Trading tips for dark displays and prop production.
User avatar
By Chewy
#95476
I joined forces with a haunter down the way this year & we put a much larger display up along a pathway that connects up a couple parts of our neighbourhood. My wife was happy that I didnt try to cram a full house worth of halloween into the front of our townhouse this year & I think, based on the reaction from the nearly 300 kids we had, it was a success from that side as well. We've already started planning for 2016 & have a few more neighbours bought in to help us next year also. Yay!

I repurposed a junked crate from work to make my own supersize vortex fog chiller this year:

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Two full coolers of ice (good thing I got it for free!)

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Success, sort of. Hmm. Actually, the problem wasnt the fog, it was *cold*. The problem was mother nature messing with me. It was *windy*. Initially, had this set up in a good spot, location wise, but, it was in a wind back eddy, and, was a complete fail. relocated it and, at times, when the wind dripped off, it worked well.

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The end of our section, welcoming visitors...

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The final tally was 51 headstones. A bunch of them looked way too new though, and they were. Id just made 18 or so in the last week. Ran out of time to weather them. Ah well. Theyll be weathered next year!

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The graveyard continues...

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User avatar
By Chewy
#95479
More of the graveyard

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The fog working more or less properly after nightfall

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See the skeletons on top of the rock in the background? I moved my projection from the livingroom window to outside this year. Picked up a trick from atmosfear and used bridal veil material for the screen. The image was great (once it got dark) and you could see through it. Seriously cool! must do more of this next year!

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Here's the 16' tall grim reaper my wife bought this year. She gives me a hard time about buying too much stuff, and she comes home with this? LOL

Thr bright light in the lower right is our fire pit. Many of us sat around it during teh evening, being social and keeping warm. :)

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Ive discovered, ive missed a lot of the smaller details in taking pictures. Two zombies, a guillotine, audio, a sketeon emerging from a sewer drain... oopsie.

All in all though, great fun & a great success.

Many kids & parents came through, best guess somewhere just under 300 kids. Many more parents on top of that. :)
User avatar
By mesmark
#95790
I thought I had commented on this ... I guess not.

With the fog chiller, are you using PVC pipe because it's cheaper than a copper or aluminum option? Could you just have an in-port and out-port on the box and push the fog right through the ice? What I mean is instead of the fog traveling through the PVC pipe, it would fill and flow through the box. Is that simply unnecessary?

I may one day get a fog machine and build my own fog chiller as well.

I love all the work with the spider webs everywhere. Are you able to keep them and use them again next year or do you just toss them each year?

The hologram/floating movie seems really cool. It would be cool to do something like that on my balcony. Unfortunately, I don't have a short throw projector, but I guess I have a few months to save and eliminate that road block.

Excellent job with the whole thing!
User avatar
By Cirrus
#95804
Wow. Yet another neighborhood I'd love to live in! Very impressive displays. Everything looks great! Love the tombstones!!
#96260
I am jealous! Now that I am out in the country, I don't have anybody to see my stuff anymore :( :(
I love your display, great work! I have been struggling with fog chiller design, I may borrow some ideas here.