A long over due return

So it was back in october when I last posted anything on here, a long time ago it would seem.
Where has all the time gone..?? well to be honest i just do not know..!! however i can assure you FunFear have been very busy with so many different things and i will try to list a few of them for you as a quick catchup on here for you.

So October was an excellent month and halloween turned out to be hugely successful for us. With the ever growing popularity of the Tulleys Farm Shocktober Fest being the centre piece for us once again,

we also continued to expand our client base and took on a few smaller projects which also worked very well. We also had the opportunity to return to our roots and created a centre piece stage setup featuring 18 separate bands, this was a huge undertaking with the work load we already had but proved to be an amazing challenge and whole pile of fun to boot.

So with halloween over and the clear up started, i managed to escape and take a little time out at the legendary haunt tour in San Antonio, It was an excellent experience and phenomenal opportunity to catchup with some good friends as well as network with some new ones. The chance to visit 13th floor as well as house of torment were experiences that i also enjoyed hugely. I will certainly be making the journey this year to New England as well. for more information on last years tour and this years attractions take a look at http://www.legendaryhaunttour.com

November also saw our delivery of equipment from Light O Rama, a product very popular in the States but rarely seen in the UK, we had been approached by Rick Turner of  The Big Sheep in North Devon to build him a light show for their christmas season.

We obviously rose to the challenge and accepted a new project with open arms. What were the pitfalls with using an american system in the uk? Well the obvious one is the voltage difference, we carried out a bit of investigative work and soon found out that our site transformers would run the system with out any issues whatsoever. The software was going to be our next challenge, FunFear runs on fruit based computers....Light O Rama doesn't..!! so time to purchase parallels and load it on to two of the macs. This was to be an experience..! i had forgotten how to use windows.! however it was not long before that was dealt with and we were off and running. The shipment arrived on pallets and some time taken to ensure everything was ready to be installed we loaded it into the vans and headed to Devon, a really great experience and something we would happily take on again. The results from Light O Rama are amazing, an excellent system and realising the potential of the equipment really has opened my eyes.

December brought with it the horrendous storms across the UK and our other project running in the south certainly felt the impact, however we all battled on and felt some relief when christmas day finally came, although i do know this was not the case for thousands of families still without power across this country.

January brought some structural changes to the firm, one of our crew members made a choice to venture to pastures new, this was slightly unexpected but created a situation for us all to evaluate and take stock. The work that Brian had been doing was going to leave a large hole to fill. In the same month one of our other crew members left to pursue a completely new career in rugby coaching...! again a member of staff that would be missed, however we wish them both the best on their chosen paths.

We had projects on the table and suddenly a shortage of engineers. It was time to restructure, rethink and access the situation thoroughly, this i did and with some coming together of smart thinking minds we created a whole new way of working......structure and forward planing. One of the projects we were working on was still many months away but by working smarter we could make up time ahead of ourselves and be ready for the busier periods that were to come. So we built a new workshop space....who needs a desk anyway..they are over rated and a lap top can be used......well on your lap....or a pub table.!

The new workshop was a revelation, large bright work spaces, new equipment the returning of all the lost or mislaid tools to a brand new tool store and roll cabs. Soldering stations, panel building facilities and cable spoolers. Our other workshop was also gutted out and we created a workspace for repairing sound equipment and other sensitive electronics....this really was a revelation..a place for everything and everything in its place, amazing. With orders coming in for control systems it would not be too long before the new facilities would be tested and start to earn some of the investment back.

February was an exciting month with us working very closely with Godstone Farm to produce the sound effects and and control systems for their new Dino Trail, a new interactive zone for children of all ages, incorporating learning zones, history and of course special sound effects, a great project to be involved with and is already proving to be very popular indeed.

March brought an opportunity for me to shoot across the pond again to meet some clients and friends in St Louis. The Transworld Halloween & Attractions Show, what an event, the last time i was at the transworld show was when it was in Las Vegas, it had changed a huge amount and would recommend this show to everyone. For more information please visit  http://www.haashow.com

April & May brought continued interest in our evacuation panels and also the start of a full refurbishment of the Creepy Cottage at Tulleys Farm.

I was also asked to talk at the NFAN open day at Godstone Farm, an informative day for all attendees, covering changes at Godstone and subjects such as relevant insurances, special effects and some very interesting anecdotes from farm owner Jackie and manager Richard, a really great day..... even with the inclement weather.

The Picture shows Layona Bungay,the customer services manager in full swing during her presentation.



So nearly up to date, new websites are coming, one highlighting the benefits of our evacuation panels and another for our sound editing studio along with a small revamp on the existing site www.funfear.co.uk

June brought Scarecon to Tulleys Farm and the project of "The Creepy Cottage" suddenly became a bit more of a priority than we had originally thought, they wanted to see a working version as part of the daytime events..!! some long nights were going to be in store for us all to get this attraction ready and functioning before the 19th. With my now famous team motivating speech and follow up emails, the task was completed on time. A walk through and a lights on option as well as a demonstration of the emergency system was offered to all the delegates. This was a huge amount of fun and an excellent chance to use some of the LED spots we have been developing over the last few years, some nice effects were created and to be honest a real change and the wooden structure lends itself to the "grungy old feel" that we had created. A slightly brighter option has been designed for the daytime visitors..!!

This attraction also allowed for us to instal our latest evacuation panel. A multi switching system that provides day and night time audio tracks, day and night time lighting, as well as our standard evacuation notice by default. But the jewel in the crown was our battery back up system that provides 35 minutes of emergency lighting as well as audio in the event of a total mains failure, we tested, tested and tested some more and then we installed. Tested again and the results were excellent.

