Workshop

Using A Fortuneteller as Line Entertainment
By Tony Gardner

Large crowds will very likely converge on your location on the last weekend of October, if not before. No one likes to wait in long lines, and some patrons will opt to go somewhere else if you cannot keep their interest level up. Line entertainment is an economical way to control this traffic while making that wait seem shorter. It can also set the scene and increase the scare level of your attraction. In the past, we have had great success with using a gypsy fortuneteller as line entertainment. Setting the stage for the haunt and the state of mind of the patrons.

Keep the look of your gypsy generic and basic. A very light coat of clown white make up for the actress’s face with gray highlights and lots of wrinkles. For the costume, use an off-the-shelf gypsy wig and a very loose flowing gown. A shawl to wrap around her shoulders and all the costume jewelry you can find completes the look.

For the stage and props use an old round table in front of the seated actress and place upon it a small candle and a plasma globe. Build two flats and paint them to look like stone walls. These are then connected behind her to protect her back.

The best actress for this part is one with good improvisational skills. She will have to be able to think on her “seat” as she answers a wide variety of questions from the patrons. After a while, she will have built up a repertoire of snappy comebacks for the most repeated questions. The idea here is to keep the crowds interested in your haunt and try to pique their curiosity. Have your gypsy foretell of things that happen in key scenes of your show. Make up a brief history of each scene and give the patrons something to watch out for. “ Beware the vampires. In this house live 5 bloodthirsty vampires. All are dangerous, but heed my warning! Stay clear of the one with the pendant of Alucard, for he is the master.” This gives your patrons something to look for as they make their way through your haunt and when a vampire with a pendent reveals himself in the show, the future has been foretold!

Answers to some questions however, need to be avoided. Children, wishing to believe, may ask personal questions about life and death that are better left unanswered. This is where the acting ability of your actress is tested in her ability to gracefully sidestep the question. “ I see... I see...No; the evil here is far too great. The only thing I am able to see for you is terror and I pray for your safety”.

Because the gypsy is out in front of the show, she can also assist with crowd control, directions and information inquiries. She can be there to answer all those frequently asked questions. “How much is it?” “How long is it?” and “What time is the 7 o’clock show?” You may wish to help save her voice by placing a sign on the front of the table with FAQ’s like prices and directions to the port-a-cans.

Another use for your gypsy is to pry information from the patrons that could be used against them later. Give your gypsy a two-way radio to pass the names of patrons about to enter into the attraction onto the actors inside. This really adds to the scare level of the house when someone in the show calls out the patron’s name as they walk through.

For slower nights, when there are no lines to entertain, you can use a videotaped message from your fortuneteller. Place a television monitor at your ticket booth and let it play over and over again. The scene is still set, the patrons have something to entertain them and they are still warned of things to come.

Using a gypsy for line entertainment can be done fairly economically. The costume is simple and easy to acquire, and the few props that are needed can be easily found or built. Setting the scene for your haunt and setting up the patrons to increase the scare level makes your show even more effective. Making your lines seem shorter and giving your patrons something to do while waiting will greatly enhance their enjoyment of the experience. A scarier show and higher patron enjoyment level will increase your income through word of mouth, the best type of advertising you can have.

Tony Gardner AKA Doc Fright of Bare Bones Marketing and The Festival Of Fear in Newtown, PA. He can be reached at (215) 598-9735 or PO Box 332, Penns Park Pa 18943

Pneumatic System Design

To many, the hiss of compressed air conjures up childhood memories of theme park rides and haunted houses. The soft yet startling sound can be just as effective as music at setting the mood of a haunt. The use of compressed air pneumatics in commercial Haunted Attractions is well established. These systems are a very powerful, yet inexpensive alternative to electro-mechanical devices such as linear actuators. It is so inexpensive in fact, that these systems have found a niche in Home Haunting as well. If used properly compressed air is safe and reliable. However, the use of extreme pressures and undersized or homemade cylinders can create a very dangerous situation, one that can cause injury, death or at least an expensive lawsuit. With an understanding of a few basic concepts and a little algebra (I know, I know, when you subscribed they promised no math, but trust me this is easy.) you can custom design and build safe, reliable pneumatic cylinders. Basically, a pneumatic system consists of compressed air, forced into a chamber that pushes a piston and therefore a rod, which is then attached to something you want to move. The size of the piston, and the pressure needed to move it has been guesswork until now.

