Help out a fellow haunter!

[Phill11]

Hello everyone!

I just took part in a huge venture to raise funding for my first professional haunt. It's program called Kickstarter. People can donate anywhere from $1 and up! My goal is to raise over $22k in the next 42 days!

Please take a second to read up on it! The link is below!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...care-at-a-time

I will keep this thread updated with any donations! Please post if you donate from HauntWorld so I can personally thank you!

[graystone]

How About

A wishing you well and good luck. This is going to be a hard for sure. So it says your giving this till Jan 8th. Let's say you raise $10,000.00 which is not enough what will you do with that money will you be returning it? I might add $22,000.00 want get you much of a haunted house I think a more realistic figure would be more like $125,000.00. Again I wish you well I am just afraid your going to see even if you make your goal it's not going to help much. Shane and it's either way good luck!

[Gahaunter]

Kickstarter

Shane,

My theatre group currently has a fundraiser on Kickstarter. It's an all or nothing program. People pledge money and if you meet or exceed you goal you get all the money. If you don't meet your goal you get nothing. We are currently trying to raise 5K to move into a new space to perform in. We are at 20 percent of our goal. Course our goal is not that much and we are totally a non-profit.

Phill11,

IDK about 22k. I think that's a little ambitious in the time frame you have allotted. Good luck with that!

Gahaunter

[Phill11]

Just an update: In the first 30 minutes of starting this project we had 2 donations. The first for $50 and the second for $500! Thanks to those two who donated!

Anything can help! If you could share this on facebook, twitter or any other method, just send it to friends/family/hell anyone!

Feel free to donate even just a dollar! $1 will help get the ball rolling!

A wishing you well and good luck. This is going to be a hard for sure. So it says your giving this till Jan 8th. Let's say you raise $10,000.00 which is not enough what will you do with that money will you be returning it? I might add $22,000.00 want get you much of a haunted house I think a more realistic figure would be more like $125,000.00. Again I wish you well I am just afraid your going to see even if you make your goal it's not going to help much. Shane and it's either way good luck!

Shane, like Gahaunter said, it's an all of nothing program. If I raise the 22k, I get the funding, if not it is returned to the donors. I understand the cost to put on a full, professional haunt. But you've got to start somewhere right? I don't expect 40,000 in attendance my first year. But for a haunt the I had a $100 budget, we generated $2,000 for the theater program. Got great reviews. Now does $22k generate the next Netherworld? Not even close. But who said you need crazy animatronics to scare. I am confident I can build a good quality haunt for $22k.

Thanks for the good wishes!

Shane,

My theatre group currently has a fundraiser on Kickstarter. It's an all or nothing program. People pledge money and if you meet or exceed you goal you get all the money. If you don't meet your goal you get nothing. We are currently trying to raise 5K to move into a new space to perform in. We are at 20 percent of our goal. Course our goal is not that much and we are totally a non-profit.

Phill11,

IDK about 22k. I think that's a little ambitious in the time frame you have allotted. Good luck with that!

Gahaunter

Gahaunter, Kickstarter recommended 30 days or less. The max is 60, so I figure 42 was a good amount. It's a lucky number of mine and falls about a week after the new year!

Can you post or PM me the link to your page! I wouldn't mind backing/donating to it!

Thanks!

[Phill11]

Hey everyone, I just posted the video!

A little disappointed with the quality, but we had to convert it somehow.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...care-at-a-time

Just click the play video spot at the top. I'm also up to 3 backers, which is less than I was hoping at this point. I'm looking for all kinds of help, even a $1 donation will go far.

Thanks again everyone!

[storm]

Good luck!!

Definately good luck in your endevor. I do have to agree with some of the comments about a haunt start up being in the range of a 6 figure number. Things add up fast, especially marketing. I didn't see too much in your plan about construction. It's easy to fall into the trap that props and scene dressing is the real work. The reality is that the structure of a haunt is the real work, the materials to create and safety layout a single maze adds up fast (ie min of 12+ framed masonite/plywood pannels per scene). Time to put it together is a big cost too in many different ways.

If you crunch the numbers over the next few weeks and it is not looking good, a change in direction might be to go from trying to start from scratch as an owner, to producing a show with an existing business or organization. Depends on what aspects of haunting you really have a passion for, but if you have an owner to work with it can let you worry less about every problem, allow you to be more creative, provide more avenues for learning and gaining experience with less risk, and maybe help out a local business at the same time.

Like in poker, you can learn a lot more on how to win the game buy playing out a few good hands, then just going all in the first time you get a good draw.

[Phill11]

Hello everyone!

Here's a quick update! We've recieved our 5th donation, and we are currently at $569. We've got a long ways to go to hit 22k, but we've got just under 4 weeks to do it!

Any donation, even $1 will help greatly! Thanks again everyone for your support!

Definately good luck in your endevor. I do have to agree with some of the comments about a haunt start up being in the range of a 6 figure number. Things add up fast, especially marketing. I didn't see too much in your plan about construction. It's easy to fall into the trap that props and scene dressing is the real work. The reality is that the structure of a haunt is the real work, the materials to create and safety layout a single maze adds up fast (ie min of 12+ framed masonite/plywood pannels per scene). Time to put it together is a big cost too in many different ways.

If you crunch the numbers over the next few weeks and it is not looking good, a change in direction might be to go from trying to start from scratch as an owner, to producing a show with an existing business or organization. Depends on what aspects of haunting you really have a passion for, but if you have an owner to work with it can let you worry less about every problem, allow you to be more creative, provide more avenues for learning and gaining experience with less risk, and maybe help out a local business at the same time.

Like in poker, you can learn a lot more on how to win the game buy playing out a few good hands, then just going all in the first time you get a good draw.

Hey Storm,

The building part is one that I haven't really spoken much about because I haven't nailed down a location. That all depends on my budget. But it is something I have thought plenty about. I have an old build that I am looking into once I raise the money. It's 180 wall panels (4x8's). I figure this should be enough to build a 3000 square foot haunt.

Again, I'm hoping to start off small and build from there. Like I said too, I've setup a haunt for a local HS that cost us very very little to build. It featured over 20+ actors and had 15 rooms. Designing the haunts are one my favorite aspects of building the haunt. It's like putting together one giant puzzle.

Thanks for the encouraging words and the advice!