Build a flying crank ghost out of cheese-cloth and a rotisserie motor!

And I just happen to have purchased a new grill making my old rotisserie obsolete...  Might have to add a prop to this year's list!!!

Getting started with Prop Controllers

I am going to try to get back into Halloween builds after taking a year off to welcome our new baby!  This year's big project is going to be to try to convert my coffin into a moving prop by making the cover bang open and closed when someone walks near it. I bought a Prop-1 Controller from EFX-TEK and managed to make it say "Hello, World" in a debugger window as a quick test. I'll post more on the progress as I get into the project. 

Very cool, royalty free sounds

One of my favorite finds at the National Haunters Convention was Audio Zombie Sound.  They do custom work for movies, haunted attractions, and so on, but also sell a full line of royalty free sound libraries.  I bought two CDs: Lost Souls - which they just released, and MY9D-FKD and am extremely impressed with their work!  We listened through each track last night and rated them for our graveyard haunt in the front yard and have quite a few that will be playing on loop this coming year.  This will be a significant upgrade from the generic "Freddy", "Jason", and "Psycho" theme songs that we have used in the past.  The best part is each CD was only $10 - about what you would pay for the generic ones sold around Halloween!

Don't miss it if you are in Philly this weekend!

I just spent the morning at the National Haunters Convention. There are a variety of vendors with everything from traditional store-bought props and costumes to high-end programmable logic controllers to make fancy animatronics. They also offer classes on making things out of styrofoam, marketing your haunted attraction, and how to keep your actors happy and motivated - among other things. I'll post more detailed notes of what I picked up for myself, but wanted to get the message out that the event is still going on for anyone who wants to stop by. Admission is $25 at the door.

http://www.nationalhauntersconvention.com/

Future entrance for the graveyard?

Lisa had the great idea of expanding the graveyard we have used the last couple of years and having it include the front driveway as well.  I saw this on the way home from the grocery store and thought it would make a good entrance with the fencing coming off either side.  It should be pretty easy to make with wood internals, styrofoam walls, and Monster Mud finish.  What do you think?

Storage - creative solutions...

I have gotten many questions about where I store all of this Halloween stuff the rest of the year.  It is all about Volume! As in, don't just think about floor space.  Here I use the fencing as a suspended shelf to hold the lighter props above my head in the basement.
Our ceilings are tall enough that I can easily walk under the fencing.

Post Halloween Update - Failure as a Blogger

Halloween has come and gone and while it was a big success (more on that later), I have a ways to go before I can call myself a true blogger.  As the day got closer and closer I found myself with less and less time to update the blog.  I think that is partially because I was looking at the blog as more of a project archive rather than a way to share fun and interesting Halloween related things.  So, as I play catch-up over the next couple of weeks I hope to refine my blogging style and maybe figure out a way to keep this somewhat more active!