Just My Opinion

[AJota316]

This is purely my own opinion. I work in a haunted house myself and honestly I think its very lame that anyone would come onto this site and say "hey i need reviews", I'm in actor and I need to know what you thought. What house I work in doesn't matter, what matters is that i put on the best scare's that I possiby can any and every night I work. I don't need reader feedback to tell me I am doing my job. When I make someone scream and run in fear I know I did a good job that night. Simple as that, I dont need to ask for reviews, cuz honestly the reviews don't really matter. What matters is seeing the persons face after you scared the crud out of them. On any given night a house changes, actors move to different places. The best thing i can reccomend to anyone is go when its busiest, cuz then I know the best actors are where they need to be. I've been working in haunted houses for 6 years now and no matter what the reviews say things are always different. again I think its purely unrealistic to ask for feedback or for reviews, let the audience say what they want, when they want to say it.

[Chainsawguybry]

Good Point, I was thinking the same thing on how lame it is.
I also think most of the people on here also work at haunted houses.
Ok I work at one also.
It will be interesting to see the reviews of the haunts that they looked during this past weekend, and how much of a disadvantage on the ratings they will get.
October is like wine- only gets better as the month goes by.
Anywayz I'm out

[WelchWitch]

I disagree with both of you. I think there is nothing wrong with asking the people here what they think. Most of the people here either work at houses, own houses or go to alot of houses, what better way to see what they might think. What better way to learn more and become better. Why only learn from one way. I guarantee when my house opens up I would want to see what people think here. Even though I may also find out there at the site also. I think what is lame is people who work in the house for 6 years and dont want to help out others when they can or if they can. Thats just my opinion! And based on this past weekend......if I paid to see a haunt at the prices we charge, I better get a good show if its the first night or the end of the month. If not it better be discounted somehow to show for the differance.

[SChaser783]

At the same time anyone who has had a lot of experience working at haunted houses knows that opening night is not your best night. Generally it is still a work in progress and does get better later in the month. I know its easy to say that they should get the same show if they pay the same price, and that would be true in a perfect world. Most plays have an opening weekend and then take the next week to work through some things and make it better. I feel sorry for any attraction that doesn't try to improve throughout the month. "Well its up, guess that's it." Now I'm not saying give a bad show the first weekend, but it will definetely have some bugs. Its the nature of the beast, especially with attractions that have a month or so to setup. I'd be more critical of haunts that are left up year round and still manage to give less than par shows on opening weekend.

I also tend to agree that you generally get an immediate payback as an actor. If you aren't sure you scared them, then you probably didn't. I found that it was very easy to tell if they were scared, but asking on the boards too can only give you more constructive criticism.

[WelchWitch]

So Tye, should all the houses that were shopped this past weekend ask for a redo from rob?

[SChaser783]

No they shouldn't because like it or not they came. And again, I'm not saying that they have an excuse if they have a bad show, just that it gets better through the month.

Marc even said so:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (little spider @ Sep 20 2006, 09:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=683)</div>
Perm, your coming on opening night without letting us work out the kinks in a new House? I hope were&#39;re everything you are looking for. Ask for Marc or Kim. we&#39;ll give you the V.I.P. treatment. Get that spell ready Welch Witch. Marc[/b]


Do I think that they may get lower reviews since they were reviewed opening night? Maybe. Do I think this will really affect their season, probably not, they can still have a great season and have large attendance.

[FOC for life]

Why not ask for advice? While i agree 100 percent that you get an imediat reaction from the group if you are doing great or if you are doing terrable. If you are never open to advice you will never grow. Thios is my third year at the haunted house. I have improved every year because i am open to change and fresh ideas. Maybe thats why some haunts are better than others.

[WelchWitch]

I agree Tye. My point was geared more towards the lameness of the attack geared to the request of advise. I know and agree to what your saying. My question to you was more of a smart a** attempt to try to deliver the answer that you said. You missed what all I said the first time. Maybe I read it differantly from you..no biggie. It is what it is. But to say its lame to ask for advice here and have 2 people who havent posted again in response to this just goes to show that aside from you and I being off key that the ones that like to talk out of their butts and start something they cant finish has begun. The first post was against the person who asked for advice, it was then the newbie that just joined and posted once that brought up your point. I will be ready for anyone that comes to my house and work my butt off to give them the same quality show on first day and last day. It is what it is. All we can do is our best. Alot of people do look at this forum as sound advice from people who know what they are talking about for the most part. And want to know what we think. If we go to a house that just opened we can say I think you did this good and maybe work on this, (if we know of course what we are talking about) and help them now what to do to maybe instead of making that one person scream...maybe make them leave the house and only remember them and what they did. I am going to do something each night for my actors that get that kind of response. I have been to hundreds of houses in my looonnngggg life but only can remember key things that happened. If I can help someone get to that point I will. Not attack them and say its lame to ask for advice no matter when they ask. When I was a kid...we were always told no question is ever dumb.

