I was searching for some backups of a few audio tracks I had (a computer died at the haunt and needed restored), and found this gem:  the rule reading track from Frightmare Forest’s 2006 show.

It features a rules dialog in a fun way, is agnostic of the haunt name, so I decided to share it with anyone who wants it, for free.  Just let me know if you use it!

You can download it here: Rules(2006) (approx 1:45s)

Dialog is as follows:

Welcome, my tormented souls!

As you begin your journey, please follow these simple rules. Any deviation from these rules will result in swift punishment or untimely death!

Fire or explosives in any form is strictly forbidden. The spirits here frown upon such things as it reminds them of their possible destination.

Remember that anything you touch can and will touch you back. Consequences will be severe! (laugh)

Alcohol is not allowed in any form, including any that may be inside of you. If you wish to have us remove it from you, please… notify your host (scream)

Watch your step at all times, we have created obstacles which would love to kill you.

Photographs, videos or audio recordings are forbidden. You should not try to expose what you are not intended to see…

And finally, if you are truly terrified and wish to end your stay here prematurely, you may use any of the marked emergency exits to leave… If you dare! (evil laugh)

Now, if you are ready, your host will take you to your chambers….

Also, I believe the background music is a track from Michael Hedstrom.  If anyone can confirm that, let me know and I’ll update this post.

Last weekend, we attended a great gathering of haunters in Owatonna, Minnesota.  We had a wonderful time, and hope that everyone found some value in the presentation we delivered: “Haunt Lighting – From Incandescent to LED”.   I’ve uploaded the presentation, and if you would like to review the material or happened to miss it the first time, you can download Haunt Lighting – From Incandescent to LED right now.

We would also like to take a moment to thank the folks from http://www.devilhornstudios.com/ for coming down and helping with this gathering.  I know Jen appreciated it, and all of us from FX13 Studios enjoyed meeting you!  Good luck with your awesome line of creepy dolls!

Finally, Thanks to Jen and Kyle from Pumpkinman Productions for setting up the entire event and for having us come down.  It was a blast!

If you happened to miss us at this show, you will be able to catch us at the Midwest Haunters Convention this summer!

10 port ipod charger

Just a quick post to highlight a charger we did for a client.  This inexpensive charger can charge 10 iPod’s at a time at full 1-amp rates.  It’s based on an old PC power supply as those old supplies can provide 20-30 amps on the 5V rail alone.  It’s being shown here charging 10 iPod’s and an iPhone 3G.

Since this is a 1-off project, we built it on a simple breadboard.  If there’s enough interest, we would develop this into a full product with a dedicated custom designed power supply, but you will have to let us know.

The client is a haunted attraction and provides much of its base music sound-scape using refurbished iPods.

And now, a formal congrats to Pamela Kerti, the winner of our 2nd Flicker Fluorescent fixture!  I’ve emailed Pamela and am anxiously awaiting her response (Pamela, if you are reading, make sure to double check your email spam filter!).

This officially marks the end of this contest.  I’m willing to entertain doing quarterly giveaways to folks, but I’d sure like to hear from you guys!  Feel free to email us and tell us what you think.

Congrats again to both our winners, I’ll be sending out the fixtures around the end of this week.

– Ian

Congratulations to Donna Skaggs, the winner of our Flicker Fluorescent drawing!  I’ve emailed Donna, and will ship out the unit as soon as I hear back from her (Donna – if you’re reading, check your email – and your spam filter!)

I’ve also realized that in my excitement, I jumped the gun on the drawing!  The original contest accepted entries through TODAY, so we are going to do exactly that and have a SECOND drawing tomorrow!

Best of luck to the 2nd winner, and it’s not too late to get in on this.  I’ll do another drawing tomorrow!

– Ian

I’m very pleased to report that response to our Flicker Fluorescent giveaway has been overwhelming!  The entry period is rapidly coming to a close, and we will continue to accept entries through 11:59pm central time this evening.

Tomorrow, duplicate entries will be removed from the database, and a random number generator website (something like http://www.random.org/ )  will be used to select the ID entry of the winning person.  If that ID is not used, or the entry is deemed unsuitable (due to it being incomplete), another random ID will be generated until a winner is chosen.

I will announce this winner RIGHT HERE on this blog, as well as send an email directly to that individual to arrange for delivery of the unit.  I hope that they enjoy the fixture as much as we do here (and would totally appreciate an email followup of what you thought – hint, hint)

Until tomorrow – Happy Haunting,

– Ian

I’ve been invited to do a small seminar in Minnesota on September 18th, 2010.  The seminar is open to haunters that make up the Minnesota’s Most Haunted & Frozen Hell Haunter groups throughout Minnesota.

I’m very excited for this opportunity, and even though it’s pretty late in the season to be doing seminars and selling product, because of some great planning earlier in the year we have the free time to fulfill this need!

We will be bringing four of our people, myself included, to participate in the seminar, meet & greet, and product showcase.  The seminar will focus on LED lighting techniques for indoor and outdoor haunted attractions, the systems we use to enable the lighting, battery backup, and all sorts of other fun topics related to low voltage lighting in haunts.

I prefer to run seminar sessions as a conversation, so come with your questions, and feel free to interrupt me with your comments.  That way, I know you aren’t falling asleep on me!

In addition to that, we will be bringing a few of the gumstick LED lights fully assembled and in kit form to sell, as well as some of the flicker florescent fixtures… and possibly a few other product demos.

Thanks to Jen for extending the invitation to us, and I’m pumped to meet all of you!  See you on the 18th.

– Ian