# The missing details



## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

There always seems to be some sort of detail or prop that gets missed by the public in a haunt or display.Some tiny bit of 'something extra' that you proudly add in to push a prop over the edge, but people just don't get it.....For me, it was the small boutineer (sp?) made out of baby's breath that my hearse driver wore on his lapel....dangit! I thought someone just might notice...but NO! 

So what details did you all add in that frustrated the snot out of you that nobody seemed to see?


----------



## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

ooh yeah...while I'm at it...my hearse driver's name was SID.

nobody even batted an eye.


----------



## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

yeah i get what you mean. I was surprised this year that no on one said a thing about my pair of skelys in a bird cage. thats normaly the favorite of a lot of people. but no one said a thing this year. also, I had a "bar and grill" (new for this year) with a vampire costumer who was drinking blood and eating a plate full of insects ad body parts. I also had a sign near it that said "speacials spaggheti and eye balls, spicy maggots, sweet and sour toes, noses, and tofu." i dont think very many people read it. Strangely enough the thing that got the most comments was a small jar on my lab table that had a lable that said "dead mans toes"


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Each year, I try not to agonize over little details I add, that others don't seem to notice, but it does get frustrating, as the details really mke a scene IMO.
A few things; We have a brass victorian style mail box mounted to the side frame of our front door. I place a latex hand in there every year. You have to look to see it but it's very visible. Hardly anyone notices/comments.
The witch potion bottles we made were all pretty cool but only a handful of people made mention of them. I also placed a cat prop at the foot of a witch sitting in a chair but no one said anything. It doesn't really bother me, and I realize that kids and adults are in a squirt to get to as many places as possible in the alloted amount of time so most of them really don't stop to look at a scene or prop and pick out the things we put into them. I think we tend to put too much emphasis on details sometimes, and while we appreciate them (and can take the time to add them), others just take in the "big picture" and keep moving.


----------



## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

very true Jdubbya, about people just taking in the large view....but I love the details and REALLY love it when someone does "get it" too!


----------



## edwood saucer (Aug 21, 2006)

Really - none that I agonize over. I learned in year one that none of the real details show - so it really makes the job easier. There's a silly list of "to-do's" next year - but more or less aimed at making set-up easier.


----------



## Devils Chariot (May 23, 2007)

*Miss ID*

What really mad me made was when some lady told her son to look at that scary cat, which was my monkey!


----------



## PrettyGhoul (Oct 7, 2005)

*That made me laugh Devils Chariot, to funny! Personally I love your monkey; it looks fantastic!*


----------



## 1031fan (Feb 6, 2007)

interesting convos about the details - since i really strived for details this year ill throw my 2 cents in - i agree that a lot of details can get lost in a display that we take a lot of effort and time to create - however i think the key is to really take a lot of time to plan out WHERE and HOW you display your details - if you have a really detailed piece or a specific small one that you want to accentuate - make it noticeable - even if its the coolest thing ever no one will notice it if it doesn't have some cool lighting or something to make it stand out - someone else on here (sorry for not remebering the name) said about the quote that its not perfection were striving for but rather the appearance of perfection - and it couldnt be more true - 3/4 of a scene people wont be able to see because of shadows, low light - obscured vision, and other stuff - so we should use that to our advantage - im sure there are some purists who will disagree and say that they want there display to look perfect in the daylight as well as under haunt lighting - and thats great too - but just dont be disapointed when that one prop you worked a week on gets no scares/comments at all - if we really plan out the lighting and design the space well - we can leave a lot of places undetailed and expand our haunt/display becauase we only need to have really detailed props for the areas of high lighting or unobscured areas - for example - i have gotten a lot of compliments from you guys about the detail in undertakings which i greatly appreciate - and while some areas have a lot of detail - many other places have little or no detail - but i can get away with that because no one will really see it anyway - riley


----------



## Brad Green (Jul 29, 2004)

Sometimes it's not just the details. Folk's here were worried the song I had my skeleton prop singing (Stephen Lynch's "Halloween") would be too controversial, well, not to worry. Seems most people's attention span is just south of a gnat's. Not one person stood still long enough (a whooping 2 min.,38 sec.) to even hear the song, let alone get offended. "OOOooo look, that skeleton's singing! Trick or Treat, Bye!" Guess we just have to do this stuff for ourselves, and not really worry about anyone else has to say. Their going to miss 98% of what's right in front of them anyway. I spent seemingly endless hours on getting that skull and program just right, and it was my tombstone leaper which only took a week to construct that got the most reaction. Go figure!


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Good point BG. I busted a hump building my version of the scarefx witch and it was an awesome prop that had center stage. I heard a few (out of almost 500) people say something about it, but most walked by and headed for the candy and out to the next house. I gotta think someone is taking it all in, or at least appreciating the effort.