Instructions for building PVC cylinders can be found on various prop oriented web sites (or see issue #14 of Haunted Attraction Magazine), however, these ‘stock’ designs may not always meet your needs. There is often a need to design your own cylinders, which are just the right size for the job. This customizing creates less wasted air so that your compressor runs less often.

When designing your own cylinders the first thing you need to consider is the amount of weight you need to lift. A larger diameter cylinder, or bore, will allow you to lift more weight with less pressure. To find out how much weight a cylinder can support use the following balance formula:

‘Balance’ is achieved when the force (F) in pounds, equals the pressure (P) in pounds per square inch, multiplied by the area of the piston head (A) in square inches.

The piston head is a circle, and to calculate the area of a circle, multiply p (pi) by the radius of the circle, squared. For example, a 2-inch diameter piston head has a 1-inch radius and an area of 3.14 (3.14 x 12). Using the above calculation tells us that a 2-inch cylinder can support about 157 pounds with 50 PSI of compressed air (157 = 50 x 3.14). This ‘Balance Point’ is the amount of weight the cylinder can hold up at the specified pressure, however, since you want your props to pop out quickly in front of unsuspecting victims...err...patrons, we need to subtract 75% from this weight. That leaves a prop that must weight 39 pounds or less. If you need to lift more weight you can either increase the pressure (WARNING: exceeding 60 PSI is dangerous) or increase the area of the piston head (bore size).

If you already have the weight of the prop and want to find out what size cylinder will lift it at what pressure, we can turn this formula around to solve for the of the piston head area.

‘Balance’ is achieved here when the area of the piston head (A) in square inches equals the force (F) in pounds, divided by the pressure (P) in pounds per square inch.

To lift a 22 pound prop, we increase this weight by 75% (remember we want it to pop out quickly), which gives us about 38.5 pounds. 50 PSI is a good, safe operating pressure so we will hold that as a constant. We can now plug in the numbers and solve the equation.

The radius of a circle is equal to the square root of, the area (A), divided by 3.14 (p) and the diameter is twice the radius, (find a calculator to do the square root for you.) ? ?For a 22-pound prop pop up, diameter of the bore required is about 1 inch. (However for a small prop such as this you may consider increasing the bore size in favor of lower (safer) operating pressures.)

The length of the cylinder (or throw) is determined by how far you want the prop to move. In some cases, like the Scare Factory corpselator, levers are used to increase the distance that the prop moves, without increasing the length or throw of the cylinder.

When choosing the size of the air inlet for your cylinder, bigger is better. The greater the airflow into the cylinder, the faster the prop will move. Use an air inlet that is as close as possible to the inside dimension (ID) of the air hose. The standard inlet connection is a brass nipple threaded into the PVC pipe, and care must be taken when installing and sealing this connection. It is usually the weakest link in the system, and I have seen more than a few blow out of the PVC cylinders.

When selecting an air compressor, the volume of air it can supply (measured in cubic feet per minute) is the most important factor. Again, bigger is better, but for most haunts a compressor that can provide 6.4 CFM @ 40 PSI should do the trick. The Home Haunter can do with 3.7 CFM @ 40 PSI unit. If the compressor has a relatively small tank, adding a portable air tank to the system will greatly increase the performance of your props, not to mention decrease the wear and tear on the compressor.

Another piece of the puzzle is how the air pressure is applied to the cylinder. If the prop only has one cylinder movement or you do not mind all your props activating at once, then a simple hand-operated valve inline between the compressor and the props will serve the purpose. If on the other hand, the prop has multiple movements or you wish to activate multiple props at separate times, you will need to invest in solenoid valves to control the action. Inexpensive solenoid valves can even be scavenged off of old appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers. Most solenoid valves are operated by 120 VAC household current and are connected between the air line and the cylinder. Now you can operate your entire attraction from a bank switches in one location, or the props can also be automated to activate on their own by using electric eyes and/or motion sensors.

In the last few years, pneumatics has drastically changed the direction of the Haunted Attraction industry, and Home Haunting as well. Using compressed air is relatively straight forward, and the concepts presented in this article will allow you to produce a very efficient system. Whether you are running one prop with one motion, or several props at once, these guidelines will provide you with excellent results. Do, however, remember that compressed air can be dangerous if used improperly. Use common sense when designing props, keep the air pressure below 60 PSI and thoroughly test each prop before it is used as a public display.