[Big Perm]

Slightly off topic here: You both make good points, Tye is right, the show is only going to get better and historically the first night is an off night for the same reasons listed. Ideally it would be nice if HD could review post opening weekend but not only is this not feasible it&#39;s not fair to the rest of the attractions. You have to start somewhere if you&#39;re going to review and if you want to provide a perfect show on your opening weekend (good luck) then you should plan on having everything done one week prior; coaching actors, built props, construction finished, etc. even if that means a drop in revenue and hope for the best. HD shouldn&#39;t have to change their time table to accomodate an attraction, that defeats the purpose of a blind review but like I said, on the other hand it would be nice to see them wait post opening weekend.

I guess you can take it as a compliment however, that they feel you are at 100% off the bat and don&#39;t think you need the benefit of another week of "rehearsal" so take that how you want to.

[hauntman7]

I agree you have to start the reviews opening night or the info will not get out in time. BUT, I also own a haunt that has been unfortunate enough to get rated on opening night for 3 years in a row now, and I KNOW every haunt in denver is not rated on their opening night, so call it political, call it bad luck, whatever. Just make sure everyone has the same opportunity, or make sure to consider the fact that you were there on opening night when giving ratings. It doesn&#39;t much bother me that the ratings start that early because I know our haunt would do much better a week later, and in the end it doesn&#39;t matter what the raters think, its what the customers think, not enough people know about this site to extremely help or hurt you either way. Thats just my opinion anyway.

[Rob]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (hauntman7 @ Oct 4 2006, 01:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1018)</div>
BUT, I also own a haunt that has been unfortunate enough to get rated on opening night for 3 years in a row now, and I KNOW every haunt in denver is not rated on their opening night, so call it political, call it bad luck, whatever. Just make sure everyone has the same opportunity, or make sure to consider the fact that you were there on opening night when giving ratings.[/b]Oh, come on now. You guys haven&#39;t even seen your scores yet. I&#39;m not saying you got a 10-star rating, though your haunt does get better with each passing year. You&#39;ve finally managed to put on a show comparable to others in the Denver area, and I applaud you. I&#39;m just saying if other haunts can pull off high ratings on their opening nights, so can you. That&#39;s what dress rehearsals are for.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (hauntman7 @ Oct 4 2006, 01:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1018)</div>
Not enough people know about this site to extremely help or hurt you either way. Thats just my opinion anyway.[/b]Is that the line they fed you to get you to shell out those big bucks to join the haunt guild, thus saving the asses of the old guild haunts who needed some newbies to subsidize the newspaper advertising that costs them more every year with a consistantly smaller return? We are not only the largest haunted house media source in Denver, we&#39;re one of the largest local haunt directories in the world. I think it&#39;s both incorrect and naive to assert that "not enough people know about this site." I would argue that our site is one of the main reasons that anyone who doesn&#39;t live near your haunt has even known about it for the past few years. Have you done exit polling to ask how your customers found out about you?

Either way, I enjoyed your haunt more this year than last year, which is usually the case, and I wish you a very successful season.

[WelchWitch]

I can hear crickets now... the gauntlet has dropped. The principal has spoken . Time to go back to our classroom.

[robokatt12]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WelchWitch @ Oct 5 2006, 11:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1044)</div>
I can hear crickets now... the gauntlet has dropped. The principal has spoken . Time to go back to our classroom.[/b]

Teehee! I guess I&#39;ll see you later in detention, Witchiekins. Good times!

[TheAngelInHell]

Actually, i must admit, id LOVE feedback on my acting from the October Lounge crew.

I judge whether i do a decent job or not by the decidble level of the screams with all of the other scares, and the level of the screams with mine. If i can make them scream louder or quiver or ask me not to hurt them more than just about anything in the house, ive done a decent job.

But any joe schmo schmuck can get scared out of their pants. You guys on the other hand should be rather immune to that, so id like to see what the more elite guests would have to say.


Just my opinion.
I never get to act, so id love to be critiqued the one time i do.


Whyd you go and break whats already broken
Ezekial

[moodeous]

woah Rob, that was some rockstar smackdown.

But I just wanted to share that I moved to Boulder last August, had no idea about anything, love haunted houses and went looking online. The first and best thing I found to steer me to the quality scares was Haunted Denver. I chose two houses based on proximity, rating, forum converstations and price. I was very happy with my choices based on the information obtained.

If it weren&#39;t for Haunted Denver I might have:
A) ended up unwittingly stumbling into the closest, but maybe not best house
http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif spent money on a house that critics and customers didn&#39;t recommend
C) Not known to apply for this super fun, but apparently controversial job of critiquing haunted housese
D) Not found any houses, because I don&#39;t read the paper and Boulder was void of local haunts


Also there are a ton of arguments about opening weekend. One is "treat this like any other performance". If I open a theater production and we suck on opening night we&#39;re bound to get panned by every newspaper writer and customer in the audience. Thats my fault for not being sure that my cast was prepared. Rehearsal is totally key. Another is "why are you charging the general population for a product you&#39;re not proud of?".

