The Darkness, Lemp, Creepyworld 2011 Renovation Thread

[drfrightner]

Couple of updates here... we will FINISH FINALLY the downstairs by this Friday. We will shoot the gunite today and Thursday.... it will then be painted and completed less putting in lighting and hooking up some animations. We will install any last few props, put some shreading out, clean the place blah blah.

Next week we will be onto the the LAST couple little things upstairs and building out the one room which is the center of our new DVD and we are done...

It will be onto Lemp in a couple weeks.

What do you think of these photos.

Larry

[drfrightner]

This video which is low rez but its going to be shot into our waterfall screen ... something no haunt has ever done. It should be awesome its something you have to see for yourself!!!

[drfrightner]

This one will air before Darkness videos, video between other videos, on tv commercials blah, blah. You have to see the HIGH REZ versions... all of these will be on display at The Darkness Haunt Tour. I can only tell you this will be best haunt tour ever done in terms of seeing things you just don't see that often... I STRONGLY suggest you do the behind the scenes tour... bring your camera because you will end up taking a couple hundred pictures. Its pretty awesome! I'm a bit blown away myself right now. www.TheDarkness.com

Let me say this... I'm not sure I will do this again because its so much work, so expensive but you know what its fun really pushing my brain to figure out ways to inspire other haunt owners. This is the ONLY fun part of this process... I have to admit everytime I get something like these things I get excited. This is fun but its a lot of work. I hope you all enjoy the tour.

[drfrightner]

Finally got that gunite stuff going... and oboy does it make a mess.

Take a look!!!

Its MESSY!

All the concrete work will be done by Saturday and we should be painting the last couple scenes and we should be done with the downstairs construction wise.

All of next week we will be theming the downstairs.

A lot of our custom props won't come in for two more weeks so you wont' get a great idea of what it will look like until then ...

THe behind the scenes tour is 2/3 sold out. We are not adding any tickets so if you want one of those behind teh scenes tour tickets you need to get them quickly.

www.TheDarkness.com

[elowther]

Awesome work Larry! That animation is going to look insane projected onto the waterfall! You can tell that was a lot of work and expense but it will be worth it. How big will it be when projected at full size? Also what company did the animation? Hats off to them I love the blowing embers. Good luck with the rest of the renovations!

Eric

[drfrightner]

Okay here we go again... many more things are DONE! I must say however as things look done or it looks like you are getting close the end you start to realize you are a million miles away.

The place is a TOTAL MESS because of the concrete spraying... well anyway here is the deal.

Here you'll see some interesting Terror Visions pictures hard to explain what these things do but these props overhead do stuff. You'll have to see for yourself in person.

Larry

[drfrightner]

Alright then...

Okay here is the deal we have been working on this thing day and night. And it looks like we are as far away as ever to finish because you get like all these big things done now you are down to like five zillion little things and that is for me the payoff. I'm big in the DETAILS the LITTLE things and it just seems like there are so many LITTLE things now that need to be done I just can't even think of how its going to get done.

I feel somewhat overwhelmed.

We are trying to produce YET ANOTHER hauntworld magazine, sell banners, produce three attractions and ship them, renovate darkness, terror visions and now Lemp.

I'm getting stressed for sure! We can't paint anything in the caves for several more days and we can't test the waterfalls or put water in for like 25 more days... so look when you get here REMEMBER all this stuff may or may not work perfect!!! LOL Typical first night stuff you know what I mean but we are doing our best for sure.

Finally you can see what that gator is going to look like in the gator room he will storm out through a waterfall. It should be really cool!

Larry

[drfrightner]

Here are EVEN more photos...

First off we see more parts of the spider cave and we see some other spiders that are going into the mix... from Dark Raven. THESE where VERY difficult to work into the set because we just didn't realize how huge these things where we basically and I mean TOTALLY rebuilt this one part of the scene just to fit the main one.

I mean we took down everything and started from scratch to get it to fit...


In this other picture we see in our old waterfall room we've sprayed the ground with concrete to seal it up and waterproof it.

Lastly we see another picture of the gator room just another angle.

Bottom line is what we've done this year is SO OVER THE TOP I don't know if we can do this tour again because I don't know how we would top ourselves. This years is the ULTIMATE that the Darkness has EVER BEEN and I mean EVER!

I don't think I'm blowing my horn when I say I just don't know if there is a more detailed haunted house in the NATION... maybe 13th Gate, maybe there is another one or two out there, but we are right up there with anything ever done.

I can only honestly say after what we've done this year that this might be the most detailed haunt in America.

Get your tickets at www.TheDarkness.com

Larry

PS: I just want everyone to KNOW because I've been asked 'why do we spend so much money on this...'. Answer: One I ENJOY THIS! THIS IS FUN for me! I DO NOT care about money that much, I enjoy CREATING THINGS, and this is FUN! Money is no object when it comes to creating ... this is why I really don't have ANY MONEY! LOL

I am NOT RICH... I don't have much money honestly, I do have a great haunt though!!! You only live once and for me this is kind of my art that I leave behind when I'm gone. I am enjoying every minute of doing this!

[drfrightner]

BTW... and yes its 6:43 am MY TIME and YES I AM STILL UP!

When you spend half the day and almost the entire night at The Darkness, which I did (left around midnight) you pile up tons of emails. We are building three attractions for customer right now and they have a lot of questions. So I'm ONLY NOW going to bed after answering about 100 emails... yes I get about 100 to 150 emails per day. Its nuts... that is what I do almost every day ... answer emails.

Anyway... to the point now! The behind the scenes tours are NOW over 2/3 sold OUT! Its less than 100 tickets left from being totally out.

