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  • #31
    When I was young I got a job helping to make instruction manual notes on a big industrial testing machine and the union millwrights stopped me and said who are you. What do you have a college degree or something? How do you get to have a job here? Who are you? I paused and tried to understand this and said what every it takes to do an $8 an hour job, I'm pretty sure I got it. The reaction was Oh, okay. They were all probably making $12 an hour or $18.50 per hour but it was more being non union and am I allowed to pass the troll kind of crap.

    Years later I worked my way up to being supervisor of the test facility by actual knowledge of the facility and demonstrated leadership, not by having a degree. The company had a fancy sounding name like Boeing Aerospace. They would send up new people being cross utilized from other departments and I would never do that same thing. Rather we would all get together and stand in front of a new guy and ask things like. So what do you do. (and not give time to answer) Do you have any dance moves? Can you sing? Do you tell jokes? Do you have any entertainment value what so ever? No matter what they said we would say oh, okay! Then kid, around here everyone has a degree, so you are gonna need one of these. We had cut up an advertisement about you too can get a college degree in drafting, restaraunt management, business management, computer tech, drafting career. Each little picture looked like a little degree certificate and we had cut them out of the magazine and stuck them up on the wall in our tool cage. Each of us had decided with one we wanted and which one the new guy was going to need.

    SO even in an professional, research and industrial environment I never heard buzz words like "intern" I find it kind of odd anyone uses this language in haunted houses. It may have been adopted with live theater actors? Or this is some new hip college buzz word. Still I don't like it because it kind of denotes being subserviant or a willingness to be subserviant. Or the definitions are to shadow some professional to learn a trade like an apprentice to either work there or develop a network and skills of their own, denoting being able to go work for anyone with standard skills and ideas. To some degree I really doubt we have any higher level standards of operation that are common to every industry location like it is all some vetted position heirarchy. I do hear it in medical positions but then the same term is used in vet clinics cleaning out cages too so that kind of washes out any real respectful use of the words being used in a language.

    So maybe my first post should have been What do you got kid? Can you dance? Do you do Jazz hands? Ballerina stuff? What kind of entertainment value can you offer?

    Or wadda ya wanna do, scratch your way into middle management? YOu wanna be a YES man?
    Last edited by Greg Chrise; 01-04-2013, 10:08 AM.
    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.

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    • #32
      I dont think the word you use to describe this matters. I wanna learn more about the industry, and Im exploring whatever options are out there. I dont care about buzzwords, leave that shit on Twitter. I just want to find a way to learn more...

      (this is Elliot, I finally got access to my old account)

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      • #33
        Elliot what state are you from. What it sounds like is you need a mentor to help show you the ropes. I like that you are assertive enough to come out and say I want to learn and where would be a good place for me to invest my time in learning about this industry. Good for you. Now someone on this forum should see this in you and want you to come work with them. I told you earlier that I love to see how Allen does things, just because he seem to be able to give a solution to most people's question on the forum. I don't live in Texas so I don't have that opertunity. But I did not see you say what area of the country you are from, so nobody can recommend someone for you to talk to with out knowing that. There are a bunch of great people on this forum and I am sure someone is out there that can help you achieve your goal, but they need to know more about you too and if they are going to take the time to help you along then what kind of person are you. Are you a team player, use them and leave, self starter, or just someone fishing because haunting sounds cool. Haunting for some of the guys out here is not just a job it's a lifestyle. Good luck finding what you are looking for and I hope it works out for you.


        Phatman
        Phatman

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        • #34
          I think Elliot need a copywriter.....First draft

          Hello everyone on Hauntworld. Thanks in advance in for any helpful advice. My name is Elliot Gardner and I'm orginally from West Mifflin Pa and worked 3 seasons at the Hundred Acres Haunted House in South Park Pa. during high school. I'm in college now taking up theatrical studies and at age 21 would like to know how I can gain more experience. I like the people at Hundred Acres haunt but, I'm not sure I can find inner light staying in Pittsburgh Pa. So if you could please let me work for the summer anywhere in the country and please let me know if there are rail tracks and hobo camps near you haunt or haunt studio so I can get there and find lodging. I will require at least one foot long subway sandwich and a drink per day as total compensation.