But I have a brilliant solution!!!!!
Its called the ***drumrolll please***
DENVER HAUNT TREATY of 2006
-all haunted house proprieters agree to open their haunts on the same weekend in the end of SEPTEMBER
-haunted denver agrees to review the haunts on their second weekend
-all haunts stay open all night on their 2nd weekend so that HD can make it to all 22 haunts in one night
-now everyone gets a "level playing field"


okay that was way too long. apologies.

[Mordred the Eld]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (moodeous @ Oct 5 2006, 03:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1052)</div>
But I have a brilliant solution!!!!!
Its called the ***drumrolll please***
DENVER HAUNT TREATY of 2006
-all haunted house proprieters agree to open their haunts on the same weekend in the end of SEPTEMBER
-haunted denver agrees to review the haunts on their second weekend
-all haunts stay open all night on their 2nd weekend so that HD can make it to all 22 haunts in one night
-now everyone gets a "level playing field"
okay that was way too long. apologies.[/b]

It sounds nice and all but good luck trying to implement this. http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif

[Rob]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (moodeous @ Oct 5 2006, 03:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1052)</div>
woah Rob, that was some rockstar smackdown.[/b]
Okay, so now, re-reading my post from a fresh perspective, I sounded really pissed off. http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif I actually got a nice email from the person who posted the message I was responding to, and it&#39;s all good.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (moodeous @ Oct 5 2006, 03:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1052)</div>
But I have a brilliant solution!!!!!
Its called the ***drumrolll please***
DENVER HAUNT TREATY of 2006
-all haunted house proprieters agree to open their haunts on the same weekend in the end of SEPTEMBER
-haunted denver agrees to review the haunts on their second weekend
-all haunts stay open all night on their 2nd weekend so that HD can make it to all 22 haunts in one night
-now everyone gets a "level playing field"
okay that was way too long. apologies.[/b]

LOL. Except then, some haunts start hiring extra staff for the evening, and so on. You just can&#39;t please &#39;em all. Or at least, *I* can&#39;t seem to.

[robokatt12]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WelchWitch @ Oct 3 2006, 03:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=975)</div>
I better get a good show if its the first night or the end of the month. If not it better be discounted somehow to show for the differance.[/b]

WW-that&#39;s a brilliant idea, especially for haunts that aren&#39;t able to rehearse before Opening Night. They oughta charge like maybe ten dollars instead of fifteen or more. That way at least people won&#39;t feel quite as disappointed (ripped-off) ? They could do this easily with a special pass that&#39;d only be redeemable for the first weekend.

[Scarica]

Like in theater, when you do a preview...or charge half price for viewing dress rehearsal. I&#39;ve pulled musicals together in as little as 5 weeks...anyone in theater will tell you that&#39;s a miracle...and that includes auditions! My mom has put together children&#39;s shows with 5 days to work...auditions, casting, rehearsals, dress rehearsal and final performance. Granted, they&#39;re kids, but they know their lines, have their costumes, and stay in character...pretty good when you&#39;re wrangling 20 7-9 year olds!

I think previews would be a great idea anyway...I mean, just like in "traditional" theater (and haunts are really just "up-close" theater) you never know how the audience will react. Always throws me for a loop when a line gets a laugh that you were conviced wasn&#39;t funny. You might think you have a great scare or maniacal laugh, but the real test comes when another person is seeing it for the first time. Heeeeeyyyyyy...maybe haunts should invite October Loungers to go to the previews and give feedback...I promise not to let the critics get a sneak peak, though! <pinky swearing>

[SChaser783]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (robeaukatt12 @ Oct 5 2006, 09:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1061)</div>
WW-that&#39;s a brilliant idea, especially for haunts that aren&#39;t able to rehearse before Opening Night. They oughta charge like maybe ten dollars instead of fifteen or more. That way at least people won&#39;t feel quite as disappointed (ripped-off) ? They could do this easily with a special pass that&#39;d only be redeemable for the first weekend.[/b]

Good idea in a perfect world where profit margins aren&#39;t so thin and fear of poor weather or terrorist attacks loom. I don&#39;t think most people feel ripped off if they go through a haunt on opening night. The average person isn&#39;t nearly as critical as the elite haunters of October Lounge.

[Scarica]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
the elite haunters of October Lounge[/b]

Elite? You REALLY don&#39;t know us too well, do you? Ha! http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

[SChaser783]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Scarica @ Oct 5 2006, 10:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=1068)</div>
Elite? You REALLY don&#39;t know us too well, do you? Ha! http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/b]

LOL I included myself in there http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif