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Opinions Needed: Posting a full lights on walk-through of your haunt on YouTube

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  • Opinions Needed: Posting a full lights on walk-through of your haunt on YouTube

    I all ready have my opinion on this, but I want to hear everyone else's opinion. I know of someone who posted a full lights on walk-through of their haunt on YouTube. For him, he just wanted to show off the extremely detailed sets. However, while I believe showing off the amount of detail you put into your sets, I feel as though no one will want to go to your haunt if they can watch a full linear walk-through of it on YouTube. I believe it destroys the fear of the unknown. And seeing as hoe you don't come across full walk-through videos of Pro Haunts every day, I would assume that would be reason enough to think its a bad idea.

    I'd like some opinions on this. I believe I have a valid point, but I also want to know if anyone thinks there is value to posting a video like this.

    In my opinion, its a good idea to show detail in video, but not to give away your entire show.

    I'd also like to hear how you would go about describing your opinion, whatever it may be, to someone who has the opposite opinion.

    THANKS!!!
    Chris Tillman, President
    Rocky Mountain Terror, LLC
    Trick or Terror Haunted House
    www.TerrorHaunts.com

  • #2
    strategic marketing

    Strategic Marketing:

    I would never do this. I believe you can peak people's interest much more through good photography or video by just showing tid bits of your haunt that make people want to see more. This is one of the pictures from our haunt that we use that really makes people want to see more.
    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/543/img2908z.jpg/
    They want to know the intentions of the character in the photo, they want to see what the set design is around the character, they want to see the character's gruesome face which we deliberately don't show in the picture. All these questions that people have in their minds makes them use their imagination. And the imagination is 100 times better than the most detailed haunt in the world.

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    • #3
      I think photography is the way to go as well. I like it when haunts post photos of their actors and also the eyecandy of a nicely detailed room. That way, even if someone goes through the photo gallery before touring the haunt, those nicely detailed and edited photos are engrained in their brains already and they "see" more detail in the room or in the face of the actor, adding to the scare factor.

      I've never been a big fan of video of a haunt. To me, the dark grainy videos always look bad. It's hard to get the lighting in a dark room just right, especially for video and that can make a stellar haunt look ho-hum in a video.
      Kimmy


      http://hauntedkimmycreations.weebly.com/

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      • #4
        This is actually a topic that we have been discussing lately as its directly related to one of our shows we are producing for HauntersDigest.tv. For one of our new shows, we do a tour of the haunt with the haunt owner discussing their haunt and showing off what they love about it, plus some other features that haunt owners are interested in as well as guest of the attraction. Think of it like one of those travel channel shows but made for haunters mostly.

        One of the things we considered when we were originally producing it was if we should show the whole haunt or just bits of it. I decided that it was best not to do a whole walk thru video because of a few reasons. But our biggest and most important reason is that we want to highlight the best of the haunt, but still leave some surprises for the guest. If we show the whole haunt and all the gags and effects, then when the guest shows up, they will know what's around the corner. It's like watching a scary movie for the second time. It ruins the surprise and thrills. We decided it was best to do the whole walk thru with the owner, record it and see what interesting bits and features they point out, then just to feature those that everyone will enjoy while not ruining the whole experience for the guest that watches the video and later visits the haunt. By featuring just some of the highlights, it still gets them excited about the haunt, shows off the level of detail and hard work that the Haunters put into it while not destroying the thrill and surprise when they do get there.

        We have some videos coming up of walk thru tours featuring "Fear Fair" in Seymour Indiana, "Indy ScreamPark" in Anderson Indiana, and "The Dent Schoolhouse" in Dent, Ohio. When their up, be sure to give them a watch on HauntersDigest.tv and let us know what you think. If you own a haunt and would like for us to come by and film it to appear on HauntersDigest.tv, drop us a note under the "Contact Us" page. We love showing off great haunts to all our sites readers and viewers!
        News and event coverage from directly inside the Haunt Industry - http://www.hauntersdigest.com
        Get a Website and/or Mobile App for Your Attraction - http://www.charlesterry.com

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        • #5
          The only value I would see for posting a complete walk through would be if the haunt has been demolished, and you're showing it for those who otherwise could never attend it themselves.

          Watching a video of a good haunt can never provide the stress that being in a live, screaming haunt will provide. It essentially cheats the audience out of real experience and falsely makes them feel they have "been there, done that". Being on the other side if a TV screen is NOTHING like being in the haunt where you can really be grabbed or startled. It's the difference between playing a video game and being involved in a real fire fight. (It's easy to be brave and shoot someone with a joy stick when they can't harm you in return, but it's entirely another matter when they are shooting back at you with live ammunition.)

          That being said, we all know you have to advertise to get customers, or you can't survive. In that sense, a good video is more like the movie promos that show the best scenes of a movie. The trick is to avoid showing the scenes that give away too much of the plot or the big surprises. We've all seen promos that go too far, and we walk away thinking, "that looked like a good flick, but I feel like I've already seen the entire thing."

          In my personal opinion, judicious use of photos and very short video clips are the better alternative. You don't want to spoil the mystery, and you want to keep the imagination free to roam. But you also have to be realistic enough to know people want to see something more than just a colorful website (which often has a home page featuring a castle, or dungeon, or swamp that is nothing like the actual building they are about to visit). So it's a balance: show enough, but not too much.

          Here's our youtube ad for this year: There's several scenes I worry reveal too much, even though they only last about 2 seconds. But I remind myself that there are still 144,000 other seconds (39 minutes) that it doesn't show... Still, less is usually more in these things, and some of the creepiest parts are the images that are blurred or hard to make out.

          http://www.monsterwax.com/2011TOTvideo.html
          Last edited by monsterwax; 11-05-2011, 09:30 AM.
          www.TerrorOfTallahassee.com

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          • #6
            I'm with you, Chris

            I don't think a full walkthrough video is a good idea for both the reasons you stated, as well as the other posters. It gives away too much. If you want a video, do it movie preview style with a few quick clips.
            www.mournfulmanor.com

            "I'm talking about romance in the sense of epic heroes, tragedy, forever friends who die for one another, quests, wars and star-crossed lovers. Romance found in dark fairy tales and the histories of martyred saints. Romance expressed through murder, cannibalism, ressurrections, and hauntings, through ancient tales of chivalry, sacrifice and betrayal."

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