Simple special effects.

Discussion of general Halloween topics
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tomanderson
Halloween Master
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Simple special effects.

Post by tomanderson » Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:31 am

Well, after reading around here a bit, I have noticed that there are some REAL technical wizards here--computer and sound and lighting specialists who can put together some very sophisticated stuff. For anything elaborate and technically sophisticated, I would direct you to these experts.

As for myself, I enjoy simple displays I can put together with cheap, simple resources. Last year there were some flashing light skulls for sale at the local 99 Cents Only store, and I bought ten or fifteen of them. They ran on AA batteries and were pretty dependable for the price. I took the lighting units out of the skulls and wrapped the small lightbulbs with colored film lighting gels and colored tissue paper--these became instant colored light flashers. They were small enough to tuck into small spaces in the front yard. They looked especially nice blinking under shrubberies. They looked nice blinking BEHIND things--you could see intermittent flashes of light coming from around a corner, but since you couldn't see the light directly, it was more mysterious. Colored filters add atmosphere.

A fluorescent black light tube can be purchased at many local malls, in novelty gift shops, year round. They are even easier to find around Halloween time. A sixteen-inch blacklight tube, set up in a suitably dark area, will activate fluorescent paint and luminescent paint and create those glowing images you are so familiar with in spooky displays. The fluorescent paint can be found in any art store, and fluorescent markers and crayons can be found in drugstores.

You can put together your own sound effects CD with edited crickets, thunder, laughter or whatever, or you can purchase Halloween sound effects CDs. Tape cassettes tend to be older, and often will feature more old-school assemblages of sound. Dig that old cassette deck or boom box out of the garage, hook it up with an extension cord, and think of places you can conceal it to create a mysterious sound source for people passing by.

Special effects are designed to be seen, of course. But the more you conceal the mechanisms you are using to create the effects (the more you can hide the blacklight tube you are using to light a scene, or the more you can hide the source of your sound effects, for example), the more mysterious the effects will seem to people who see your "show." This sense of the mysterious is what ultimately gets that little voice in the audience's mind chattering....."What is that? Is that REAL??"

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Larissa
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Post by Larissa » Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:03 am

Oooooooooh, thanks! Now if only it wasn't 2 a.m., I'm so in the mood to go shopping & poking around various stores. They really need to be open 24/7, just for vampires like me.
Act well your part; there all the honour lies.
~Anonymous

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