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  • #76
    If you didn't, then I apologize.
    Bill Rod.
    Dark Tech Effects
    Automated DMX Lighting
    Show Control - Audio / Visual Effects

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    • #77
      Go back and read!!!^^^^^

      See anything about me KNOCKING anything?! No!!! Just stating that it is way too expensive for a hayride that is in it's infancy and financially can not afford a 5-10k setup just for automated lights and sound. If you offered an audio only option for much cheaper without the necessity for GPS, that'd be awesome.

      But you don't. I understand that r and d takes a LOT of time money and effort, but a smaller farm just starting out can't afford those prices.

      Perhaps design something that relies on radio frequencies at each scene. Something that can be moved and the module will automatically recognize that when it is sensing a certain RF it will automatically play the track until out of range. Much like the EZpass systems work.

      Until then, great idea, wonderful execution, but far too expensive for us.

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      • #78
        zombie paintball

        i am the attraction operations manager for a large scale scream park in the mid west. we recently purchased the equipment to operate a zombie paint ball attraction in our park. in my opinion, YES zombies and zombie paintball is a trend/fad. however, if you don't keep up with the trends and fads you will more than likely lose your customer base in a long term aspect. if you choose to not follow the fads , your customers might see you as the "same old haunt ". during the season last year, i had a chance to poll a lot of people to see what their thoughts were on the whole paintball thing. the overwhelming response was that they LOVED IT!!!! 90% or better thought it was great. that being said, there are some people that are just simply NOT SATISFIED. These people only had a short list of complaints #1 not enough paint balls and #2 wasnt long enough. in my opinion, that means that they enjoyed it but wanted more. the only other complaints stemmed from the general issue of equipment failure and for this we simply cleaned their gun, filled their hoppers and sent them on another trip. problem solved!!!!

        there are a few things that you will need to keep in mind when you are planning for an attraction like this. actors are a major concern obviously. however, you dont need to be a great actor to simply meander around acting like the walking dead. most do that anyway. again, there is the equipment issue. you need to make sure that the actors are thoroughly protected and are well hydrated. over buy on equipment and have a cooler of water for them waiting. again problem solved. the one actor issue that you will probably never solve, and let me know if you do and how you did it, was getting actors to realize that they are going to be shot at. it should be self explanatory, however common sense is not so common anymore. more problems to contend with are weather and equipment performance. ensuring that customers arent waiting for an hour trying to get on your new attraction. loading and unloading trailers and keeping down time to a minimum. repairing and cleaning sets and props more so than usual due to the high impact from the paintballs(and most guns should be calibrated to fire at 250-300 psi and that is FAST and painful at point blank range) and so on and so forth.

        in summation...if you can keep your actors happy, keep them in their scenes for every trailer to shoot at, keep the customers flowing at a decent rate, having a qualified person to maintain the equipment before/during/after hours, keep customers happy(most of them at least), put up with bad weather and anything else that you could/couldnt possibly think of. and trust me, all of these things will happen at the same time and will test your sanity. if you are able to make it through the first year, the second season you operate this part of your attraction, i believe that you will be profitable and have a good reputation for being a destination for the halloween season.

        good luck and let me know how you do

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        • #79
          Paintball UPDATE... as promised I would offer one.

          Several issues to cover...

          1) We did this in our market last year and this year everyone from Six Flags to you name it opened some sort of paintball hayride. So it got watered down big time... I think what we are seeing and its not just paintball hayrides, its in general everyone is looking for some marketing hook be it argggg naked haunted house to some sort of extreme thing like what Zombie LA thing is doing putting bags over peoples heads or whatever. Zombie paintball when introduced in your market can create some buzz for your attraction but expect to see many copy cats which basically ruin that buzz overnight. Now its like ahhh yeah okay.

          2) Last year we did actor driven paintball... the actors overheated and it was hard to keep them 110% safe from getting hit here and there. So this year we put a whole bunch of zombies out there to shoot at and about 24 animated zombies. I got fiberglass zombies from BO and made animated targets. People didn't seem to care either way I've heard no complaints like where is the live guys... there are some issues with running animated targets such as getting paintball juice on the pistons or controls or blowing out a sense but overall this is a better plan of attack and its cheaper.

          3) This year we are running our zombie paintball hayride as a $5.00 up charge... this has really helped because NOW only about 1/3 the people do it so we are making some money yes, but its not slowing down our operation like it did last year. Running every single person through the hayride nearly killed our business ability to put people through the place and turn over parking spaces. This year we can run the attraction with one to two tractors piece of cake... much better this way.
          Last year I would say we spent over 100,000 to operate the hayride and this year it will be less than 20k.

          SO what is the FINAL results here...

          Well I would say a zombie paintball especially if NO ONE ELSE IS DOING IT will increase your business at least the first year. It created a huge buzz last year... this year not so much. People still ask about it but not like last year. I would say if you have the ability to up charge for it, and can do it without actors, you could make some money on it and build some POSITIVE PR for your overall event. But the major boost really comes in year ONE so make YEAR ONE really count.

          The does and don't ...

          DO: Use animations - buy the air compressor to fill up your own tanks - buy extra guns for when they go out - make sure someone rides with these people at all times - maximize the PR benefit to the fullest in YEAR ONE! - make all the guest wear face shields to protect their eyes just in case. Make lots of cool videos showing people having a blast - use nets between anywhere that hayride wagons might cross.

          DON'T: use live actors not worth the risk - make it part of your overall attractions make it an up-charge - don't sell it as something its not because that only increases complaints - ever forget someone could get shoot with a paintball so make sure to keep this event safe.


          So this year for us SUCCESS with the lessons we learned from last year to this year...

          I doubt we are doing it again a hayride not just paintball... going to build some different attractions there. So mine will be for sale. And I must say Greg built mine to 110% perfection ... he's the go to guy on these for sure! He's first class all the way!

          Larry
          Larry Kirchner
          President
          www.HalloweenProductions.com
          www.BlacklightAttractions.com
          www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
          www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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