# Unpleasant Street 2007



## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

First, a little explanation. I set up our graveyard, as per usual. However, this year I incorporated a short mini-walk from the back deck (scene with the gypsy head in the photos) that consisted of some static props, one animated prop, and an actor scare. The walk led up to the pirate bar, "The Crow's Nest."

The contents of the crow's nest were various pirate items and two pirate skeletons. The pirate skellies are singing a song when the patrons enter. They then are interrupted by the visitors and start their spiel about their shipgoing misfortunes. The skellies agree to let the intruders (visitors) go if they can answer three questions. The three questions were taken from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

I actually had the skellies rigged so that they waited for answers to the questions before the dialog proceeded further and had them rigged so there were two paths for the dialog to go on in the event the person answering the questions knew the answer to the "Unladen Swallow" question. If the questions were answered, the visitors got to have a treat bag from the chest free of incident. If the questions were answered incorrectly, they had to sing along to a song with the skellies to get the loot from the chest. Amazingly, EVERYONE who came through and got the song dialog, sang along. Only four groups knew the right answers to the questions and got away without having to sing.

Anyhow, here is a sampling of photos from this year. You can view the full album by visiting this Halloween 2007 pictures by Zombie-F - Photobucket.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Zombie-F/Halloween%202007/2007_10300076.jpg http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Zombie-F/Halloween%202007/2007_10300122.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Zombie-F/Halloween%202007/2007_10300153.jpg http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Zombie-F/Halloween%202007/2007_10310023.jpg​


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Nice stuff. Like the lighting too. The fog looks good. It was too breezy here so we didn't even set up the graveyard fogger.


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## HalloweenZombie (Jul 22, 2007)

I bow to the master. Very, very nice work.


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## THeme ssaGE (Jul 16, 2006)

Excellent. Looks like a lot of fun.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

Very nice Zombie, I really like the way some of your new pirate stuff looks on display.


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## ScareFX (Aug 18, 2004)

Looks terrific Z. Sounds like you had a bunch of fun with the crow's nest. Well done!


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## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

fantastic ZombieF!


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## DeathTouch (Sep 6, 2005)

Awesome Zombie!


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

jdubbya said:


> Nice stuff. Like the lighting too. The fog looks good. It was too breezy here so we didn't even set up the graveyard fogger.


We had loads of wind here too, but I wasn't going to skip the fog. I probably should have and saved the fluid for another year, but I didn't feel like lugging the fogger and chiller back into the basement. 



ScareFX said:


> Looks terrific Z. Sounds like you had a bunch of fun with the crow's nest. Well done!


The Crow's Nest was a huge hit. People were amazed that the skeletons not only talked to each other, but that they interracted with the audience. I can't wait until I have some time to post some video of it.

Thanks for the compliments everyone.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Great job guy!


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## IshWitch (May 31, 2006)

So much fun!
The way you did the skeletons is beyond beyond! That must have totally freaked out and amazed the guests. I would love to have something like that to add to our yard, WOW!


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## mikeq91 (Jul 19, 2005)

Thanks for another great year Zombie! my dad and i are blown away every year that we come back. I liked the new walking path behind your deck and the buckies were awsome as usual. I hope that everyone that came apreciates all the hard work that you put into it. 

I'll take a look at my pics and if theres any that are worth posting i'll put them up. I don't have a great camera and am terrible at taking pictures, but besides that they should be fine...


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

mikeq91 said:


> Thanks for another great year Zombie! my dad and i are blown away every year that we come back. I liked the new walking path behind your deck and the buckies were awsome as usual. I hope that everyone that came apreciates all the hard work that you put into it.
> 
> I'll take a look at my pics and if theres any that are worth posting i'll put them up. I don't have a great camera and am terrible at taking pictures, but besides that they should be fine...


I'd love to see any pictures you took. I'm going to be putting a request out for people who visited to send in their photos to be posted, especially now that I've heard from a lot of the visitors that they visit the Unpleasant Street site on a semi-regular basis.

It was so much fun this year. I'm so sad it's over for another 363 days.


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## daveo1101 (Sep 23, 2007)

Oustanding job - Love the bar!


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## Ghoul Friday (Oct 6, 2007)

Lots of fun. I want your kiss the corpse apron please. 

Got a good chuckle over the "Candy" "More Candy" signs.


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## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

Excellent display Z, do you have a video of the pirate skellies, would love to see that?!


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

man, I can't wait to see some video of tot's singing with those skellies. Too cool.


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## mikeq91 (Jul 19, 2005)

Alright, I uploaded the pics... some are better than others. I didn't know where else to put them so I just put them on my picturetrail

www.picturetrail.com/mikeq91


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

mikeq91 said:


> Alright, I uploaded the pics... some are better than others. I didn't know where else to put them so I just put them on my picturetrail
> 
> www.picturetrail.com/mikeq91


Some of those are very good. Just a hint, the key to using the camera's nighttime photography is to keep the camera perfectly still. A tripod is perfect for this sort of thing. The night mode relies on the camera keeping the shudder open for a longer period of time to take in as much of the low light environment as is possible, so even the smallest movement makes the photos blurry. I see you picked up on this near the end of your night time shots. It looks like you rested the camera on top of one of my cemetery columns to counteract the shakiness of the human hand.

Good job! I hope you'll make it out next year too. It was good to talk to you again. Did you ever make it over to Bone Daddy's haunt? Were my directions any good?


