Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Locations

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Locations

    First off, let me take a second and introduce myself, since I'm new to the forum. I'm Tim, I'm 22 and live in Virginia. I've been acting in haunts for about 6 years now - part of a production team last year for a bigger local haunt, and 2012 is my first year owning my own haunt! I'm ridiculously pumped and overwhelmed at the same time. You guys have already helped tons on here with a few questions of mine, it's amazing how much you can learn from an online forum. Anyway - to my question of the day - I'm in a bit of a dilemma when it comes to a location. It's been really hard finding a place in my price range, that is the size I need (around 12,000 square foot) I've been looking into a lot of old industrial places / warehouses etc. The area that I live in, doesn't have a huge population(msa 170k) - but my saving grace is I have 2 major universities within 20 minutes of each other (around 50,000 students combined.) I guess what I'm getting at is -I can find places close to these colleges, but they are going to KILL my budget, or I can find a place about 25 min away that is a lot more affordable. So, how much importance do you guys place on your location (not building, size, etc but actual location) Will people drive out half an hour, or should a break the bank and be right in town?


    BTW - I'm going to TW, I've signed up for quite a few courses I'm stoked about - but if anyone feels like getting together to shoot the shit and throw some knowledge my way, first round is on me.

    Thanks
    -Tim
    Carnage Crew
    Good deals with : brad, smiley, capt. chaos, fables studios

    www.fearthegallows.com

  • #2
    I'm in the same boat as you. I'm going to TW as well and I'll buy the second round

    Jeff
    Nightmare Street Productions

    Comment


    • #3
      Location ?

      We went pro last year and we where 20 min out side of town. We did well for a first year haunt just under 8k in attendance. If you guys want to talk just PM me i love to talk haunt but who does not on these forums.

      Shawn

      Comment


      • #4
        1st year is gonna be all about QUALITY. College kids will do road trips and you can look into bus service to and from the colleges too. If your demo is college kids remember no all of them have cars. 2nd you can move once your in your 2nd or 3rd year too. Might not be what you want but as long as your running your good. I would advise against breaking the bank again you wanna focus on quality so you get that word of mouth going as well as having a healthy advertising budget. You can have the coolest place but if no one know about it when what good is it?

        Comment


        • #5
          Yup, I would stick more towards quality and having power for advertising and whatever else comes along. 12k of space could spread a person thin if doing it yourself. You'd hate to get setup and realize everything was not as good as it could have been. Then you will be beating yourself up all year until the next halloween season. I thought about adding onto my building after this past season but declined to go through with it as I want the quality to be up there high as possible. With a smaller space I will charge a little less but hope to generate lots of word of mouth and more repeats.

          Comment


          • #6
            good point with focusing more on quality. thanks for the response guys.
            Good deals with : brad, smiley, capt. chaos, fables studios

            www.fearthegallows.com

            Comment


            • #7
              Quality and advertising. Take the extra money that you save by moving a few minutes away and put it back into detail and advertising. Make your website and marketing so good that they will want to drive to come to your place. Maybe you can even provide a "shuttle" to the campus and advertise it on certain nights to the students who dont have cars. There are tons of options. Our haunt is in the country with the nearest city being 20 minutes away and the nearest large city being 45 minutes away and people like getting out of the city. But, it still needs to be somewhere with parking and not hard to find. You don't want people to go looking and can't find it and turn around.

              Comment


              • #8
                what part of VA are you looking?
                Virginia's premier outdoor haunted attraction-
                www.wicked-woods.com

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by WickedWoodsHaunt View Post
                  what part of VA are you looking?
                  Yeah I was curious too. I can't see it in Norther VA I haven't found a 12k square ft space anywhere and if it is it's big bucks!

                  DA

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Guys I'm in southwest va - The blacksburg/radford area. So 5 hours from dc, 4 from richmond.
                    Good deals with : brad, smiley, capt. chaos, fables studios

                    www.fearthegallows.com

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Another thought is vinyl wrap your bus if you did do one. You'll have killed to birds with one stone.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I'm having the building inspector / fire marshall come out this week to scout a location - I'm super stoked. I have another question though - there are a couple smaller haunts in my area that are in old houses / hospitals - how do people get away with this? One in particular I'm thinking of isn't wheel chair accessible - no sprinkler system, and doesn't do any type of flame proofing. What giant loophole am I missing???
                        Good deals with : brad, smiley, capt. chaos, fables studios

                        www.fearthegallows.com

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          They may not be trying to do it "right"

                          There are haunts in our area that don't call Firemarshalls or city inspectors. They just setup and go!

                          They can get away with it, but once someone brings it up, it'll probably cause a shut down.


                          Dewayne

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            If it was southern West Virginia it would be because any time an official car comes by they shoot at it.
                            sigpic

                            Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Ha! Very true Greg - have you watched the documentary (I can't believe I'm actually calling it that) on the White family from WV? If not I would definitely recommend it for a good laugh - It gets pretty gnarly in those parts.

                              I guess we'll see how long just ignoring it lasts - every haunt in my area, hasn't been up for more than 3 years, someone has got to catch on soon.
                              Good deals with : brad, smiley, capt. chaos, fables studios

                              www.fearthegallows.com

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X