# Ok, how does this sound....



## jodi (Aug 24, 2006)

how do I get an invitation to this? it sounds AWESOME! way better than what I'm doing. of course, it's not a competition, but your guests will have an awesome time.


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Well, my sister is making a video on the whole "what does it take to put on a party like this" thing. We will try to videotape this "event". Hopefully it comes out decent and I can post it on the web after.

I WILL put up some pics after the weekend.....


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## saiynprincess (Aug 24, 2003)

*bows to the master*

Where did you say you lived???????


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## Niam (Sep 14, 2006)

Geezums!

Can't wait for the pics, sounds like an awesome time will be had


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## Guest (Oct 23, 2006)

Wow!! That sounds like a hell of a lot of fun!

You obviously go through a lot of effort. I'm sure that you and your guests (and helpers!) will have a great time.

I can't wait to see pics.


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## Lilly (Sep 26, 2006)

Wow, talk about way over my head! Here I sit wondering if computer speaker wire is the same as any other speaker wire and you have a whole house coming alive. Sounds like FX masters would be jealous. Have a great time and fill us all in on every detail when it's over.

Lil


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## RainyDayGhoul (Aug 30, 2006)

That is great!!! Yeah, were do you live? I wanna come!!


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## Dusza Beben (Sep 27, 2006)

The outdoor strobe is masterful. Your party is gonna swing for sure!

DB


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Thanks for all the kind words an encouragement. I am pumped for this party like I have never been before. I think I have a throng of completely unsuspecting guests too.

Tonight we finally got all the X10 lights set up. Across 4 rooms we have a total of 8 ambient "fixtures", one of them 3 recessed lights in the kitchen (replaced the light switch with an X10 light switch) and one a 5 head track light over the big family room. So tonight we turned them all on, turned on the CD player in the sun room, then I got my wife and said "Watch this..". Raised the wireless remote, pressed ONE button and instant blackness, and silence. X10 stuff is so much fun (I think I counted 28 modules in my "box of X10"). So we looked around then noted a few errant nightlights and digital displays on cable boxes and stuff that will have to be removed/taped up, etc. But NO ONE will think that this isn't a real blackout. A few "appliance" (relay) X10 modules make a pretty loud "clack" when they turn off too, sounds liek a breaker popping or something...

God this is going to be fun.........

BTW I'd love to have all of you over, but I am beginning to wonder where people will stand, park cars, etc. The numbers should swell to about 60 by the weekend.. nothing like a houseful of unsuspecting "victims" huh? And I of course realize that this is the year... if all these people come back next year, they will be wise to the tricks............... I'll just have to think up something new then, huh???]


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Wow.

We managed to pull it all off last night, it was the best party EVER. In spite of working my butt off for the week or so before, I had more fun than I ever had at one of our parties (and drank a little more than I needed to also....)

We had 37 people, but they ALL came in costumes, and some were great.

The blackout event was phenomenal. As you may know, a massive storm with high winds had raged all day here. We handed out glow sticks and people were real anxious about what was going to happen. One woman asked if it was safe for her to go out to her car for a minute because she didn't want to miss anything.

We had a "dress rehersal" the night before. Between my wife, me, my sister and my nephew we all had assigned tasks. To "sweep" rooms to make sure that there were no extraneous lights on, only the X10 controlled ones, extinguish candles, etc. We had a code word: "chicken wings". We said "lets get the chicken wings going", that was the sign to go sweep the rooms and get in position. My nephew had to be upstairs ready to swing the boom duct out, then dump the ice in the dry ice machine. "chicken wings are done" was the code that we were all ready.

I had some backup X10 keypad devices just in case, but didn' t them (sometimes the signals don't propogate and one fixture will fail to go out). One button, and WHAM, total darkness. People did just what I expected, the started cracking glow sticks, and cracking jokes. 15 seconds and I hit them with 3300 watts of strobe lightening and 2200 watts of audio out of 5 speakers. 

I started a projector in the kitchen via X10 that beamed a black and white 8mm bride of Frankenstein movie on the far wall. It was SO cool because the bean had to go through the dry ice fog. More lightening, black lights on and off, and people seemed to sense the music was coming (many had said before "whats up with the music??)

When it finally kicked in, EVERYONE was dancing and the room was waist deep in fog for a minute or two anyway. People cheered and many just had a stunned look on ther faces, like "who could do this in the house he usually sat in and watched the evening news?" 

My sister captured the event on video, I begged her to see it, but she refused because she is editing a video. When I get it, I'll post it. She says its cool becasue you can see black, then glow sticks popping up everywhere.

So yes I have pics, I'll get them up soon and post a link in this thread. Unfortunately only my sister has pics of the crowd, fog, etc. I have pics of people in costumes, and of some of the props........


So now what? Of course I'm thinking about what to do next year.....


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## k1ley4evr (Aug 19, 2006)

pics and vids?


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Stay tuned! Still working on getting the pics together, haven't forgotten. Make sure you are on this thread for e-mail notifiaction......!!


