Young Posters

[hauntedhousenut]

Greg

I couldn't agree more, that was the post of the day.

[Greg Chrise]

It seems the ones I chose to be my mentors if that is the proper phrase had been in business totally haunt specific at the time 16 and 25 years. I traveled to where they were to speak face to face and help them out. I didn't post 2,000 questions on their respective forums or web sites. Yet they became very personal friends that we share of topic discussions daily in private emails and visits at most conventions.

If you pull your weight these same people ask you for advice or insight and alas that is when friends status is achieved. Of couse then there were those that had been in business for 10 years that said the old school sucked for so many reasons. BUt, then the new school changed their tune on many things after actually having more than a decade of experience.

Plus the newest phenomina I observe is people writting a book or putting out a DVD in their first and second year of business. This of course makes them a God in the consumer public and you can't shake people's having been informed by an author or media producer. If it came over the Internet it must be true. Maybe I'm missing some over all point as this information was not available in my 2nd year of trying to develop something and these books may have spoken directly to me somehow at the time for $30. However, wouldn't you rather have business advice from someone that developed the whole effort? Saw failure and continued more knowledgable? Or someone that is completely hopeful, totally clouds the end results of such a business and in many cases just has not demonstrated long term operational success or reasoning?

Another phenomina I have grown a little tired of is people just popping in a month ago and has no idea what a back story is, how to write a paragragh explaining your event and how to scare people by being some scary persona. And, you can find out how for $39 so they can possibly quit their job as the house keeper at the Roach Motel.

Sorry to say there are quite the numbers of population that have gotten past 3rd grade and can write a paragraph, write a book, develop a scary back story and characters. Do your research and find truely qualified mentors. You might catch them giving a seminar at an industry convention or you might catch them writting articles for magazines or even showing up at home haunt gatherings to lend a hand.

Chose your mentors wisely. And, those that have been around for 10 or 20 years do not give a crap about what someone that has been thinking about for only 2 years. They simply are not a success YET. No matter how helpful it appears, someone now into their 2nd month quoting the 2 year guy to a 20 year guy and what the 2 year guy has to say is gospel is just silly. It just shows a lack of seriousness or far reaching understanding no matter what age.

None of this is totally about TC Haunt, I'm running into 30 and 50 year olds who's frame of reference is how things are done at their work that are no more brilliant than a 13 year old. I have also seen through with 30 year olds that after having accomplished the whole deal just can't believe it has all been done to a certain level and they have it down.

If you start right out with a new subject telling veterans there might be something wrong with them, you probably will be very alone. Gee the veterans might point out where you are wrong.

[Allen H]

I personally have no issue with TC, he took the posts to mean him and yes he did annoy some. Oak hills the self admitted liar and time waister was my big beef. TC is fine, he just knows nothing about haunting, as long as he mixes asking with doing the board will have no issues with him Im sure. He may even become an asset to the board if he specialises in a field where we might have future questions, I know that is community thinking, but this is a haunt community. We arent saying leave or shut up, but were saying pull your weight. I started in haunts at 10 myself, I dont begrudge him that at all, Im glad they are getting started early.
Why not start a mentoring program so young posters can be assigned a "sponsor/ mentor" that they can ask questions to, good questions could be posted on their behalf, it might not work, but its a possibility. I would be willing to mentor someone, Lord knows I do at my shows all the time.
Allen H

[Greg Chrise]

At what point did this become a totally free expected on going seminar? When I joined 10 years ago it was who do you use, what do you use, what works best, being shared by people that were currently doing something, not dreaming about it. I was able to shut down some serious veterans from fighting because instead of spending great deals of time on these forums trying to pick fights, they should really be talking to their customers and actually building on their haunt. Instead of trying to drag everyone into some very time consuming dysfunctional answer man or woman position on the Internet that pays nothing.

The continous questions have driven away all the people that truely know anything first hand. Dream all you want but, this is not a government funded Haunt Welfare Program. It is not leave no scary child behind.

If someone in a different example put a picture of something up or properly described what they were mixing together and said something was a problem looking for ideas of how to make it better? Or they actually are right now putting some concoction on something and it isn't doing what was expected? Yes, you might get some worthy responces.

Yeah I'm dreaming of $150,000 worth of stuff too. So what? Does that make me a better person or an idiot? Better sense focussed, I can even tell even myself I might be approaching things like an idiot. You build and build and maybe a decade latter you have something worth $150,000. But, if you point out you have to focus on the building part rather than the dreaming part you are somehow violating some one's self esteme?

