Deployment and Setup

It's simple, right? You build a bunch of props; you put up a bunch of props. Simple.

We even dedicated all the daylight hours of October 31 to setting up. It's simple, right?

Well, we ran out of time. Not just one year, but every time.

There have got to be some tricks to setting up this stuff....

Rule #1 - No construction on Halloween!
Draw the plans
Pretest That Exact Setup
Prepackaged Deployment
How are you going to hide that?
Related Pages

Rule #1 - No construction on Halloween!

There seems to be a natural urge amongst haunters to build just one more prop. That's fine, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and sunset on October 31 is not a good place.

We have firmly resolved that no construction happens on setup day. That's for setting up. If it isn't already built, it doesn't go out!

(Now, if we can only keep that resolution....)

Draw the plans

We draw a hookup diagram for any significant assembly. This helps us gather the parts, simplifies advance construction, and helps debugging.

It's easy to tell yourself that you know exactly what it takes to hook up a CD player to a modified Boris. But did you remember to get a wall wart for the CD player? And the CD puts out stereo, while Boris in monophonic, so you'll need a splitter, combiner, or something. Those amplified speakers need 110 VAC, right? So you'll need a cube-tap...

My point is: when you draw it on paper, you are stepping through the process of construction without the labor of building something. It helps order your thoughts and catch mistakes.

[photo] This is the deployment diagram I made for Terror Tone.

It's not pretty, but it helped a lot in the planning.

Pretest That Exact Setup

In 2000, I thought I was being clever. I burned a custom CD with the sound track for the FCG. I tested that CD in a couple of different CD players, and it worked fine. Then I piled up all the equipment for all the props, and got ready to set up.

When Halloween rolled around, I sorted through the pile of stuff, pulled out a Walkman-style CD player, wall wart, and powered speakers. I took them to the CFG area, where I had previously dropped AC power.

I got everything hooked up, and discovered that the CD would not play. We went without sound for the FCG. Postmortem indicated that the inexpensive CD player didn't like the CD that I burned.

Moral of the story: test all components, integrated, exactly as they will be used. Testing on similar equipment is not enough!

Prepackaged Deployment

It isn't sufficient to pile up all the equipment that you intend to use. Getting it all together is good; it saves hunting on the big day. But you don't want to be sitting up on the roof, and suddenly realize that you need just one more cube tap, or that plug A doesn't fit socket B, or that you don't remember how it all gets hooked up.

I suggest that all sub-assemblies be put together and tested in advance, and placed in boxes, ready to use.

We use plastic boxes with snap-on lids. Each project gets its own "deployment pack".

[photo] These boxes are made by Sterilite. Extremely approximate dimensions are: 5 1/4" tall, 9" wide, 14 1/2" deep.

The standard-size can of spray paint is only in the picture to give a sense of scale.

How are you going to hide that?

So, you have a talking skeleton, or lunging monk, or threatening spider. Somewhere nearby, serving the prop, you need some gadgetry. Perhaps it is a solenoid air valve, or a CD player for the sound, or a power supply. How are you going to keep that stuff from intruding into the scene and distracting the TOTs?

One way is to build the support package into the prop itself, or into an adjacent prop. You could put a lot of stuff into the hollow body of the giant spider. There's room in the chest of the mad monk to put his pneumatic equipment. We're planning to pack a lot of stuff into our graveyard fence columns. But that's more in the line of disguising the equipment. You can't always do that.

First, keep repeating the mantra, "darkness is our friend." Again and again. The key to hiding stuff in plain sight in a haunt is to make it the same color as darkness - black.

In previous years, we used black plastic trash bags to hide the support equipment. Small packages would fit entirely in the bag. Larger packages could be covered by plactic from cut-open bags, several uncut bags.

In 2002, we intend to use black cloth sheets and pillow cases, based on an idea from Ron Tye. The cloth is dark and flexible, but has the additional trait of not having any reflective shine. It is also reusable.

You might be interested in related pages:

Thank you for visiting. Your comments are welcome.
. . . . . .