometimes odd colors.  You're supposed to wear 3d glasses going through this thing. 

Posting as the ~1:00 mark (and going for quite some time after that) is a rather ingenius modification of my laboratory scare (I designed in 1984, but has been published a bit recently).  Animated props are NORMALLY the center piece of a scene.  Everyone knows this, so use it against them, specifically designed for kids like the one at 1:30.  Good use of blacklight as cammo there too.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm.  That would be a perfect place to have someone lurking behind the wall curtain exactly where the kiddies retreat/cower when the figure is lit.  Of course that person would get bruised a lot....

[Unorthodox]

Hmm.  That would be a perfect place to have someone lurking behind the wall curtain exactly where the kiddies retreat/cower when the figure is lit.  Of course that person would get bruised a lot....

That was pretty much my design.  I was a bit surprised this side by side modification for space is as effective as it is. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I was talking about someone for the kids to crash into, probably with grabbing involved. 

How do you deal, design-wise and otherwise with with startled kids getting violent anyway?  Those floppy glowsticks they all carried look like they would sting if swung just right, for example.

[Unorthodox]

So, standard breating grave design. 

http://youtu.be/WdXuWX4KWkg

Trying to conceptualize how this is going to work with a circle. 

There was once a spider prop mechanism I think I could make work for my purpose instead.  however, the video is gone from youtube. 

This is an extremely poor mechanism, but somewhat similar.  the hinged legs, and the motor moving them.  Trying to find one of the type I'm thinking...

http://youtu.be/7HD8YVHLbt0

Anyway, instead of legs, have it be lifting little sections of the circle?

[Unorthodox]

I was talking about someone for the kids to crash into, probably with grabbing involved. 

How do you deal, design-wise and otherwise with with startled kids getting violent anyway?  Those floppy glowsticks they all carried look like they would sting if swung just right, for example.

Well, grabbing is a no-no. 

Kids don't get violent.  Teens and adults do. 

How I deal with it and how the industry deal are different.  What causes the fight response is quite specifically startle scares.  When I have used them in my haunted houses, they are from far enough away, or from the wrong area for that the reaction to have an effect. 

Something jumps in your face, someone might pop it, yes.  I told Alec SPECIFICALLY, he was to CRAWL.  You don't kick instictively. 

The only time people are getting hit is from poor design.  Yes haunt acting is about violating the personal space and making people uncomfortable.  You don't combine that with startles in their face.  You hit them below the waist, or do not startle within personal space. 

This is  "not with the times", however, and not how the 'new' places do it.  "People are too desensitized now".  That's a load of guano.  Lighting, mood, design, etc [Sleezebag] stupid startles every day, but startles are a lot easier to achieve.   

[Unorthodox]

Ah, found one of the spiders. 

http://s68.beta.photobucket.com/user/the_PROCRASTINATOR/media/VillageHaunt/VIDEO/SPIDERWIPER/spiderrev-A010.mp4.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Anyway, instead of legs, have it be lifting little sections of the circle?

I don't see why not.

Well, grabbing is a no-no. 

Kids don't get violent.  Teens and adults do. 

How I deal with it and how the industry deal are different.  What causes the fight response is quite specifically startle scares.  When I have used them in my haunted houses, they are from far enough away, or from the wrong area for that the reaction to have an effect. 

Something jumps in your face, someone might pop it, yes.  I told Alec SPECIFICALLY, he was to CRAWL.  You don't kick instictively. 

The only time people are getting hit is from poor design.  Yes haunt acting is about violating the personal space and making people uncomfortable.  You don't combine that with startles in their face.  You hit them below the waist, or do not startle within personal space. 

This is  "not with the times", however, and not how the 'new' places do it.  "People are too desensitized now".  That's a load of guano.  Lighting, mood, design, etc [Sleezebag] stupid startles every day, but startles are a lot easier to achieve.   

None of this comes as a surpize, actually.  It's pretty clear that you don't want to scare the kiddies that badly anyway, you big softy.

But that's why I mentioned design in my question - you're so dungeon design-oriented and accomplished with theory that I imagined you going with out-of-reach startles over padding and such.

