This forum provides a lot of great info and I have given back where I could and appreciate all who have helped me. With that in mind I thought I would give an update and some background which may help some newbie.
So here is my story, new to some and an update for others. who I occasionally PM with.
This is the story of a first year haunt. I am not, or was not, a haunted house fanatic. I am on the central coast of California, not far from where the old Haunt X was based before they tried to go big time. There are no haunts anywhere near by and the ones within a few hours are mostly temporary “grope and poke” operations. No offense, there are some notable exceptions. This has a lot to do with California property values. It is pretty much impossible for a haunt to cover the costs of a building here.
How I came to the pro haunt industry, had nothing to do with a passion, I came to it as a business and a creative outlet for my soon to be in college son. I began lurking on the boards and researching about a year ago. While I played around with plans and themes, my primary work involved research in demographics, marketing, and budgeting. The effort was trying to determine what the area might support and then design towards that.
Soon a plan, a budget, and a dream of two carefully themed attractions developed. At this point the begging for dirt began. Around February of this year Walmart came back and said I could use a 35,000 sf lot adjacent to them that they controlled. At that point the work began. I soon realized this would be an enormous task. While I was in the process of gathering volunteers I was contacted by a few who where interested in partnering. I almost made a deal with one, but in the end he wanted to buy most of it off the shelf and throw it up in 3 weeks. I was going for a more complex Disneyland style and chose not to compromise. A few weeks later, I was contacted by a couple of guys that had been running a large yard haunt in the area and had dreams of going pro, but not the location or funding. One was an engineering type who was into the animatronics and controls, the other an insanely creative theater type. Soon the key elements were in place for the Mid State Scare. The two complex attractions went to one with a simpler one along side. I used all the techniques you will find on the boards to gather a crew. Yes, it does work!
With a small enthusiastic team designing rooms and making props, we had the rug pulled out from under us in May. The property management company for the shopping center informed Walmart that it was not a part of their lease to allow the event, and we were screwed. We people working, money out there, piles of wall panels stacked up and no place to play. The search began again.
Within a month we had a 3 solid options but we were hoping for something that would allow us to stay set up year round. By the end of June, my prayers were answered. We now have a 6000 sf open building in town, right off the freeway, that is committed to us through 2010 for free.
We are in our place now. All the interior walls should be up by the end of the week. We got our permit approvals on last Wednesday. As courtesy to the owner, we are not starting on the façade till Sept 1st. We have developed a set building crew of about 20. We have our first actors recruiting meeting this weekend and expect about 30 for the first go-round. We have inked a radio deal that puts 1000 mentions minimum over 3 stations over the coarse of 6 weeks for no money out of pocket. We have had about half the food for the operational nights crew donated through coupon / advertising partnerships. I am sure we will get it all covered. The blessings go on and on.
I’ll have more to add later along with pictures. I just wanted to get this thread started. Feel free to ask any questions. I really don’t believe there are many things to keep tight lipped about as others do. To pull something like this off is a huge undertaking involving a large variety of talents. You just cant throw money at it, or slap something together and expect to survive.
So here is my story, new to some and an update for others. who I occasionally PM with.
This is the story of a first year haunt. I am not, or was not, a haunted house fanatic. I am on the central coast of California, not far from where the old Haunt X was based before they tried to go big time. There are no haunts anywhere near by and the ones within a few hours are mostly temporary “grope and poke” operations. No offense, there are some notable exceptions. This has a lot to do with California property values. It is pretty much impossible for a haunt to cover the costs of a building here.
How I came to the pro haunt industry, had nothing to do with a passion, I came to it as a business and a creative outlet for my soon to be in college son. I began lurking on the boards and researching about a year ago. While I played around with plans and themes, my primary work involved research in demographics, marketing, and budgeting. The effort was trying to determine what the area might support and then design towards that.
Soon a plan, a budget, and a dream of two carefully themed attractions developed. At this point the begging for dirt began. Around February of this year Walmart came back and said I could use a 35,000 sf lot adjacent to them that they controlled. At that point the work began. I soon realized this would be an enormous task. While I was in the process of gathering volunteers I was contacted by a few who where interested in partnering. I almost made a deal with one, but in the end he wanted to buy most of it off the shelf and throw it up in 3 weeks. I was going for a more complex Disneyland style and chose not to compromise. A few weeks later, I was contacted by a couple of guys that had been running a large yard haunt in the area and had dreams of going pro, but not the location or funding. One was an engineering type who was into the animatronics and controls, the other an insanely creative theater type. Soon the key elements were in place for the Mid State Scare. The two complex attractions went to one with a simpler one along side. I used all the techniques you will find on the boards to gather a crew. Yes, it does work!
With a small enthusiastic team designing rooms and making props, we had the rug pulled out from under us in May. The property management company for the shopping center informed Walmart that it was not a part of their lease to allow the event, and we were screwed. We people working, money out there, piles of wall panels stacked up and no place to play. The search began again.
Within a month we had a 3 solid options but we were hoping for something that would allow us to stay set up year round. By the end of June, my prayers were answered. We now have a 6000 sf open building in town, right off the freeway, that is committed to us through 2010 for free.
We are in our place now. All the interior walls should be up by the end of the week. We got our permit approvals on last Wednesday. As courtesy to the owner, we are not starting on the façade till Sept 1st. We have developed a set building crew of about 20. We have our first actors recruiting meeting this weekend and expect about 30 for the first go-round. We have inked a radio deal that puts 1000 mentions minimum over 3 stations over the coarse of 6 weeks for no money out of pocket. We have had about half the food for the operational nights crew donated through coupon / advertising partnerships. I am sure we will get it all covered. The blessings go on and on.
I’ll have more to add later along with pictures. I just wanted to get this thread started. Feel free to ask any questions. I really don’t believe there are many things to keep tight lipped about as others do. To pull something like this off is a huge undertaking involving a large variety of talents. You just cant throw money at it, or slap something together and expect to survive.
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