Zombie Paintball?

[Jordan24]

So, who does this as a side attraction at their haunt? How exactly does it work, do you just have customers take open fire at a few actors, or what? How much do you charge, and how profitable is it for you?

Thanks in advance for any feedback...

[brad]

If you're interested in this... There are some companies that make "safe" paintballs. They are same size as regular paintballs, but they are plastic and dont hurt nearly as bad.

I have no idea who sells them, but it's worth a shot on google.

You can build a little arena type area, and as long as you dont get a lot of dirt in there, you can re-use the balls as much as you want.

[brad]

This may help you out:

http://www.reball.us/

[scarygoat]

I used to play paintball myself and I have to say Reballs are very expensive and I never actually used them but I believe they hurt just the same. Honestly just buy some cheap paintballs in bulk and have your actors wear a couple jackets... it doesn't really hurt that bad...

[All American]

but Reballs pay for them self after the first shot but, does it matter to the public to see it paint go splat ? I think I would just get white box (a mix of the B batch ) and some tippmans. They are cheap and built like tanks Also the actor being shot can wear motorcross gear ( it's what the Tank gunners wear in D-day and have had good luck, these guys get shot a few hundred times in about 25 min )

[Allen H]

In 2003 and 2004 I did a show called Monster Safari. It was a hayride with guns attached to the wagon-14 guns per wagon. Each rider got 50 paintballs and along the route got to shoot at static targets and 14 actors in suits.
We had five wagons the wagons had cages over them so the people in the wagons cold not get shot. Many actors were on stilts and had arm stilt wings that they could put over themselves and cover all but their heads.
It was very very difficult to keep staff. Each actor ended up getting shot about 500 times and hour. Someone said it does not hurt that much, 500 times makes a difference. The Actors were covered in paint at the end of the night, I mean covered.
Armor has weak points, the joints are almost always unprotected, and with that many paint balls coming at peoples heads they lose vision very quickly. The location was lost and I was offered a better management gig so they stopped doing the hayride and sold the park to someone else.
There were lots of tactical issues that made execution very difficult.
Armor is key, but the monsters need to react when they get shot or its not fun for the guests. Heads and crotches will get hit the most.
Good luck to you and this is a really fun draw in concept but I rarely see it done well. Pm me and we can talk about armor specifics if you want.
Allen H

[scarygoat]

Allen did you actors have protective masks on? When I was younger and I played, I was pretty scared at first, so I wore about 2 shirts, a hoodie, and thick jacket. I got lit up a few times and I can't remember feeling that much, but 500 time would DEFINITELY make a difference!

One idea would be to just give them a limited amount of shots... that way you save paintballs too.

[damon carson]

We tried this one year it was fun. But you do come out with a few bruises. We basically had an arena where zombies could move in and out of toxic barrels. We had strobes. Rotating Beacons and black lights and day glo florescent paint and a fog machine to boot. This would throw off the accuracy of the paintballers. We did take quite a few hits though. And I do remember me and some actors being sore some days from it. And then still acting in the haunt to boot. But it was still alot of fun. We had two paintball guns and limited amount of shots per dollar amount. It was all pretty close range though. So when you got hit good you felt it. Like Ankles and hands were the worst. And maybe legs and elbows. Allan your hayride sounded like a massacre! I feel for your actors!
Damon

[Jordan24]

Thanks for the input guys.

Another question, if you have your actors wearing a bunch of padding and helmets (obviously a neccessity), then how do you manage to make them look 'zombie like'? Because a big part of the entertainment value for the customer is the fact that they're shooting 'zombies' and not just people in paintball gear?

Thanks,

[damon carson]

Well safety is the most important thing. You have to have the protective gear! The helmets that cover your eyes, ears and mouth. Everything else you can just wear layers of clothing pretty much. Your hands you could wear jersey gloves ect. We went with a military theme so we could put the actors with zombie makeup and it was believeable. Okay this was the theme. Military base gone bad. Toxic barrels open. Gas gets out turns military men to zombies. Same old gag in the movies you know. But it works. And far as other things to make it look believeable you could buildup your suits and use skinny actors or whatever. Like they did on Haunted Mansion. Checkout the behind the scenes stuff on that. Its really cool if you havent seen that yet. But hope this gives you some ideas. Being safe is the main thing though.
Damon