We will NOT ADD MORE...

Lastly I want to point out to you clearly! I can upload zillions of pictures, or videos or whatever, without seeing this in person, you can't understand what we've done. You can't see how everything ties together like a knot, you can't see all the special effects work, and there are tons of them installed that we haven't even talked about because there is no point to upload a picture of basically what you would think is nothing.

IF YOU OWN A HAUNT OR LOOKING TO START ONE... the ONLY way you should see this attraction is a behind the scenes tour.

I have done this tour for one reason... TO FURTHER my goal to see every single haunted house in the nation to EXPAND THEIR detail, to push for new levels of detail to aspire to be something bigger, something more... I have pushed myself these past three years and I'm trying to pass that along to you.

I care about haunts across the board getting better... this tour is meant to HELP YOU NOT SCARE YOU ...

So if you really think this will help your event get the tickets THIS WEEK!

Do not wait.

Larry

[spookjj]

Larry... great thread can't wait to see it next month. Quick question, where do you guys buy your foam? I'm in Cincinnati and wondering what the best bet is, if any places close. Secondly, what do you guys use to harden your foam, you mentioned concrete gun but if you know any more details. See you guys next month!

Jim

[drfrightner]

Okay yes yes yes more photos. Behind the scenes tour is almost sold out. That is basically all anyone is buying ... get your today.

Lastly, someone asked me what role do I play in creating the haunted houses... hmmm.

Some around our place would say NO ROLE and others would say TOO MUCH, but I think not enough. LOL. So what do I do you ask... well we got that on video tape so you'll see here soon enough.

The whole process of building out this haunt well a lot of it anyway was video taped by a production crew and here soon you'll get to see that.

I am a perfectionist... I have had a new room torn out up to 4 or 5 times because I didn't like it, because someone screwed it up, or because after seeing it done I realized it would be better another way. It drives everyone around here mad... its tough to work with me.

I want to be the best, I want to be my best, I push for nothing but the best and if its not good enough tear it down and start over...

Its well crazy around here because I guess sometimes I'm never happy... well personally I don't think anyone should. Always push yourself to be the best you can and never compromise that goal!

I don't!

Anyway in this picture you can see our new Snake Totem Pole. I have spared NO EXPENSE for this tour FOR those who attend... NO EXPENSE if I thought it will make it better we did it no matter the cost! You'll see...

Larry

[drfrightner]

The purpose of all haunted houses is to SCARE THEM... the point is our goal with this tour isn't to scare anybody its to inspire them through the work of the attraction itself. The point of the magazine, isn't to scare you, its to help you make your attraction better, help you learn things and hopefully become a better business owner. The point of this tour and really the only reason I do it is to inspire haunt owners, to inspire them to do more, not think inside the box as in we just go to a show and buy things and thats it, but rather to think along a creative process. That is the point of this tour... yes we'll have actors working there for the first time EVER, as in like first night with probably all the problems of any first night opening but yes they will be trying to scare you... I'm simply saying as I did last year the goal goes way beyond that.

In the end our goal is to energize haunt owners to go home and start creating a better attraction... our tour hopefully does this, the show hopefully does this, the seminars hopefully will do this, connections they make with other haunters at the show, our new magazine, videos, just everything as a whole.

We want our tour to be part of their process to LEARN... that is it!

Larry

[drfrightner]

Okay more pictures... I spent another night at The Darkness filming 'How to Detail Your Haunted House Part 2'. The video should be pretty cool but we are still not done with it. We have maybe two more days of filming to complete the video which would also mean The Darkness is DONE with detail, construction and painting.

The Darkness will officiall be completed on all aspects listed above by the 18th of February. The day after we will move our detail crew to Lemp to work for three weeks. At that point I will start a new thread just for Lemp. Lemp is not goign to get the love The Darkness got but it will get some love... LOL

Lastly on the 19th we will start hooking up all animations, lighting, and sound. We are picking up the rest of our props for Darkness on the 15th of next week. At that point we'll install everything and be ready to take some very detailed photos.

After next week there will not be anymore photos. I hope you have enjoyed this thread and there are a few more photos to come. The coolest ones yet... but we are almost at the end.

Get your tickets now www.THeDarkness.com

Larry

[jason]

Your 3-d work looks great. It makes me wish I could find a picture of the 3-d clown car that we painted aboard the USS Nightmare. The car was something like what you are doing with your 3-d cut outs. I also wish I had video of the spinning 3-d tubes we had years ago. lol They would spin under strobing black light (it was a neat look).

[drfrightner]

Updates:

We will finish all painting and detail work THIS WEEK inside The Darkness.

We are also going to see Unit 70 on Wed to pick up a lot more props to complete The Darkness. Will post more pictures then.

We are finishing up the elevator room this week as well. It will be done THIS WEEK including the motion on the elevator. I have had a lot of questions on this... yes it will have CGI effect in the floor and will move around like the swamp house but it will also drop. We are working in this room and will finish this week, while we shoot the last few parts to our new how to detail video.

Next week is all animations, sound, and lighting.

Additionally we will be working on Lemp starting next week... so very soon I will be posting some pictures of that work in progress.

Remember on the behind the scenes tour we will open up our 3D production shop and Kip Polly will open up his shop to a open house event with some food and drinks.

On Friday at the Lemp itself we will have a party for everyone who attends with music, food, drinks, and some updates on Hauntworld.com big meeting with a demo... that is at Lemp Friday night. It will be FREE for the party so come on by...

Talk to you soon!

Get your tickets at www.TheDarkness.com

Larry