halloween 2004... cont.
The library was the next area to visit. We tried to place a lot of eye
candy for the visitors to see throughout the month the display is open.
On Halloween, our librarian came alive,
with the help of a scissors linkage
attached to a pneumatic cylinder and a
strobe light.
An effect I am really proud of is the secret
exit. The bookshelf is on castors and hooked
up to a 6 inch cylinder with flow controls.
When activated, the bookshelf opens to
reveal the secret exit.
Through the exit to the cave. On Halloween the cave was pitch black. A leaf
blower was placed in the cave along with an infrared camera. The monitor was
place in the waiting line along with a button and instructions on how to use the
effect. The people waiting in line activated the scare and had the pleasure of
watching the reactions on the tv. Big hit and I will definitely do something like that
again next year.
Upon entering the garage, you walk through the corridor of corpses. When activated the corpses come "alive" with
the aid of 5 cylinders 2 strobes and a programabble computer board from Digital Sound and Lighting. (I promise I
will get a video of this for 2005.) This was my favorite of the rooms I built this year.
The next area in the garage was a last minute filler that worked fairly
well. We dressed up dummies and placed them along the wall in the
hall. A real person was in one and would come out at them.
Last room with pictures is the spider room. Our large spider was suspended in the rafters. When activated it
would drop from the rafters in front of the guests. Freaked a lot of people out.

Next was our dark hall which led out of the garage and to the exit.

All in all it was a great time. There are things we will do differently in 2005, and hopefully our guests will enjoy
our work even more.


After the cave is the haunted forest. The guy on the left is moterized
and on a sensor. When activated, he will lunge for the guests.
After the porch you go through the cemetery (didn't take any
pictures of the cemetery, what was I thinking). The fence was totally
redone (see picture of column) It took about 80 man hours two
complete the 5 - 4 ft columns and the 2 - 8 ft columns but the results
were well worth it.