Quite frankly we run into 40 year olds too that just aren't going to really pull this off because they have so many other responcibilities that they hold higher and think having a haunted house is going to be the answer to all their financial problems and they won't have to do too much! It is all magic if someone would just tell them how to do it using a magic wand. If perhaps someone that has worked hard for decades were to just give them everything on their list for free?

If you can personally contact someone in the flesh that you agree with, they can explain what would take 200 hours to type on a key board in about an hour and a half. You have to get out of the chair and hit the streets. If you are waiting for this forum to fulfill all of your dreams, you might need counciling no matter what your age is.

This forum instead has become a yearly gathering of people that just two months ago thought a haunted house would be great being guided by 16 year olds. Somehow they have been in this industry for years and years but just joined this forum? How great is that? Isn't it kind of a waste of time when someone is about 40, 50 or 60 years of age and is about to make a serious investment in either time or money and all they get is a dream sequence? The dreamers think they are visionaries and what they foretell must be heeded as it is "the dream". It doesn't matter if older people might be making possibly their last business decisions ever. The ones that will crash them for ever. The decisions that were supposed to be the ones that would complete their life financially but instead was one more poorly advised dream.

How long will it take to see these dreams turn to reality? Another 10 years of so much consumed bandwidth and noise? How long will it take all the people who can freely type things as their dinner is being prepeared for them to find out they have done maybe a hundred things that could have been done better. Yet, they had to do them all along with limited resource and then trash it all and do it right?

[lonewolfmage]

Greetings~

Mostly a lurker here and absorbing info .. and have really not posted anything .. but... in reading this thread I felt i kinda had to chime in ...

The reason being many fold .. YES I have seen TC 's threads's as well as others, he has asked legitmate questions regarding haunts,,

I, my self .. have been doing/working haunts since I was 16 years old ( I'm now 37). I've been in his shoes.. have TRIED to ask the questions on this board and various other boards that are regarded as the "one and only Haunt board" and have gotten shot down on more than one occasion. Which is why I lurk.

Granted, yes I DO NOT have all the knowledge you "veterans" have with getting sponsors,, materials. ect. but that is why I sit hear bewtween my monitor and computer tower. That is to LEARN.

TC might have had some "odd posts" .. hell he made a mistake , posted on the worng board section .. OPPS .. have you not done the sane thing ???? whoopp dee doo .. give him a slap on the wrist .. and have done with it.

He wants to learn .. is that not the point of this board ??? for all of us to learn from each other ??

Mistakes that maybe even the "veterans" make might be able to fixed by the younger generation of haunters..


The young generations of haunters ARE the Haunting future.. lets not knock them for thier dreams .. even IF they are 5 .. 10 .. 20 years down the line... its tghe dream that counts ... mine is to HOPEFULLY have mine going in the next 2 years or dso ..

OH and BTW my Co owner will be younger than me .. and has the same passion as TC does. My co ownwr will be about 10 years my Juior , dos Latex makup appliances, makeup in genral , builds props, as well as helps with all haunt and non haunt activites in town.


Whether thier dream happens to "Haunt Enthusiast" based .. or "Haunt Proffesioal" based ... what diffrence does it it make .. we all have dremas.. some of ours have come true .. some we still have to work at it ...

As "professional"" as you all say you are that are "throwing stones" , look in the "magic mirror" and look back as to where you were at one point Where TC is ?? Did you not ask questions ? ? Did you not make mistakes ???? if you answer no to either of those .. well them it's you issue ....

We all learn from mistatkes .. even from the younger generation.. as they can learn from us .. let'sn ot "trash" thier dreams , just because they made a mistake..


We have all ben there .. and we all will be again .. the question is .. will we learn from them?

Just my many cents worth
~LoneWolf

[Jim Warfield]

Correct Me If I'm Wrong, Larry.

I know things change, admission prices increase..I think I remember reading a post Larry made maybe five? years ago discussing monetary things concerning a haunt and he said something like dollars and cents/wise if you spent , I think the number was $150,000 to buy your haunt building, that you would never make enough profit to pay it off.
For many years I show my customers a little illusion/toy with the floating quarter, I lettered on the side of the plastic lid:"The Monetary Illusion Of The Haunted House Business,"
you see the quarter but you can't touch it, your finger passes right through it's image.
Yes, maybe everyone has locals or neighbors who will tell you that," You must be a "Millionaire!" because of all the people lined up on a Saturday night in October!
Not so. Not even close.

[Greg Chrise]

The last 10 minutes of Power Rangers today was Awesome!

[Nightgore]

Thanks for the comments and the support Shane... I hope your able to come up and visit, you know your more than welcome anytime! As I said, our budget isn't just for the haunts... there's several things that breaks up into... even another company! But that's all stuff that doesn't belong on a public forum.

