(no subject)
(Thank goodness for autosaved draft - I almost lost fifteen minutes of typing!)
Happy Hallowe'en everyone! :D I'm reporting back on Spooktacular... For those of you just tuning in/who don't live in Edmonton, this is the Hallowe'en event run by the City of Edmonton at Fort Edmonton Park, that living history museum which is so awesome. It's closed for the regular historical interpretation season, and the history knob is turned down (a lot), but it's an amazing setting for creepy happenings for two nights towards the end of October. 1920s street and 1905 street are kid friendly; spooky children's crafts, bobbing for apples, LOTS of candy being given out, face painting, Thriller dancers (the midterm project for a dance class from the University of Alberta), etc.
Now, I didn't get any photographs of the actual street decorations, but you should know that 1885 street is deep within Fort Edmonton Park, and is comprised of many original rough-hewn wooden buildings from the late nineteenth century. We have not raked the copious amounts of leaves, so you get good drifts of them which are brilliant for lurching through... That also means that there are skeletal trees everywhere as well. It hardly needs work making it creepy. We have several coloured spotlights to provide selective lighting (and thus more pronounced shadows instead of just plain darkness).
Essentially, the plot was: a small town has been attacked by zombies. We have characters such a bride and groom who underestimate the severity of the situation and (the bride, at least) want to go forward with the wedding NO MATTER WHAT. The bride, of course, gets bitten and turned by zombies. The groom is in denial about the whole thing.
A shot from the dress rehearsal. (Photo credit: Adrianna)
"I'm the saddest looking zombie. No wonder that girl cried." - Adrianna
We also had the awesomeness that was Mike, who always comes dressed for the occasion. He actually stood behind a truck at work (he's in construction) as it squealed in a mud puddle to get the muddy soldier look just right. Then he splashed himself liberally with fake blood.
(Edit: Better photograph courtesy of Mark Hill photography!)
And then there was Jesse. I'm in this photo too!
Jesse was Death. her head is actually at neck level; the hood looks empty, and she looks extra tall. Also, red lights for eyes. Very silent, even when walking. (She has to be, as her real voice is so disarming. ;) )
And there I am! We were thinking "ax wound to the face". As in... someone failed at dispatching me. ("Removing the head or destroying the brain".) I also have a broken shackle danging from one wrist.
I was apparently really good at being creepy. I never really had my head up straight. Speaking of which: man, my neck muscles hurt today... as does my entire body, especially lower back. I did a lot of twitching and lurching. The trick was to just not look human. I would lead with my legs as I walked/jerked, and my head and body followed. My arms mostly just dangled unless I was swiping at someone or whatever. I would stand and stare at you for a bit, surprised, if you caught my attention. I would sway slightly on my feet. Then if you made some kind of noise or remark, I'd jerk forward at you, rasping and groaning. (I groaned in and out as I inhaled and exhaled, for extra creepiness.)
As you will see in my final photo, I can also open my mouth ridiculously wide. I did it slowly for effect - it just went on and on. ;)
I would do things like lurch behind a building (with a spotlight behind me, so people could see my shadow jerking forward). Once I got behind a building, I could then turn and notice a lineup (there were scenarios inside the buildings, and it took ages to get to the front of some of them), stop and stare, then come at them.
We're not allowed to actually touch anybody, so it could theoretically get awkward if you catch someone. I mean, what can you do, NOT disembowel them? Jeez. I would mostly just stop and stare at them in that pose you see up there. I would insert myself into a group of friends who were caught up in their own conversation and wait for them to notice me. I got a lot of scares there.
I wasn't above being funny instead of scary, though. I would groan in answer to things, and, occasionally if the situation merited it (we did have some rude people) I would groan something like "Iiiiinaprrrrooooooopriate..." then lurch off in disgust. I had several people ask me for my phone number/facebook/twitter or what have you. I never gave it. A few put there phones in front of me, so what I would do was awkwardly punch in some keys (button mashing while staring at them creepily out of the corner of my eyes as my head rolled on my neck, groaning). One guy asked me for my facebook profile name. I groaned in response. He's like "how do you spell that?" and I groaned back: "siiiiiixteeeeeen "A"aaaaahs." ("Sixteen As"). ;)
We had a couple problem kids who tugged on my hair, tried to knock down the stilt walker, and slapped one of the other zombies in the face, but they were kicked out. I mean, this street has several signs and a greeter saying that it's 16 and up; don't get angry at us if you get scared. Also, especially don't get angry at us if the seven year old YOU dragged onto the scary street gets scared. We won't stop you - it's a free society - but you come here to get scared, guys. Don't get angry with us for doing our jobs.
All in all, though, it was a wondrous two evenings! Many layers of skirts and sweaters and ski socks meant that I didn't get chilled even though on the first night it dipped below zero. (I don't care if I look two dress sizes larger than I really am; at least I didn't get hypothermia like one of the gatekeepers.) Actually, on the first night a cloud bank rolled in, creating an awesome fog effect that we couldn't have created for ourselves if we'd wanted to. Brilliant.
Also, the zombies amongst us should shop here.
