Halloween Night

We couldn't have asked for better haunting weather and everything went off pretty much without a hitch. All in all, a perfect Halloween evening. Exhausted, but satisfied, with a few interesting tidbits to share later on.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Night of Nights.

Halloween Day

The wind has kicked up a little bit.

Praying to the Gourd that it blows the dark grey stuff out and dies down for this evening.

Halloween Eve

Hard to believe it's our fifth year with Rose. The time seems to have flown by. The years are showing here and there, but...

The yard is ready...

The pumpkins are carved...

and, with a watchful eye on the weather, we await Rose's return tonight.

Happy Halloween

More to come.

The Dark Garden

The air was still and the fog crept low as Rose beheld her garden...

Physically, the haunt this year looked the best it ever has. Still a few issues with lighting and photography, but all in all, I'm pleased with the way things turned out.

More to come.

The Night of Nights

May your candles burn bright, your fog hang low and your pumpkin lids singe ever so sweetly.

Halloween 2010 Redux

Here are a few shots of the haunt last year...

I hesitated posting them because the majority of the photos did not come out very well and I really had to ramp them up in Photoshop. Uncooperative weather for lighting setup, not covering the street light as we did the past year, additional lights left unhooded, no budget to speak of and a wingman with not one, but two broken wrists really hampered us this year.

Due to economic times, the only new prop for 2010 was a Celtic Cross tombstone, based on Hector Turner's design, that I made out of foam board left over from 2009.

The only other change was to the Tree of Woe. In 2009, to accommodate the Halloween Tree motif, the witch jars that came with the haunt were hung on the outside of the fence. With LED tea lights in them, they were quite dim and went pretty much unnoticed. The crown-of-thorns skull was hung over the lower window and also went pretty much unnoticed. In 2010, I decided to hang the witch jars from the tree (with real candles) and the crown-of-thorns skull as well. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Regrettably, I wasn't able to put together a video for 2010, as my video editor's 30-day trial expired and I put off purchasing the program. When I finally got around to updating it, they had upgraded to a newer version and wanted even more money... that I didn't have. Frustrating to say the least.

The frustration continues, so far, for 2011 as our economic situation has not improved. Our only camera was dropped and damaged, long after the warranty had expired of course. Still no video editor and lack of funds leading to lack of building materials is leading to nothing new being added to the haunt this year. I did receive a Bucky skeleton (my first) from Chris Baker for the work I've been doing for Hauntcast, which was really cool. Sadly, it'll probably have to stay in the box until I can get materials to corpse it properly. I don't want to half-ass it.

I'll probably just be playing with the arrangement and lighting of the haunt this year. Maybe some small additions and that's about it.

I was generously given a great haunt to care for and build upon and I love it. I want to do it the justice it deserves. But between last year and this year, at least so far, I'm starting to feel like I'm resting, however involuntarily, on Rob's laurels. I have plans and ideas. Right now I just lack the means to see them through the way I'd like to. Hopefully, that will change in the very near future.

At any rate, I'm not letting the tough times dampen my spirit. Here's hoping that you are all faring well in your haunting endeavors and I look forward to seeing what you all come up with this year.

More photos from 2010 here.

Halloween 2010

More soon.

Best. Halloween. Ever.

Very pleased to report that we've been honored with the 2009 Haunters Video Vanguard Award for Best Yard Haunt. I am completely blown away that we were even considered for an award. Especially since it was only our first year displaying the haunt.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks, as always, to Rob at Skull and Bone, without whose trust and generosity none of this would have been possible.

Thanks also to Paul "Propmaster" Venturella for continuing to put together this wonderful DVD set every year. Always great fun to watch and get inspired.

And congratulations to all the other winners this year.

You can buy the DVD set here:
The Haunters Video 2009 DVD

You can view all of this year's award winners here:

The 2009 Haunters Video Awards

Davis Graveyard

My friends Jeff & Chris Davis of Davis Graveyard have submitted their video to the Home Haunters Association 2009 Halloween haunt video contest. They are currently in third place, but having one of the best haunts in the contest, if not the country, they still need your support! Watch their video on YouTube (all the way through so it counts), rate it and help them get a much deserved win.