----------



## tuck (Oct 27, 2007)

Perhaps we are all looking at this the wrong way. Maybe they truly are noticing all the little details just in not a conscience (sp) way. It could be the entire scene is being seen all at once and without the small details the haunt would not have any impact at all on the TOTers. 
Of course on the other hand, my other hobby is saltwater aquariums. People come over and see the large pretty fish but nobody notices the smaller perching fish or the corals the make up the meat of the display. Maybe Brad is right...and their attention span is "just sound of a gnat's"


----------



## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

Well, personally I am not terribly worried about if someone 'gets it' or not.....just was curious how others felt about their labor and toilings going un-noticed. A display that is full and rich with details is what sets it apart from the rest. I had many,many repeaters this year who came back just to try to take it all in. That made me feel pretty good, since the last few years I hardly had any ToT's at all. (but then, I hardly decorated at all, either)


----------



## Ghoul Friday (Oct 6, 2007)

Brad Green said:


> "OOOooo look, that skeleton's singing! Trick or Treat, Bye!"


lol

Yeah. I know that people notice the small details, even if they don't comment on it. And I agree that even if they don't "pinpoint" the finer detail, it adds to the overall success of the prop.

Dave, mine this year was that I cut out a picture of an eye and taped it to the back of my crystal ball in the display case. I positioned it perfectly so that anyone sitting on the couch or approaching the case would see it looking out from inside the crystal ball (it was such a simple and neat effect).

Well..as far as I know, no one noticed. When I was packing up the decorations, I brought it downstairs to show my boyfriend and asked if he'd seen it. He looked at it and said "No I didn't...that's neat". I nodded, felt better, and put it away.

But it's one of those things that I TOTALLY would have noticed if I was at someone else's place. And if I'M that way..and YOU are that way..and a number of OTHER people on the forum are that way, then that means EVERYTHING gets noticed eventually, but perhaps not mentioned.


----------



## CreepyCanmore (Mar 27, 2007)

I agree with all the above comments. I'm not sure if anyone got or noticed my Silver Bullets Suck tombstone with a severed werewolf arm attached to it. But then, I think we also do the detail work to satisfy ourselves, because if we didn't do it, we just wouldn't feel like we did it right.


----------



## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

I agree that we put the details in for ourselves more than anything else. I think everyone sees the detail and because it looks "right", nothing is "noticed or appreciated".........BUT what a crush it would be to hear someone say "that guy should have had a boutineer(sp?)"
The tombstones that had the adolescent names, e.g. "Ben Dover" for the most part went unnoticed, but the people who did bother to read them laughed their asses off- which is exactly what I was hoping for.
The thing that I enjoyed most was probably the cheapest effect, those cheap $5 flying bats, flying in mid air.....everyone wanted to know how it was done. 
Basically, if it's done right, people will just say wow, but if it's done wrong, they'll notice!


----------



## ScareFX (Aug 18, 2004)

BudMan said:


> ... those cheap $5 flying bats, flying in mid air...


I put one of those up every year and it ALWAYS gets comments... Go figure... You'd think a talking skelly or flying ghost or banging coffin would get more comments... but no it's the stupid flying bat. LOL


----------



## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

ScareFX said:


> I put one of those up every year and it ALWAYS gets comments... Go figure... You'd think a talking skelly or flying ghost or banging coffin would get more comments... but no it's the stupid flying bat. LOL


What I did was string a cable from the streetpost to my shed and then another from that cable perpendicular over to my neighbors flagpole. I had 5 bats hangingand flying from the cables. The cable virtually disappeared in the dark. It definitely looked cool! It was a little windy Halloween night, so they would fly in a circle, then the wind would kick up and "break" the cycle and they looked like they were hovering, then start in the circle again.


----------



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

BudMan said:


> I agree that we put the details in for ourselves more than anything else. I think everyone sees the detail and because it looks "right", nothing is "noticed or appreciated".........BUT what a crush it would be to hear someone say "that guy should have had a boutineer(sp?)"
> 
> Basically, if it's done right, people will just say wow, but if it's done wrong, they'll notice!


This is the key. Every extra bit of detail just adds to the overall effect... I mean, people aren't usually going to say "Wow I really liked the-" and then give a 5 minute list of all the details on the prop they liked. They'll just say "Wow, that was a totally badass witch" or whatever. But if it looks like something's missing, they'll notice it and they'll think the prop was just meh.

