They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well this one pretty much sums up the success of our 2005 Haunt, The House.  All the hardwork paid off in a big way!  Not so much in raising funds for our program, but in so many other ways.  I learned A LOT!  So much so that I could write a book. (I'm thinking about it....)  And out of all that I learned, I want to leave these few things with you:

*If you've decided to advance from a yard haunt to a walkthough, remember that if your scares are powerful and well placed, going into great detail to decorate each and every scene is not necessary.  Start them off with the first room fairly detailed since this is usually the room they will spend the most time in. (Waiting room/Rules room)  The second room will be looked at, as well since they will be wondering where the heck the scare is coming from.  Once their curiosity has been satisfied..BOOM...they're on their way!  And if your scares are powerful and placed correctly, they won't look back.  This was a lesson I learned in 2004 and carried it over to 2005 and beyond.  My second room this season doesn't have to be detailed at all since it's a Decontaminiation Chamber filled with fog and a red laser moving to the sound effects being played.

*It unnerves your patrons to hear a MAN scream inside the haunt.  LOL!  Think about that for a minute....

A man is suppose to be the strength ~ the backbone of a relationship, the family, etc..etc.  Well, everyone becomes quite uncomfortable and, well...scared, when they hear a man scream.  It gives the message that if it's horrible enough for him to scream, what is it gonna do to me??.  I learned this while video taping several people going through.  At a certain point, one of our male actors will scream in agony off in the distance.  They all felt as though he was a customer like them and thus, was afraid of what was ahead. 

I recently introduced a survey to MySpace friends asking ten questions, one of which was, "What would you like to see/hear while waiting in line?"  Several said, "Screams from inside the haunt."  I'm glad to know this since that's what we gave them last season and have planned for this season, as well.

Speaking of this season....

There are several changes taking place.  One of which being our name.  I have seperated the Nonprofit's name from the Haunt's name so the haunt is now an entity of it's own.  It will not longer be "ShadowBox Theatre Company Presents."  The haunt is now known as: THE SCREAM EXTREME. 

After searching around with polls on forums and chatting with friends, I came up with the name because that's exactly what we heard last season ~ Extreme screams!

Another change that's taking place is the way that I'm marketing our attraction.  I knocked myself out last year trying to get the word out about us only to have approximately 500 people to show up in the three days of operation.  Grant it, that's ten times as much as what we had the year before, but much less than what I had anticipated.  This year will be much more successful.  How?  Here's several reasons:

*Dinger, the Mascot of the Sacramento River Cats Baseball Team is coming here one night to sign autographs!

*Several local bands are coming here to perform!

*We're in Operation this season for three weekends plus Halloween ~ opening night being Friday the 13th!  That's a total of ten days!

*Opening night will be kicked off with the Yell Like Hell Screaming Contest. 

Prizes will be:

Hockey Mask signed by Kane Hodder, Jason from Friday the 13th

Autograph pictures from Elvira, John Carpenter, etc

And MUCH more....

Things are progressing quite nicely.  BUT, it's still quite stressful.  However, I feel all my hardwork will pay off in dollar signs this year.

And how is your day going....?

PEACE