The House at Haunted Hill

The House at Haunted Hill is a high-tech haunted attraction at a home in Woodland Hills, California. The attraction showcases a number of age-old tricks such as Pepper's ghost, and advanced special effects and multi-channel audio.

The attraction

The House at Haunted Hill is a high-tech home haunt in Woodland Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. The show runs from 7pm till midnight the last three days of October.

The attraction differs in a few ways from other seasonal haunted attractions. The main difference is the show is a "walk by" haunt. People view the show along the fence-line of the street (the city closes the street to vehicular traffic to facilitate the large crowds). The other difference is the show is scripted but does not use live actors and instead uses unique video projection methods of actors and animatronics. Finally the style of the show is more of a "ghost show", similar to The Disney Haunted Mansion, lacking any sort of blood, shock or gore.

The show is put on free of charge for the community.

Characters

• Jack - The Narrator (played by Corey Burton)
• Julietta LaRue, a young Hollywood starlet (played by Heather Marie Marsden)
• Billy Valentine, her new husband (played by Todd Fournier)
• Lily, Billy's deceased ex-wife (played by Lori Merkle Ford)
• Moira, Billy's deceased daughter (played Alexendra Vicich)
• Snapper Bixby, a Hollywood Paparazzo (played by Neil Patrick Harris)

History

The show began as a simple yard display of tombstones and a few yard lights. Beginning in 2001, effects similar to The Disney Haunted Mansion appeared in the display along with many of The Disney Haunted Mansion soundtrack elements. With a rapidly growing audience, the show's producers realized that the display needed to have a life of its own creatively.

Lori Merkle Ford created the basic story line in the spring of 2007 revolving around a young Hollywood Starlet of the 1930s who has just married a shady Hollywood screenwriter. Ed Valentine, a prominent television screenwriter, was contracted to develop the script, and pre-production began in full earnest in June 2007. Christopher Hoag, an Emmy-nominated composer, joined the production team shortly thereafter, and about a month later the fully developed score and story were finished.

Corey Burton, famous for his rendition of Paul Frees at The Disney Haunted Mansion, came on board to provide the voice of "Jack", who is the main narrator of the show, whose character is manifested as a giant talking pumpkin.

Technology

The show is a recorded show that repeats every fifteen minutes, similar to many amusement park rides. Instead of live actors, the show uses high-definition projections of the characters to tell the story using several magician's illusions such as Pepper's ghost along with other high-tech projection and lighting methods. The show is controlled by an Alcorn McBride show control system that is synced to SMPTE time code. The show control systems coordinates the motion control systems, animatronics, lighting, and special effects.

The sound system consists of a twenty-four channel sound track with speakers strategically placed along the attraction.

The lighting system is controlled by a Vari Lite Virtuoso and makes extensive use of LED and ultraviolet lighting technology

Original concept

The driving concept for the creators were twofold. First that the show always be free for its visitors. The second main concept was that the show be free of any blood, gore, or shock. The creators felt that the show needed to be friendly to kids of all ages while still maintaining the spirit of Halloween.

Creators

The show is created and produced by Matt Ford and Lori Merkle Ford. Matt Ford is an Emmy winning Lighting Designer based in Los Angeles. Lori Merkle Ford is a singer, actor and dancer based in Los Angeles

External links

• The House at Haunted Hill
• Halloween Goes Hollywood
• Podcast on the House at Haunted Hill