The History of the Scare : Oak Island Entertainment & Productions
By Leonard Pickel
In 2004 well over one million people experienced an Oak Island Productions Haunted Attraction. Oak Island has produced multiple attractions at Busch Gardens Tampa, Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Hershey Park, as well as attractions at Sea World Orlando, Miami Seaquarium and Paramount's Kings Island while fabricating and marketing a Scare Products division currently servicing over 200 major customers both within the U.S. and abroad. Oak Island is a true testament to the passion, hard work and teamwork that are key components to building a company.
Haunting Past
The middle child of two sisters, John Hawkins III was born and raised in Crestwood, Kentucky on a farm East of Louisville. His first Haunted Attraction experience was at the age of nine at the Oldham County Jaycees Haunted House. "I just remember the sheer exhilaration of terror when a cast member instructed me to crawl through a dark tunnel," John recalls. A few years later at the age of twelve, John created his first Haunted house in the basement of his home. "My buddies and I found a roll of black plastic. It was close to Halloween so we had the idea of building a Haunted house." After a week of cleaning out the basement, hanging plastic and repositioning the washer and dryer they were ready for their first victims. "I remember my first design not going according to plan," John recalls. "People were getting lost in the maze and coming out of the entrance instead of the exit."
The kinks were worked out and slowly John's makeshift Home Haunts started to improve. Each October for several years, the Haunt in the Hawkins' basement was in full swing. The rest of the year, when the basement Haunt under construction, John spent countless hours drawing out designs and sketches of new scares and potential room designs.
By the time John was a young teenager, the Haunting operation out grew the basement. To keep the growing number of visitors from trampling through the house, John’s Haunt was moved into a nearby wooded area, Neighborhood kids and family always encouraged Johns Haunting endeavors. "I continue to be inspired by the support I have received throughout my life," John now says. "My wife and parents have been amazing." Moving the Haunt outside provided greater space and interesting challenges, and provided opportunities to experiment further. One great thing about Haunting the woods was that it could be worked in year round. The last year of the outdoor haunt, John had saved $200.00 to spend on props and other equipment, recalls John "My, how budgets have changed!" Haunting activities temporarily suspended while John went to college and served in the U.S. Air Force, setting up fueling stations for military aircraft, but he always had that "itch" to Haunt.
The Forming Of A Company
Oak Island Productions was actually formed in Minot, North Dakota near the border of Canada. It was here, in 1995, that John was serving a final tour in the military. John was at very important crossroads and needed to make some life impacting decisions; to make a career serving his country, or to follow his passions for entertaining people. During this time, John experienced the untimely deaths of both his grandmothers and his future mother-in-law within three months of each other. Realizing that life was precious and short, John made the big decision to follow his dream!
John formed Oak Island Productions and started producing Haunts in the Dakotas. The company was named for John's favorite childhood story, a tale about pirates and lost treasure on Oak Island in Nova Scotia.
Building A Team
There is no "I" in Haunt, and during Oak Island’s first production in the Dakotas John realized that if Oak Island were going to produce world class attractions he would need to surround himself with a team of skilled people who also shared his passion. "You cannot teach passion to someone," explains John, "but a passionate person can learn to become talented." Ambitious undertakings require a great team of passionate individuals working as a whole. Individuals who can not only excel in their unique talents, but who also understand how their role fits into the overall operations of the company. An early goal of Oak Island was to build a team of personnel with expertise in every aspect of building a Haunted Attraction so that the internal operations would be entirely turn-key.
A fellow Air Force comrade with John, Frank Aridano, was one of the first to join the Oak Island Team. "Frank was gracious enough to spend countless nights with me building our first Dakota Haunt," Recalls John, "For free of course! Frank’s only request for payment was that he wanted to operate the chain saw at the end of the attraction once the show opened. "Then and there I knew Frank had the passion for the industry," explains John. Living in Winnipeg Canada, Frank is current chief of product sales and still loves dressing up and chasing people with chain saws!
