Beginner seeking advice from veteran haunters

[oakhillshaunterTHEFEAR]

Summary of the last 14 pages

Dr. Giggles: demented entertainment@yahoo.com 760-613-7232

• Starting off small would be smart to grow throughout the next 5 years
• Selling stuff on eBay is a good cheap source of revenue for raising funds
• Being a charity haunt might be a good way to get sponsors
• After some experience you could switch to a pro haunt but that includes some timely changes and new costs. Bottom line start as one and stick to it.
• When making deals of any kind stick to making a contract for safety reasons
• If you use volunteers reward them some how to boost morale and promote for next season
• He likes long walks on the beach and a good scare in his corpse skin from spookywoodsfx.com everyone once in a while cause its his passion
• Don’t down yourself on your acting abilities, if you have passion for it give it your all and you will be great
• Don’t concentrate on your first year turn out focus your people and your show
• Care for your show and care for your customers and they will come
• Printing out flyers( maybe 200) at kinkos or something would be a good cheap way to spread the word

Jim Warfiled

• Save your money and figure how much time you can devote to this realistically over the next SEVERAL YEARS
• I had to ask people I really didn’t know and I was not related to for money
• Work and build up your haunt over time and get as much done as possible before the final goal
• Don’t boast and promise more than you can deliver
• I have never had a dot room but I’m not opposed to it
• Blasphemer that I am, I don’t have any music playing here or any back rough music, It only distracted the customers and made them uneasy
• Room ideas will cost several hundreds of dollars to make happen, unless all you do is turn out the lights
• 250 people well entertained and impressed versus 600 people of which 25 were entertained and 575 forget that they were ever there….. Think about it
• Walls, floor space, displays, but then what about showmanship?
• Steven Kind wrote something like terror is more that dark at the top of the stairs, rather then seeing something that we can then degrade and diminish once we see it and define it and explore it’s weaknesses
• Keeping the mystery can keep them remembering it and returning
• Customers pull out their bic lighters and cell phones to kill your “black”
• Hope for non windy days as a 13 year old setting up wall panels

N2SPOOKINU

• You’re too young to actually be hired by a haunt near you so start by volunteering so you can learn all the things first hand that you are wanting to know

Front Yard Fright

• I agree with the start small statement

Mike Goff

• The quality of your show, and the amount of customers you can send through are inversely proportional
• To increase on, you must sacrifice the other
• I would advise you to build the best show that you possibly can for the amount of traffic that you expect
• Big crowds will come when you are ready for them
• It is important to know your market, and know your customer
• Don’t sell yourself short, be realistic about your goals but NEVER impose limits on the possibilities

Greg Chrise

• Obviously the problem is raising funds, getting people interested and having it all come together years down the road
• Keep your blog going no matter how mundane you might think it is
• To raise funds, sign up for some affiliate programs
• Focus on doing things in a manner that don’t take money like creating your displays from dumpster finds
• Become a bargain shopper
• Raise funds by having a car was and expecting a $5 donation per car
• Until then the game is to spend the next 5 years gathering as many potent ional customers
• I don’t like business plans but don’t leave one out find the happy medium as tc says

Robos99

• Kelly’s book isn’t really going to tell you how to build your haunt as to how to manage your haunt
• JB Corn books helped me with the construction stuff quite a bit
• Don’t let your lack of equipment get you down
• For a first year haunter with no experience you can pretty much count out major sponsors
• You can’t claim all these fundraisers are for charity unless your haunt is a 501(c)(3)
• Business plan is not so important but don’t leave it out
• The key point in dealing with the sound in your first haunt is CHEAP
• In general you’d want a lower dynamic range than most typical music, a haunt can be a high noice environment so music with lots of quiet little details might get lost
• 60 vs. 90 walls http://www.hauntworld.com/haunted_ho...ead.php?t=7029

Screamline studios: 440-205-0111 home or 440-392-2666 shop

MidnightEvil

• You need to get Tim Harkleroad’s Krone Daddy new book “Make Your House Everything You’ve Ever Haunted” http://www.kronehouse.net/booksales.html

JamBam

• Research also means going to the haunts in your area
• Other research would be into the are you live in
• Create a business plan and revisit it every few months to update it
• http://www.census.gov/popest/countie...ST2007-01.html is a great source to research your market size
• Mark Butlers Monster List google it
• He who fails to plan, plans to fail
• Be careful how you word things so you intrigue the audience, but don’t offend them

Imax

• Find anything you can for free or near free
• The wall panels will likely be the most costly part of your startup
• Screws and scrap lumber to brace the tops works well to secure the wall panels without messing them up
• 98% of our entire show is done with LED lights we build by hand
• ACTORS ACTORS ACTORS
• Basically any system that will loop continuously will be fine more or less
• Anything at eye level can be dangerous
• I say go for as many illusions as you can! People are suckers for them when they are executed well

Asvane

• Check out Craig list several times a day under the free section for any supplies towards anything

[tchaunt]

Thanks for posting the summary. I appreciate it.

