Raise the roof

[HauntedPaws]

Everyone talks about set dressing but one thing I rarely see mentioned is the ceiling. It's hard to make a room seem like a room if they can see the warehouse roof. Is camo exceptable to create a ceiling? I see it used in TW videos but wonder what else can be done as obviously sprinklers need to be able to perform if ever needed.

[Frightener]

Most of the rooms in the haunts I've been in are dark. The lighting doesn't reflect the ceiling so much to make you look up. The erosion cloth is used a lot around here as well. Not necessarily in all the rooms but some.

We plan on using a roof system in areas that need it, that seem to be underground etc. Some rooms will have plywood ceilings and some will have the erosion cloth. It'll mostly depend on how my sets look when I get them close to done. For example if one room looks fine w/o anything I'll leave it. or vice versa.

[Dark Scares]

Big issue here as well. We have had high white ceilings the last two years and the reflection has been a issue, as we are not allowed to even hang camo netting overhead as to not obstruct the sprinklers. We have had less lighting than I would like, but going to all pin spots directed down helped.

[screamforadream]

Fog??? Water based fog solution won't set the system off, fog your ceiling if you wanted.

Last year we used an ungodly ammount of swamp juice overhead to help hide the very high ceiling and unattractive giant lights. Worked like a charm!

[N2SPOOKINU]

While touring Atrox a couple years ago I notice what they used in part of their attraction and brought the idea to our own haunt.
They use window screen. We put molding around the room and secure the screen to it. Then we put a Dark light mini flood horizontal next to it to light it up and it makes it look almost solid. I have pics but I need to find them. It works great and the sprinkler would go right through it.

Greg
Fearfest

[Allen H]

Ceilings are tough.
I'm actually covering this in my Haunt Design DVD I am working on right now. On trick is having a molding along the top of the wall, that will actually help stop their eye from traveling up past it and train them to look inside the area you want them to look. Treated Jute mesh, window screen, camo-net, and slats have all been used- but it is up to your Marshal if the allow it or not.
Allen H

[Frightener]

Good point Allen. I was actually here to bring that up. In Airbrushing, when we use stencils, we take a thin band of tape and put around the border of the stencil. We bend it outwards and it cuts the overspray to almost zilch.

What if we were to put a 1 to 1.5 foot border around the tops of our walls? We usually have spots on the walls, right? Well if we do that, the light usually shoots upwards in that sense and thus creating some reflection on the ceiling.

It's weird because I just woke up from a dream just now. We were building the set and had trouble with light into our haunt as well. EVERYTHING is planned on (so far) being inside one large building. I think it's like over 200,000 sq foot building. Well, if we have activities in front of the building, we're gonna have a light problem as well. Even with a large facade it'll won't block all of the light.

Allen when you get that DVD made, please let us know! I plan on purchasing some dvd's from you but would like to include that one as well.

[Jim Warfield]

I Bet I Am The First

One to consider this as a solution to the ceiling we don't want customers to look at or see.
Heavy steel rings and chains will work. Steel items are never cheap unless you get a buy on them or something.
Make them into neck collars one for each patron, connect them with chains , heads will be down, the urge to look upward vastly diminished. (This feature also lets customers know from the start just "Who" is incharge! .. not THEM!)
This might be much better than having live critters running all over the floor to gain their attention away from the ceiling. Of course having the ocassional soft thingy on the floor makes them look downward too.