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ACTORS V.S. ANIMATRONICS: The ultimate face off

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  • #31
    From beginning with the local JC's haunted house to now, one of my biggest frustrations has been trying to create numerous scare opportunitys for my actors so they don't get bored, BUT when I did this many of them thought I was asking too much of them, couldn't understand what I was trying to tell them, had no sense of timing and generally didn't do multiple scares, they did one because they were too confused(scared or lazy?) to comprehend anything more than that?
    This is not rocket science! Put yourself in a certain location, do a certain thing the way I tell you. Then after that move to the second location and now do the other thing I showed you how to do, now return to that first location, and while travelling between those locations if you see some customer vandalising the place or wandering lost scare them or escourt them out or call someone else to help you do the appropriate thing, whichever that may be.
    It was actually easier to have my helpers learn over 30 minutes of leading and narrating the house tour than for them to do hit & run ambush scaring!?
    Of course anything does require some time to get it right and some of those early people left long ago.
    I actually have some very talented and creative tour guides here that crack me up!
    They might use a line I use then modify it slightly or tell the line making me the butt of a joke, implied or actual.
    Most people who have worked here found out right away that this is harder to do and do within acceptable standards and limits than they imagined it would be. I have been at fault sometimes forgetting this because I have been performing here basically non-stop over all these years.
    An earlier comment about a real person gets tired making the same spiel all night long...(versus a machine doing it) I say different things all the time. This makes it more interesting for my customers and me.
    Last October in one night I began by telling of a true supernatural experience here and as the night wore on and the crowd got drunker it morphed into my psychic ability to guess which person sitting on the couch was going to pass gas next?
    It all played well, I had fun too!
    hauntedravensgrin.com

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    • #32
      I think scare actors are better because we are able to hide in many places and we can react to the situation happening where a machine can't. Say if someone is more scared of us we can play off that fear but if someone is scared of a "prop" it can't do anything else then what is programmed to do
      David "Pug" DeChamps
      Owner of Unlucky 13 Haunted Design

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      • #33
        Of course if a customer is scared of a prop-clown and you have enough money to own 12 identicle prop-clowns and have them throughout the entire house around every corner.......a live actor would be very hard-pressed to match this, especially being able to keep ahead of the customers physically (like I do) and keep setting up, catching a breath and scaring them over and over.
        I have often toyed with the idea of having "Jim" masks made for all of my October helpers, sort of like when numerous people all showed up at Haunted Attraction's Costume Ball all wearing "Leonard" masks, made with the talents of a photo copier.
        Very Funny.
        hauntedravensgrin.com

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        • #34
          Looking at all of the posts here it seems to me that pretty much everyone agrees that there needs to be a balance of both for shows to be the most effective. I would also agree with the sentiment of Jim Warfied saying that "money drives the show". I am assuming he means that the more money you have, the more animatronics you can buy. So, I agree with Nicole who said that she is partial to some of the big shows (like Netherworld) that use equal amounts of both. I have been a quest actor for the past five years at Netherworld, and truly this is the "Walt Disney World" of haunted attractions. Ben Armstrong's approach of "the more you throw at the wall, something will stick" has proven to be successful. The customers who come back again year after year expect lots of "eye candy" with spectacle (big animatronics) and talented actors who display a variety of improvisational acting skills to interact with them. Especially the sliders outside who both startle and entertain the customers. In my opinion, if a haunt is new and does not have a lot of money, it is better to take what money you do have and invest it in your makeup crew and your actors by providing them with as much information and training that time and money will allow. You start their training in early september (or even august) by making them attend manditory weekly seminars (preferably both saturdays and sundays). You hire the best acting and makeup coordinators you can afford to put your actors through as many acting workshops (involvement is a must) and makeup classes as you can cram in 8 weeks. Shoot video of them to show them how they can learn what they did right and what they need to work on. Have them take photos of their makeup jobs so they can start to build up a bunch of different character looks and have them build and act around each of them. If you do all of this and more, I guarantee you will improve their potential and the quality of your show by 50% compared to if you didn't. As you have heard many times "people are what makes a company successful", I will end by saying "animatronics can't interact with customers making them resonate over the dialogue that was said to them hours or even days later".

          Geoff Beck
          Performer/Makeup Artist
          Geoff Beck is an acting and makeup veteran of 13+ years who has been involved in educational seminars and has worked as a coordinator for many different haunts. He has directed PLAYING WITH FEAR, and HAUNTING MAKEUP VOLUME ONE.

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          • #35
            This would be a cool television show...

            Actors vs. Animations

            All the actor has to do to win is unhook the air! LOL

            I think the actors would win!

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

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            • #36
              Being "old school", getting my start as a haunt actor back when the height of technology was a floor-mounted switch that allowed an actor to blackout a room, I think that animatronics DO have their good points, when it comes to effects or characters that would be extremely difficult/expensive or downright impossible for a human actor to pull-off. (i.e., the leaping corpses and giant creatures sold by companies like Scare Factory.)


              However, animatronics, regardless of how good, have a limited range of movement and are incapable (at least for NOW) of reacting spontaneously with haunt patrons. It's that degree of uncertainty that adds to the atmosphere of a haunt, not knowing what the actor in a scene is going to do next...
              "We all go a little mad sometimes..."