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## widowsbluff (May 24, 2006)

Great job as always.


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## mikeq91 (Jul 19, 2005)

Yeah, i actually started out in night mode but i was finding it too hard to keep it still without a tripod. Your columns are the only reason that the cemetary shots are halfway decent. I gave up and just used the flash, oh well. 

Your directions were perfect! We checked out bonedaddy and mnstrmm's haunt who also had a theme of pirates... He said that they were on a small budget this year, but they still had some great stuff. 

(by the way, I've had your pirate song stuck in my head ever since i left...)


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

mikeq91 said:


> Yeah, i actually started out in night mode but i was finding it too hard to keep it still without a tripod. Your columns are the only reason that the cemetary shots are halfway decent. I gave up and just used the flash, oh well.
> 
> Your directions were perfect! We checked out bonedaddy and mnstrmm's haunt who also had a theme of pirates... He said that they were on a small budget this year, but they still had some great stuff.
> 
> (by the way, I've had your pirate song stuck in my head ever since i left...)


The pirate song is actually from a childhood cartoon special that I love, "Garfield in Disguise" aka "Garfield's Halloween Special." I had looked it up online to get the words and discovered it's actually taken from a real pirate song called "Over the Raging Sea We Go." I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to have it stuck in your head. It's been stuck in mine since I was 8 years old. 

I'll have to get in touch with Bone Daddy and mnstrmum to see how their haunt went.


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

Very nice, Zombie. I love "kiss the corpse"


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## Ghostess (Aug 21, 2005)

LOVE it all, I especially love how you had them answer the questions or sing... too funny!


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Ghostess said:


> LOVE it all, I especially love how you had them answer the questions or sing... too funny!


I managed to snag a video of one group that had to sing along. It was freakin' spectacular. It was easily the hit of the night.


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## pyro (Oct 7, 2006)

Wow Z Looks Great --road Trip In Order For Sure See Ya Next Year


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## Gothic Nightmare (Jul 19, 2007)

Great work! I love the fun and interaction. I would love to do more of that myself.


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## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

Great work Z cant wait to see the video. I like the scarecrow you added.


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Well, I got the skeleton's routine all edited together and uploaded as a video file on YouTube. I have a second video I shot on Halloween with a group of people that came through that I'll edit and upload later on this week.


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## Richie (Jan 4, 2007)

That was really excellent!


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Richie said:


> That was really excellent!


Thanks! I plan on posting a brief how-to on how I made them more interactive with the audience, so keep your eyes peeled for that.


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## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

You da man! 

Your Unpleasant Street documentation, the essence of what the haunt was was and the spirit behind what you were doing, and the fog on the rocks chiller, was one of those that inspired me to try my own yard haunt a couple years ago back off the halloweenforum.

I still remember when you showed us the talking buckies telling jokes. I suggested you do a stand-up comedy routine unless you were already thinking about that it seemed a no-brainer and you pulled it off. I like the way those guys have evolved year-to-year. Something I look forward to seeing on video. Skellie Pirates doing a Monty Python and the Holy Grail routine  

How many people actually stopped to watch the routine? I wouldn't be able to get people to stand still for two seconds.


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## Death's Door (Mar 22, 2006)

Definitely a great set up Z!!!!!


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Fright Zone said:


> How many people actually stopped to watch the routine? I wouldn't be able to get people to stand still for two seconds.


Out of the 100 or so ToT's we had, only one group didn't really hang in and pay attention to them. I called them the ADD group. Otherwise, the time from the start of the dialog until the interactivity was perfect. Just when you could tell the people were starting to get bored with it, the skellies start asking questions and it drew the attention back in.

Tonight, I'll finish the video I shot of one of the groups that came in and upload that too.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Next year, I hope to add some more motion to those skellies in the form of 2 or three axis head movements.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Check out Mike's pictures again. Motion blur can be your friend sometimes... he's got a closeup of your gargoyle... with the eye lights shining through the fog stream it looks like he's blowing fire out of his nostrils. Very cool.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

Wow! Nice job on all of it, Z! I look forward to the interactive how to. You're haunt just keeps getting better and better!


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

And now the video I filmed with one of the groups that came through the haunt this year. THEY SANG ALONG!!!


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## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

That's fun! It kept my attention. But after all that what kind of treats did they get?


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Fright Zone said:


> That's fun! It kept my attention. But after all that what kind of treats did they get?


They got a treat bag consisting of:

Two fun size candy bars
A glow bracelet
Glow in the dark super ball
A pair of vampire teeth OR a skull whistle
A pirate medallion OR an eye patch OR a pirate ring
A pirate sticker

Not too shabby and thanks to Oriental Trading, it's not too expensive to throw together.


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## mikeq91 (Jul 19, 2005)

thats awsome! they were much better singers than my dad an i were...


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## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

^^ Ah yes Oriental Trading Co. Good idea. That is a good treat bag pay-off.


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Ok, so here's the night time video I shot. I spliced in the one reaction shot I got from the 8 foot tall goat creature, which is about halfway through the video. Brave little girl...


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

cool video.

"how tall are you really?" - funny stuff.


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## BuriedAlive (Jun 8, 2006)

[Bowing reverently before the Master Z] Great stuff, Z-F. The ToT's in your area certainly get treats when they go to Unpleasant Street. How many ToTs did you get?


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## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

You are the man Z


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