by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
So a week or so ago Chris, Miguel, and I took a trip to Hangman’s House of Horrors (which you can read about here). Well, about three days later I get another email from Darla asking if I can do another video for them (with the stuff we already shot). The email was a little sketchy on details and I thought she was talking about making a training video of sorts that shows what how to act or not to act. After another day and some clearer emails I finally talked to D’Ann who works there too and she said that twice during the season they have a party after the house closes and she would like a video for light entertainment to play during the party.
When we shot the video of the actual walk of the haunted house I had a camera, Chris had one, and Miguel had one. My camera is the only one that had ‘night vision’. Chris’ and Miguel’s shot in color with Chris’ using some sort of low light feature. The video I shot is the only one that looks completely lit. As you would expect the camera had a hard time focusing since I was constantly moving and the smoke effects and strobing lights. For the most part it did well. I got most of the actors focused up and any cool looking props and sets.
Since all they wanted was a ‘entertainment’ version of the video I knew I could cut out all the shaking camera shots where I was wondering aimlessly around in there. I took the entire video I had shot and edited it down from thirty something minutes to about twelve. This edit cut out most walking bit and focused more on the actors. D’Ann wanted the volunteers to see themselves in the house in this party version. I cut out most of the unnecessary bits so the final video is more of a ‘who’s who’ of the experience of the main house.
For the introduction at the beginning of the video I took what I had built for the 2010 Halloween Special Episode and worked in different titles and some different footage to make it unique. At the end of the video I placed the interview that we shot with Darla and added our website address to it as well (couldn’t hurt).
I dropped it off and I haven’t heard about it since. I am not sure how well it went over or if it went over at all. Maybe someone lost it or something. I will update you all when I hear something.
Darla and D’Ann are also wanting a short promotional video they can put on their website so I will need to get some more ‘professional’ footage of the inside of the house. The video will be more of a commercial type video. I am hoping to get the ball rolling soon on that as well.