[Eric Striffler]

Okay so yesterday I filmed and took pictures of a full walkthrough of our exhibit during the day.
It looks AMAZING at night, but I have no pictures or video yet.
Also after I took these pictures we kept working so now on the black sheeting there are words and arrows and designs and all that junk.
Here's a basic overview of our exhibit.

This is the entrance. At the top we made words out of duct tape saying "THE BLACK WOODS" and then spray painted white over it. Then we pulled off the duct tape and the letters are in black with white spray paint around them. It looks very cool. We also drew arrows poiting into the opening.

The entrance is lit by a yellow light on the left and a green light on the right, aiming up onto the words.
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This is the coffin that it to the left in that picture, behind Kevin (he is rewritedrums on this site). Inside we will have a cardboard (or whatever) sign that has the rules on it and that there are fog machines and strobe lights and blah blah blah.

It is lit by a black light (in that metal fixture - also the yellow light for the words is hooked onto the top right of the coffin). The black light provided enough light for the rules to be read by people walking by.
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A little blurry, but here's my friend Rowe digging across the path about a half foot down so we can run wires to the lights on the opposite side of the path from our electricity source.

Once covered, you can't even tell that it was dug up before. ALso to the left is a speaker (there's one on each side) that will be playing music.
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On the left, someone will be hiding and jump out. We might give them an air horn too, just to make people jump. Then on the right is covering the Scarecrow Crosses so they can't be seen until basically the last second. It also lets the actors know that someone is coming towards them.

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As soon as you walk under the black sheeting, you see our Scarecrow Crosses. There will be an actor on each one. They will switch on the fog machines, and when the people walk close enough one (or both) will jump down through the fog to scare them. It looks great in the dark.

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[Eric Striffler]

Here's a strobe light hanging from a tree next to one of the Scarecrow Crosses. There's one next to both of them. At night, mixed with the fog, it makes it extremely hard to see the actors on the crosses and it's hard to tell whether or not they are people or dummies.

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Here is a fog machine next to one of them Scarecrow Crosses. We propped them aiming up with sticks, but we will put wood in their place so they don't fall.

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Here is how the fog switch is wired up to the arm of one of the Scarecrow Crosses.

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Here is where the switch is attached. It's attached at arm's length so the actor can press it while his arms are up.

It isn't visible at all at night with the strobes and the fog going.
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This is further up the trail, when the people come upon our madman's home. It's our Chainsaw Shack, where our chainsaw guy will be hiding to scare the pants off of everyone.

Hanging in the tree and on the shack itself are these two really creepy dummies that we found nearby. We decided to hang them up. Haha.
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[Eric Striffler]

Here's the gate outside of the Chainsaw Shack. The caution tape obviously was just there temporarily and there's another skull on the other side of the gate. It fell off, but we put it back up after the picture was taken.

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Here's the outside of the shack from the other side of the trail. At the top of the picture you can see that there's a strobe light hanging in the tree, and on the shakc there's a red beacon. To the right (you can't see it in this picture) is a green light. All of these turn on when the switch is flipped, which is done as the chainsaaw guy runs out. It looks great at night.

Also the shack is painted black now.
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Here's the green light on. The strobe is on too, you just obviously can't tell. Also the beacon's bulb burned out, but we bought a new one to replace it.

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Here's the shack from behind. It's a mess now haha. All of that spare wood and any otherj unk will be out from behind there when our haunt opens. The chainsaw guy needs room! :O

The switch is taped up to the right of the door.
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These ropes glow GREAT with the black light under it. There will be spider webs stretched over the ropes and across the sides of this part of the trail. I'm almost making some spider victims with some skeletons and stuff to hang up. They looks good so far, but they aren't pictured yet.

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[Eric Striffler]

The green light in this picture was too bright, so we took it down and put it at the entrance to light up the words. It was overpowering the black light and it looked really weird and out of place at night. The red light is pointing out over the black sheeting and it looks cool at night. The black light is nailed to the tree in the middle and that's where all the spider webs wil lbe rapped around and stuff.

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We have a guy dressed up as Michael Myers who wil lbe standing behind this lattice. There's a strobe light behind it aiming up at where he'll be standing.

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Our Michael Myers walks along the fence with the people and then comes out of the black sheeting towards them. There's a strobe light aiming up at the black sheeting now from to the left of it. We put it there after this picture was taken, so you won't see it.

And that's all the GOOD pictures for now.
I'll take alot of the totally finished product at night and during the day too.
I'll get some videos up soon.

Let me know what you think of the whole set-up.

 

[ShadyHallows]

Great! It seems as if there is a strobe on every scene though.

 

[JohnnyL]

Wow, it looks like you've done A LOT of work! Very very cool.

