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toddplaster New user 42 Posts |
Was hoping some of my magic friends out there could give me some direction. Myself and a partner of mine are opening a haunted house in China.
In a nut shell I need some help in types of magic effects and or props which would be suitable for a haunted house. we will have a reception / waiting room which the customers will come into before they actually start walking thru the haunt. this area will be about 400 sqft. they are giving me this area to do with what I want. Anything goes! lighting, sound effects,the design of the room, magic, you name it! I can put a little stage in there if I want etc... I think we will have no more than 20 -30 people at a time in this area. I am completley open! sometimes I might do something on stage or sometimes I might just walk around in this space. I would like to have 5 or six differnt acts to do. I do think that whatever I do in this room should be within the time constraints of 3- 10mins tops. any ideas would be greatly appreciate as I am kinda walking into virgin territory here! here are some of the things I am thinking of so far: 1. maybe a mentalism act - however don't know what yet 2. andrew mayne seems to have a few things that might work good in this enviornment. ie, gut buster could have one of the monster run out and scare everyone. I could come up behind him thrust my hand thru is chest ripping out his heart? bisection- have a vague idea of what I might do with it. any help would be appreciated. 3. maybe something with razor blades or chain thru the neck. 4. thinking need to get a flash pan so we can have fire somewhere. fog machines maybe a strobe light. might be able to put some cool effect together with a strobe light. 5. floating table or chair? are there other floating objects that I could use? 6. how about flying ojects within this room what kind of things are available? 7. levitation what could we do with levitation in this room? 8 is there a way to make my head to fall of and then use it like a zombie ball? we are making an exact sculpt of my head. 9. freaky illusion by kevin james- Ideas would be great 10. Shadows- what can be done with shadows. a shadow of a ghost floating around by a projector somehow then ot goes into a shadow box and turns in to a real ghost. Can this be done? does something like this exist? Anyway, those are some of the things I am thinking of. We have about 2 more months before opening. Any help I could get from you guys would be much appreciated! sincerely, todd |
Peter Loughran V.I.P. Ontario, Canada 2683 Posts |
Hey Todd, I just worked in a Haunted House this past Halloween for 2 weeks http://www.cookslane.ca
But I played and evil magician and had my own room inside the haunted house. At one point about midway through the Haunt, the guests of 2-4 people at a time are led into my room (the house of magic) and I appear suddenly scaring them. My Room was called the House of Magic and looked as though a magic show was being performed, but with evil painted words and phrases that would glow on the walls. Then I would tell the guests that they were just in time to see my final illusion, but I would warn them that that the house of magic had been recently haunted by lost souls and demons, and that not all of our illusions had been going as planeed so far, but if all goes well(I would introduce a fire cage) I would tell them that I would attempt to produce an empty cage full of beautiful white doves. The best part was that the fire cage was only a few feet away from the guests which stood behind a black line on the floor they were told not to cross for their own safety, and the room was lit primarily by black lights so the fire cage was extremely deceptive even upclose, and made the illusion all that more real! I would drop the cloth covering the cage, A stobing light effect would come on, and I would yell 1, 2, 3, and then the cover would be ripped off, and a demon would appear inside the cage and bust open the front door of the cage as I would quickly roll it towards the guests with the demon lunging at them just inches from their noses! This scared the crap out of even the grown men that came though. It might be an idea you can adapt for your pre-show. Also I built one of my Relic of the Revenant illusions for a Haunted House in Orlando Florida. They would have a skull inside the glass box which would animate all by itself inside the glass box in the lobby infront of passing guests before they went through the house. Just more ideas for you. Peter.
Brand New: - SNAKE BITE ILLUSION
www.masterofillusions.ca Follow me on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/peter.loughran.9 Check out my new movie: www.plasterrockmovie.com www.globaluniversal.com Also visit: www.l2fireworks.com |
Spellbinder Inner circle The Holy City of East Orange, NJ 6438 Posts |
Collect a bunch of polarized 3-D glasses (the kind used to view current movies in 3-D). As the lights dim down in a haunted room setting, tell the spectators that they will be able to see the spirits better (from a doorway open to the room) if they wear special glasses developed by scientists for viewing paranormal ectoplasm ... blah, blah, blah with a touch of science gibberish.
If you have two light projectors (about 6 inches apart) using the same glasses to filter and polarize the light from each lens, any shadows made in front of the projectors will appear to be floating in space rather than lying flat on the wall. You can attach "spirit shapes" to invisible thread and dangle them in front of the polarized lights to make spectacular shadow displays that leap off the wall and float a few inches (seemingly) from their faces... just like the movies, only cheaper.
Professor Spellbinder
Professor Emeritus at the Turkey Buzzard Academy of Magik, Witchcraft and Wizardry http://www.magicnook.com Publisher of The Wizards' Journals |
chmara Inner circle Tucson, AZ 1911 Posts |
In my opinion, one of the first things you need to do is discover what, in that region of China would be considered a haunting versus a religious or cultural taboo. Also realize that the colors we use as symbolic in the US are not equivalent in meaning for color in China. Also - what is frightening there may be laughable here and vice-versa.
You may, in some regions - do better couching your theme as a captured demon house -- rather than in terms of what we would consider a haunting. In fact, along the southern coastline the "spirit" of an ancestor could be cast as a hero against nefarious forces. This could be handled in a Living and Dead test if you read Chinese characters. Or another approach would be to characterize the show as a walk through the domain of scary surprises from the ancients.
Gregg (C. H. Mara) Chmara
Commercial Operations, LLC Tucson, AZ C. H. Mara Illusion & Psychic Entertainments |
handa Inner circle Pittsburgh, PA 1357 Posts |
What is the theme/name of the attraction?
Do you care whether the events on the outside relate to the activity on the inside of the attraction? Is this an attention getter, a speed bump, a value-added attraction, or an upsell? Do you want to go visual/hi-tech with special effects or do you want to be more intimate? These are the kind of questions that I would ask you if you were hiring me as a magic/effects consultant. I've been doing this for haunted attractions for about 13 years, and I always start with the basics as related to the attraction itself. Chris |
toddplaster New user 42 Posts |
Wanted to say thank to all you guys for your ideas and comments. I will look into to some of the things you guys mentioned. I hope I can return the favor some day! I will let you know how it goes.
Thanks, Todd |
paultepper New user 56 Posts |
The Book of Haunted Magick by Rick Maue has some amazing illusions, stories and themes. Check it out.
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supercool Regular user USA 160 Posts |
Eugene Burger said once "all you need is a lot of black thread" when he was posed with the same question
Check out TheMysticSpirit.com
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Black Hart Elite user Scottish Highlands 475 Posts |
Hello Todd
Take a look here: http://www.blackhart.co.uk and you can email me on kh@blackhart.co.uk if you would like any advice. Keith Hart
Black Artefacts, manufacturer and dealer of weird, bizarre and psychic magic: www.blackhart.co.uk
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toddplaster New user 42 Posts |
This is great! I really appreciate all the support and advice! I will check out all the places you guys have mentioned. As for keith I may give you a call if you don't mind?
thanks again! Todd |
Black Hart Elite user Scottish Highlands 475 Posts |
Please do Todd, all my cotact details are on the website.
Keith hart
Black Artefacts, manufacturer and dealer of weird, bizarre and psychic magic: www.blackhart.co.uk
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