If I was going to do risky up-close startles, I imagine  doing a lot of costume design over dog trainer armor and the like, and trying to design props that didn't look like they were built around a boxer-training punching pad.  I don't know how else those other haunts can manage without going through a lot of actor turnover...

[Unorthodox]

Well, my last professional job aimed at adults, even, the prison themed haunt at Lagoon.  (consequently, the only one my 2 younger children want nothing to do with) 

Stripped of all animatronics, it's a completely actor driven haunt that has plenty of startle scares, but the ground work is in the SETTING first and foremost.  I WANTED to make it a waiver haunt (the most extreme ones around, they actually allow touching/grabbing), and cuff the patrons, but there was issues with that in the Lagoon setting.  A dedicated haunt site will have to work that up one of these days.  Anyhow, patrons are taken into prison.  The haunt progresses from processing, on through the rest of the prison.  Booking, Cells, Psych ward,  laundry, hospital, morgue, death row etc.  The startle scares are SO easy, safe, and fantastic here.  Actors are free to throw chairs at the bars or beat on plexiglass with a bat, etc ALL right in the patron's face, but there is that seperation the actors know is there, patrons do not always get to see it until after that startle.  Now you've hit them with the initial, from the safe angle, you have another actor 'free' coming from the side/behind.  They've wasted the potential fight response on the first scare, and are unprepared for the second.  THAT is how you design for it. 

Now, let me do all that, AND grab them with people CUFFED?  Not to mention actually being able to grab and manipulate them physically?  Yeah, I'm too soft in this extreme age.   

What you don't do is jump out from behind a drop panel and yell in someone's ear.  If I could just put an end to that everywhere, I would be a happy man. 

[Buster's Uncle]

What was the facility/building Lagoon had to work with?  I'd thought of things like plexiglas and other barriers, but figured those kind of set-ups were budget-breakers no one would bother with.

This is all genuinely interesting to me; I could care less about creepy halloween stuff, but a show's a show.  (And art's art, for that matter.)

[Unorthodox]

2 things I'm most proud of that particular haunt design though are real subtle. 

1. You can not see the exit at any time from the entrance side.  They don't walk back around front AT ALL.  The exit loops you WELL away.  Nothing kills a haunt faster than seeing the people running out the exit.  It was actually harder to accomplish than you would expect.  People go in, they do not come out. 

2. Line entertainment.  Most haunts will have a couple costumed people stalking the line scaring folks.  Not this one.  There's prison guards out front, and they are specifically told to maintain their role as no nonsense prison guards.  No jumping in scaring people.  The entertainment comes with staged prison breaks every 15-30 minutes (depending on line length).  Sirens WAIL, escapee SPRINTS from the side of the prison.  Guards apprehend the suspect who is taken away screaming.  On the rare occasion (cost) guards can even kill an escaping prisoner.  Those fake guns mentioned above send a signal to an blood vest that pops on the prisoner.  It's very rare a haunt gets to set the stage while people wait in line. 

[Unorthodox]

What was the facility/building Lagoon had to work with?  I'd thought of things like plexiglas and other barriers, but figured those kind of set-ups were budget-breakers no one would bother with.

This is all genuinely interesting to me; I could care less about creepy halloween stuff, but a show's a show.  (And art's art, for that matter.)

In the summer it's just a bowery/ picnic area.  You strip the tables, and bring in all the walls and stuff for Halloween.  It's all panel sections that get stored in the offseason.  It is not uncommon to see a ROOM with a barrier inside a haunt.  Only wierdos design an entire theme around it.  Part of my selling point was they would then have all these barrier panels for use in other haunts when the prison becomes played out. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Worked a renaissance fair in Florida set up vaguely like that for the outer perimeters in a campground/outdoor recreational park. 

The really brilliant part?  The owner had had a contest in local schools for best-decorated panel.  This was in a heavily populated urban area.  I heard the prize was worth about $100, and he got thousands of dollars worth of free plywood panels -already painted/decorated- out of the deal.  I wonder if a haunt could pull that off.

[Unorthodox]

Would have to be somewhere a lot more urban than here.  I'm having a hell of a time trying to get a few local artist to paint me some sideshow posters, and I'm willing to pay.