The Darkness, Lemp, Creepyworld 2011 Renovation Thread

[drfrightner]

Okay follow this thread right here for all the renovation information and photos for Lemp and The Darkness. We will do Darkness first and Lemp second. We are going to start on November 8th.

Much will be done during IAAPA tearing out old scenes. Already talking to vendors about the products I need.

We will also update you on tour information HERE!

Here is the details so far...

March 9th (WED) : Behind the scenes tour of Darkness and Lemp. You come to one then drive down the street and go see the other. This will be one price for both events. 7 to 10pm. Limited to 350 people.

March 10th (THURSDAY): The Darkness with actors. 7:30pm to 11:30pm. Like last year groups will enter darkness SLOW and will be limited to 600 people.

March 11th (FRIDAY): Lemp Brewery will open with actors. 7:30pm to 11:30pm limited to 800 people. ONE NIGHT ONLY.

March 12th (SATURDAY): The Darkness will open with actors. 7:30pm to 11:30pm limited to 600 people. LAST NIGHT.

We will start selling tickets first week of January 2011.

Last year we limited the behind the scenes tour and it sold out, we did NOT sell more. One of the two days of Darkness SOLD OUT we did not sell anymore tickets. All early time slots both nights SOLD OUT we did not sell more tickets for those times.

We will stay with the timed ticket to help us put people in teh attraction at a slow pace.

We are going to sell all the events seperate. We'll also sell a ticket for all of the events on one ticket.

FOLLOW THE RENOVATIONS AND UPDATES HERE!!!

LOOK FOR PHOTOS starting NEXT WEEK! This year we'll try doing video updates as well ...

Larry

[drfrightner]

We are STILL finding it very difficult to get this thign going... I have been down to the Darkness about 5 or 6 times for meetings going over idea's blah, blah and still we haven't really started on much.

We have some really big plans building an animated elevator with CGI effects we met about that today for like 3 hours... I think Kip is going to help build the elevator and I think he's pretty excited about doing it.

Our 3D haunt is almost ready to start ... I think we'll start painting it in a couple days. Terror Visions will be SUPER COOL... I think you'll all love it!

We took out the mirror room its gone and has already been rewalls soup to nuts... we are adding a scene sorta, and upgrading others. I'm also having an animated silicone clown greeter made for the que line.

Terror Visions will be the first done... Haven't really started on Darkness yet because we are finishing Terror Visions while we pow wow about how we are going to pull off everything we are doing. We keep doing drawings after drawings trying to get things just right.

I also talked to Brainstorm today about making a new website for the haunt tour... that will go up on January 5th which is when the tickets will go on sale. Everything will be limited.

We are going to frame out a bunch of stuff this week and next week we'll actually start filming our foam carving video.

Larry

[drfrightner]

I have not really seen any 3D haunts other than the ones we've built for other clients... I saw the one Netherworld had, and I saw one in Salem Mass... and I think those are the only two 3D attractions I've ever seen personally.

Netherworld got rid of their 3D many years ago... the one in Salem is still around and actually is pretty good! I liked it!

What we do with Terror Visions will really make it heads and tails better than last year... we adding something in the area of 10 animations but here is the kicker NON are really scary. I'm know you are asking yourself 'HUH what is he talking about...'.

We didn't buy any scary animations we are buying or making animations that are really comical in nature. You'll see when you see it... the whole idea is to make the entire attraction like the clowns are simply torturing everyone inside. So they are not scary, not meant to be scary and none will scare you... the animations will give the show a lot of movement and make it a complete story without actors.

You could walk through and go ... 'I get it the clowns tortured everyone, the clowns are comically demented'... then you add in the actors and there you have the scares.

We are spending about $50,000.00 upgrading an attraction that is already awesome and we didn't even spend that much to build the one at Creepyworld total which included walls and everything. This is merely an upgrade to an existing over the top awesome 3D haunted house, so those dollars will make it look like we spent several hundred thousand dollars on this one attraction.

I think all together we are spending something in the area of $200,000.00 on the renovation of Darkness and Terror Visions.

Once we are in sight of completing Darkness we'll make plans on some upgrades to Lemp Haunted House which we will also open for the Haunt Show.

All I can tell you is this... whatever you saw last year we are going over the top of that by a mile...

Rather than building out tons and mass amounts of square feet like we did last year this year we are DEFINING a very small area for renovation building well OVER THE TOP rooms which I hope make your jaw drop.

Larry

[drfrightner]

We are STILL trying to plan out the scenes we are going to do for this haunt tour... I think we are almost there we are getting close to starting this thing full tilt.

The whole theme of the Darkness downstairs is dangerous creatures... snakes, spiders, etc.

This is why in our que line we'll have REAL dangerous animals on display.

Here are some more drawings.

Larry

[drfrightner]

Things are NOW cooking... we have the new snake pretty much all built out we are attaching foam and will start to carve soon. Right now we are building the gator waterfalls. Our gator is being totally rebuilt by Creative Visions, and we are also have another gator built custom by Unit 70.

We got in some of our aquariums today as you can see in the photo.

