So i had an idea about Haunt Products

[Kevin Dells]

Just recently we had the discussion of younger people at TW and one thing that definetly came to light on that topic was "Teens are a haunts target market".

It made me think what if there was a way to put a prop,effect, costume or make up in front of a group of teens and let them critique it?

Teens that are haunt associated already, teens that work for haunts and know how one works.

Teens that work in rooms such devices would be used in.

Would you as haunt owners be open minded as to what their feedback would be, might make you really like a product or possibly see something you may not like that you didn't think of.


And you as vendors would be open to feedback positive or negative. Hey if it's good positive feedback you may sell the snot out of the product, if they point out what they didn't like about it you know what needs tweaking?

I might have a way to do this but im curious what peoples thoughts are before i do it.

If your interested please let me know, if your a vendor and like the idea and would like your product showcased then please leave me a link to it as well as a description and price.

The group of course will be notified that the pricing will be what the haunt owner would be paying and not them, their just to judge the product itself. Most teens have a hard time affording car insurance so i want to make this perfectly clear to them. We may even leave the price out unless the link takes us to your site and the price is listed there.

What do you think do you want feedback from your target audience people???

Just let me know and i"ll launch it. I have already asked a few teen freinds of mine and they seem very interested.

After a week of product analysis i would then bring their reply's here for you all to read.

Kevin

[badlander2000]

I would definitely be down for a product analysis reviewing session if it means I could go to St. Louis next year.

[Jim Warfield]

I had an idea of providing haunt prop makers a year-round, all-weather testng ground.
I would call it The Ravens Grin Inn--Open year round!
hahahaha!
OPEN right now!

[xxxdirk]

I would be interested to see what their thoughts are but list the price so the review team can see how much it is. My worry is many of the kids that work at haunts really have no concept of $$ and how expensive something is. "oooo yeah buy that cool impaler prop from Scarefactory" Hello, that thing is more than my entire budget. I had to talk to a fe of my crew that came to TW because I wanted them to understand that while I would listen to their input, the final choice is mine. I did not want a reinactment of Willie Wonka: "But daddy, I want an ooompa loompa for the haunt!!!!"

[Kevin Dells]

Yeah that point is definetly mention Ron!!

I did do a test run on a effect produst just to see what kind of feedback i got and it was pretty cool.

You even reveiwed it in a pm to me and their response was almost duplicate what you said,seems great minds think alike!!

I may post the results here, im waiting to weeks end to see if i get any vendor feeback here.

Some may not want it. I don't wan't to step on toes!

[Jim Warfield]

Stepping on toes?

If you are concerned about stepping on toes, learn to dance!
If you are one of those terminally un-coordinated types, learn to shed your inhibitions and dance naked then they won't notice their toes so much.
I do this sort of in everythig I do since I am really not very finely skilled in anything.
I haven't seen my clothes in years!

[Allen H]

I don't think its a matter of stepping on toes, I personally don't think the idea has alot of merit. I understand wanting opinions, but the opinions that matter are the haunt owners, they decide what to buy, their decisions give their shows a unique personality. If we start listening to teenagers then our shows will be like them, (in general) clones of each other. Teenagers change their minds about who they are and what they like and want so often its amazing, we could never keep up.
Part of life for teenagers is learning from adults, We can show them what class is, what horror is. They need us to define haunted houses at present, They will grow up and define haunted houses 20 years from now drawing from our influences.
The haunt mask and prop builders of today were teens 10-25 years ago, and if you cant see the influences of killer Clowns, an american werewolf of london, legend, and Halloween (the movie) then your eyes are closed.
This is my crazy opinion, but we need to define our personality, and not let teenagers decide our haunts personality before they have even developed their own.
the fun part of having a haunted house is the we get to pick the theme, and the props, we dont make a ton of money so don't take the fun parts away. I know thats extreme but I think if you did this the approval of teens would not be a big selling point.
Am I way off base here? Does anyone else think similarly?
Allen H

[Haunts of Richmond]

Just recently we had the discussion of younger people at TW and one thing that definetly came to light on that topic was "Teens are a haunts target market". It made me think what if there was a way to put a prop,effect, costume or make up in front of a group of teens and let them critique it?