          I would love to be involved in set build up, mask making and installing special effects. It seems none of you are on Twitter at all so this is my introduction and I look forward to hearing what kind of assistance any pro haunt would be needing this summer.

          Thanks Elliot Gardner

          P.S. Don't tell my parents I'm going to possibly be wasting my education on haunted houses instead of theater and independent films because I really enjoy the haunted house experience. Please refer to me as Drkside77 so my mom doesn't find out it is me.
          Last edited by Greg Chrise; 01-04-2013, 04:26 PM.
          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.

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          • #35
            Mask making was never really interesting to me. Im really glad that someone out there is reading what I put on my profiles and such, thanks Greg An education is also as useful as you make it, although like you said before it doesn't matter what education you have. Im always comforted to know that haunters are so witty and easy to get along with.

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            • #36
              Elliot,

              I have spent the past two years looking for what you're in search of. I have networked with haunters all across the map and have traveled to several shows in hopes of finding a new place to call "home".

              Like you, I'm looking to further my knowledge in the haunt industry and have been doing everything I can think of to find my nitch. All I can say is do your homework, attend shows like Transworld and MHC and network as much as possible. Sooner or later you'll find someone who's looking to expand their show or would be willing to take you under their wing.

              I'm actually moving out to PA in a few weeks to be a part of HAM. Can I ask why you're no longer associated with them?
              Zach Wiechmann
              www.frontyardfright.com

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              • #37
                I left HAM because I felt like there was something more I could be doing. What I learned from them was great, but I really wanted to focus on what I was really passionate about. Going to school for tech theater made a lot of sense. I wanted to do haunted houses and I loved doing theater so it was just fit. Ive done a lot of plays since leaving HAM, but I've been missing haunts for a bit.

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                • #38
                  I in reply to your eloquent request for greater knowledge in the haunted house industry, welcome Elliot. I'm actually from Pittsburgh Pa and the last places I lived was West Mifflin and Library Pa way before there was a haunted house in the area and I have to agree that unless you are into strip clubs and mass quantities of alcohol, there isn't much to do in Pittsburgh that a degree in the arts is going to do for you.

                  My honest suggestion is not to consider running away with the circus just yet and using your studies to first apply to the highest paying industries your talents can grab hold of first and if that doesn't work out or manifest, then run away with the circus. It is better to have an income and partake in all the seasonal things haunted houses do on a part time basis than consider it is going to be a full time, long term income at any one location.

                  I have a younger cousin that ended up in Hollywood effects studios and a younger brother that runs the computer systems or CNN in Atlanta Georgia. All from Pittsburgh. Only after so many successful careers and business aqisitions did I end up being able to enjoy haunted houses. First and foremost you should consider only opportunities that are truely going to look good on a resume 10 years from now and actually provide some income.

                  I think working for Allen and his associates might be one option and I do recommend relocating to a warmer more fun city that Pittsburgh. Using Google Streets I wandered around all the places I had lived and visited and nothing at all has been improved there in the last 50 years. Not one thing. No reason to go back to. So I do advise moving to California or Texas to a larger city where the arts truely have a budget instead of Pittsburgh where the disturbed mind of haunted house people are quite naturally developed and Batman and vampire movies can be filmed with no CGI what so ever because everything is already dark and deteriorated.

                  Or at worst case it looks to me like there are two great haunted house locations and work at Kennywood available in the Pittsburgh area. Yet, Hundred acres looks like a pretty good attraction as does the one on the North side. That is what they generally are all across the country. The ones better than that already have quite a few people local to them eager to help out so it would take specific talent to even be considered for a position.

                  But, like I said, I'm not sure if these are thoughts or voices in my head. Thankyou for your time.
                  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.

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