Greetings all! I have been a lurker here for a few years now, as the haunt industry has always been an interest of mine. I was the kid in the neighborhood that organized a haunted house every year in someone's basement during Halloween. I used to tell people when I grew up I wanted to make haunted houses. I have been to a few of the Haunt & Attraction shows in Chicago.
We desire to make a living being a haunter never happened...really...because I never went after that goal. I am from a small rural area, and I never found the opportunity to make a career out of it here. I would never leave the area.
I do own a small sign business, and I run two gaming companies. One makes little resin miniature terrain (Dwarven Forge), and the other puts on live-action gaming events at gaming conventions (True Adventures, Ltd.). (And by "gaming" I mean role-playing type conventions.) So...I have managed to carve out a creative career for myself while living in small town world of Southern Illinois -- two hours from St. Louis.
The reason I am posting here, besides to introduce myself, is to see if there are any other small town haunters out there who have specific advice for me. I am thinking about doing a haunted attraction in 2007, and I would love some advice about running an attraction in a rural area.
The cool thing is I already have a huge wall system constructed. It is roughly 500 4'x8' panels of hand-carved faux stone which were designed to look like dungeon walls. (And yes...I am insane.) I use this system to construct a 20,000 sq.ft. "dungeon" for my gaming event every August at Gen Con. It is a live-action version of the Dungeons and Dragons game, and I even managed to get Hasbro to sponsor it. I also have some good sound systems, triggers, special effect lighting, fog machines and a few costumes.
The crazy thing about my gaming event is that I have only two days to build it in a 20,000 s.f. hotel ballroom, and then I run it for 3 days (17 hours a day), and then I have to have it torn down and loaded on two semis in 18 hours. It is a fun crazy time.
My plan is to try to find a spot somewhere along I-57 and get a 3 month lease. I then will build the haunt, promote the heck out of it, and then see what happens. I hope to make it a success by finding a good location off the Interstate that will draw people from a one hour drive.
My dream is to provide a cool haunt for rural Southern Illinois, and make some money as well. I come from a gaming background so the haunt will be very heavy on story and continuity. I plan on having 5.1 surround sound systems through out, so that a disembodied voice can provide an unifying theme to the whole experience.
I have all this stuff just laying around a warehouse, so it would be cool to finally realize my haunted dreams.
So, if you have any suggestions about running a haunted attraction in a rural area please let me know. I am keen to read about your marketing efforts as my target market is spread out in a large geographical area.
Thank you for any advice you can offer. And good luck with all your endevours this year. See you at the show in two weeks. (Personally, I hope the Tundra is a little soggy. Brrrr.)
My websites:
www.truedungeon.com
www.dwarvenforge.com
www.quicksigns.org
Thanks!
We desire to make a living being a haunter never happened...really...because I never went after that goal. I am from a small rural area, and I never found the opportunity to make a career out of it here. I would never leave the area.
I do own a small sign business, and I run two gaming companies. One makes little resin miniature terrain (Dwarven Forge), and the other puts on live-action gaming events at gaming conventions (True Adventures, Ltd.). (And by "gaming" I mean role-playing type conventions.) So...I have managed to carve out a creative career for myself while living in small town world of Southern Illinois -- two hours from St. Louis.
The reason I am posting here, besides to introduce myself, is to see if there are any other small town haunters out there who have specific advice for me. I am thinking about doing a haunted attraction in 2007, and I would love some advice about running an attraction in a rural area.
The cool thing is I already have a huge wall system constructed. It is roughly 500 4'x8' panels of hand-carved faux stone which were designed to look like dungeon walls. (And yes...I am insane.) I use this system to construct a 20,000 sq.ft. "dungeon" for my gaming event every August at Gen Con. It is a live-action version of the Dungeons and Dragons game, and I even managed to get Hasbro to sponsor it. I also have some good sound systems, triggers, special effect lighting, fog machines and a few costumes.
The crazy thing about my gaming event is that I have only two days to build it in a 20,000 s.f. hotel ballroom, and then I run it for 3 days (17 hours a day), and then I have to have it torn down and loaded on two semis in 18 hours. It is a fun crazy time.
My plan is to try to find a spot somewhere along I-57 and get a 3 month lease. I then will build the haunt, promote the heck out of it, and then see what happens. I hope to make it a success by finding a good location off the Interstate that will draw people from a one hour drive.
My dream is to provide a cool haunt for rural Southern Illinois, and make some money as well. I come from a gaming background so the haunt will be very heavy on story and continuity. I plan on having 5.1 surround sound systems through out, so that a disembodied voice can provide an unifying theme to the whole experience.
I have all this stuff just laying around a warehouse, so it would be cool to finally realize my haunted dreams.
So, if you have any suggestions about running a haunted attraction in a rural area please let me know. I am keen to read about your marketing efforts as my target market is spread out in a large geographical area.
Thank you for any advice you can offer. And good luck with all your endevours this year. See you at the show in two weeks. (Personally, I hope the Tundra is a little soggy. Brrrr.)
My websites:
www.truedungeon.com
www.dwarvenforge.com
www.quicksigns.org
Thanks!
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