The main thing we'll be doing is carving foam for the next FOUR weeks...

By January we should have the entire down stairs done.

We are ordering about 100,000 in animations, fx, and props to go ontop of the set designs we are working on. It will be awesome!

Larry

[drfrightner]

These are NOT final drawings these are simple reference drawings of what we are building. Larry

[drfrightner]

Okay here are MORE pictures... we are really moving along.

We are going to have several live reptiles now including a COBRA, MAMBA, GATOR, PYTHON, PIRHANA, SCORPIONS, SPIDERS you name it we got all of our tanks today. Our entire que line is filled with tanks... I think there is something along the lines of 10 or so tanks all throughout the que line.

We poured concrete today for a ramp out of our new scene, you'll also see here we are building our gator scene with all the animated gators and waterfalls.

Interesting how we are building that room... we are building the entire room out of foam... meaning NOTHING is really wood. We are using the foam like building blocks to put everything together then we'll carve it.

We put the plumbing in for the water fall and built the crypts simply by carving holes into blocks of foam. Now we are going to carve the foam down to what we want it to look like, piece it all togther, sand it and blast it with concrete.

Lastly, wanted to mention we STARTED TODAY shooting the foam carving video we are making... shot all the intros, all of the pieces between the segements, blah, blah.

So here comes a foam carving video. The first picture will be our spider cave which will feature a massive crawing spider being created by Unit 70. The last picture is the large tank which will be home to 10 flesh eating pirahna.

Larry

[drfrightner]

Couple things... one we are going full steam ahead. We plan on having the entire downstairs down by the end of this month... I meant we'll have all the foam carving done and we'll start spraying hard coating at that time.

We should be painting and theming the place by the middle of January.

We should have the ENTIRE downstairs done, sculpted, hard coated, painted, and themed by February. The new scenes in Terror Visions will be painted and complete by Christmas.

The only delay on that will be painting and installing some new animations and props we are buying, but even those will be done by January. Terror Visions will be DONE 110% before the end of January, as will the whole downstairs of Darkness. We are building ONE scene upstairs, and it will take some time but we'll start building that out by next week.

I predict the WHOLE ENTIRE PLACE will be done by February 1st which will give us about a month or so to work on Lemp.

Larry

[drfrightner]

Couple other things...

1) As last year you'll get to see from start to finish through photos how we built everything. When you come to the tour you'll understand the process much better.

2) The rooms we are building especially downstairs will be the best scenes we've ever built... this things will be 110% over the top!

3) We are already shooting 'How to Foam Carve your Haunted House' we've already shot like two hours of footage... in fact shot a ton more today. The dvd will show you how to carve rocks, caves, and other things. I've included a VERY ROUGH outline for a box cover. This DVD will be available by February because the foam carving would have been done by mid-January.

4) We are also making a SECOND version of how to detail your haunted house... that dvd will come out at the show itself. Again the foam carving dvd will come out in February. The second version of the detail video will show you how we paint and theme caves, and build and detail a basement.

5) Here is an image of the Darkness logo... the main monster in all of our logos... we are turning him into a MASSIVE monster animated. He will be featured in the Darkness.

6) Feel free to ask your questions and make comments, however remember just like last year as we get deeper into the process we'll delete most of them leaving the trail of start to finish photos.

7) Tickets should go on sale by the first week of January. We hope to have Darkness complete by February and we'll have at least a month and a half to work on Lemp. We plan on making vast improvements to both attractions.

Lastly on Darkness we don't just plan on building new scenes... no no no ... there is about $125,000.00 in FX going into the attraction, which will be the HIGHLIGHT of the NIGHT! A TOP SECRET ANIMATIONS we are building, video fx, sound fx, and much more. More on all that coming soon.

Thanks
Larry

[drfrightner]

Here are some updates... as I've already stated many times the tickets will go on sale after the new year. We are proud to bring back as a sponsor Interactive Ticketing.

There will be FOUR EVENTS...

Wed - Behind the Scenes Tour of the new Darkness and Lemp Brewery. Same night tour both places. $100.00 Camera's allowed, video allowed same as last year. You will get to see The Darkness and all of its new scenes plus the 3D haunt plus roam around in the Lemp Brewery. Limited to 350 people PERIOD!

Thursday: Darkness with Actors. No cameras no video with fog. $50.00

Friday: Lemp Brewery with actors. No cameras no video with fog. $40.00

Saturday: Darkness with actors. No cameras no video with fog. $50.00

The Darkness tours are LIMITED to 600 people PER NIGHT! PERIOD! Last year the Saturday sold out and we refused to sell more tickets. We are putting HUGE gaps between groups something like 2 minutes plus. The Darkness will be so detailed that we already know people will stand around and look at everything. So we have to do it this way.

The Lemp haunt will be limited to 800 people total and you will go through just like normal customers with about a 1 minute gap between each group. Lemp is not nearly as detailed as Darkness but the setting is one of the best you've ever seen in your life!

Lastly here are some more photos.

And yes that is someone carving foam with a weed eater.

Larry