Your History?

[krazedklownkilla]

I wish you the best of luck on the haunt DAN.

[xscreamhalloween]

My two cents and story

This is one thread I have to jump on. I have been fortunate to have worked a haunters "dream job" for the last 5 years - so maybe someone (besides my mother) might be interested in how I got here. Currently I teach haunting - virtually full time - to over 180 high school students (25% of the student body). I do have a few other duties but basically it's haunt! The result is a 70,000 square foot attraction that improved every year - up 23% for 2010. We actually fill the niche of the football team (no sports at school) and school pride rallies around the haunt event - even have our own cheerleaders "G-Star Cadavers"!
THE BACKSTORY- Like many of you I started as a kid with simple home haunts that were - sad to say - usually pretty weak, but I loved it. Growing up career and family took precedent and I didn't do much until 1991. At the time I lived in what I referred to as the "Edward Scissorhands" neighborhood - everyone had 2.4 kids, lived in 3/2 houses and - above all - it was safe. Shades of my youth crept into my head - trick or treating and filling a pillowcase, dumping it on the bed and doing it again. And here I was in a time when we don't let kids out of our sight to do those things AND I lived in the perfect place to revive it! First year - lame home haunt, second year better - third year over 1,000 t or t ers and 2 tour buses! Time to move up. The following seasons found me rising through a series of commercial haunts - making mistakes, losing money at first and finally reaching into the black! After that I managed to end up a "gun for hire" doing large Corporate haunts full time. I could get detailed but that's a book not a post! Finally 5 years ago I was approached by a VERY forward thinking founder of a Motion Picture Studio and High School - odd in itself. He wanted a fund-raiser haunt for the school - then I met the kids. As they say, it was all over but the crying! Never had I met such a motivated bunch of people. So X-Scream Halloween began as an off the grid class with teenagers actually designing and building a world-class haunt. What is really cool about the project is that these are film and tv students and by working a haunt they are having a ball while they learn skills that will help them if they move into motion picture production, I mean think about it - we as haunters build sets that take the abuse of thousands of people - so how hard's a movie set after that?
TODAY-
So now here we are with 180 cast/crew members, a 12 person makeup team, movie level costume department, a slick "lineless" entry system, video cameras throughout the haunt and a 70,000 s.f. single entry haunt - although we added another 18,000 s.f. for our last weekend of the 2010 season -(story all by itself!) and did record numbers BUT most impressive of all - I got to go back into character for the first time in 5 years! This was possible because FINALLY they ran it - all of it - and I had a little time to "play" instead of manage. It's really been quite the trip for me and will continue to be so I'm sure, - teaching what I can and watching a new generation of people develop a love of the haunt business. Life just doesn't get much better - and I'm thankful for it everyday! AND one VERY lucky SOB!
www.xscreamhalloween.com

[krazedklownkilla]

WOW ive nerver heard anything like that That is so great. Thanks for sharing.