Spookywoods New Photos!

[twohlgemuth]

Fellow Members,

The building is finally over and it's go time! Have a look at what
took all year to build that was inpired in part by the Frozen Tundra
Tour, like our Castle and Ghotic Horror album sets.

http://spookywoods.com/gallery/

We had a daytime customer coming to the Maize Adventure so ipressed by
our Castle facade that they actually got married in front of it last
week! They were normal folks too! LOL

[bodybagging]

Looking good GUYS!

[screamshow]

Really really nice! Great job on everything

[MMManiac]

Awesome pictures. great work on the castle facade!

Sean

[SomeThingInTheIce]

Very cool, in the play ground photos it looks like everything is moving? Good luck this season!

[twohlgemuth]

Play Ground

Yes, all the equipment is moving with the sounds of kids playing. Very spooky indeed.

[drfrightner]

A photo says a thousand words...

Especially to your customers!!! Good photos are important in this day and age because customers can use the web to get a lot of info before buying a ticket.

If they don't like what they see they can choose NOT to come!

Good job Tony!!!!

Larry

[Cookie Crumbler]

It absolutely boggles my mind why you or anyone would show your customers an unpainted version of your foam facade on your web site. I can't see why you'd even tell them it's foam. It wrecks the illusion.

To me that's just stupid.

[twohlgemuth]

Why Show the building process?

Dear Cookie,

I can see your point of view, howver the customer is not stupid either. There is no way we would build out of real stone. By showing our building process proves that Spookywoods creates the sets from scratch. Anyone can write a check to ScareFactory or Oak Island for vacume formed sets. Then your show looks just like the other guys.

I believe that showing our customers we create the sets from scratch puts us on another level above and beyond your "out of the box haunt".

Call me stupid if you like, but I have already had more TV interviews and radio shows due to our photos of the making of our haunt.

Think outside the box!

[gadget-evilusions]

Awesome stuff Tony. Hope to see it someday.

[Cookie Crumbler]

Tony,

I'm not calling you stupid, I don't know you man and I wouldn't do that. However I do believe this particular way of doing things is very, very stupid.

Yes, your customer is not an idiot, most of them anyway. That said, when you show them exactly how this is done before they even get there, it ceases to be as impressive, it more quickly becomes cheap and obvious to them, they are not as impressed, and they instantly expect more. In my experience that is how most people are.

You are raising the bar for yourself and all of us by showing every last customer of yours how cheap and simple this concept is. Sure doing it like this it gets you more press now, but you are trading in the built-in "wow-factor" of your cool new set and foam sets elsewhere for an online ego-stroke and a few tv interviews.

I think and live outside the box, but I don't think turning haunted house web sites into show and tell how-to sessions is the right direction for this industry. If the customers want that info, let them seek it out elsewhere online or volunteer at a local haunt. Having 3,000 customers in line all talking about your foam facade is not as cool as having 3,000 people in line anxious and scared because they are actually willing and able to suspend their disbelief for an hour of their lives.

To me you're getting them excited about the wrong things.

I know there are plenty out there who agree with me, they probably won't speak up for fear of starting arguments, but they're out there.

[MMManiac]

I disagree. I think our customers like to know how certain things are done. I have been to disney many a times where they play "behind the scene looks" while you are waiting for certain rides. In my opinion it gives the guests a since of how hard you work on this project so it must be worth it inside. I say keep the pics up and add more!

Sean

[Cookie Crumbler]

And again, I disagree.

At Disney they don't show anything behind the scenes about the haunted mansion to their general customers. Ever.

When Disney does show things they are either to small niche markets who seek out the info, or they show off multi-million dollar budget extravaganzas beyond the scope of most people's comprehension. Even then they show only so much.

Sorry but it's true.

You are showing them wood and foam.

[twohlgemuth]

To Show Behind the Scenes Photos or Not

Dear Cookie,

You have caused me to really think on this subject, to be honest I'm torn. I can see your point and I can see the flip side of the WOW they built that themselves word of mouth.

It is so easy to go out and buy stuff and poof your done. I want to let my customers know we work very hard to make cool sets and have the talent to create the enviroments of our haunted experience.

Again, I'm torn between the two. However, it's a good thought provoking thread indeed.

For now I will leave the photos up and do some market research on what our customers think this weekend.

Good topic, no need to start a flame war about it.

[Cookie Crumbler]

Tony,

Thanks for your respectful, intelligent response to my highly passionate rantings.

I certainly agree completely that when you build it yourself, there's a great amount of pride that goes along with it. I don't blame you for wanting people to see that your place is a one-of-a-kind creation full of blood sweat and tears.

It's apparent by the pictures on your site that your crew is both skillful and dedicated. If that is one of your selling points I can certainly understand that, and that makes me appreciate greatly you giving my postings a serious thought and not just writing them off.

Any way I can see you're a hard-working, respectful guy with a great attitude, sorry for anything that came off as disrespect, it wan't intended as personal. I hope you break attendance records and have a great year.