And don't worry guys, he asked permission to post it and I thought it was a great idea.

Also, check your email. I sent you a message.

[oakhillshaunterTHEFEAR]

Oh yea thats something i wanted to apologize for in advance. I hope it was ok for everyone that i put all the contact info I saw in the summary. If that was bad I apologize. I will ask first in the future.

[oakhillshaunterTHEFEAR]

Something Larry Said

Get the point?

Selling to fewer people, making the same amount of money but having less headaces sounds better to me but could also increase your businss in the long run because of your rock solid rep for long lasting products.

Think about it! This goes to haunt owners as well. Its the best advice I've ever heard from anyone in all my years! Another piece of advice that goes right along with that is this...

Its not about the quanity of people you put through your haunt, or how many zombies you sell, its about the profit margin you make. You can do 40,000 people and make no money, you can sell 200 zombies and lose money, its not about how many you sell its about how much profit you make each time you sell one. Think about it.

Larry

[tchaunt]

I do agree that that is some of the highest quality advice I have ever heard.

[oakhillshaunterTHEFEAR]

We need to get an insurance policy especially for Haunters. This thread gets it for us.
http://hauntworld.com/haunted_house_...ead.php?t=7217

[JamBam]

Surveys

I found a FREE survey website with two conditions. The survey is limited to 10 questions and 100 respondants. It is very easy to set up.

They also offer a paid survey for a fee of $ 19.95 per month (1000 responses limit) or $ 200 per year gets more functions and questions.

We have bought one month for a haunt survey before and it worked fine. Set up a free memebrship and it saves previous surveys so you can copy it rather than start over if you want.


www.surveymonkey.com

Good for all budgets.

[tchaunt]

@JamBam:
Oh man. I can't believe that. I just gave in a day too early. Today, I made I own survey. I had to re-learn PHP. But I got most of it finished. I just have to put the final tweaks on it.

@Everyone:
Please check out this thread that oakhillshaunterTHEFEAR made:
http://hauntworld.com/haunted_house_...ead.php?t=7237
I will gladly accept any donations. PM me or email me at tchaunt@yahoo.com if you need anymore information.

[tchaunt]

Money Question

How much money do you usually spend per square foot?
If you rent a space, please tell me what city and state and the price per sq. ft.
Then, please provide about how much you spend per sq. ft. on props, special effects, lighting, music, etc.
Also, if you have any ideas for fundraisers over the internet, then please tell me. I really need to get quite a bit of money if I want to start up this year.

On the plus side, I don't have too much of a dilemma when it comes to the band problems now (whether I should stay in or not). I pretty much hate my band class now because we do nothing. We play whatever we want for 15 minutes while our band director sits in his office. He comes out, tells us stuff, and then we get another 5 minutes of random playing. Then, he comes out and has us warm-up for 20 minutes. We work on music for 15 minutes. And most of that is spent trying to get the low brass to learn how to tongue...and they've been playing for three years now. In other words, band class is boring, I learn nothing, and I do nothing. If it doesn't improve within the next few weeks, I won't join next year.

Also, if anyone has anything they don't need anymore that can be used in a haunt, please either PM me or e-mail me (tchaunt@yahoo.com) and I can give you more info.

[tchaunt]

Can anyone...

Please post the information that I asked for in the above post. I am wanting to make sure I don't spend too much. I am already starting to get money for the haunt, and I don't want to invest it in the wrong things.
Please tell me anything I need to buy (besides wood for wall panels), should consider buying, and need to plan on buying in the future.
Any feedback will be appreciated.

[tchaunt]

Here's another question:

What do you do with the floors in your haunt?
Do you just leave them as is, or do you try to have them match the theme of the room? Is you theme the floors, how do you do it?

Have you ever bought any FX Lens from Vampfangs? If you have, please tell me how the process was and about the quality of the lens.

Also, what do you do to enhance the realism of the haunt?

Here's questions from before that haven't been answered:
Please tell me anything I need to buy (besides wood for wall panels), should consider buying, and need to plan on buying in the future.

