RF Haunt: Raymond's Halloween Website

Haunts: 2001

Planning and Set-up:
Back to the Garage

Making the Transition

With the DECA project abandoned, it was time to start planning our garage haunt once again. We wanted this year's haunt to be noticably different than last year's, while still including some of the same effects.

Still holding to our idea from the DECA planning to have themed rooms, Victor and I considered separating his garage into two or three small rooms that the guests would walk through. We would use the entire three-car garage this year, which would give us about 50% more space than last year. Things were looking good. We continued developing our plans for the walkthrough, and I began working with my art teacher to construct tombstones for our cemetery - one of the many additions we had planned for this year's haunt.

Change of Plans

Things did not go quite as smoothly as we had hoped. About two weeks before Halloween, Victor encountered major plumbing problems which prevented us from using his garage for the haunt. We searched in vain for another person whos garage we could set up in. Unfortunately, Victor happened to be the only one I knew with a garage clear enough for a full haunt.

As a last effort, I was able to convince my parents to let us use our garage, and the haunt was moved over to my house. Now, this wouldn't have been any problem if my garage didn't look like THIS:

Using the shelves and storage boxes to my advantage, I was able to create a walkway traveling through my garage that would be large enough for our haunt. Because of the fortunate positioning of my laundry room and indoor hallway, I would not need to use any garage space for Pepper's Ghost this year.

Since I live in a house that is somehwat secluded from most trick-or-treaters, I printed up some "Haunted Garage" signs with my address and posted them around the neigborhood.

Things were once again starting to look hopeful... sort of. We had an incredible amount of work to do in the week and a half before Halloween. Since the change in location, most of the planning we had done before needed to be discarded in favor of the new, more compact, layout. In addition, many props and effects still needed to be built, including the tombstones and our cemetery fence. If this wasn't enough, an unfortunately scheduled AP chemistry lab and test prevented Victor and Mike from helping much before Halloween, and Shawn's after school job limited the time that he could help severely.

Back to Planning (Part I) | Index | Continue to Set-up

About a week before Halloween, this was our situation as I recorded it:

Halloween 2001: Current Situation
Oct. 22, 2001

Cemetary:
I've been working on some awesome tombstones over the weekend. So far, I've got 6 that I plan on completing - as well as a whole bunch of square bricks that we can paint "RIP" on and one very cool lion statue that we will probably be able to use this year, since it's at my house. So we're looking at a very impressive graveyard.

Cemetary Fence:
I was recently given a whole bunch of devil's pitchforks. I plan to paint these and make them into a cemetary fence. So far, it looks like they'll work really well.

Bugs:
I've got a couple buckets of both large and small fake bugs. I'm not sure what to do with them yet, but there are a lot of them.

Pepper's Ghost:
Pepper's ghost will require very little effort this year. I tested last year, and the glass can be positioned so that Pepper can stand in my laundry room. We will not need to make a special 'room' for Pepper in the garage.

Slide Projectors:
I've got 5 of them, but I'm not sure what to do with all of them.

Living Head on a Table:
It might happen this year. Trick or treater's would approach the side door to my garage at such an angle that the effect could very easily be done outside (Like where the hangman was last year).

Strobe Light:
I lost it. I have no idea where my strobe light is, and I'm a little bummed about that because it was a really nice strobe light.

Fog Machine:
We don't have one, but if we did or if we miraculously get one (Hey, it happened last year), it would probably go in the graveyard.

Candy:
My mom's got a whole bunch of fake lizards that she was going to give out this year. We can use those if we'd like.

Other:
I'm starting set-up on Saturday. Finishing major stuff on Sunday. Then minor touch-ups will take place Monday and Tuesday after school. Halloween is on Wednesday. We will meet at my house as soon after school as possible, get the garage ready, and wait for the trick or treaters. Late Wednesday and Thursday after school we will be cleaning up.

Normally, I don't get many trick-or-treaters down my street. This year, however, I have started to try to gain some word of mouth recognition. My piano teacher (Who knows just about everyone this side of the Mexican border) is spreading the word, and I'll put some signs up around the immediate area.

Back to Planning (Part I) | Index | Continue to Set-up

Haunts

Halloween 2003:

- Walkthrough

- Planning/Setup

- Halloween Night

Halloween 2001:

- Walkthrough

- Video

- Planning/Setup

> Intro

> Plan: DECA

> Plan: Garage