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## MsMeeple (Aug 21, 2004)

Yeah the problem with doing something so cool is that you have to think of how to top it the next year lol or invite totally different people 

Can't wait for pics and videos

MsM


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## Hallow33n (Oct 18, 2006)




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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Ok, stupid forum won't let me link/post more than 4 pics, so I hacked up a quick site.

http://webpages.charter.net/zarwerks/Halloween%202006/props/

Some pics are really big, no time to resize. Just pics of some of the props and my dry ice machine.

I'll post pics of the party "event" when I get it....


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## bbshop (Nov 2, 2006)

Can't wait to see the pictures and/or video.. I'm posting so I'll get the notice in my email.... hmmm my husband is an electrical engineer - I bet he could figure out how to create some of these tricks... wish I had a big open room like yours, our house is a bit disjointed...


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Ok, here are some pics from the video captures.... video coming soon!!!

Here you can see the dry ice fog coming down from the boom above (not seen, but you can see a tattered cloth that hangs from it...) Some of the light is blacklight, some is from the American DJ "H20" light that was right next to video camera..


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

And here's a couple from when the stobes hit...


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## IshWitch (May 19, 2006)

I still have to say that that party was the most awesome/crazy/insane thing that I've ever heard of!

You can't top it as it is, you will just have to do something totally different. You could still do some of the same effects, but the storyline will have to be completely fresh.

Maybe go totally vampire or totally witch. That would allow you to incorporate the lightening and the fog, at least.

Shoot! If anyone can do it, it will be you!

But keep in mind, if you feel stumped, you're more than welcome to come on down to Florida and just re-do at my house what you already did, no one here will know it is a repeat!


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## Eon (Jul 16, 2006)

This sounds awesome! Did you ever post the video?


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## Dazzer (Mar 21, 2007)

The pics look amazing. You are a Halloween Party Genius!!!


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## darkness (Sep 1, 2005)

woooow seriously where and when!?!?


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Reading old posts (this one I started in 2006) I realized I never posted the link to the video in this thread (I did in others). So for completeness, here it is...


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Ok boys and girls, if you can swallow a 16+Mb mp4, here ya go.... (thanks ylbissop for the tip on TMPGEnc, I downloaded it, pretty slick...)

Some notes on what you see and hear in the video:

The camera is placed on a stair railing in our family room, which has a 22ft high vaulted ceiling.

The dry ice boom is swung out from an opening in the left wall that opens to the upstairs hallway where the dry ice machine was. At the beginning it is not seen, but after the lights go out, it is swung out. You can’t actually see the boom, but you can see tattered cloths that were hung from it. It was an 8” flex pipe on a counterweighted boom. 50 lbs of dry ice pellets were dumped into the tank right before the music kicked in.

People have been drinking for 2 hours, and get real loud when the lights go out.

You can see them carrying and waving glow sticks.

At the start, most of the guests are in an adjoining room to the right where all the food and drink is.

The sound effects track is worth listening too, although the crowd noise kind of drowns it out. I worked on it for weeks. I bought a Sinistersonics .mp3 and overlaid it will all kinds of voice me and our kids did, ripped thunder tracks off of CDs, etc. My DJ console is in the bedroom at the top left of the screen, you can see me walk in there at the beginning, and then hanging out there turning on lights and stuff with the X10 remote.

The sound during the event was accomplished by starting two separate CDs simultaneously. While the whole mix was done in a single Cool Edit pro session, but separate CDs were burned, one with only the thunder and some other SFX that I wanted to trigger the strobes (twin 750 Watt), and the other with the music and SFX that I didn’t want to trigger the strobes. Only the last 2 voices heard are ones I didn’t do, they were on the sinistersonics track. They are really creepy and people suddenly got real quiet. One CD players output is split to a small car amp and the audio signal drive the strobe triggers. As you will see, the effect is incredibly realistic. Also, some thunder lightning hits can then be timed with the music. Watch how one hits right when the music kicks in. Also, before the music kicks in, some of the non-thunder SFX triggers the strobes.

You can hear the voices say things like “there are people here”, “I see lots of them”. Then I did one that says “Leave them. Do not torment. Give them light, give them music! <lightening hits>”. Not sure how many people actually heard all that. I mutated voices using Cool Edit pro….

What looks like a table to the right of the bedroom door is actually a JBL JSX-115 speaker, another one sits atop a subwoofer in the right corner, also covered with cloths. No one had any idea that sound system was in there until the first lightening hit.

The little floating ghost was my sister’s last minute idea. She ran a fishing line guide wire from the top of the stairs to the far corner of the room, and she had another line tied to him so she could make him dance along. Watch how in one part he slides all the way down, disappears into the fog column, then reappears (right after the “Lighting and Sound Design” credit rolls past)..

The projector light that comes on right when the music starts is an American DJ “H20” light, it was mounted right next to the camera atop the stair rail. Of course I could turn it on and off with the X10 remote.

The video was chopped up quite a bit with the editor in some places, so the audio is choppy too.

PLEASE RESPECT my ownership to this video and DO NOT copy it and post it elsewhere on the web.

Here’s the URL (at long last…!)

http://www.thebugshop.org/movies/Halloween%202006_event_only_360x240.mp4
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## Noelle (Aug 21, 2009)

That looked incredible! I love the dancing ghost at the end


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## Si-cotik (Aug 12, 2009)

I SO wanna be there


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