 

[Eric Striffler]

About the strobes:
The Spooky Walk is more of a fun "walk through and I can't see and I don't know if someone is there and AHHH yeah omg someone was there!" kind of thing. It's hard to go for detailed, really good scenes because no one stops to pay attention to it. They just walk through and want to be scared to death haha.

It still looks good though because all of the strobes are doing different things.
The first two are in your face so it's harder to see.
The next one goes on when the switch is flipped so the chainsaw guy looks scarier.
And the last two are aimed totally away from people and are just used to make Michael Myers look creepier.

 

[scareme]

About the two really creepy dummies you just happened to find near by. Are you sure there not really dead bodies found in the woods (you know, Deliverance style) and you decided to use them in your haunt? lol

 

[ScareySuzie]

Very very cool!

 

[Eric Striffler]

Thanks for the positive feedback.
We're going today to continue working today and I'm going to take pictures of the other exhibits in the whole Spooky Walk.
They all look excellent!

 

[Eric Striffler]

Oh and also I'll put up the pics to those in a different thred because they aren't part of my exhibit.

 

[Eric Striffler]

Here are some pictures I took today once it got dark.
I didn't get to the other houses yet.
I'll do that tomorrow and take some pictures.

This is the entrance with the words on it and some lights. The flash was too bright to show the lights very well though.

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Here are how the lights look. This picture is kind of blurry, but you get the idea.

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Here's the next part to walk through, a little further ahead on the trail. Right behind this are the Scarecrow Crosses.

The wind was blowing up the left flap a little bit. They'll be weighed down with some rocks so that the wind won't blow them, but they'll be easily moved to walk through.
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Here are the Scarecrow Crosses at night.

Pretty much the same only...at night. Haha.
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[Eric Striffler]

Here's the shack painted black and with black sheeting in the back of it. Looks great at night and when the lights are switched on.

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Here's a picture of it with the lights on. The strobe is a little further up and to the right of the picture. It's in a tree aiming down.

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This is right after the Chainsaw Shack. It's a few feet down the trail, so people had enough room to run. Haha. They always do. :O

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This is where our Michael Myers will step out from behind the lattice fencing.

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And lastly for the pictures I took tonight, here's the last part to walk through that leads out of our exhibit and down to the lake (the pirates exhibit).

The strobe light aiming at it makes it looks really weird as you walk through.
It actually starts to look like it's spinning as you walk closer towards it.
An awesome, accidental effect. Haha.

So that's it for now. Let me know hwat you guys think.
It's really coming together great.

 

[colinsuds]

I dream of being able to do a woods walkthrough~ your soooooooo lucky!

 

[Eric Striffler]

Heheheeeee you have no idea how lucky.
Wait until I get pictures of the WHOLE Spooky Walk up.
You'll be in total awe at how there are the woods, a pirate exhibit on the lake, AND four (YES FOUR) houses to walk through.

It really is great.

 

[ShadyHallows]

Niiiicceee the setting itself is awsome!

 

[SweeneyFamilyHorror]

Looks like a ton of fun Eric(k) AND I'll bet it's very, very spooky at night.

 

[Eric Striffler]

It's VERY spooky at night.
For three nights in a rowe we've been down on he trail working til after dark, and then we call it quits mostly because we're too creeped out to stay any longer.
Haha.

 

[Fright Zone]

That looks cool and it can be roughshod so you don't have to fret the details too much. I'm bagging leaves to spread around my yard haunt since the yard I use has no trees. Crunchy leaves add to the walk thru effect. I like the simple black plastic spray painted white. Did you use the black plastic drop cloth they sell in paint department about 3 or 4 mil?

I was thinking about doing something similar for a yard haunt entry archway to define my entrance using 1" PVC Tees and 45's with black plastic or the left over 3 ft W black tarp material they sell in the lawn and garden section that I'm using for a border fence, spray paint it white with some sort of image inside like skulls and put a black light bolt inside to make the paint glow. I'd rip the plastic in 2" strips to make the doorways like the big Gemmy reaper inflatables. Strands of hanging fishing line works well too. It feels creepy when you walk thru it. I'd also put a Walmart 2005 purple mini skull strobe above the entry. I'd put a portable iPod speaker within earshot with Halloween music or sound FX.

Did you use any recorded sounds from a distance thru a boom box in the woods? That's what they did in the Blair Witch Project without the actors knowing it. That's what this Black Woods set-up reminds me of. That and the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks TV show. Creepy.

 

[Eric Striffler]

Actually yes. I have a stereo playing screams, children playing, and other things further back in the woods. Then we have one at the entrance playing some Midnight Syndicate music that Kevin put together. And we have one towards the end where Michael Myers is playing music.

And we didn't buy the black sheeting. The people who run the whole Spooky Walk supplied it to us, so I'm not sure where they got it.