Realizing that Dakota was not the most opportune location for an entertainment company, the decision was made to move Oak Island to Florida. John had friends and family in Tampa bay, and decided to relocate the company there in 1998. Soon Patrick Graham, a young, talented artist from Grand Rapids, Michigan joined the Oak Island team. His hard work, attention to detail and determination has been a cornerstone for the company’s growth. Pat has been the nuts and bolts of many of the Oak Island operations and has grown into an amazing artist. Pat currently heads up scenic design for the company, and also happens to be John's brother-in-law.
Together, John, Pat and Frank set out to build Haunted Attractions in conjunction with local radio stations in Tampa. The first events were not necessarily profitable, but offered great insight into marketing promotions, fire codes and guest interactions. The evolution of Oak Island has been more than just the sweat of a few individuals, it has been a family affair. One year John's parents, grandmother, sisters, cousins and uncles all flew to Tampa with their own funds to help Oak Island produce a Haunted woods attraction. "There are probably no less than fifty people who have played a crucial role in our growth," explains John, "Through kindness and belief in our vision for the company,"
Discovering Transworld
In the late nineties, Oak Island’s attractions were still being produced almost entirely from trial and error on local assets, they had not yet been utilizing other industry vendors. Their first glimpse of the organized industry was at the Transworld Halloween, costume and Party Show in Chicago. "In 1999 we attended the Transworld trade show and were awe-inspired by what we saw." This convention completely changed the Oak Island business model. No longer would they have to build everything from scratch.
Armed with loads of catalogs, contacts and Haunt information, the team returned to Tampa. The goal was to combine the new knowledge that they had gained with the traditional unique designs they were currently using in hopes of offering their services to theme park clients. They then set out on a campaign to meet potential customers.
In 2000 Busch Gardens Tampa was developing an inaugural Halloween event titled Howl-O-Scream, and they were looking for vendors who could help them achieve their goals of producing quality Haunted Attractions. Oak Island contacted the Busch Gardens Tampa Entertainment staff and created a proposal to build the Labyrinth Of Lost Souls, a themed attraction for the amusement park, and was awarded the project.
"I have learned so much from the gifted Busch Gardens Staff," explains John, adding that it was the Busch Gardens who emphasized the theming, attraction storylines, and layering of the Haunted experience. From the Busch projects, Oak Island team learned how to build attractions with the impact that Oak Island Haunts are now known for. "Working with the Busch group for the past several years has been an honor," boasts John.
Customer service is a hallmark of Oak Island Productions, and on most projects an on site technician is provided to the client for 40 – 50% of the operation dates. "Our attractions tend to be pneumatic heavy," explains John stating that most parks do not have pneumatic experts, and John wants to make sure the animations and effects are working properly.
As the company gained attraction building projects, the need to grow the team became apparent. Alex DeRito joined the team in 2001 under entertainment operations. Alex has been a building block for the company on many levels, and is known around the shop as "Mr. Oak Island" because of his knowledge of so many company operations. Today, Alex is one of the primary sources of Oak Island conceptual artwork and plays a vital role in most attraction fabrications.
With a talented team in place and a clientele base to build on, Oak Island then faced the challenge that has destroyed so many other Halloween production companies. If clients would line up and buy one attraction per month, this business would be easy, but more often the projects all come in mid summer or later and all of the clients want to install at the same time. So how to you keep your staff employed in the slow months?
Scare Products Line
In 2001, Oak Island decided to start manufacturing their own line of Halloween products. "We felt like there was definitely a market share in the industry to offer high-quality, durable effects," explains Frank, "While also catering to Haunters who need supply oriented materials." A product line would be a substantial step forward in producing year-round employment and growth for the company.
Creating a Scare Products division seemed like a natural evolutionary step for the company. "One of the challenges we faced in our own field work was designing props and effects that could operate reliably on a theme park level." Explains Frank, "We knew that our effects wouldn't be the least expensive effect on the market but we focused on building everything to an industrial standard."
Oak Island soon began product development meetings and research for their first products. To produce the types of effects we were looking for, Oak Island immediately became aware of the need to further their expertise in the areas of controllers, pneumatics and overall effect construction. Shawn Keeney, Director of Construction and Special Effects, soon joined the team to fulfill this role and so many others. His passion and enormous talent in various aspects of Haunting has driven Oak Island to new quality levels. Shawn is currently responsible for most product design and development, while also playing a key role in attraction design and installation.