The Davis Graveyard 2009 Haunt Video

I'm fortunate enough to have seen this haunt in person, so I can tell you what a beautiful and richly detailed haunt it really is.

The House thanks you for supporting outstanding haunters.

Halloween 2009 video

Just posted this year's video up on YouTube. You can watch it above or here. I also have WMV and QT versions up should anyone want to download it.
rose2009.wmv
rose2009.mov
My thanks to Pumpkinrot for the video inspiration and also for the recommendation of Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9. It was my first time really editing a video and the program is very intuitive and easy to use.
And, of course, my thanks to Rob of Skull and Bone (without whom there would have been a lot less to shoot) for his generosity and inspiration.
Some of you may notice the conspicuous lack of actual video footage in the clip. Nearly unusable footage from an old camcorder and lack of a proper video capture on the PC were the culprits. I'm not able to acquire new hardware so soon after going just a 'smidge' over the Halloween budget, so I kind of had to make due. Better equipment is definitely on the list for next year. If at some point I'm able to get some of the footage to a usable state, I'll edit it in or do something seperately later.
Enjoy and thanks for watching.

The Halloween Tree of Woe

I always hated this tree.

It's a Japanese Maple and over the past few years it's been an overgrown lump. It was just a giant weeping hulking mass of shrivelly leaves with little to no branch or trunk to be seen. In trying to make room to be able to see more of the haunt in the yard, it became obvious that we needed to trim it back. At first I was hesitant to do so figuring it wouldn't be anough to just trim it and hacking it almost all the way back would make it even more of an eyesore.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Once we got under the canopy and took a good look underneath, I very quickly decided to lay into it. Once we trimmed up the outside, cut out all the small dead stuff and got to the knuckles, it literally became a thing of eerie beauty. All those gnarled, intertwined branches growing and twisting around and even through each other gave it a new, darker life of it's own.



I themed it as the Halloween Tree this year, but henceforth it shall be known as The Tree of Woe. The best part, though, is it's like having a built in Halloween prop in my yard all year 'round.

I love my tree.

Tribute

For Rob and Lisa... you are, ever and always, a part of the House.

My heartfelt thanks for everything.

Feilte Samhain and Happy Halloween

Though it seemed it wouldn't happen for much of the past few weeks, the weather improved and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect night. The moon was huge and bright. The air was crisp and still. The fog hung low. The lights burned dimly and for a few hours... the fates were with us and all was right with the world.

With over a hundred visitors, our first year with Rose was a resounding success. My humble and everlasting thanks to Rob at Skull and Bone for making it all possible. Thanks, also, to all those who helped as well as my family, friends, neighbors, followers and fellow haunters. You all make it worth it.

More photos and video coming soon.

Teaser Poster

The Mud Man Cometh

This is one of the other projects I tackled this past weekend. My very first Monster Mud (MM) prop... a Grim Reaper.

Believe it or not, this prop started out to be Rose and wasn't going to be made of MM.

Due to not yet having the proper materials to start out with, horribly improvised framing of the armature and "too many chefs spoiling the brew", I decided to change the design and give it to my buddy, Tony, as "compensation". He's been helping me with some of the haunt building and tools, so I figured it was only fair to get him a nice prop. Also, he's been dying to see the MM in action ever since I first told him about it. I'll be making another, but this Rose is now a Reaper.

He'd already supplied the parts for the "frame" (and I use the term very loosely). It's some kind of stand at the bottom made from thin metal rod with a metal tube up the middle, some kind of fat metal rod shoved into that for a "spine", then what I think were old tent poles for shoulders and arms, a chest wrapped in two old pillows and some duct tape. Basically, stuff he had laying around his house. Then we hung some poultry screen over that, padded the shoulders and chest with some scrap foam and then wrapped it all in some clear pallet wrap he had around. There might be some bubble wrap in the arms too.

I didn't think the frame would support the weight. Seriously. It was ugly.

But, it got the job done.

We got some joint compound, ten yards of 48" burlap and some black spray paint. I bought a hollow plastic skull at Fred Meyer (because it wasn't going to be in MY yard. HA!) and some stuff we'll use for hands later. We had several half cans of latex paint laying around so we just mixed it in. The paint wasn't black enough, so we threw in some black tint. Not the prettiest mixture in the world, but it worked.

We got the burlap mudded and hung with much grunting and groaning. I did learn that you definitely need an extra set of hands (if not two extra sets) when coating burlap in the MM. The stuff gets pretty damn heavy and you need the extra hands to strain out the excess mud. Not to mention draping it over a tall frame. I now see the appeal of smaller props. It's over 6½ feet tall, so it was a bit of a chore, but should look pretty imposing to a trick-or-treater.

We chose to go with a cleaner, untattered appearance so it would look like a robe or cloth. We refrained from dry-brushing it as well to keep it from looking like stone. I managed to get some decent folds in the material and whipped up a quick chicken wire "cowl" for the hood to drape over. After that, we just let the mud dry and then hit it with some black spray paint. It'll get hands and a scythe next week.

All in all it came out fairly well for a first effort. My buddy definitely digs it and wants to build more.

"Next year", I said, "for the House."

Kind of a shame really. It turned out pretty good and won't even be in my haunt. But it was well worth the experience and I know it'll have a good home in my buddy's yard.

I'll definitely be adding some of my own next year.

Candle, Candle Burning Bright...

Building and repair of the Haunt has commenced!

I thought I'd share one of the smaller, yet larger, projects to take on this year. That project was the faux candles that came with the haunt from Skull and Bone.

I say smaller in that, typically, PVC candles aren't very big.

I say larger by virtue of sheer numbers.

The originals from Rob were cut, grouped in some cases, and then slather-coated with "Fix-All" which is a powder that, when mixed with water, forms a sort of plaster. It bulked out the straight PVC pipe and made them look "softer". Some were also filled with Great Stuff to build up the inside and form a "shelf" for the tea lights to sit on.

Years of use and weathering had caused many of them to become brittle and unstable. During the transporting of the haunt a good many of them essentially shattered and I was left with bare pipes and piles of plaster chips. Some came apart just picking them up as the plaster makes them heavy and some of the groups weren't wired or otherwise bound together first. Many, however, did escape harm and were reusuable with the plaster mostly intact.

So, I've spent the better part of the week cleaning off bad spots, clearing out the insides, replastering, adding hot glue "drips", adding foam inserts and painting eighty-six PVC candles.

Yep. Eighty-six.

About 24 hours combined, 6 cans of spray paint, a half-gallon of acrylic ceramic tile adhesive, approximately 100-4" and 80-10" hot-glue sticks, a few lengths of sliced foam pipe-wrap for tea light shelves, and two numb and swollen hot-glue gun trigger-fingers later... I'm pretty pleased with the results.

The originals were "smoother", but I wanted to add detail by giving them more pronounced drips. I may have gone a little overboard, but I like them slightly exaggerated. Plus, they are all much more stable and durable now and should last for many years.

Now I only have to get about 30 more tea lights. =\

Work on the haunt continues apace.

What's up?

 
Wow. Has it really been over two months since my last post? Yikes. I must apologize to those who may have actually been interested in my blog. I did not mean to leave it hanging for so long. That works well for corpses, not blogs. I really don't mean to be so inconsistent with it, it's just that writing is not really my forte so it takes a little more effort on my part to get going. It also helps to actually have something to say. I promise though, I will pay more attention to it from now on. Pinky swear.

So what's been going on with the House?

Well, I've actually been fairly busy if not overwhelmingly productive. Over the last two months or so I've mostly been finishing up my 'social' pages. Not that big a deal, I know, but I'm picky. So those are done for now.

I also pretty much finished the 'facelift' of the Hauntcast website graphics and printed related stuff. I'm not a professional graphics or web designer by any stretch, but I am an enthusiastic hobbyist, so it was really cool of Chris Baker to give me an opportunity to play in the Hauntcast sandbox a little. It was fun too. Is it good work? Well, I suppose it's a little better than what was there before. I'll let others decide I guess. It did, however, lead to someone contacting me about another design project for a local/regional haunter's gathering here in Oregon. So that's encouraging. I will say this though, it kinda sucks having the skillset but not the toolset. I curse you, Adobe, and your outrageous prices. A Wacom tablet wouldn't suck either.