Happy Hallowe'en everyone! :D
Happy Hallowe'en everyone! :D I'm reporting back on Spooktacular... For those of you just tuning in/who don't live in Edmonton, this is the Hallowe'en event run by the City of Edmonton at Fort Edmonton Park, that living history museum which is so awesome. It's closed for the regular historical interpretation season, and the history knob is turned down (a lot), but it's an amazing setting for creepy happenings for two nights towards the end of October. 1920s street and 1905 street are kid friendly; spooky children's crafts, bobbing for apples, LOTS of candy being given out, face painting, Thriller dancers (the midterm project for a dance class from the University of Alberta), etc.
Now, I didn't get any photographs of the actual street decorations, but you should know that 1885 street is deep within Fort Edmonton Park, and is comprised of many original rough-hewn wooden buildings from the late nineteenth century. We have not raked the copious amounts of leaves, so you get good drifts of them which are brilliant for lurching through... That also means that there are skeletal trees everywhere as well. It hardly needs work making it creepy. We have several coloured spotlights to provide selective lighting (and thus more pronounced shadows instead of just plain darkness).
Essentially, the plot was: a small town has been attacked by zombies. We have characters such a bride and groom who underestimate the severity of the situation and (the bride, at least) want to go forward with the wedding NO MATTER WHAT. The bride, of course, gets bitten and turned by zombies. The groom is in denial about the whole thing.
A shot from the dress rehearsal. (Photo credit: Adrianna)
"I'm the saddest looking zombie. No wonder that girl cried." - Adrianna
We also had the awesomeness that was Mike, who always comes dressed for the occasion. He actually stood behind a truck at work (he's in construction) as it squealed in a mud puddle to get the muddy soldier look just right. Then he splashed himself liberally with fake blood.
(Edit: Better photograph courtesy of Mark Hill photography!)
And then there was Jesse. I'm in this photo too!
Jesse was Death. her head is actually at neck level; the hood looks empty, and she looks extra tall. Also, red lights for eyes. Very silent, even when walking. (She has to be, as her real voice is so disarming. ;) )
And there I am! We were thinking "ax wound to the face". As in... someone failed at dispatching me. ("Removing the head or destroying the brain".) I also have a broken shackle danging from one wrist.
I was apparently really good at being creepy. I never really had my head up straight. Speaking of which: man, my neck muscles hurt today... as does my entire body, especially lower back. I did a lot of twitching and lurching. The trick was to just not look human. I would lead with my legs as I walked/jerked, and my head and body followed. My arms mostly just dangled unless I was swiping at someone or whatever. I would stand and stare at you for a bit, surprised, if you caught my attention. I would sway slightly on my feet. Then if you made some kind of noise or remark, I'd jerk forward at you, rasping and groaning. (I groaned in and out as I inhaled and exhaled, for extra creepiness.)
As you will see in my final photo, I can also open my mouth ridiculously wide. I did it slowly for effect - it just went on and on. ;)
I would do things like lurch behind a building (with a spotlight behind me, so people could see my shadow jerking forward). Once I got behind a building, I could then turn and notice a lineup (there were scenarios inside the buildings, and it took ages to get to the front of some of them), stop and stare, then come at them.
We're not allowed to actually touch anybody, so it could theoretically get awkward if you catch someone. I mean, what can you do, NOT disembowel them? Jeez. I would mostly just stop and stare at them in that pose you see up there. I would insert myself into a group of friends who were caught up in their own conversation and wait for them to notice me. I got a lot of scares there.
I wasn't above being funny instead of scary, though. I would groan in answer to things, and, occasionally if the situation merited it (we did have some rude people) I would groan something like "Iiiiinaprrrrooooooopriate..." then lurch off in disgust. I had several people ask me for my phone number/facebook/twitter or what have you. I never gave it. A few put there phones in front of me, so what I would do was awkwardly punch in some keys (button mashing while staring at them creepily out of the corner of my eyes as my head rolled on my neck, groaning). One guy asked me for my facebook profile name. I groaned in response. He's like "how do you spell that?" and I groaned back: "siiiiiixteeeeeen "A"aaaaahs." ("Sixteen As"). ;)
We had a couple problem kids who tugged on my hair, tried to knock down the stilt walker, and slapped one of the other zombies in the face, but they were kicked out. I mean, this street has several signs and a greeter saying that it's 16 and up; don't get angry at us if you get scared. Also, especially don't get angry at us if the seven year old YOU dragged onto the scary street gets scared. We won't stop you - it's a free society - but you come here to get scared, guys. Don't get angry with us for doing our jobs.
All in all, though, it was a wondrous two evenings! Many layers of skirts and sweaters and ski socks meant that I didn't get chilled even though on the first night it dipped below zero. (I don't care if I look two dress sizes larger than I really am; at least I didn't get hypothermia like one of the gatekeepers.) Actually, on the first night a cloud bank rolled in, creating an awesome fog effect that we couldn't have created for ourselves if we'd wanted to. Brilliant.
Also, the zombies amongst us should shop here.
Happy Hallowe'en everyone! :D