But First: This project is different

Our parties have always been grand and immersive in nature. Each has always had the "three overwhelmingly cool aspects" or more that I find so critical in making the party a success. This will too, more on that later. While prior projects have been grand in scope, as there's so many aspects needed to make a group of invited people happy, this event focuses on an arguably smaller Set, with no band/entertainment, and only a small food/drink requirement. The guest list is primarily the Public, which is a tough customer, but again, arguably we don't hav to make every guest happy like we do with an invited guest list. If part of the public doesn't like what we've done, it's got to be ok. We will have private parties come and partake of the hidden bar, and that I am going to be very concerned about, but overall it's less of an issue.

This event will focus on story, artistry, and technology, in that order. The Story is all important. The Artistry supports the story, and the Technology supports the Artistry. This ordering cannot be overstated.

The level of detail in this event will be several orders of magnitude better than our previous parties. Instead of huge rooms to paint one or two colors, there will be smaller spaces and Props that need to look not good, but great, from a few feet away. I want the Production Value of this event to be very high. That's a high bar, but we will be open up to 15 days and we will be open to the scrutiny of the public.

Because I want things to look good from a few feet away, and more importantly, feel great if guests can actually touch them, I don't want to do the usual PVC pipe painted black fencing for example, I want to make a real fence with real rod iron. I want to make real brick columns (although maybe mostly wood inside) and so on. This won't be easy or cheap, but I believe it will make a big difference in the guest's impression.

Look and Feel

If one were to ask me what existing Haunt we will most resemble, I would state that I would humbly like to try to imitate the famous Hallowed Haunting Grounds started by Gary Corb in the early 70s. I've met and spoken with Gary at another event one time besides speaking with his briefly at their haunt. Another haunt that is similar in production value that I highly respected for it's story-driven simple but super high-end effects was The House of Restless Spirits run by magician Eric Maurin before the city shut it down due to no parking. I talked with Eric for quite a while and we talked about me working on it when it closed down. The Facebook page has some videos of the haunt worth seeing. This haunt we should look at the props for their effect and quality, but not the theme. I also liked this haunt for the way in which it was strongly story-based.