Haunt Forum banner

Conjuring Madame Leota

73K views 105 replies 44 participants last post by  Octavia Mobley 
#1 · (Edited)
#87 · (Edited)
For Disney, they had a, basically, static scene, with known factors for the materials and props used and for the viewing angles of the guests, for home haunters and most pro haunts that portion of the formula is different from haunt to haunt. Part of the problem or challenge is that you are trying to match a distortion for setups that aren't necessarily the same as the one you used as a basis, an issue if you are going to sell your services in creating the videos for this kind of thing. If you can set standards for the setup; the size, type, and location of the projector, the size and make of the crystal ball, the foam or sculpted head, the viewing angles of the guests, etc., then creating these things and having guaranteed happy buyers would be a whole lot easier to achieve. The material and size of the globe can make a huge difference. The curve of the glass and plastic, and the thickness of the material can play a huge factor in the amount of distortion you have to work with. TO a certain extent, that curved surface acts as a lens, and like lenses on a pair of glasses the distance they are held from the viewer can greatly change how things appear. That is one of the reasons Disney tried to do the effect by projecting from the interior of the bust, it would make the distortion of the globe irrelevant, and help avoid any issues of the projection unit from being accidentally bumped or moved during the routine cleaning and care for the attraction.

If you create videos, I'd suggest that you keep "clean"/undistorted versions of the seances to offer different levels of distortion. Try your versions on several different sizes of globes and busts, and set standards as to how they should be used.
 
#92 ·
Madame Leota video available?

Hi,
I'm working on my own Madame Leota, using Mr. Chicken's awesome tutorial, but need the video.

Unfortunately, he no longer has the file/download link. Does anyone have his version (or another great version) available for download?

I've been 'lurking' this forum for a while, and I'm looking forward to completing this Leota project and more.

Thanks,
-Kurt
kjohnsonleedap[at]gmail.com
 
#94 ·
Hi,
I'm working on my own Madame Leota, using Mr. Chicken's awesome tutorial, but need the video.

Unfortunately, he no longer has the file/download link. Does anyone have his version (or another great version) available for download?

I've been 'lurking' this forum for a while, and I'm looking forward to completing this Leota project and more.

Thanks,
-Kurt
kjohnsonleedap[at]gmail.com
I believe I can help you out with that drop me a PM and I will if I can email it to you
 
#98 ·
For those still following this thread.. I am a total clueless newbie. I have never built anything like any of these items on this page (but I do think I am crafty). That being said, I looked online for the effects of using a magic eraser on clear plastic and everything online said it would come out clear. I got my spirit ball globe and with some SERIOUS elbow grease (and about 25 minutes), I was able to get all the silver off of the front half of the globe.. HOWEVER, it did leave it slightly cloudy. I washed it out with soap and water, dried it, then took my dremel and put on the felt polishing head and buffed out the cloudiness. Worked like a champ. I did buy my spirit ball from craigslist and was told they were selling it because the teen kids were chasing around the little kids scaring them with it.. So it has quite a few scratches on it.. I polished some out but most are deep. I think I will use the lemon oil like another poster tried but even with the scratches, I think it came out pretty good. I was having a hard time (remember, stay home mom not mechanical! ;o) trying to find a way to keep the foam head on the base. Since I love to cook, I was thinking "kitchen" and on the inside base were our spirit head was attached were 2 screw holes. One in front, one in back. I took wooden skewers and pushed them into the holes (fit perfectly) cut them shorter and will push her head down on it when I am done fixing her hair and face. Anyway, that is the "I have no idea what I am doing" way of doing it for those other newbies that are like me.
 
#100 ·
I mistakenly posted this question on the wrong thread earlier. I so here we go again. I was working with my Leota last night. I am curious how people are staging it. The location of the projector makes hiding it hard. Changing angles distorts the eyes or chin. So are people running the prop at an angle to the viewing puplic? If not what are you all doing ot hide the camera. I am running a small apple 3m, with a laptop (might go to an ipad)
 
#101 ·
Like most everyone's version of Leota, I project from directly in front, about 4 or 5 feet from the prop. My projector is "hidden" in a black wire framed freestanding adjustable shelf/stand. I drape the stand with black cloth to hide it, making sure to leave space for the projector. I put a tall custom tombstone in front of it to hide it. At night, in the dark, the stand is very hard to see. Leota is somewhat blocked from the front, but is otherwise very visible from every other angle. A lot of people didn't even notice the projector even up close and we're asking how I did the effect. Next year I plan to hide the projector in one of my custom cemetery columns. Bottom line - just block your projector from the front with a tombstone or other disguise and it will be almost invisible to TOTs.
 
#102 ·
I ended up setting up my scene slightly from the side. I covered a chair like it had one of those old time decrative furniture covers. Then mounted my projector to the chair with the laptop under it (hidden by the cloth drape from chair). The angle of the chair and scene made it a little harder to see from viewing area. Worked fine, other than the point of light over the left eye. Putting candles around it of course helped distract. I am going to try an Ultra projector next year, they are a little less bright.
 
#103 ·
And now for something completely different, while I haven't delved into this project, I do have singing pumpkins that I was doing the projector/laptop set up which I find cumbersome to hide, This year I used a Micca Spec-1 G2 media player instead of the laptop and I couldn't have been happier. It's slightly larger than a deck of cards and delivers a 1080P image and ran all night, no issues. You can find them for about $40 and next year I'm going to pair it with an LED pocket projector which will make hiding that much easier. There are a few differnet variations of these devices which I plan on trying as some get down to around $30. JMO, but so much better than dealing with a laptop outside and while I can't say how long it will last, it appears to be a well built little unit.

Now back to the awsome Madam Leota prop discussion!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top