The day time event for Scarecon ended with a tour of "The Cellar" with an acting team recruited for the day, it was to become a "live experience" for the visitors. A lights on tour was on offer as well and a few members of the my crew were on hand to answer any questions and give advise to delegates as they needed.

This led into the evening side of the event, The Scareball, a popular ending to the proceedings, offering everyone the chance to dress in their freakiest costumes and enjoy the fun, food and awards as well as our resident DJ playing into the night as part of the entertainment.

An excellent turn out and some superb comments in praise of the event on the social media networks, for pictures and more information please check
https://www.facebook.com/ScareCON







So whats next...?? We are currently working on projects for this coming halloween and i will keep you more up to date with those as the information becomes available, suffice to say, there will be at least three new attractions to visit by October with the FunFear brand on it.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the team i have around me, they never fail to perform above and beyond the expectations that i have as well as the expectations of our customers. Many thanks.

Well that was the long winded short version, that brings us up to date.

Ian

www.funfear.co.uk
FunFear Facebook Page
FunFear Twitter

A Sad Day

Good morning,
this is a short post just to share some news that we heard early this morning. Sadly the long battle that Brian Wolfe has had with pancreatic cancer is over, It is a great loss and our thoughts are with his family. RIP

https://www.facebook.com/BrianWolfesFight

25 Days to Go..!

Afternoon,
The fact that there are only 25 days to go before our first live evening became very apparent today. With the clearing up from our weekend gigs and all hire equipment returned, today has been a planning day for some of the final scene layouts and the opportunity to put schedules together for the build at Tulleys Farm. A huge amount of work has already occurred, with marquees in place and containers into the corn field, it is now the job of the Twisted Technicians to make them come alive.
Twisted Maze is well underway and some fairly substantial changes have already happened to the Cellar, but a few more are also planned. This will be the fifth season for the Cellar, so it is due a small facelift and i am sure the changes will be appreciated.
The Hayride is also having a few new tricks put in this year, so watch out for those, i will not reveal the plans just yet. Hell-Ements is also having a small revamp and a new sound track is going to be put together in the coming weeks. So that leaves us with the Creepy Cottage staying as an old favourite with proposals for some new lighting and the Field of Screams....or newly named for 2013 as Woodshock. A twist on the field being the aftermath of a festival, there are some firm favourites being adapted and some new concepts for the field, this is going to be a lot of fun to build.
We are also having a new element this year, live entertainment in the form of a stage area, this will be a first for the site and a huge amount of planning has gone into make this work for this year, logistics, bands, location and access as well as all of the technical requirements.

So i will Leave you with the short trailer for this years event, and post the updates as they happen.

                        

The weather is turning, Autumn is coming and so is Halloween.

Ian

Media Pack

Good Morning,
The new website is live, there are a few teething problems with the media pack which is being dealt with right now, so i thought i would put in a preview of the new flip book on here, and if you would like to take a look at the new site please visit www.funfear.co.uk

brochure

Corn Maze

Good evening,
As some of you may well know, the corn crop in the UK was not great last year. Many of the farm parks who rely on this for both summer fun mazes and obviously the much more interesting corn mazes for halloween suffered very severely with the lack of growth.
So as we were collating pictures in the office earlier, a few appeared from last years crop. i have laid them side by side, and the difference is astonishing. The good news is clear....this year we have a canvas to work with.

Ian

Website Update

Good Morning,
this is a really quick post just to let everyone know that the final testing of the website is happening today, and hopefully a new faster streamlined website will be up and running in the next day or so. I will post a quick entry as soon as it has gone live.

Ian

Halloween Build in Full Swing.

August is drawing to a close at an alarming rate. The Halloween bug has bitten and all the crew are firmly into the swing of design, creating and installing for the fast approaching pinnacle of our year.

With plans being sent all over the country, the administration is certainly beginning to take its toll on my brain..! The designs we have been given to work on are amazing, and with potentially 8 new attractions to build before the first week of October, we really do have our work cut out for us.

New emergency control panels and lighting designs as well as custom sound tracks and effects will certainly fill up the next few weeks.

FunFear have been developing and fine tuning our new DMX programmer as well as some new LED fittings. Production is in full flow and we will be taking delivery in the coming days of the new units. We have utilized a reliable proven LED unit, that is robust and dimmable to create one of the most discreet fittings there is for haunted attractions. This is going to be added very shortly to our ever expanding product lines and in a choice of popular colours. Approximately 300 will be used this season in different attractions and we will put up some pictures to show the effects in the coming weeks.

Recent Projects
In the last few weeks we have been busy building a few of our Emergency Control Panels. Below is a small video that we put together showing a brief outline to the build process. The panel featured here is a custom build and design for a customer in Phoenix, AZ. it was a great challenge and obviously a little different in respect of wiring colours compared to the UK. It incorporates a brand new solid state sound store from the same people who supply our usual card readers, but this has a small built in amplifier and easily provides a simple show solution as well as evacuation track.


 

A New Paint Job
FunFear were asked to carry out a technical refit recently, obviously not a problem, new sound system and a complete overhaul of their lighting system as well. It was decided that the old lighting units were not really going to make the grade and so a decision was made to replace them with newer more efficient Led units. The unit was agreed on and we offered a custom programming service to boot. Only fly in the ointment was a small suggestion of colour matching the current decor. So it was a strip down and full spray job and refit, to be honest i had my doubts but the end result was excellent, a very discreet functional unit that looks like it belonged and had been in place for many years. Final testing and programming will be carried out on Thursday, i will post some pictures of the results, until then take a look at the paint work below.

Ian