Make Good Money During The Off Season!

[George Maser]

In the tent rental business we did a lot of dressing and catering tents for movies. This lead to providing security, actors, props, generators, heat and portable AC. The key is to be paid up front.

[The Mad Hatter]

Patrick Barberry, sounds like you have had some success as well. We had one of our staff on hand as well when the project was being shot. I would love to hear more about your final views on this (Once they moved out) Patrick.


Keep in mind its always important to draft out a contract that will work in your benefit. And collect the money upfront. And as for stuff breaking and them screwing you, make sure you have their insurance information and take pictures of your haunt before they move in. That way if anything goes missing or broken you file it with their insurance to get refunded.

Gary, I am glad you have had some success too, that's cool that it has worked out well for you. Do you have any photos, I would love to see how this production has helped improve your haunted attraction.

I hope more Haunted Attraction owners have other feedback on this idea...

Frank Balzer
FrankWillisBalzer@yahoo.com
www.RotHauntedHouse.com
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www.R-Fx.com

[MidnightEvil]

The TV show "HOUSE" filmed an episode in our Renaissance Village (AKA Shady Hallow Hayride for Haunt season)
They spent a ton of money on redoing the arena and part of the village, they just left every thing and a pile of lumber too.
Easy Money

[shawnc]

Some communities have an association or office that markets to film companies, and this is a great way to get involved in the process. They generally work for free in order to get movie money flowing into the town or county. Check around and see if there is one in your area.

[Jim Warfield]

The "Production" Crew

Has always just been usually 4 people when they come here ,and four people can pull out very quickly because they just bring one camera , some small other carriable things and a clipboard.
Any contract is only really as good as the two people who sign it.

[legendsofthefog]

Movie Production

We are currently renting out our location to a movie production right now. It is a low budget film, and the people are pretty cool. You just need to make sure that you have all your bases covered from the start, and that you don't leave yourself to get screwed on their way out. For this production, they had to hire one of my crew to be on standby while they are on the property. His time is not cheap, but it allows them to have a little incentive to complete their project in a timely manor. However this person is available for emergency response, site preparation, and general film assistance (building bonfires, etc)
No matter what they promise you, don't let them get away with payment later, or at the end of the production... by that time, they have what they need, and you're behind them at that point. Another suggestion is to hold a bond/deposit on the property that should be refunded upon completion of the project. (we did not do)

The production on our property ends tomorrow... they have a professional stunt crew coming to set an actor + stunt man on fire... that should be pretty wild. I will take pics and post when they're finished.

After this production is finished, we are going to evaluate the experience, and draft a contract, terms and conditions of further outside filmmaking. This has been a good experience, but if anyone is to come and use the property in the future, things definitely need to be handled differently. Overall, for a first time, this has been a good experience.

[monsterwax]

That's great it worked for you. Just watch out in general, movie people are famous for leaving everything in tatters and never returning calls or following through on any promises made before hand. I've been in several smaller productions and every single one promised a copy of the DVD and none of them ever followed through. No biggy, but it certainly gets old after a while. The sad stories are the ones of people who loaned their offices or houses to be in films, even small ones. Ruined carpets, destroyed lawns, broken furniture, and the Hollywood guys were always too busy to return the calls or do anything about it. They're you're best friend when the need something, but afterwards...

[Jim Warfield]

I Thought This Would work Too.

25 years ago. But it really never ever has.
My decorated house could be photgraphed, computerized, jumbled ever so slightly ...and it is Their image, their "Ideas".
Promises immeadiately forgotten the split-second the "film" is in their camera= all bets are "OFF"! They didn't clean up or help clean up Their messes, all for which I got no money at all.
I sure don't need to waste anymore of my time pandering to a band of gypsies!
The great number of cable and satellite stations need "fodder" but have never been very generous at all with whatever or whoever is infront of their cameras providing the actual content.
Many years before I had my house a Hollywood production inhabited this town for a summer filming what could have been a TV series . I provided some props, assembled airplane models to sit on the "General's " desk, when they broke production, they had fun breaking the airplanes I was to have returned.
The one co-star stiffed the local motel for around $1,200 for room and long distance calls.
they get people all enthused and abit crazed waving a camera infront of your face then take what they want, do as they please and drive away, remembering to disconnect any contact information with the people they lied to. (Do they teach this in film school?)
Be warned.

[SilentScream]

Awesome props and what a great deal for you! This comes down to location, location, location....

Unfortunately, outside of the occasional indie film "Deliverance" remake, Alabama isn't exactly a hot bed of cinematic activity. I imagine that would prove true for most of us on the East Coast, but a cool idea nonetheless!

[The Mad Hatter]

Here are more photos...

[The Mad Hatter]

Here are some more

[The Mad Hatter]

Here are more photos

[The Mad Hatter]

Here are some more photos

[The Mad Hatter]

here are some of the photos

[The Mad Hatter]

The other month I thought of great Idea that had serious potential. This past week I have gone trough with this idea and has been a success on its first try. I am going to share this success story with Haunted Attraction owners and enthusiasts. I believe This can be a great thing for our business. For 29.99 you can.... Lol I'm just kidding most people try to make money off knowledge in this industry when I believe it should be shown for free to help boost everyone's business. Here's The idea I went Through with and had great success.

Turn your haunted Attraction into a studio during the off season. yes that is right, Our Haunted Attraction has just started to do this with great success! This is where it get better..... You can rent out your haunted attraction anywhere from $500.00 for a low budget to $10,000.00 for larger budget productions... This is PER DAY!!! This is where it gets better, In the contract you can state that you get to keep the sets at the end of production to do what you want with them....They normally pay people to scrap them... Good Money, and Free movie quality sets with no work!! They even bring in their own power to run their lights, their own insurance and other stuff. All you need is around 2,000 sqft of open space at your haunt so they can build. you can also charge them for prop use if they wish to borrow some of your books or other props for their sets... that's even more money! All you need to do is find a local studio location manager and post your location with them so they can book your building with productions, its free. It will be different for your area but I found some on www.LA411.com for our area. You will need to do a bit of online research.

Here are some photos of our last shoot and some of the sets and props we get to keep... oh ya we got an electric chair now! and an hospital! and a few other rooms.
We have a few more productions wanting to shoot in this location. In Two weeks we got 4 productions interested, one followed through. One starting next week and 2 others in the process.

Frank Balzer
FrankWillisBalzer@yahoo.com
www.RotHauntedHouse.com
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www.R-Fx.com