              - Norman Bates

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              • #37
                Animations and Actors shouldn't "battle" each other, they should work together in harmony
                The Ultimate Horror Movie Battle Poll

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                • #38
                  "Work together in harmony?"
                  And be made to share the SAME restroom I suppose?
                  Nobody must be in that stall, I can't see any legs as I look under the edge of the door..."Gotcha!" "Yikez! Dammit! You darn no-legged pnuematics can pop up in the darndest places, now pull yourself out of that toilet and dry yourself off before returning to work."
                  hauntedravensgrin.com

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                  • #39
                    i feel that animatronics are good for scares that are unexpected actors are even better cuz lets face it if was not for actors you would not get the same kind of scares with a animatronic then with an actor so like a number of people have said before if mixed the right way .....you get picture

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                    • #40
                      Originally posted by Empressnightshade View Post
                      Before October 2006, I would have been completely in the actor's corner. An animatronic cannot calculate who is the best person to scare in the group and cannot deviate from the time it's been given to activate.

                      However........

                      I had sooooo many problems with actors not showing up this past season. It was a nightmare! One night, we had to completely close off our trail, leave the haunt portion open only and reduce the price to half due to actors not showing up. RIDICULOUS! AND for those who did show up, I'd had it up to eyeballs with their complaints about needing water and bathroom trips. Even when we had discussed in several meetings about bringing your own water with you and making that all important trip to the restroom before we opened, they just wouldn't comply. Good grief, we were only open four hours! To add insult to injury, they refused to stay in their designated scenes. I had one actor in particular who refused to stay in the haunt. He kept going out front where others could see him! Needless to say, he's not coming back.
                      We had one animatronic named Larry. He was great!
                      I definitely know how that goes. I act at a multi-attraction haunt in Michigan called Night Terrors and we have well over a hundred actors in total so it gets REALLY hectic sometimes.

                      Back to the original topic, I absolutely cannot stand any more than a few animatronics in a haunt.
                      I drove from Ypsilanti, MI (where I live) to Niles, MI - a 5 hour round trip - to go to Niles Scream Park's opening night. I'd heard really great things about it and was assured it was worth the very long drive.
                      Boy was I disappointed.
                      Nearly every "scare," save three lackluster performances from costumeless actors weilding chainsaws outside the exit of the main haunted house, was animatronic. I was bored to tears.
                      I'd never felt like I wasted an evening on a haunt before, but at the end of the day I just wanted to have my 20 bucks plus gas and 6 hours of my life back...


                      The bottom line is that animatronics just can't interact with a group the way that a good actor can, and at least for me that IS the reason that haunts are so much fun. It's the interaction and the unknown element. Wondering if that scary looking thing was a piece of the wall or if you're going to turn around and find the bastard in the middle of your group!
                      You can have all the fancy animations and decorations you want and you might startle the occasional teenage girl, but when's the last time your electric chair gag made a grown man run screaming out the exit?
                      There's just nothing like a good actor in a haunt. The ability to ad-lib and assess the crowd is something that an animatronic can never, and will never be able to do.
                      I say by-pass the animations and invest your time and money on setting up your actors to get the job done.

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                      • #41
                        Haunted attractions should have both actors and animatronics.
                        Typically, actors provide better scares than animatronics, however, if you want the monster scaring your patrons not to resemble the form of a human (eg. giant insect or dragon) you should resort to an animatronic. Animatronics provide great "eye candy" and entertainment, but the realism and unpredictable actions of a live human will scare them more than any animatronic. Haunts should have a mixture of both, and shouldn't replace actors over animatronics or vice versa.

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                        • #42
                          An animatronic holds nothing back when it comes to imaginative construction and gory capabilities. However, an animatronic will not respond to the crowd. An animatronic will not throw creepy retorts to childrens' insults. An animatronic will not warn and evict rowdy groups. An animatronic will not escort crying children out. An animatronic will not recite halloween songs and poetry while waiting for the parent that walked to the exit with their child to return. An animatronic will not learn and whisper group members' names. An animatronic will not personalize scares based on what it heard from the group. An animatronic will not tone down or hike up its scariness to suit the kind of people in its group. An animatronic never sneaks into the lobby for one final scare. An animatronic never dashes to the crosswalk outside for one final scare. At the end of a tour, an animatronic is never thanked.

                          My name is Scary, and I am NOT an animatronic.

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                          • #43
                            Wow.....that was oddly inspirational...

                            *applauds*
                            Creepers Haunted House- The creepiest haunted house in the Southeast.

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                            • #44
                              "Animatronics really never scare anybody."
                              I heard this first at Transworld many years ago from the featured speaker at the semiar.
                              I disagree.
                              Mine have scared many people (and not just little girls!)
                              One time one scared a big girl so much that her reactive move made her punch a man and knock him to the floor, landing flat on his back! "OOPS!"
                              Most of my critters are made from all common hardware store items (and we have small old fashioned hardware stores locally.)
                              A garage door opener, hinges, steel cable, bolts, plywood, sheet metal scraps, fabric, fake furr, plastic doll eyes, little ball-bearing wheels from a patio door.
                              hauntedravensgrin.com

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                              • #45
                                You know I'll tell you something if the liberals get a hold of the White House in 2020, more animations will be the way to go. Haunted Houses can't afford $15.00 unless we cut our staff by 35%... so how would you make up the scare ANIMATIONS!

                                So to ANYONE thinking about making animations going forward here is a suggestion... ONLY MAKE SCARY ONES!

                                LOL

                                Vote for Trump 2020!
                                Larry Kirchner
                                President
                                www.HalloweenProductions.com
                                www.BlacklightAttractions.com
                                www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
                                www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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