Again, thanks for the support... your truely a dear friend Shane! -Tyler

[graystone]

Tyler

Thanks for the reply. A million dollars thats bigger than the budgets of Ben and Larry combined. Wow I am impressed. But with all your marketing director, a financial backer ect have you ever thought you might be money ahead by starting off small and building up? Also let me say that leasing might be and might not always be the way to go. Why would you lease when you can buy and gain the capitol of owning your own property? Sounds like you might want to talk to a real estate agent, or a loan officer about that. I am shocked your partner would not see the plus of owning. Buying is an investment, and taxes are just part of life.

I wish you the best but you are really going to have to have a huge turn out and I mean huge just to break even. And I dont know of any haunts that open and turn a profit for atleast 3 years maybe more. Haunting is very seasonal. Lastly LOL as far as radio right now a pet dog can cut a deal with radio stations they are giving the farm away.

Again Tyler I wish you the best but. Well I will just say I wish you the best. Always remember and this is coming from many life learned lessons. It might look good on paper but its far from reality. I wish you the best you seem to be book smart but your still at a very young age to be life smart.

I built a company the old fashion way I started off small, worked longgggggggggg and hard, depended on no one other than myself , never bit off more than I could chew and never ever depepned on anyone other than myself. Now share it with no one but myself. I also enjoy the perks of letting others do alot of what I did in the beginning however I still to this day know every move that every employee that works for me does. I might add they do it my way not their way as I built this company with the help of no one other than the support of my family. Good Luck its going to be a long road.

One last thing Tyler my friend you said that you "Think" this is something your state needs. Thinking is one thing. My friend you better say YOU KNOW! LOL Shane and its Trust Me On That. Shane this time.

[Nightgore]

Yeah, your right! As for the industry... we're not afraid of this economy and we understand that to make money you have to SPEND money! Now, granted that it's NOT that amount going towards haunts... we've got ALOT of other stuff that goes towards!

Also, our business plan is pretty solid and our marketing, so far, is pure awesomeness! But that's because I have a marketing director who knows what the f**k he's doing! hahahaha... Actually if you'd like I can outline an awesome deal we made for radio!

Also, the KY market... doesn't have any events like this. We're not a haunt, we're an event! It's something I think this state NEEDS and would do VERY well! -Tyler

[hauntedhousenut]

Tyler

Shane,

Our funding (close to a million dollars) is a collection of personal funds from myself and my business partner Ed... who is the prominent financial backer of the entire company. We're looking to lease a building with an option to buy... it's a write-off and we don't have to worry about the taxes of the building.

We're doing ALOT of stuff on our own... we've been lucky enough to create a team of very skilled people... from mask/prosthetics/prop maker, costuming, acting, construction/design, animation design and fabrication, etc. etc... We'll be building alot of our own animations (full movement audio-animatronics) like Disney. In the future I don't want to outsource any product we need... I want us to DO IT ALL in house! We're not buying one single masks (except for one silicone mask)... we're making custom silicone appliances and foam prosthetics!

If you want to chat more about the ins-and-outs... drop me an email at scarylexington@gmail.com

-Tyler

So basically what Shane is saying is true, your partner is handling the financial end and your investing a little on your own.

Why in the world would your partner invest that amount of capital in a volitle market like Haunted houses, they all aren't profiting at a level of a Netherworld, darkness...etc it seems that if you had that type of cash flow you would invest in something more stable.

[Nightgore]

Shane...

Shane,

Our funding is a collection of personal funds from myself and my business partner Ed... who is the prominent financial backer of the entire company. We're looking to lease a building with an option to buy... it's a write-off and we don't have to worry about the taxes of the building.

We're doing ALOT of stuff on our own... we've been lucky enough to create a team of very skilled people... from mask/prosthetics/prop maker, costuming, acting, construction/design, animation design and fabrication, etc. etc... We'll be building alot of our own animations (full movement audio-animatronics). In the future I don't want to outsource any product we need... I want us to DO IT ALL in house! We're not buying one single masks (except for one silicone mask)... we're making custom silicone appliances and foam prosthetics!

If you want to chat more about the ins-and-outs... drop me an email at scarylexington@gmail.com

-Tyler

[hauntedhousenut]

Greg Chise

Greg you have me confused with Mike Honcho, he said his talent was to piss people off. I said my talent was the love for pain!

[hauntedhousenut]

Tchaunt

I have no problem with you, the only issue we did have was resolved, no biggie.

With that being said, don't take this place or any other internet forum SERIOUS, this is not real life, take it for what it's worth and do not invest your emotions!

[Brandon_K]

Young posters or not, I would simply appreciate at least a half assed attempt on grammar.

Periods, commas, quotes, spaces and even new paragraphs all have their place in life.