12-05-2012
Maybe several years being in business you could consider all of these $4500 and $12,000 purchases as advertising expenses for big animated props. Each one becomes a media event promoting your event and perhaps in parts of the country where population can support these expenses this is what is happening.
The reality of the behind the scenes is you don't have 20 or 30 years of this thing working to pay it out. The mechanics die after a year and te skins all rip to shreads and become brittle in 2 to 3 years and then it becomes botched repairs trying to cover torn and ripped places. So this expendature is just money spent. It does help the economy because someone industrious can go to a haunt and find 30 things that need major repairs, if they have the money to repair them.
It is not the fault of the prop makers it is a one year impact purchase and there is quite a dissapointment factor after that. Usually what happens is the props and many actuators themselves become junk and 6 actuators are harvested from the junk and make 6 other smaller things happen. As a customer you might actually feel sorry for the haunt guy that his Gargoil was once beautiful and commanding and now it's head is seperated from it's body and still goes through the motions and the following year has a patch that looks like a hillbilly vinyl pool repair with moss glued on it.
There is also the plain and simple fact that it gets to be 115 degrees here in August and inside some of these haunts during set up time is like there are laws about locking your dog up in a car. There are simply materials limitations and no one has convinced me for our area it really makes or breaks a show when the population here is not what it mightbe in Virginia.
So like you are bitching about physics and making it sound like people are stupid and it isn't the case. Big animatronic shows are a freaking travesty and you better have $250K oer year to redo it all because it is going to have to be redone not because you want to give the best show for your customers, because it is all destroyed. 90% of the shows don't even make the $250,000 total gross one time and aren't expected to be able to grow to those levels. You can divide that by 5 catagories and that is all you have to work with. Or actually first take $50K off of that and live with it. SO you are also apparently stupid to have a smaller budget or come up with products that serve those smaller budgets.
It isn't even an argument, it is total misunderstanding and not having been around and really concerned or something like that? There is nothing stupid about finding ways to make things for the 90% or making people understand they might be stuck in that lower catagory of income. Instead what has come off perception wise is people think they can set up a bunch of animatronics in an old mall and make a million dollars. Larry keeps sighting some haunts in the middle of nowhere that see serious customer levels but there again, major amounts of land and years into it. Not first year out it was magic. The ones that are becoming impressive are building things that look great and last in their sets.
Still by definition, props and masks and costumes are part of the expendable budget. Every year there is only so much money and so much time to fill so many square feet. So you develop entire reams of knowledge on making things that are inexpensive to make and can be done quickly. It is work. It isn't a shopping spree and a stop to see old freinds at the bar. It's many times like walking into a failed garage and 30 cars are torn apart and you have to make it all work again and no one has any money until after the customers have come through. We are talking real conviction stuff here.
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.
Originally Posted by Darkangel
