# My First Yard Display



## jimmyzdc (Sep 24, 2007)

I used to haunt my parents home when I was younger but now since moving out, getting my house, and having a family I've finally got back into it and did my first haunt at my own house. We just moved in back in May so it took a bit to figure out the best way to setup the display since this is our first Halloween here. I've learned so much on these forums and I really couldn't have made such a cool display with out everyone's great info. I still have a few more things to put out that aren't in the pictures (FCG, all the sound stuff, Strobe/lightning setup, various little stuff). I already have a huge list of improvements I want to do next year....I really need to get started ASAP after the holiday for next years display

I must admit after the hard work and sometimes frustration it makes it all worth it when people slow down while driving up the street and let us know how much they love the display. Can't wait til weds. night!



































<-- FCG is going in the window right above the porch...barely visible in the picture. As you can see in this picture I had to contend with the light pole that is directly in front of my house (shadow of the pole right up the walkway). Luckily I think the lighting didn't get to washed out. Although my strobe can't contend with the street light. You can barely see the strobe effect on the house. Tonight I'm going to try to position it on the roof of the porch area and project it on to the second storie of the house. Hopefully that will work better if not...next year I'm gonna have to get a much more powerful light.


----------



## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Looks better than my fast prop set-up I had to do this year. I think melty found a million watt strobe on another thread. LOL

I like the pole line. Kind of like the shadow of death's "red carpet" to your house!


----------



## Liam (Mar 23, 2007)

Wow, looks great! Nice work.


----------



## pixiescandles (Oct 18, 2007)

I like it...good job!
Now...here comes my question...lol....seems every post I do comes along with a question!
What are you using for your spider web? I have seen a few people using it and after seeing your haunt...I know I want to use that rather then the bag kind.


----------



## HrdHeaded1 (Sep 20, 2007)

Nice job.. !! Hope you have tons of candy ready for tomorrow night!

Pixiescandles: Beef netting  Works great for those cobby webs.. I usually get it off ebay from this lady on ebay Look up item number: 230162526060


----------



## Ghoul Friday (Oct 6, 2007)

I really love the lighting on the porch (from the eyes in the bushes to the extra colour from the ropelight).



pixiescandles said:


> What are you using for your spider web? I have seen a few people using it and after seeing your haunt...I know I want to use that rather then the bag kind.


heheh Pixie, I thought the same thing the first time I saw it in the pictures online. They aren't selling it here in Ontario (that I've seen).



HrdHeaded1 said:


> Beef netting


Really? Interesting.


----------



## jimmyzdc (Sep 24, 2007)

Yup it's beef-netting. I hated using the cheapy cob webs and I saw these in use on some else's haunt and thought I would give them a try. I love the way the turned out and every one that walks by my house always wonders how the heck they are made. Most people have never seen anything like them. I got mine directly from Trenton Mills. They sell them in 5 and 10 pound rolls for haunters.

http://www.trentonmills.com/halloween_spiderwebs.htm


----------



## slimy (Jul 12, 2006)

Excellent work.


----------



## jimmyzdc (Sep 24, 2007)

Sickie, 

I definitely want to pick up that 750 watt strobe for next year that Melty found. I hope thats enough


----------



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

I think the beef netting webs give a cool Scooby-Doo look to a spooky house... they're fun and just have such a cool shape.

They also make great membranes if you go with a bio-horror look... I saw a haunt that used it in the alien pod nest/lair/whatever.

Great display Jimmy! Lotsa nice color and good layout. Looks like a lot of fun.


----------



## Uruk-Hai (Nov 4, 2006)

Great display! I really like how you've set up diff. colours for the diff. areas - green for the graveyard, red for the scarecrow and blue for the spiders. It really make the yard look bigger than it is and focus your attention.


----------



## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

REALLY NICE Jimmy...good composition, great color balance of lighting, your design time really shows


----------



## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

Great display, are you sure this is your first year?!


----------



## kerryike (Oct 5, 2006)

Love your display! I'm really begining too believe that proper lighting is THE most important element to a really good display. Your display does just that. Very nice work.


----------



## jimmyzdc (Sep 24, 2007)

Thanks everyone for the great comments. It came out so much better than I could have imagined. I already got a whole list of stuff I wanna do for next year! I'll probably get going right after Christmas when things seem to die down.

I'll try to get some more pix tonight/tomorrow. I'm leaving work here in about 15 min. Gotta setup the FCG in the window, strobe on the roof and get all the speakers setup for sounds effects. Oh ya and get that fog machine filled up and ready :devil:


----------



## jimmyzdc (Sep 24, 2007)

Wow what an amazing night. My neighbor told me that only about 60-70 kids usually come by TOTing so I figured I had enough candy....well word of mouth must have gotten out about our display because we ended up having 254 TOTs!! I don't think anyone around here has gone as far out as I did on the display because everyone was amazed. People loved everything...especially the FCG. The kids were so excited and the parents were in awe as well. They were chatting together from the sidewalk trying to figure out how all the things were created and what the spider webs were made from while I was handing out the candy to their kids. I couldn't believe how many parents busted out the cameras, cell phone cams, and camcorders and started to record my display. I really hope this gets more people into getting crazy for Halloween next year. But today really just got me all amped up to get next years display bigger and better. One of the best compliments I got was from a women who said she had been TOTing for hours with her kids and she said I had the best display of any house...by far. She even said that she and the other parents really appriciated the time and effort I put into it and it really made their night. I had the biggest smile on my face all night.

Anyways, enough rambling here are a couple shots from the final setup. I added another light in the graveyard area to backlight the fog and shine on the house. Also the pumpkins are out on the ledge and the big eye-catcher the FCG. And what you dont see is I had 3 seperate audio tracks playing. Crows, Howls, and crickets for background in the graveyard, thunder and lightning up on the roof, and the creepy girl singing itsy bitsy spider in the porch area.


----------



## haunter-x (Sep 12, 2007)

Wow, this is a great display, about what I am shooting for next year. Would you be willing to elaborate on how you let each element of your display? What kind of lights, wattage, etc. I know I need to get my lighting nailed down before I really work on anything else for next year. And yours is just great.


----------



## jimmyzdc (Sep 24, 2007)

Thanx Haunter-X for the kind words. Basically my lightning setup is really simple. It consists of 3 outdoor floodlights for lighting the yard area. You can see in one of the above pictures the red spotlight and the blue is basically the same thing on the other side. The green spotlight is behind the palm tree in the graveyard and pointed up at the house. The lights bulbs are the outdoor colored spotlights made by Philips that you can get at Home Depot. I don't have the actual wattage but I'll check when I get home. I also have 3 4-foot black lights lighting up the porch. One is mounted under the eves and the other 2 are in the actual porch. Other than that I have the strobe light up on the roof providing the lightning effect. Another thing I always try to do is hide the actual lights as best as possible. I think it adds to the effect when you can't actually the mechanics behind the lighting. Good Luck!


----------



## kerryike (Oct 5, 2006)

Great job on your display. I'm glad you had a good time. You seem to have the lighting element set to perfection...which is more difficult than it sounds for a large area in the dark. 

I'm a little confused about the red spotlight on the bottom picture. Why does it look like a globe? (or were you referring to the one at ground level?) 

For some reason, I always achieve a look that is much darker than desired when I initially set up all of my lights. 

As I write, I constantly find myself scanning upwards for another look. What fixtures do you use to mount your spotlights...and if you could get back with the wattage, it'd be appreciated. 

Thanks much for sharing your pics.


----------



## bigjeeper (Nov 1, 2007)

Great job !!!! very sweet looking:jol: :jol:


----------

