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.

The Saukville Examiner - Part 1 of 3 - Conception

Today, we will take the first of a series of in-depth looks at a very unique prop of mine that appears in the attic scene of Greywood Manor - The Saukville Examiner. This fictitious newspaper, made entirely by myself using Adobe In-Design, is the connective storyline between the three families of the attraction - the Greywoods, the Baywells, and the Rukas.

A still from the Greywood Manor 2010 video.

Saukville, by the way, is the town where this haunt resides.

We can find the purpose of this prop by taking a quick glance at the Back-Story I posted a few weeks ago...

"So what became of the mansion? For more than forty years, Greywood Manor sat vacant.  Then, in 1949, the Baywell family moved in. Just a few months later, they moved out.  It is said that on Halloween night of 49’, the Baywell family encountered extraordinary ghostly activity that frightened them away. Rumor has it that on Halloween Night of 49’, the ghostly Christmas decorations reappeared, along with signs of Elizabeth’s presence. Had the Baywell family stirred up the spirits by making Greywood Manor their home? Neighbors of the Baywells say that they must have left early on November first. They left all of their possessions behind. No one knows where they vanished off to. It is rumored that they moved down to the state of Mississippi, wanting to have gotten as far away from Wisconsin as possible. But others, perhaps the more sinister, believe they never left. A newspaper ran a story on the report soon after. An investigator left a copy in Greywood Manor’s attic, so the next family to move in would know what they were going to be up against." 

As you can see, this fake newspaper gives the sense of the haunted history of the mansion. The paper itself is dated Sunday, October 01, 1950. In summary, the leading story - "Greywood Mansion Haunted?" - looks upon the Baywell family's disappearance that occured in the year 1949. After almost a full year of investigating, the SSS, or Spirit Society of Saukville (a fake paranormal investigation group), has finally pieced together the mysteries of the mansion's past.

Even though only one half of the front page of the newspaper was viewable this past year sitting on a table next to a photo of Elizabeth Greywood, there is more to the paper! Since I created this newspaper as a project for my Computer Design class I took this past year, I added a full other three pages that are full of both original and period-specific newspaper articles.

In my next post, entitled Design, I will display full high-quality images so you can read all the stories present within the newspaper. I'll also take you a bit behind the creation of these stories and the layout of the newspaper in general. In the final post, Part 3, about The Saukville Examiner, I will talk about what I had to go through to actually get the newspaper printed, and the logistics of displaying it this past Halloween.

Happy Haunts Materialize - The Clrset Ghost

Taking a somewhat turn off the beaten path, this week I would like to discuss a "haunting behind the haunt."  The Ouija Board used in Greywood Manor has its own haunted history - that which concludes with perhaps video evidence of the dead.

Before the Ouija Board was retired to Greywood Manor, it was, infact, used as a true Ouija Board should be - a means to contact the deceased.  Having been interested in the real paranormal, I had recieved the Ouija Board as a boardgame to be played over my summer break from school.  This was around the year 2004.

Flashforward to 2006.  After conversing with the board, my cousin Dan and I decided we wanted to get the "spirit" to show itself.  It ended up giving us a time and place in which it would do so, and guarenteed that we'd be able to pick it up on our video camera.  Thusly, we set up the camera, left the room, guarded the door, and let the camera roll for about ten minutes or so - giving the ghost a nice five minute window on each side of the supposed time of contact. (This would give the spectre some extra time if it decided to show up early or late.)

After the ten minutes were completed, we went back into the room.  Noticing no oddities of any kind inside the room, we packed up the camera, and took it downstairs to view the footage on our television.

The findings were startling!  At about two to three minutes into the film, a semi-translusent white orb appears coming in from the bottom left side of the frame.  It traverses a distance of about two to three feet, and disappears within the camera shot right in the middle of the closet - the agreed upon sight of appearance.

So is this truly proof of the dead?
All we know for sure is that we are honored to have this prop in our possession, and take pride in displaying it every Halloween!

Below is a video of the phenomenon caught on film.

If you would like to find out more on this oddity, you can check out my interview with Jim Harold on Jim Harold's Campfire podcast.  I was featured in this past weeks episode, entitled "Ouija and More," Episode 51.  Below is the link.

Jim Harold's Campfire Podcast - Ouija and More - Episode 51