# Need input!



## dusty588 (Oct 8, 2006)

Hey there. This year, for our yard/house display, I don't really have a theme, but here's what I'm thinking. Last year, I got a ton of corn stalks, attached several to a bamboo pole, and stuck them in the ground. I put six scarecrows around the yard, and some other small stuff. 

This year, what I'm wanting to do, is instead of corn stalks, is to get branches of varying sizes and thickness and put them throughout the yard. I'm just wondering what else I could put with them. I was thinking of doing a small graveyard, with the trees, a couple of the coffins I made, and some tombstones. I have a fence that I made last year, that I will put up, as well as a PVC "tunnel" that has for coming out of it. 

I was also thinking of making a larger "scarecrow" type of character that would be at the centre of the yard.

I'm also having a hard time deciding on lighting. I'm using the LED spots from Spirit. I want to use either the blue (which I have 4 or 5 of), or go with the "black"(purple). Suggestions on this?

Suggestions for music?

Any and all ideas welcome!

Thanks! :jol:


----------



## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

I have thought of doing something simular and looked at photos of very old and abandon grave yards for inspiration. Small trees and bushes of various sizes and clumps of tall grasses around stones. Tombstones tipped at odd angles or broken. I like to go with single color lights for the most part, usually blue and green. or blue and purple. 
Check out the graveyard in the music video "Thriller", it has a good look to it.


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

A graveyard would work very nicely for the items you already have. Add Spanish moss or spider webbing to the trees, scatter around a lot of dead leaves, and I'd go with blue lighting. It makes for prettier pictures if you take any night photos

You can also make some small lanterns with ball jars and tea lights to either place on the ground or hang from the trees. Add a little fog and you'll have a very nice scene for Halloween.


----------



## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Probably the least expensive, and most realistic touch you can add to your graveyard is to Let your grass grow long.
Old, abandoned graveyards/cemeteries need to look just that, old and abandoned. So no mown grass or neatly trimmed bushes.
The longer grass makes it easier to had extension cords, speaker wire, etc.
As far as the lighting goes, so much depends upon the look you are going for, your ambient light, how your props are made or painted, and last but not least, your budget. There are a lot of great threads on this forum showing different uses of lights, often with multiple colors of lights used at the same time. But some colors of light are toucher to the ambient lighting, so you need to look at those conditions, and do a bit of playing.
Take photos of the different looks, you may find that you can get some extremely different effects just with the change of color, type and position of lights.


----------



## SavageEye (Sep 4, 2010)

dusty588 said:


> Hey there. This year, for our yard/house display, I don't really have a theme, but here's what I'm thinking. Last year, I got a ton of corn stalks, attached several to a bamboo pole, and stuck them in the ground. I put six scarecrows around the yard, and some other small stuff.
> 
> This year, what I'm wanting to do, is instead of corn stalks, is to get branches of varying sizes and thickness and put them throughout the yard. I'm just wondering what else I could put with them. I was thinking of doing a small graveyard, with the trees, a couple of the coffins I made, and some tombstones. I have a fence that I made last year, that I will put up, as well as a PVC "tunnel" that has for coming out of it.
> 
> ...


Get grey creepy cloth and cut it into small chunks. Drape the chunks on the ends of the branches and it looks like your branch just came out of the swamp.


----------



## SavageEye (Sep 4, 2010)

fontgeek said:


> Probably the least expensive, and most realistic touch you can add to your graveyard is to Let your grass grow long.
> Old, abandoned graveyards/cemeteries need to look just that, old and abandoned. So no mown grass or neatly trimmed bushes.
> The longer grass makes it easier to had extension cords, speaker wire, etc.
> As far as the lighting goes, so much depends upon the look you are going for, your ambient light, how your props are made or painted, and last but not least, your budget. There are a lot of great threads on this forum showing different uses of lights, often with multiple colors of lights used at the same time. But some colors of light are toucher to the ambient lighting, so you need to look at those conditions, and do a bit of playing.
> Take photos of the different looks, you may find that you can get some extremely different effects just with the change of color, type and position of lights.


Along the lines of letting your grass grow... We live in San Diego, the last couple of years it has been in the low 70's at Halloween. I go around the neighborhood the week before and rake my neighbors leaves (preferably) the ones with color. Then the afternoon of Halloween, I throw them all through out the yard. It is amazing how little details like that improve the look of your yard.


----------



## dusty588 (Oct 8, 2006)

fontgeek said:


> Probably the least expensive, and most realistic touch you can add to your graveyard is to Let your grass grow long.
> Old, abandoned graveyards/cemeteries need to look just that, old and abandoned. So no mown grass or neatly trimmed bushes.
> The longer grass makes it easier to had extension cords, speaker wire, etc.
> As far as the lighting goes, so much depends upon the look you are going for, your ambient light, how your props are made or painted, and last but not least, your budget. There are a lot of great threads on this forum showing different uses of lights, often with multiple colors of lights used at the same time. But some colors of light are toucher to the ambient lighting, so you need to look at those conditions, and do a bit of playing.
> Take photos of the different looks, you may find that you can get some extremely different effects just with the change of color, type and position of lights.


Thanks for the reply. That's such an easy, but effective way to add too the look (grass). I think I'm going to go with the blue lighting. We have a street light, right in front of the house, and I think the blue would work better than the black/purple.


----------



## dusty588 (Oct 8, 2006)

SavageEye said:


> Get grey creepy cloth and cut it into small chunks. Drape the chunks on the ends of the branches and it looks like your branch just came out of the swamp.


I never thought about hanging some cloth on the trees, great idea! I think I'm also going to drape some along the house (eavestrough/gutter), and around the door/garage frame.


----------



## dusty588 (Oct 8, 2006)

SavageEye said:


> Along the lines of letting your grass grow... We live in San Diego, the last couple of years it has been in the low 70's at Halloween. I go around the neighborhood the week before and rake my neighbors leaves (preferably) the ones with color. Then the afternoon of Halloween, I throw them all through out the yard. It is amazing how little details like that improve the look of your yard.


We have NO trees in our yard, but there are TONS around us. I think I'll do that this year, such a simple project!


----------