How much money do you usually spend per square foot?
If you rent a space, please tell me what city and state and the price per sq. ft.
Then, please provide about how much you spend per sq. ft. on props, special effects, lighting, music, etc. (in a total)

Also, if you have any ideas for fundraisers over the internet, then please tell me. I really need to get quite a bit of money if I want to start up this year.

Also, if anyone has anything they don't need anymore that can be used in a haunt, please either PM me or e-mail me (tchaunt@yahoo.com) and I can give you more info.
_____
Please help me by answering these questions. I am wanting to start purchasing things for my "haunt", but I want to have at least a basic budget.

[Jim Warfield]

Become a Dumpster-diver

Most long term haunters furnish their haunt this very inexpensive way.
Of course you will need someone with a truck to haul all the stuff you find and buy, you will need storage and maybe a different place where you can work on things.
Ideally if you could find the right property large enough to be able to keep everything close by on that same place would save alot ot time, money and needless expense.
I think the square foot thing is over rated. If half of those feet are unusable for some reason the landlord really won't care if you can make use of it or not.
Thinking in square footage means you are playing the owner's "Game"and the multiplier tends to distract and potentially hide the more important aspects of the whole deal.
It takes a tremendous amount of money, time and plain old work to fill a space adequately to suficiently show a haunt that will be judged by the majority of your customers to be a value and not over priced.
Unhappy customers don't come back, they don't say nice, supportive things about their experience in your place,which would then be providing free , valuable advertising that is beyond any actual price you may try to place on it.
A smaller show that is well done and entertaining is much better than wide open, empty spaces where nothing happens.
If you feel the need to provide a show time of a certain amount of minutes, this can be adjusted too with employees doing or not doing certain things, like acting , telling a story versus just screaming or growling and chasing.
So many choices and decisions, maybe too many?
Money and time and your own personal energy level will make some of those choices for you, they always do.

[tchaunt]

@Jim:
Well, I've actually started dumpster-diving. I haven't got too much. So far, I have like 20 some tobacco sticks that I can use to make an ugly fence out of, I have a few pieces of scrap 2x4's, possibly some 1x4's, and an average sized piece of plywood.
The funny thing is, I got most of the stuff a few days ago. I live in Kentucky, so we're coated in snow and ice. I just got the sleds out, loaded the stuff onto them, and dragged it away. XD I'm sure I looked stupid, but who cares. I'm that much closer to a haunt.
The problem is, I'd have to have all of the money in cash to buy a property. I don't even know if that would work though.
I guess that is true about the square foot thing. I'm just wanting the basic idea of how much to not spend. Basically, I don't want to go over the price per sq. ft. that a big-wig haunter pays in a small charity haunt.
Do you have any ideas I could use to make my wallet stretch more my first year? AKA, Do you have any ideas that would be cheap, but still get good "reviews"?
Most likely, for my first year, I will try to use a lot of story telling on the slow nights and mild story telling on the busy nights. It's not like I'll have to have a high through-put my first year.
Honestly though, I'll do whatever I have to to get started on my haunt. I don't care if I have to break my leg to get started, I'll do it if I have to...well, maybe not. But you get the point.

I'm sorry about taking so long to reply to your post Jim.

@Everyone:
What are some things I could do the first year to leave a good impression on the customers, but still save money?
What are some good ways to get ideas for rooms? Do you just...think them up or do you stare at that odd shaped shadow on the sidewalk as you drive by to get an idea?
Is it a good idea to start a business with one of your closest friends? My friend is really into haunts and loves everything about them. But I'm not sure it would be that smart of an idea to run a business with a friend. Anyone have any tips?
Also, where do you get most of your make-up? Dollar tree, or, on the other side of the price spectrum, hollywood studios?
What brands of make-up last through heavy sweating? I am wanting to scare act at least some nights in my haunt, but I sweat like a pig...and a horse, and a cow...all in one. I'm wondering what I should do. Any advice will be appreciated.

[robos99]

My process for brainstorming for new ideas usually starts with the backstory. I don't always start with a backstory, sometimes I come up with a scene first and create a backstory around that. But at some point, I create the theme to tie everything all together. Then I start thinking up things that could go along with that theme. For example, if your theme is a haunted hospital or an insane asylum or something, think of what things you might typically find in one, and think of what might be scary about those things. Of course, you can always stray from that, you don't need to follow the backstory exactly. Once I get some ideas I'll choose the best ones and try to flesh those out a little more, and as your ideas take shape it can become clear what works and what doesn't.

I'll also turn to movies, trade magazines, and pictures of other attractions for inspiration. Sometimes real life events can provide some inspiration.

[tchaunt]

Thanks for the reply robos. Okay guys, I have yet another question to add to the list.
What do you do for your finale?