Help.help.help.

[hauntedghost]

one thing in mind too is that the money you will be putting out. Also is your mom and dad are going to put out the money?? how are you going to get money???


for your age it's going to be hard and i have not even opened my haunt yet...


you seen what i mean...

[hoffie08]

yeah i see i see. but i have people that all ready said they will donate $$$$ to me and help me with this.
My dad knows people that will do the lights for little to no $.
i have friends that love haunts to and they have spare props they said they can give me.
yeah my mom and dad said they will dish out $$$$ because then what ever profit we make %50 will go to a charity. %25 to the next year and %25 into helping me go to collage.
so thanks for the help keep it coming.

[shawnc]

yeah i see i see. but i have people that all ready said they will donate $$$$ to me and help me with this.
My dad knows people that will do the lights for little to no $.
i have friends that love haunts to and they have spare props they said they can give me.
yeah my mom and dad said they will dish out $$$$ because then what ever profit we make %50 will go to a charity. %25 to the next year and %25 into helping me go to collage.
so thanks for the help keep it coming.

All the information you can provide helps. One thing I would like to caution you on is depending too much on what people promise when you are starting out. The friends who have promised you props may decide they need them to decorate their houses again this year. The lighting guy may be busy when you need him. The monetary donations may come through after the economy improves. Lots of things that can happen. Don't depend on these things until they actually start to happen. That's why it helps to get as much of a jump on it as you can. It is not too early to start on this year's haunt. Where are you putting it on? Can you start now?

The other thing is that I would honestly recommend a part-time job if you are hoping to use profits to help pay for college. Assuming you even make a profit within the first couple of years, 25 percent probably won't be much. Yes, haunting will be more fun but picking up aluminum cans alongside the road will likely be more profitable.

If you are planning to make a profit off this venture, then go back and reread all the advice about treating it as a business. I am a photographer and it is so much like haunting that you wouldn't believe it. So many of the people in this business consider themselves artists and are insulted and bothered that they have to deal with that whole thing of charging money to their customers, or dealing with the fact that not every customer sees the high value they have placed on their "art." They just want to take great photos and think the money should just flow their way. It doesn't. You have to work to promote your business. Then there are the photographers who aren't very good who market themselves well and make a lot of money.

Haunting is the same way. Many people want to do it because it seems like so much fun. It is whan you're decorating your house. But when you go pro then you have to deal with real estate leases, the owner of the building not wanting to let you change the facade, taxes (local, state, federal, sales, property, unemployment, disability and Social Security taxes, just to name a few), employees who either consider themselves artists/actors or think they should get paid more since you are raking in the dough, inspectors, props that don't work, advertisng and marketing, insurance, and many other things that you haven't even thought of yet.

That makes it a business and not a fun artistic project.

[hoffie08]

all the stuff i posted before like people saying they can help is for when i go pro if i do next year 2010.
my haunt this year i have been working on for a month so far i got a lot of my planning done before x-mas.

[Darkmaster]

Go slow and pay attention to others

Good luck with your endeavors. It's a big decision to go pro and a lot involved.

We just do a home haunt, I've expaned this year to the barn. More room, more stuff, more expenses.

I would love to go pro some day. I just think I'm not ready for all that it will involve.

Follow your dreams. Your dreams are what will take you places.:grin:

[hoffie08]

thanks man that is the best words so far by far. i just dont know i would love to go pro but i might stay with home haunting and go pro after im done with school.
or i might rent a 2000 sq ft building and transfer my home haunt into that and not go pro but have a bigger space to haunt prople.
but by far thanks for all the help and kind words
hoffie

[shawnc]

"Follow your dreams" is the best advice by far? Looks like junior college it is!

[hoffie08]

yeah that is. and idk yet my haunt this year is going good. i started building like 2 weeks ago.
right now im working on a michel myers room that i saw in the halloween movie. that room is going to be one of the most detailed by far.
thanks for all the help again!!
hoffie

[hoffie08]

hey guys my haunt is coming together very good this year it is looking better each day.
thanks for all the help.
hoffie

[OdetteDespairr]

Beware of movie rooms. For a smaller home haunt this may be ok, but you're playing with legal issues and rights here which can be detrimental.

Also if you're using a licenced character people will expect you to be as good as what they saw in the movie, when you're not they'll complain and say your haunt is 3rd rate and that its not scary, whereas if you had used a different character in a similar enviroment perhaps you would have had a better reaction.

Once you begin to move up in the world of haunting ween yourself off of movie inspired characters and settings. Let the creative juices flow and im sure you can come up with a character just as frightining.

Jackie
Rotting Flesh Radio Haunt Hottie

[DarkTikiEntertainment]

This is the exact kind of thread that would fit into the "Aspiring Pros" category I'm trying to get the Haunt World forums to add.

[hoffie08]

thanks and yeah i was kinda thinking the same thing about could you get in trouble for doing that. thanks for the advice