|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|||||
|
|
 |
|||
|
Haunts: 2001 Planning and Set-up: Building the Haunt It Could've Been Worse I was pretty much on my own for set-up this year, and I planned to start during the weekend. Halloween fell on a Thursday, so that gave me just over one week to put everything together. The weekend was exceptionally important for set-up, as I would need to be focusing on school work during the week to be sure that I would be free on Halloween night. In preparation for the weekend set-up, I started clearing out what I could from the garage. It was then that I discovered a leak in the water heater. Fixing this, apparently, was more important to my parents than the success of my haunt, and I was forced to wait until Sunday afternoon, after the plumber had come, before I could use that half of the garage. This, of course, did not completely prevent me from setting up; I worked nailing up cardboard and spray painting bugs the entire time the plumber was there. In fact, he even said that he'd stop by on Halloween, although some great tragedy must have befallen him, for I never saw him again. 
Back on Track 
Luckily, the waterheater leak was nothing as serious as Victor's plumbing promlems, and we
were able to commence with the Halloween preparations. Set-up this year was a lot more
straight forward than last year. For one thing, unlike the
no nail restrictions placed upon us at Victor's house, my parents
didn't care the least bit if we had holes in our walls, so the staple gun became my new best
friend. I stapled everything in place. Fabric walls were stapled straight into the
ceiling; cardboard was stapled flat against the walls and shelves; props were stapled into
position.
To ensure that the staples didn't rip the fabric when stapling it to the ceiling and walls, we cut small squares of cardboard and placed them so that they would be stapled between the staple and the fabric. This proved to be extremely helpful. The pieces of fabric that were not cushioned with cardboard had a tendancy to rip where the staple was. Also, during tear down, we only had to grab the cardboard square and pull to remove the staple, rather than using pliers or a screwdriver like we needed when removing the staples that we had not used cardboard with, saving us a considerable amount work. 
The other thing that made this year's set-up more straight forward than last year's was the fact that our layout was extremely inflexible and already established. Most of the shelves in the garage could not be moved, so I knew exactly where the walkway would need to go, and I could plan the props and effects in relation to that. These shelves also gave us a very sturdy framework for the haunt, and something into which we could staple more cardboard, fabric, and props. Last year, we had not only needed to determine and lay out where the walkways would go, but we also needed to construct an elaborate framework to hold our haunt together. The fact that Pepper's ghost would not require any additional construction also helped a great deal. Much of the most difficult work involved in our 2000 Haunt was not required this year. 
Also in our favor was the fact that my garage door opened and closed in such a way that it would still function with fabric attached to it. We were thus, with a few exceptions such as Peppers Ghost and the outdoor props, able to put our entire haunt together before Halloween night. This, of course, does not mean that we did. Time Runs Thin Having been pushed so far behind by plumbing problems, among other things, Halloween arrived much sooner than we were ready. While Mike (Who somehow managed to hang only one piece of fabric during the entire time he was helping), Victor, and Shawn came over as often as they could, it did not amount to a great deal of time together. This slowed our progress even further. I finished my last tombstone on Tuesday afternoon. That same afternoon, I nailed up the false house front and set up the inside effects. I attempted to build a Living Head on a Table, which I had already tested, but I broke my mirror while trying to cut it to the right size. These activities occupied me far into Tuesday night; Halloween was upon us with still much to do. For the past week, I had been spray painting devil's pitchforks, but other than that, our Cemetery Fence was nonexistant - as was our cemetery. The tombs would need to be placed, and I still hadn't picked up the coffin from Shawn's friend. Additionally, I had no idea what to put in the first outside Hallway nor the place where I had planned to have the Living Head on a Table. But it was all right. That could be done Tomorrow...
|
|
Haunts
|
|||
 |
|||||
 |
All original content copyright 2004 Raymond Fero |
 |
|
Home | Haunts | Effects | Decorations | Costumes | Other | Links | Contact |
