A Wild West Haunt in the Pines

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

For the past couple of years my parents have slowly allowed my two brothers and I to build, a Halloween set in their front yard. The first year we started, was just a mausoleum, a facade to the front deck with a graveyard gate and tombstones. Two years later we built a pirate ship, well more or less 1/4 of a pirate ship, including the captain's quarters where the mausoleum facade lay the years before. 36ft long and 25ft tall, you could see the flag above the houses of the neighborhood.

This year, we went all out. With running water from the water tower, to a burning saloon, falling roof and all, to the all awaited candy bowl in the out house, we brought to Flagstaff, Arizona something they've never seen before.




There are more then this but I thought I'd post these few pics. It was remarkable at night with the burning barn soundtrack and fake flame effects. On top of that, smoked billowing out front all windows and doors.
If anyone has any idea on who I can contact to get better at this and work on a proffesional level, that'd be awesome. More pics to come!

[Haunt Master]

Good job, Mr. PG!

I'd like to see more pics when you get chance to post here later.


BTW, welcome to Halloween.com board! I am so glad to have you as the newbie here!

[Rising Dead Man]

This is great! Did you have strobe lights and stuff like that?

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

Actually no. I had planned on putting a few inside the Saloon, but our Fire lamp/fans were doing the trick of disorientation. Wish we'd gotten a pic of it with the smoke but oh well. The rest of the place was lit up with good ol' fashioned flood lights, green and red.

[Haunt Master]

For the past couple of years my parents have slowly allowed my two brothers and I to build, a Halloween set in their front yard. The first year we started, was just a mausoleum, a facade to the front deck with a graveyard gate and tombstones. Two years later we built a pirate ship, well more or less 1/4 of a pirate ship, including the captain's quarters where the mausoleum facade lay the years before. 36ft long and 25ft tall, you could see the flag above the houses of the neighborhood.

This year, we went all out. With running water from the water tower, to a burning saloon, falling roof and all, to the all awaited candy bowl in the out house, we brought to Flagstaff, Arizona something they've never seen before.




There are more then this but I thought I'd post these few pics. It was remarkable at night with the burning barn soundtrack and fake flame effects. On top of that, smoked billowing out front all windows and doors.
If anyone has any idea on who I can contact to get better at this and work on a proffesional level, that'd be awesome. More pics to come!

With your permission - may I copy your photo so I can add it to haunt calendar please? It is up to you.

Please send me a private message, or email me: cerlists@webv.net

Thanks.

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

my brothers rehearsing our little shootout halloween day

me on the left, ben in the middle, casey on the right

I made the dynamite box and dynamite, well, we made everything! but the box was awesome

our pumpkins sitting on the steps leading up to the saloon

here are the sleuce boxes, they had running water in them on halloween

[Haunt Master]

They're so awesome pics!!!

Thanks for posting and sharing with us!

[Rising Dead Man]

Dude, YOU have talent! That looks like a real wild west town!

[jadewik]

I'm impressed. Seriously impressed.

What you and your brothers have built rivals what I've seen in Tucson for Nightfall (and Old Tucson Studios is a real, professional movie set)... Shoot, if I didn't have my own Halloween to pull together that week, I'd drive the 4 hours to Flagstaff to see yours. How long did that take you to build and set up?

Next year (2010) is my turn to pick our theme (hubby and I take turns choosing themes) and I'd already decided on "Old West" after a couple visits to Tombstone and Bisbee-- we have Halloween planned through 2012 (hehe). You have fantastic ideas! Granted, I'm leaning more towards parties in the future since this (blasted gated) neighborhood doesn't have many ToT'ers, but were I doing a yard haunt... well... I'd have to steal a few of your ideas because I'm just drooling.

Do you have photos of the other yard haunts have you guys done in the past? ... Have you ever re-used props from previous years?

Do you really want to get into film/set design?

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

First, thank you for your comment! It's good to hear someone really impressed. It's a lot of work.
Yes, indeed I do have other pictures of our years past. I'll post them soon if wanted. WE actually got night shots too.

Yes, my brothers and I want to make it to the movies. We want to eventually make a theme park. The drive is there, but the money isn't present... so it's tough. But we did it.

We did use a few props over again but it's the storage part that's difficult. The nice thing is having people we know willing to give up "junk" for us to use. It's easy to pull stuff off like that if you just look around.
What parts would you like to use for your own party haunt? Just makes me wonder what really was cool:D

[jadewik]

It's understandably a lot of work. I don't go as "all out" as you three because I haven't the time to do that much work... I focus primarily on making things fast to assemble and take down, mobility (I like to set up a church parties), and easy storage.... so something as spectacular as your setup would have to wait 'till I owned my own house (I'm presently renting a house) and could leave a bit of it up year-round. Somewhere around here are smatterings of photos from my past 3-haunts. 2008's big project was a gurney made out of PVC (takes up about 2 cubic feet of storage) and I doubt I'll ever do anything so time-intensive again...

The water tower, sleuce boxes, and the dynamite are my favorites. Mostly because they're very well crafted, the water tower and sleuce boxes really work, and I was thinking "Oh, man... that's so cool!" when I was looking through your photos. I really love your attention to details too-- the vultures on the water tower, the hanging elements-- antlers, rope/lasso, lanterns, and wanted poster-- and the costumes. I even love the "little brown shack out back". It adds a realistic element to the whole scene that makes it "too real". Now I'm curious to know what you're cooking up for next year.... and I'd absolutely LOVE to see photos from past years!

[Andybev01]

I'm speechless...

Great work!!

[Andybev01]

Unless I missed pics somewhere else in here, do you have some of the finished gurney?

I'm impressed. Seriously impressed.

What you and your brothers have built rivals what I've seen in Tucson for Nightfall (and Old Tucson Studios is a real, professional movie set)... Shoot, if I didn't have my own Halloween to pull together that week, I'd drive the 4 hours to Flagstaff to see yours. How long did that take you to build and set up?

Next year (2010) is my turn to pick our theme (hubby and I take turns choosing themes) and I'd already decided on "Old West" after a couple visits to Tombstone and Bisbee-- we have Halloween planned through 2012 (hehe). You have fantastic ideas! Granted, I'm leaning more towards parties in the future since this (blasted gated) neighborhood doesn't have many ToT'ers, but were I doing a yard haunt... well... I'd have to steal a few of your ideas because I'm just drooling.

Do you have photos of the other yard haunts have you guys done in the past? ... Have you ever re-used props from previous years?

Do you really want to get into film/set design?

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

Gurney? I think that a name for something I don't know about, lol. Thankyou for your comment!

[jadewik]

Unless I missed pics somewhere else in here, do you have some of the finished gurney?

Andy- Try looking here