Jon Szpakowski is the Technical Supervisor for "A Haunting On The Ridge" in Lockport, NY. He can be reached at JonS999@aol.com

Color Theory

Color communicates a great deal of information. The color spectrum is a combination of hues, grays, shades, translucent tints and highlights. Because of the way the eye and brain work to interpret color information, colors next to each other will affect how they both look. Color information can portray emotion, movement, temperature, time of day, weather, etc. Colors depict stages of decay and age, and there are groups of colors that are found under particular conditions. Light conditions such as twilight have a great deal of the ultra-violet spectrum, but not much of the normal spectrum, so the fluorescent pigments in flowers tend to look bright but colors from the middle of the spectrum will wash out to a dull gray.

Variables in Color
Hue distinguishes blue from red, or yellow from blue, etc. A degree of black and/or white is called admixture. Adding black to orange will create the color brown. When color pigments are mixed together, the eye interprets them as one new color. Mixing yellow and blue pigments will appear green to the eye. The spectral colors can be arranged in a circular pattern, called a color wheel, with each color having a relationship to each other and its opposites. Colors such as red and yellow are considered warm and the colors such as blue are considered cool. The wheel is not cut in half for warm and cool colors; two thirds of the wheel is warm colors. The primary colors are red, yellow and blue. These three can be combined to create all the other colors on the wheel. The secondary colors are: orange, which is red and yellow mixed evenly; green, which is yellow and blue mixed evenly; and purple, which is red and blue mixed evenly. In between the secondary and primary colors are various shades of hue. Thus the wheel is divided into three groups with the primary colors of red, blue and yellow as the dividing lines. The three color groups are the orange, purple and green.

Admixture
When we talk about pigments of color, black is a combination of red, blue and yellow pigments that absorb all colors of light, while reflecting no color back to the eyes. Thus, black is the absence of any visible color. Now it gets a little confusing. Normal light comes in three colors: red, blue and green. When pigments reflect all three (red, green and blue) colors of light at the same time, the eye interprets the mix as the color white. When pigments reflect green and blue light together, the eye interprets the mix as yellow. Paint pigments subtract one or more of the colors from the combined color spectrum. Don’t let this confuse you when mixing paint pigments. In fact, you could forget what I just told you about the light spectrum. Just learn the information on mixing color pigments.

Adding black to a color is called graying and will make the color seem warmer, richer, slower, quieter, heavier, further away from the viewer when it is up close, and create the illusion of a more opaque hue. Adding white to a color is called "pastelling" and will make the color look faster, cooler, lighter, louder, and more distant when it is set far from the viewer, and will create the illusion of a more translucent hue. Adding both white and black to a color does not actually cancel each color out; instead it creates a muddy color that can become very busy.

Color Mixing
Pairs of colors that mix to black are sometimes called “complementary.” These pairs usually consist of a primary color and its opposite secondary color such as yellow and purple. Technically, if you were to mix the three primary color paints together evenly, you would produce black, but pure primary colors are almost impossible to buy. For example, a jar marked primary yellow will have some white mixed into it. Mixing this contaminated yellow with red and blue would result in a muddy gray color. When you are mixing secondary and primary colors try to think of the secondary colors as separate primary colors. For example, if you mixed a quart of blue with a quart of orange, you have actually mixed 1 pint of red, 1 pint of yellow and 2 pints of blue. So out of the 4 pints you have mixed 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue resulting in 3 pints of black, plus 1 pint of blue, the end product being 4 pints of very dark blue.

The primary colors are rarely used as they are. They are too striking and can become visually irritating. Often, adding a small amount of another color visually controls colors. Examples are Chinese red (red with a little yellow), blue-green (blue with a little yellow), and yellow-green (yellow with a little blue). This can make matching existing colors and creating specific colors quite difficult sometimes.

If you were trying to mix a yellow-green to paint leaves on a tree, you may mix a pint of yellow that has been contaminated with a drop of red into a pint of green. The single drop of red would combine with a drop of blue and a drop of yellow that is already in the green. This would result in 3 drops of black, which would be quite noticeable in the final quart of paint. This contamination problem can be difficult to deal with for props viewed by a close-up camera. Fortunately, your Haunted House will probably not subject your props to this kind of scrutiny, but you should always strive for the best results you can get each step of the way. Little imperfections here and there can add up to a ridiculously unconvincing prop if care is not taken.