Oak Island's first signature product offering was a line of exploding toilets designed for Haunted Attractions. The exploding toilets offered an immediate identity to the product line. Initial sales were very promising and the toilets continue to be one of the most successful products the company manufacturers. The Scare Products division continues to grow at a rapid pace as we strive to provide quality effects and supplies for Haunters. Do we want to portray the image that our toilets are one of our #1 sellers?
Expanding Operations
In 2002 Oak Island added another vital team member, Joe Whitcher. As General Manager, Joe provided an immediate positive impact on the company. Joe's experience and commitment to the processes of business communications has streamlined Oak Island's client/vendor relationships while also adding in-house efficiencies in numerous areas. Joe currently supervises most attraction installations and plays a large role in client representation.
Frank was not the only person that John stole away from the military. In 2003 John married his long time companion from his Air Force days, Stephanie Graham. Stephanie was an office manager for a veterinary clinic, but now is working full time in charge of John Hawkins IV, the couple’s 4 month old son.
From 2001 to 2004, Oak Island greatly increased their attraction services and clientele base. In addition to working on creative development projects for numerous Halloween events nationwide, they also produced attractions such as Sleepless Hollow Manor and Distorted Dimension at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Escape From Insanity and The Mortuary at Busch Gardens Tampa, SeaWorld's Halloween Spooktacular at SeaWorld Orlando, Curse of the Mine and Ruins of Sleepy Hollow at Lowry Park Zoo, Monster Splash at Miami Seaquarium and Sleepy Hollow Horror at Paramount's Kings Island. "We are so grateful for all of the wonderful and exciting opportunities our clients have awarded us," admits John.
Along with building attractions for major theme parks, Oak Island has also increased their clientele to family fun center attractions and existing attraction upgrades. In the past 2 years, Oak Island has produced or upgraded attractions in Panama City, Florida, Wisconsin Dells and Butler, Pennsylvania.
The last project of the 2004 Haunt season was one of the most challenging projects to date. The Oak Island Productions Team and Hershey Park collaborated on a brand new event titled Haunted Harvest. Haunted Harvest is a separate ticket admission event within Hershey Park that consists of acres and acres of themed Haunted farm land and three Haunted Attractions. This exciting project also provided one of the largest logistical challenges ever undertaken in the Haunt industry. The task was to install three 5,000 square foot Haunts and transform acres of surrounding land into a Haunted farm in only 10 days! The project challenged the Oak Island design and development team to rethink their Haunt design process for speed of installation without compromising the quality of the experience. After 18 months of development and teamwork, five semi trailers, 80 cast members, and a fifteen member Oak Island installation crew, Haunted Harvest opened October 14, 2004 to rave reviews!
The Present
Today the Oak Island Team continues to expand its service offerings for Haunted Attractions, Haunt scare products, creative development, consulting services and event partnerships. They are excited about just adding Joe Tegethoff as Financial officer to the team. In the near future they will also be expanding into other seasonal and entertainment divisions. As this article is written Oak Island is busy conducting product development for their 2005 Scare Products catalog and the creative team is meeting regularly planning new Haunted Attractions to Haunt America in 2005.
From that first sheer terror at age of nine, crawling through a tunnel at the Oldham County Jaycees Haunted House, John Hawkins has turned a true passion for scaring people into one of the leading Haunted Attraction providers in the country. Through these endeavors Oak Island has and will continue to share their own brand of Haunting to millions of satisfied customers!
Leonard Pickel is the editor and chief of Haunted Attraction Magazine. He can be reached at editor@hauntedattraction.com or by phone at 704-366-0875. |
Oak Island quietly continues to build some of America's greatest Haunted Attractions based upon the principles and approach of its founder and president John Hawkins.
FAST FACTS
Oak Island Productions
PO Box 79187
Tampa, Florida 33619-0187
813-242-8485
info@oakislandproductions.com
www.oakislandproductions.com |