The Cellar

Good afternoon, a busy couple of days with our twisted technician Hippy. The brief was to bring "The Cellar" back to running order for a visit from our friends at Twinlakes Park in Melton Mowbray....could it be done in a weekend..?? Well the answer was a resounding "Yes"
It is officially fully functioning, however progress was hindered somewhat by the noticeable damage caused by some rodents and possible a few other creatures that have taken up residence over the winter months...!!
The copious amounts of rain that we have had recently has also taken its toll and repairs were necessary to a few of the major operating components, our safety panel that allows for a full evacuation has started to show some signs of wear with the damp air that it lives in, no matter though, with new contactors and switches installed, we fired up......all good....well i say all good, electricity was going where it should, time to find the other issues. Transformers, a few lamps and some swearing and there was light everywhere there should be.

So sound next, this should be the easy part as all the equipment had been removed and serviced over winter, a simple case of re-installing the amp rack, sound card readers a bit of patching and all good to go yeah......because these things always work just like that dont they...??

To be fair it was a fairly straight forward installation and it wasnt long before sound was being delivered to all the relevant zones, we did however experience a slight failing in one of the sound card readers...we both believed this to be unlikely and a few substitutions of different cards found that the Golding Audio system was not the failing at all. Some quick interrogation of the data and command text revealed a coding error, quickly rectified and the success was sweet.

A great installation, and a quick reminder of why we all love this crazy industry so much, Halloween in May....bring it on.!

So it leaves one question to ask....Is "The Cellar" officially the first Halloween attraction to go ready to go live in 2012.? What we need now is a gaggle of zombies...cellar creatures and some thrill seekers..

Drama in Belguim

Good morning, i had to share this with everyone after being shown it yesterday. i think it is an excellent concept and does show that eventually curiosity just has to win..!! enjoy.

London Town...Where Culture and Candy Collide.

Good afternoon to everyone. I thought i would take the chance to give a little rundown on the last week or so. With Easter creating the opportunity to get stuck into a couple of very nice projects the feeling of the season starting was definitely upon us. Two small stage productions and the new show down at Tulleys Farm was certainly a nice way to start the spring time. With equipment being dusted off and tested, some repairs that have been put off were finally completed. Delivered, installed and operated and all with out to many dramas.

So with everything running and my wife's birthday treat looming i was having a day off....!! A rare thing but to be honest thoroughly enjoyable. I had arranged transport and tickets to Phantom of the Opera for her.

A day away from chaos....hardly, but to be fair London was not too busy and we enjoyed some culture in the National Gallery, an excellent meal followed by some craziness in M&M's world...!!

Apparently the largest candy store in the world..!! and then on to the theatre for the evening performance.

It has been some five years since i was in Her Majesty's Theatre, and it was a pleasure to be back. With a cast that i had not seen before there is always the fear of comparison, this however was not to be the case. Although this classic has stood the test of time for so many reasons it was an absolute pleasure to watch the audience being drawn in to the story and being amazed by the use of both modern and some of the oldest theatrical tricks. An excellent performance to be fair, i would recommend this timeless show even with some of the competition that is currently in the west end, it provides a superb evenings entertainment, it is captivating, clever, humorous at times but i think most of all performed with such love and passion for the art.

The rest of the week still had a lot in store for FunFear and was going to prove to be a lot more chaotic than i had first thought.

Ian

Screamies 2011 Results

Good afternoon, the long awaited results of the screamie awards are in. To be fair a pleasure to see them. As I mentioned in the previous entry, the introduction of additional catogories has opened up the opportunity for some excellent new venues and attractions to compete in such a rapidly growing industry that involves both the home haunting passion and corporate expenditure.

FunFear is very much involved with the business at The Tulleys Farm Shocktober fest and help to create the effects and illusion that realise the ingenuity of people like Stuart Beare, the combination of engineers from so many backgrounds create the magic that is Shocktober Fest.

The Screamies reinforce the recognition for the hours, planning, pain and effort that are required to create that magic....! That goes for all involved in this ever growing industry.

The new format of the Screamies have shown that these efforts can be recognised at all levels. Attractions like The Fear Horror House in Copthorne who clearly are working with much lesser budgets than many of the major players can be awarded for their passion and amazing belief in what they are creating.

This is progressive and appreciated by all of the crew at FunFear.

What will the future hold for 2012.....only time will tell..!!

The results list can be seen at the screamie awards page here www.screamieawards.co.uk

The Screamies 2011

The wait is nearly over for the nominees of the screamie awards for 2011. With less than 24 hours to go this industry will come to recognise the hard work and effort that has gone into producing first class award winning attractions. However, with new catogories introduced this year, it has been a pleasure to see smaller attractions being recognised for the ingenuity, innovative ideas as well as flair and phenomenal passion.

So although the wait is nearly over, we at FunFear wish all nominees the very best of luck.

Ian and all the twisted technicians at FunFear.

Facebook Timeline

Time for a cover photo for facebook page...!!

The new compulsory timeline comes into force on the 30th March.

Zuckerberg explained the thinking behind Timeline by saying: “Millions of people curate stories of their lives on Facebook every day and have no way to share them once they fall off your profile page...we have been working on ‘timeline’ all year…it’s the story of your life and completely new way to express yourself."

So the million dollar question is.......who likes the new timeline style..??

Have questions about timeline.? take 5 minutes and check the Hyperarts Blog

Halloween Health Risks

British summer time has arrived...!! Halloween approaching and ideas are flying around thick and fast. Our ideas are carefully thought out and safety taken into consideration for both the build process and the final maze or attraction.

However not quite in the same manner as the following link, take a quick look at this article on what fox news have found to be some surprising health risks at halloween time...!!




http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/10/28/5-surprising-halloween-health-hazards/