# Halloween 2010 Progress



## Angelique_NM (Aug 6, 2010)

Hey all,
I've put up a few decorations so far but I'm still sick and it's too much for one person so I am only progressing slowly. I have put up a banner, a skeleton, some of those light up paper lanterns in the party room and a few other decorations. Also they have Shocktober on the movie extra channel which has horror movies every Friday of October. I hope to start my Halloween cards in a couple of days and send them out a couple of days after that. Thank you Nowhining and Spookyone for your card  

I've been experimenting with the postman on what I have to do to get him to not squash the mail into the top of our mailbox. So far I've turned the entire mailbox around so he could just lift the lid (which he still didn't) and I'm thinking about filling it with a junk mail prop next week lol

Okay, so I've been doing planning work on the yard haunt and I just checked the weather channel and I am getting slightly nervous. It does change from week to week but at the moment it has a week of rain forecasted during Halloween week right up to Hallow's Eve and that's as far as it shows at the moment. I know this could change of course but this year I'd like to have a back up plan in case it does rain. 

We've had rain in the past which last most of the afternoon of Halloween and we had not been prepared in the least. We had a window display for the props and decorations which weren't weatherproof and scaled down the outside display with no moving props, lighting or fog. Any advice from haunters out there who have dealt with these weather conditions before? Halloween is in Spring here in Australia so it can be warm and sunny or overcast, windy and rainy, it varies from year to year. 

Any advice on weatherproofing battery operated moving props/lighting, a fog machine, Par 38s (On a website I think someone built a little wooden case for one?). I bought a 50 metre roll of cling wrap but somehow I think I may need something a little more lol I'd rather be prepared this year even if it doesn't rain. Also, I had planned on buying one of those artificial snow machines but if it rains or is too windy it will probably just wash away. I was thinking I could get plastic or weed matting and glue the snow on. Any thoughts? The only undercover area in my yard is the porch. 

So I made a description of my planned haunt (according to the plan so far, it will probably change many times before Halloween). A weed matting type of fence across the length of the yard. A piece of string from a tree to a post or something similar with strips of plastic garbage bags then a small little entrance section which has a couple of walls and the entrance of the tunnel. One of the walls will have a clear window in it and a character on the other side. 

The tunnel will be made of two to three of those metal garden arches. The first one will be covered with black weed matting/plastic and have a window with a character on the other side. Then you will enter the light end of the tunnel (dark and light, day and night type of concept). The light side will have white cobwebs, white plastic and battery operated lights in it then you step through a white curtain into the graveyard. 

If it is not raining I want to be able to have the moving props going e.g. the moving witch which flies across the yard on her broom on a rope. Also, depending on the weather I'd like to have a blanket of snow on the floor and a layer of fog. There will be a path of some sort of light up Jackolanterns (I was thinking mache ones since they don't have any plastic ones like that on sale at the moment but again depending on the weather). 

There will be a spooky tree (which I've yet to begin...eep!) which was supposed to be made from wire, mache and various other materials as well as have fairy lights on it (inspired by the weeping willow Halloween tree, I think Martha Stewart sells something like that?).

There will be wooden, foam and plastic gravestones scattered around the place. Plastic, plush, foam, and pvc props around the yard. And then you cross the lake of blood. I'm still trying to find the coloured Par 38 globe, it has been a lot more difficult to find since they introduced the mandatory apparently energy saving globes. And as I mentioned before I'd like to weatherproof the Par 38. I want to use fairy lights and possibly icicle/rope and net lights outside also but I think they are kind of weatherproof already?

The porch is going to be covered in web and have spiders falling down from the ceiling. There's going to be a lot more detail and decorations but what I've mentioned is the main parts of the haunt. I had thought about making a clock tower but that depends on how long the rest of the plans take. I'd love to make a beloved prop, the pvc pipe candles and the stained glass window drop as I've mentioned before. What is my reason for writing pages on the haunt plans? Just searching for any advice on weatherproofing my planned haunt and it's like you're doing a walk through too 

For music for the haunt I'm going to use probably a sound effects cd and a Midnight Syndicate cd (great band ). I'm also thinking of incorporating one of my songs from my music projects Widowed Violette or Bats in the Attik!, I may just make an entirely new song for Halloween or just do a remix of my existing songs like I did on the mix up track I put on my art video. It had a kind of Silent Hill movie kind of vibe to it : 
http://www.youtube.com/user/WidowedAngelique?feature=mhum#p/u/0/AaN9nmbnfD0 or I can use the Bats in the Attik! song http://www.myspace.com/batsintheattik <- the song is called "The Void". I originally made it for a local comic artist's profile. I think either song gives an eerie atmosphere especially if I added a sound effects cd over it. For the Tim Burton Halloween Party, I have a cheap Halloween party cd that I got from ebay, you know one of those cheap kids ones with Monster Mash and that sort of stuff on it? lol I'm also thinking about getting the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack...I had it on cassette but I've kind of lost it...

Halloween night movies! I haven't completely decided on a playlist but since there is a Tim Burton Halloween party I think that Nightmare Before Christmas will be a must. 

I still haven't put up the Halloween tree but I will as soon as I clean enough of the Halloween boxes out of the way to reach it lol I got some great decorations on post-Christmas sales which will be good for it 

I just noticed that Riot Art and Craft have put up some of their Halloween craft items on their website at http://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/riotstores And earlier I linked in the forum to the Spotlight/Sparties Halloween 2010 catalogues here are the links again: http://www.spotlight.com.au/catalogues/vip-halloween?page=1 and http://www.spotlight.com.au/catalogues/mid-season-sale?page=10 And the Halloween Dvd Sale at Ezy Dvd at http://www.ezydvd.com.au/promo.zml?pid=1287&ddat=1&dsal=1&dreg=1&dsav=1&datb=1 Still waiting on a few stores to get in Halloween products yet though, within the next four weeks though right? lol

angelique_nm


----------