I don't think we'd want to bring a teenager to a convention like Transworld, but we definitely want their opinions on what works and what doesn't. This is why we launched our Room Design Contest this month (http://www.bloodlakeva.com/contest.htm). I think this gives our younger audience the chance to sit down and think like a haunter. Some may say "I could design a scary room or haunt," but don't know where to begin or the time it takes. We're giving them that chance! And, if we happen to find some really talented people in the process, we might just give them an opportunity to join our team!

[Kevin Dells]

Allan,

No your very on base there that made good sense and yes i know that haunt owners love the thriill of the buy. "How could you not!" LOL

Im speaking from experiences that iv'e had now so let me say this if we may.

I worked for a large haunt in Illinois. Rockford Screamfest, it was multi themed, huge beyond belief, and had well over 75+ actors

I then moved down here to North Carolina and still had the love of haunting deep in the veins so i immediatley went to work for Woods of Terror.

The huge difference iv'e learned between the two different crews is the group from Illinois that did attend Transworld with me are so much further ahead of their time then the southern group in all catagories.

I know that they learned from seeing products good and bad, seeing what goes into running a haunt from behind the schenes that really sets these two groups apart. The teens that learned the products did know how to incorporate the props and materials into schenes they built ,storylines and characters then would be worked in around what is actually in the haunt as a final product.

If you were to ask a younger adult to design and build themselves a new character for next season and you gave them a new theme you were going to introduce in the upcoming season would that person be able to just put together an Icon type character or at least a character you would think hey this is que line material? Probably not because they wouldn't know about all the materials available to them. Or at least be able to pinpoint, "Hey these two companys will carry the stilts i need" or this company is where i get the Jupe i was thinking of using for a finishing touch", "Bodybagging carry's this great prosthetic i can use for it".

Better yet that actor dosen't know the decor to match the costume to until the schene is built and the props placed, if he or she knows the prop and can get to the website then they can start building their characters based on what the prop resembles.

In all reality don't we think it's wise to better educate our crews in any way possible even through product analysis, be it props, costume materials, make up's, and even effects?

My first year i didn't know squat about products but i found the more i educated myslelf about them the easier it all became. So why wouldn't we educate and use our whole crew to it's full potential? Owners can only do so much by themselves then they need to rely on crew to help, i would surely want the people helping to know the gallon of Wildfire flourescent paint they were having a fight with or accidently spilled because they weren't careful costs well over 100 bucks and wasn't bought at walmart.

I can hear some teen telling another teen now" Hey man make sure you put the lid back on that paint when your done that stuff costs a fortune!"

One of the people that i asked to analyze the product in my test run was very upset when i wrote him back and said im getting no feedback on Hauntworld wether the owners or vendors are interested. I continued the topic has 73 views but not one reply so i guess im not going to waste my time. Let me tell you that kid was bummed out! He thought this was a very cool idea, he's a home haunter just getting his start and he thought this was a great way to learn the products. He became a home haunter because he loves to visit haunts so wouldn't his feedback be helpful?

[Allen H]

Kevin,
Now Im with ya. When you mentioned teens before you seemed to be talking about audience, not haunt crews. That is a different story, On the devils advocate side of that though Im sure we will be called cheap as owners when our crews see all the stuff thats out there that we don't buy.
At my show I actually have character creation meetings where we discuss character options that fit in with the theme. And I help them with costume and make up choices.
Allen H

[Kevin Dells]

Hah!
Allan maybe on the same token they will understand how much you spend when they are being funny by boxing the pop up zombie prop and knocking it to peices!

Im going to put up one more product tonight and give it a few days for reply's to come in and then i"ll post the findings here. Lets see what we get.

And Yeah only haunt kids or kids really into it like we are, im not giving the general public any edge as to what were throwing at them!