A select few (maybe more) believe that I am full of hot air. Be that as it may (I tend to hover above ground, and my subjects) air effects in haunts have a place. Motion sensors, on the other hand, are of questionable benefit. I tie these two together because most haunts do. Air effect here, er, motion sensor there, hmmm, customer walks here… wham, effect scares customer. HA!
Actors and technicians are expensive. They cost in actual wages, damage they cause and items they borrow for long periods of time. They can make mistakes, injure a customer or themselves. The appeal of pneumatics/hydraulics (big brother to pneumatics, move mass quantities) is obvious, but the appeal of motion sensors is laziness. I have seen the best and the worst of the pneumatic effects. And they can all scare customers equally. But, only if the customer happens to be in the right place, at the right time and looking in the right place at the right time when detected by the motion sensor. A great many variables. Before the advent of motion sensors an actor/technician would activate the effect at the correct moment. He might even assist by creating a distraction that would cause the customer to be in the right place at the right time creating maximum scare/startle. The distraction is one of the main elements missing with air effects. Customer walks in, the jack pops out of the box and we all get a good startle. The traditional way to make the customer look at the object is with it being the only thing to look at in the room. This works, yes/no, because they will look, but this is a haunt and what may be lurking in the shadows. The customer looks at the Jack in the Box, then around the room, the box goes pop, but was anybody looking? One of many ways to get the customer to look in the right/correct direction is the distraction. Maybe the front of the Jack in the Box has a color wheel that begins to spin. Customer reaction, "Wow, big deal", and then the Jack pops out of the box. So what is a haunt owner to do? Hire more actors/technicians? NO. Technology has come to your rescue. Build and install the effect. Determine exactly where the customer must be and where he must be looking. Install a video camera (oh, its dark, duh… FYI we have low cost cameras, $200 or less, that see in total darkness) so that the customer is looking into the camera at the time the effect is triggered. Do this for four effects. The camera view should show no detail of the scene. The picture should be nearly black except when a customer comes to view. The object doing the scare/startle must not bee seen by the camera. The cameras area of view should only reveal the customer and his reaction. SAMs has a low cost b&w quad security system, but for the deep pocket guys low light color systems with 16 cameras per monitor are available. Create a tech space for the monitor and remote air effect and distraction controls. Depending on customer flow a single tech can easily control four effects, slow nights he can control eight or more. An obvious advantage to a camera effects system is in the area of security. Cameras are more effective than metal detectors, add a video recorder and watch problems drop to near nothing. This is a major investment. The system can be added to each year. Year one; four cameras, monitor, four air effects and a large bottle of aspirin. Year two; add sound effects, live mic and tech sound. Year three; add multiple air effects in same room/scene. Year four; add a monitor in the lobby where customers are waiting. If yours is a b&w system colorize the video with a red or blue piece of Plexiglas. If you use the mic in the scene audio can be added to the video. The tech can select which video signal to feed to the waiting area with a simple a/v router. Add sound with tech-controlled sound effects in the scenes, monitor the customer's reactions via a microphone and the tech may use information obtained at a latter effect or respond live to the customers in the scene. An air horn directly over the customer's head that triggers the same time the main effect does will require a mop and bucket close by. I but scratch the surface here; your imagination should be fanned to flames by now. And as much as this may seem, it is but the tip of my burg on the subject, but alas, I cannot give everything away.Mad Hatter
Copyright 1999, All Rights Reserved