what do you do?

[hauntedghost]

well, i am back and i have some things need to ask..


what do you do in your off time from your haunt??


as for me.. right now i have no job and so i try to keep looking for work.


and most of all i keep working on my haunt plan and making it right. I work on it. from day to day but i also look for new and cool props and find good deals on wood for my haunt.

anyways that's what i do how about you??

HG

[lonewolfmage]

Off Time ?? What is that LOL

Hauntedghost~

"Off Time" from a haunt ... what is that LOL.. for me and my friends .. (at least this year because we want to go "pro" this year) there was no "off time" ....

As soon as we had the dedcorations down for the home haunt (matter for fact last night I JUST took down some "scene setters" that were still "tacked up"outside from the home haunt we did) we were already thinking of this years haunt .. there wasn't a day that went by (ok maybe a couple LOL) that we wern't talking haunt stuff or looking for stuff that could be used in a haunt .. and making plans to go "pro" (so to speak).

There really isn't an "off time" for haunts. When it's a "passion" for people .. and you "get bitten by the bug" it's there .. you always think about it ...in one way or another..

Just my thoughts.
~LoneWolf

[Jim Warfield]

Same Here.

I have worked almost everyday in my house.
Yesterday afternoon I heard a car pull up, I wandered out to see who it might be.
He is a professional photographer, he found my place by accident, I walked him throuugh just showing him my art and the things I have built here, he was very generous with a tip.
If everyone was like him ....
I always feels good to be appreciated.....but then he got to see many very unusual one of a kind things here and he knew it.

[damon carson]

Its amazing what b.s you can people when you just walk around with a camera. How much is admission? Sucker!
Damon

[tonguesandwich]

I teach people how to make money by getting in shape. Halloween is a giant tax break for me.

[ImmoralZombie]

i work on makeup latex that sort of thing until the snow gets off the ground.... Then im out at the haunt!

[Allen H]

I have to agree with most folks, there is no real "off" time. Today I started the sculpt for 30 cannons that will decorate a pirate ship stage at Scarborough faire renaissance festival. With the ulterior motive that they will also be used to decorate Pirates of Peril point 3D attraction at SCREAMS.
Im also working on new DVDs and a new silicone mask this evening.
The trade show has me pumped though, so I dont mind jumping in full force and banging out new designs for my booth at MHC!
Allen H

[wickedfarmer]

Work in shop on farm equipment and other farm labor. On sat. nights in october AFTER crowds go home I jump on combine and harvest corn and soybeans. I take Mountain Dew through an IV hung inside of cab.

[Nightmaresgate]

Off time.... we don't need no stinkin off time......

from 3:30 till 8 or 9 every weeknight I am at my haunt building. Then on the weekends I am there from 9am till 9pm minimum. During the week from 6am till 3:30pm I own and run an industrial robotics company. It gets me lots of toys to build my haunt out of... and it pays for the place.... so it all works out. Now if I could just learn to do without that pesky sleeping habit!

[wickedfarmer]

No time off...are we all nuts! I am going to toss this idea out there. Dec. 10thish 2011 (NOT 2010) lets take some time and get a block of rooms at Disney World. I also advertise at my place a lot for a suite hotel just 5 minutes from Magic Kingdom. Best time of year to go, decorated for Christmas and small crowds (as long as we miss pop warner games there). Haunted Mansion and all the rest?

[Kelly Anderson]

What do I do in the off season??

For one all the off season means is that we don’t have paying guests come through our haunt.

By the end of October I usually have a pretty good idea of what will need to be done for the following year. If I can spare some time from working on the actual sets, I will do general work on the building. A few years ago starting in November and after having approval of funding from club board members, I began construction on an entire building emergency/construction lighting system. I’ve always been very big on safety at our haunt. I recognized the issues of not being able to quickly light up or haunt in the event of an emergency do to the fact that all the main building lighting fixtures were either removed, disconnected or replaced with black lights. Not good for an emergency situations for sure and a pain in the butt when we need to make repairs on sets without adequate lighting. This lighting system would light all the hallways within the entire approx 6000 sq ft building by the flip of a switch. This system was separate from the backup power exit lighting. It took me about 3-4 months to complete over the winter. For your info we don’t heat our Wisconsin located building in the winter, so yes it was a cold project.

When I’m not doing these types of projects I also begin November getting my initial drawings made up for my room designs. So I will definitely back Larry on this a million times, you need drawings and your final drawings need to be accurate. My latest room (Hells Bench) took the better part of a month to finish the final drawings. Not that it was hard to draw out, but that it had to be drawn to scale and everything had to work out exactly. These drawings determined the sizing of steel square tubing for weight load, pneumatic cylinders, solenoid valves, fittings. These drawings assured me that when I order materials for this project (which would get costly for a charity haunter), that I was getting materials that would work properly and dependably.

Around March/April I have typically began with initial construction. Hells Bench I fabricated in shop which took about a month and a half on and off worth of weekends to complete before it was ever brought on set. My moving room, the track system, the propulsion system and the base of the cart I built over the winter months in shop and placed on set around April for further fabrication.
As someone said earlier, if you are extremely dedicated to what it is you do, you pretty much never have an off time. In some respects the month of October is just show up and have fun and talk about what you’re going to do for the following year.

Aside from the haunt I fully operate and manage my online Halloween and haunt supplies website. My main day gig is doing HVAC controls and maintance. I even worked on an ambulance service as an emt for awhile. Pretty much…. just plain busy!!!

-Kelly