Greywood Manor 2007 & 2008

In my first main post, Greywood Manor 2010,

I displayed a video of this past year's 2010 haunt.

Today, I'd like to showcase a collage of how it looked years back, in 2007 and 2008.

2007 was the first year I created the attic scene.

2008 followed, with slight changes.

As 2009 was my freshman year in college, I did not know how much work to expect. Thusly, the attic scene was not set up that year. The only decor set up was the graveyard - a constant since before 2007.

And as we've seen, 2010 brought the attic's triumphant return, again with slight changes.

2011 is looking to be an iconic year as well - not with a resurrection - but with the addition of the "holiday overlay" props that have been worked into the back-story but that have never actually been displayed before. Stay tuned to this blog, as I have some fascinating posts in the works!

The Saukville Examiner - Part 3 of 3 - Execution

I could have split this post up into two distinct articles, but decided to lump them together so I wouldn't have any mini-posts. Note here as well that next week, I will be taking a break from posting as I gather more content to talk about. You will hear from me again in two weeks, however!

We can break "Execution" into two parts - the actual production of the newspaper, and the way the paper was displayed in the attic.

As for production, I printed through Trixie Pix Graphics.
Now although their website is not very well done, and somewhat (perhaps very!) confusing, the end product was very high quality. Using the jpegs from my design showcased last week from Adobe InDesign, I was able to have my newspaper produced.
I bought the $39.95 two copy option with aged paper. Yes, the price is a bit steep. This is a bit of a downside. Like I said before though, the final outcome was good!
It was shipped in a protective hard envelope.

As for the display, as you have seen in my Greywood Manor 2010 blog-post, you'll have seen that the newspaper was displayed alongside an image of Elizabeth Greywood on a decorative table.
This, however, had to be placed very close to the chain linked "barrier" that keeps guests from physically entering the scene. Tape was put on the back of the newspaper to prevent it from blowing away. Only the top half of the front cover of the newspaper was visible. Going back to the design, the only visible part that greatly needed to be read was the title of the newspaper, and the main article's headline "Greywood Mansion Haunted?" The rest was purely extra that just enhanced the storyline.

I'll end with one final thought on this project.
Yes, it did take a lot of time, effort, and drive to create this insanely detailed prop, but it was well worth it. I spotted many a trick-or-treaters reading the newspaper Halloween night, and that brought a smile to my face. A great bit of magic from Halloween and Greywood Manor!

The Saukville Examiner - Part 2 of 3 - Design

The design of The Saukville Examiner is as akin to a real newspaper layout as I could possibly make it.  There are four pages I produced in all - the Cover Page, which holds the largest story found within the newspaper - "Greywood Mansion Haunted;" a Local News page, which includes fake and real stories inspired by real events that really happened in Saukville the week of October 01, 1950; a World News page, which includes fake and real stories inspired by real events that really happened in the world the week October 01, 1950; and the Back Cover, which includes Letters to the Editor - commenting on occurences that happened that week, ads, and in very small print, newspaper credits - crediting the sources where I got all of my information from.

Below, I will link to the four full, high-resolution images of the newspaper, and also make some comments about each page.

Front Cover

One neat design element found on this page is the fact that the house pictured here is actually the Greywood Manor house.  It is also interesting to point out that the 1950's Electoral Shock article is a fake one, in that "Page 7" does not exist.  I only created pages 1, 4, 5, and 8.  The "Greywood Mansion Haunted" article does indeed continue on Page 4.


Local News

In this Local News page, I had some fun with the left and bottom border.  The page is designed to blend with Page 5, pictured next, because they are next to each other in the actual newspaper.  If you missed the detail, "SE" featured in the circular emblem stands for "Saukville Examiner."  The large one is merely for a unique design, but if you look closely, small ones end every article.


World News

I have to point out that I really love the globe design I used in the middle of this page.  It really has that old-world explorer's feel to it, perfect for the World News section.  Yes, all of these stories are real - either re-written by me, or taken directly from a source.  The photo of the young girl in the bottom left is indeed the girl the featured in the above story - Millie Millhiser!


Back Cover

I'd have to say that I had the most fun with this page - the Letter's to the Editor!  First off, notice that the "Letters to the Editor" banner across the top of the page is slanted slightly. This was intended, to showcase the fact that this is indeed a newspaper made in the 1950s without the aid of computer technology to help with the alignment.  The letters to the editor were written all by me, with most of them relating to stories that occurred to the townspeople during the week.  The cat that was supposedly lost, is actually a picture of the current cat I have - whose name really is Mintie.  A final note of interest, because of my love of the television series LOST, all the names of the people who wrote the letters in were minor characters found within the Dharma Initiative.