That's how it works with FX in movies. The greatest glowing compliment the average FX artist can hear about 90% of his work is "But there were no special effects in that movie!" Most films are loaded with FX; they're just mimicking mundane ordinary things that need to look natural. The leaky faucet and bubbling soup on the soundstage set that's not set up with water or gas. The breeze or the rain. The bitter wind, icy puddles, and flurrying snow in the scene that was actually shot on a breezeless 98-degree August day. No one notices them AS effects... which shows they were done successfully.

If those prop and scene details are done well, the people may not consciously notice them individually. But if it looks good their subconscious minds are taking all that detail in and it's just bringing the total impression that much more to life... and that witch goes from being a cool witch to totally badass. Detail freaks take heart... it never goes totally to waste.


----------



## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

Thank you Revenant. Well said.


----------



## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

I was pleased because this year people took the time to stop, look at things, and comment. Even after they got their candy they would take the time to look over things with their parents, which made me feel really good. Last year people would come halfway through my lot, get the candy, and leave the way they came not even bothering to look at the rest of my haunt. I had much more fun this year. I never know what they will do next year.


----------



## landyachtz (Nov 4, 2007)

I agree that the details do help the overall picture, even if no one mentions them. There is too much other stuff for most people to absorb or comment on.

It is interesting though what you hear. Despite everything people seem shocked to see two feet sticking out from under the garage door. They also like the dog, our bassett hound who sits by the front door while we hand out the treats.

We joke that all we really need to set up and amuse people is have those feet and the dog.


----------



## slimy (Jul 12, 2006)

I know I'm in the minority on this forum, but I don't really worry about the small stuff.

Last year, I put a the most emphasis on details that I ever have. And I didn't put near the effort that many of you put in. This year, I just kind of put out the big stuff and left off the deets. I got soo many 'oohs' and 'ahhs' and 'this is your BEST display EVER's and I realized my work with details goes largely unappreciated. 

So next year, I'm doing the no details thing again. I know that is not what you want to hear, but I'm on a time crunch here, people. Less than 400 days to go.


----------



## JohnnyL (Aug 17, 2006)

As an opposite view of the issue, I left OUT the one detail of a drape blowing in the foyer and just had the lightning/thunder. One kid was shocked and noticed it right away. (Last year I had fans attached outside the windows blowing the curtains in).


----------



## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

I was a little disappointed that only a couple of people read the witch ingredient bottles, as we spent several hours making new labels and such... but it might be because they were harder to read - last years were on plain white paper burnt around the edges and they lit up under the black light, this year they were coffee stained and the print was smaller so you had to actually make an effort to read them. I think the details are worth it for the folks who actually notice, and for the overall effect but I think folks will enjoy the haunt either way - especially considering most of us are the only people who do this in our neighborhood, and more likely the only people who do it in the whole town... and anything more than a couple of items in the yard floors the tots)


----------



## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

We didnt do details this year because I didnt have the time for it. I got a lashing for it from of all people my mother in law. The basic comment was that it wasnt as scary as usual. but overall the details are there to satisfy myself. If they notice then they get to see further if not oh well have a nice day. We seemed to be the largest display in the neighborhood this year so more people stopped noticed read etc. I was amazed at how many people were taking pics.


----------



## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

I've had a lot of the same thoughts this year. Props look so much different when they're on the bench than when they're in the graveyard, and all those little details seem so glaring and important (and they are, too!). Then the TOTs run past the display, get the candy, some say "cool house, dude" and off they run to the next candy source. And you know they didn't notice most of the things that you worked on so carefully to get just right.
My graveyard is a long strip that the kids can walk past very quickly to get to the door, and most do just that. My wife suggested that next year we re-arrange the display to create a somewhat meandering path through the graves to get them to slow down a bit and perhaps notice what's around them. They'll have to take the path both ways, so they will get more time to look at the props. At least that's the theory - we'll see what happens.


----------



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Face it, most ToTs wont notice anything because they're goal oriented. The very young ones will because they're scared, and maybe the teens because they realize This Old Guy's Actually Kinda Cool. But for the most part only the parents will probably notice the details. A display along the candy path just won't get the attention that a separate walk-through will get. If you can do it, a simple straight shot for the greedy little rugrats and have a walkthrough with it's own entrance for people that really want to see the cool stuff. That would keep motivation from getting in the way of appreciation. 

Obviously if you have a really small yard this wouldn't be feasible.


----------



## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Revenant said:


> Obviously if you have a really small yard this wouldn't be feasible.


Small yard, that's me! Virtually all of the display is set up on a concrete driveway. I have a large driveway; you can easily park 5 cars on it. It works, but I have to cover everything with dry leaves and plastic plants/weeds to simulate a dirt landscape. It takes a LOT of leaves. It looks very realistic, but can be a pain to clean up. A walk-through would be interesting (I've never done one before) but I prefer the Gothic look: foggy graveyard, strange sounds, furtive movements in the bushes.


----------

