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HALLOWEEN GRAVEYARD SPECIAL EFFECTS
Below are
some of the special effects that we use to enhance
our Halloween Graveyard.
Sound
Effects
and Music
 Spooky
sound effects are an important element for any graveyard or yard
haunt. Just imagine how much the less the
impact of a movie would be without any background sound effects.
Typically we hide
one or more
portable, battery powered cd players, set on continuous play,
in our Halloween graveyard to add
our background sounds.
For a small
graveyard, we place one cd player in the middle, hidden
behind a Halloween prop, usually a tombstone. For a large
graveyard, we place one in the middle and then two more, one
at each
end of the graveyard.
The volume
should be set so that the sound effects can be easily heard,
but not so much that it is blaring. Remember, its suppose to be background
sounds, not a concert.
Many people
ask if we have music playing in our graveyard in addition to
sound effects. We don't, mainly because its unlikely that
there would be any music in an old graveyard, but also
because we
usually have spooky music playing at both our front gate and
the porch, and they would all compete with each other.
There's a huge
selection of Halloween sound effects and spooky music cd's
on the market. Using your computer, you can even mix and
match to create your own custom cd's.
For ambient
sounds coming from our Halloween graveyard we use two tracks
from the cd "Scary Sound Effects" by Rhino Records (1994).
We made our own custom cd by alternating track #27 (Howling
Wind) and track #28 (Little Girl Walking), over and over
again, until we had a full cd.
Check out the
Halloween Music 101 website for more information.
Thunder &
Lightning
 A
very popular effect is to add simulated thunder and
lightning to a Halloween
graveyard using a lightning machine. There are
several models on the market, but the one we like the most
made by Haunted Creations.
Their "Lightning Machine" is
a very realistic lightning simulator in that it produces the
sound of thunder and then bright flashes of light from a
powerful strobe light, just like the real thing. Other
lightning machines generate the sound and light
simultaneously.
This unit comes
with lightning generator,
high intensity
strobe light, cables and thunder/lightning cd.
All you need
to do to get up and running is connect the Lightning Machine
via one cable to the high intensity strobe light, a second
cable to a cd player, pop in the thunder and lightning cd,
and you are ready to go.
This
lightning machine is sold exclusively by the
Halloween
Connection.
Fog
Machines
 There's nothing like a layer of fog floating
ominously through the night air and/or creeping over the ground
to really give a scare to your trick or treaters. Use a fog
machine or multiple fog machines to fill the night air with fog and
put a real chill into your visitors.
You can even build a
"Fog Chiller" device that makes the fog hug the ground when
it exits the fog machine for a really creepy effect. More information can be found about using
fog machines and plans for building a "Fog Chiller"
visit
Got Fog!
Halloween Graveyard
FX - Page 2
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