Additionally, I FINALLY got a web domain up for the House. While it's still freshly minted and pretty empty, it will be the new home and permanent hub of House Bloodthorn. It will mostly feature the House's haunt galleries and videos, but will also include this blog, some of my design projects and various artwork, the occasional story perhaps and maybe even the odd how-to, or rather, the odd 'how-I-did-it', as I'm no prop wiz. Of course, this is all subject to change, but that's the plan for now. It'll certainly be less time-consuming than updating 6 or 8 different 'social' pages. I'm hoping anyway.

New to the blog is the Flickr 'badge' on the right side of this page. This links to my Flickr gallery where there are images of the SkullAndBone version of THoMR and a few images of some of my older, store-bought props that I got by with pre-Rose. All staged and lit to approximate what they looked like in my windows. Most of the store-bought stuff will be cannibalized, retired or donated to neighbors.

And, finally, during this spate of good weather we've been having, I actually cleaned up and somewhat organized my garage/workshop so I can get going on some *gasp* ACTUAL haunt-related projects. Be still my thundering heart. Yes, I do actually intend to do some of that...

SOON!
 

Friday the 13th

 

 

State of the Haunt

 
At this time, the haunt is safely ensconced in my garage where it has been since I brought it home.

One of the least enjoyable things about living in Oregon, at least during late Fall/early Winter, is the weather. Lots of rain which is pretty much the norm for the season right through to late Spring. This Winter, however, it's been unusually cold. December saw record snowfalls in our part of Oregon which didn't help matters any, though it was fun for the kids. The cold also makes it exceptionally difficult to do anything in the garage. I'm a California boy and space-heaters only go so far up here. Not to mention the fact that most prop work (i.e. the use of adhesives, paints, etc.) doesn't exactly mix well with closed doors and space heaters. And, as I don't own stock in PGE, I can't exactly leave the doors open. So, suffice it to say, not much has or can be done during the Winter months. At least in the garage.

I'm still debating trying to negotiate for some workspace inside the house. I could probably swing it, but there's not that much room and far too many distractions to work comfortably upstairs. So, I'm relatively OK with waiting until March or April to start working in the garage. At least during the day. Nights still get pretty cold during Spring here.

But enough about what hasn't been done yet or why. Let's move on to the meat of it.

The Story of Miss Rose:

As heard on the Hauntcast episode or, better still, seen in SkullAndBone's haunt video, "The Story of Miss Rose", the theme of the haunt is essentially a ghost story. To paraphase...a lot, Miss Rose is a young school-teacher awaiting the arrival of her beau. She becomes lost and, distraught and forlorn, collapses in a dark forest. The local townspeople come across her body and, believing her dead, entomb her in a crypt with her locket and bell. And, as the story goes...

But just as the latch
Of the stone crypt door fell
No one heard the faint tinkling
Or the weak muffled yell

The sound was too slight
Lost in the mourners cries
Aghast in the darkness
Miss Rose opened her eyes

Her deep forlorn slumber
Alas sealed her doom
Awake now in horror
Interred in a tomb

She rang her bell screaming
Yet no help did 'rive
Her worst nightmare realized
To be buried... ALIVE

On nights just like this one
So the townspeople say
When the fall air is crisp
And the wind blows this way

If you quiet your breathing
And listen a spell
You can still hear the sound
Of Miss Rose and her bell

And so, each Halloween the 'ghost' of Miss Rose, as played by Rob's wife, would haunt the cemetery while a recorded narration played in the background. Rob himself, as well as some friends, would play the ghosts of the 'townspeople/mourners'. All this among the beautiful props, lighting and atmosphere that Rob so wonderfully created.

In my opinion it was a spooky ghost story and, at it's heart, a tragic love story that echoed, though wonderfully twisted, the real-life love story of Rob and his wife. Hence, her playing Miss Rose. It's a beautifully crafted tale and beautifully executed with all the elements that make a really great haunt. A good story and excellent presentation. Which is why it was so highly regarded. This was art. It was tasteful, well thought out and, above all, eerie and atmospheric.

And now it's come to me. (Insert doom music here)

More in the next post.