Dark Hour Haunted House 2023 in Plano, Texas

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Dark Hour Haunted House in Plano,
Texas had new owners of this season.

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That's coming up on today's show from
the Haunted Attraction Network. I'm Philip and

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this is our sixty one day Hantedthon, where we're counting down to Halloween by

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celebrating Haunted House is daily via videos, podcasts, and VIP in person experiences.

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Since this podcast is only one part
of our Hantedon and we're focusing so

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much on videos this year, the
best way to follow everything is by subscribing

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to our newsletter at the link in
our show notes, or going to our

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website at Haunted Attraction Network dot com
and clicking the Hantathon twenty twenty three banner.

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Remember that the best way you can
support us this Halloween season is by

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sharing our Hantathon with someone you think
we'll enjoy it. Okay, Today,

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Alan Hopps used to be the director
of Dark Hour and now he's one of

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the owners. We sat down with
him to discuss what that change in role

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would be like and how it would
impact the direction of this staple in the

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hant industry. We got a little
deep in this conversation, so there is

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a little bit about the haunt itself, but as the conversation developed, it

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really became more of a masterclass about
haunt ownership. Okay, here's allan.

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I am Alan Hopps and I am
one of the owners at Dark Hour Haunted

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House. I have been the director
previously. My wife and I and another

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partner just purchased it in January and
we're coming up on our very first season

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as the owners. Exciting as the
owners, are you changing the direction or

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the feel of the heart traction?
Is that part of the plan. I

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think that the feel has changed for
our staff, but I think that the

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customer will only benefit from the change
in culture a little bit. I don't

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I had already designed the Haunt and
I was directing the Haunt, so obviously

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always happy with that direction. So
we're going to stay on that direction,

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but we'll be able to do more
and I'll be able to control the focus

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of where we focus on things in
order to get it exactly where I want

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it. Yeah. Speaking of that, let's talk first a little bit about

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broad Strokes. What do you have
planned for this Halloween season? I know

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that just myself personally, having visited
just last year during the summer and then

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coming in again before the hot season. I was shocked at how the entryway

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has changed and just so much has
changed in just that short amount of time.

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And I'm sure you have plans for
more for Halloween. I've been able

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to kick the doors off a little
bit in some areas. Literally, Yeah,

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instead of doing more, we're taking
the areas that were not the best

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and just bringing them up. We're
trying to bring everything up to the level

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that we wanted to be. Scenically, scare wise, flow, story,

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all of that is getting worked on
simultaneous, and our front of house end

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is where you notice some of those
changes. Very theatrical style, theme park

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style entry with a stage show and
whatnot. And I just think that those

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elements are going to prepare guests for
what they're getting into as far as the

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show goes, and that's going to
help us move and process people in a

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better way and thematically. Of course, you're staying with the Cove, I'm

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staying with the Coven. I'm staying
with thirteen Witches. I want to get

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Dark Hour finished. Is any Haunt
ever truly finished? No, but I'm

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working on it. I have plans
for this set of witches that I have,

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and I want to get the show
to a certain level. I'll probably

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be there next year or the year
after, and then I'll kill a witch.

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And then once I kill a witch, then I'll be able to change

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out of thirteen witches. Each one
gets part of the show. It's one

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thirteenth of the show. I'll be
changing pretty much every year after that.

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So guests that are coming again this
year after last year, what I think

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to your point, you're saying you're
clean up scenes, so are they going

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to notice the same scenes? But
there were areas that were weak and we're

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making them very strong. And we
had some areas that just got skipped by

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the love magic wand and we're going
in. We're giving love to all of

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those areas. Some areas, they
tend to be a little simpler than others,

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and we're finding ways to add something
even though the scenery is simple,

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add something to up the intensity.
It's not all details, not always the

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answer. A lot of the Haunt
owners tend to have their building and they

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work on the building and then it's, oh, yeah, there's going to

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be cast in here. Great.
But some areas we're really working on what

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is the cast doing while the guests
are doing this motion. We're really planning

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out the layout and the design to
get the most possible interactions. Can you

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give me some examples of that.
I think I noticed some things where there

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were it feels like there's always something
going on, and it's not always like

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you said something that's crazy complicated.
I remember going into an area where I

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was like, oh, it's clear
that I'm being surrounded by thorny root areas,

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but they're not. It wasn't a
huge expense item, but it gave

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that texture to the ceiling and you
felt like you were brushing up again,

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like you were trying to go through
a thorn patch. You're feeling it prickling

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you, and you're like, oh, it was cool. But one of

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those cool things doesn't break the bank. But I noticed it and it fit

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with the area. So that is
from I think it's Sleeping Beauty, where

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there's the big the witch summons the
big vines to keep the prints away,

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and she turns into it. She
turns into a dragon, and that's all

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done in silhouette, and so that
hallway is very much an homage to those

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thorns and just it's done in silhouette. So there's painting on the wall,

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and there's a little bit of glow
in the dark and that paint on the

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walls, and then there's black vines
painted on the walls, and then there's

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vines that we physically made in and
they do cage and close you a bit.

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And that's probably twenty four feet of
turns in that area. And that

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is one pedal of what we call
daisies. And the trick is the guests

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have to move more than the actors. So the actor is in the hub

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of the daisy. They're in the
center of the flower, and then they

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can get a scare, and then
the guests go around the pedal of the

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daisy and they come right back to
the hub. Same actor gets a scare.

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So I could put two people in
there for the buddy system. No

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one gets bored, no one's lonely. Did you see that? Did you

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see that? And they switch off, so they control that little area.

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But then that daisy might have six
seven petals, and then at the end

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you try to put an animatronic or
some kind of other interactive reward, or

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sometimes it's one pedal is shared by
two daisies, so they get hit on

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both sides. There's just that's the
kind of design stuff that we're doing it

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on purpose. We're doing it on
purpose, and we're laying it out in

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such a way where it's going to
work most of the time. Is going

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back to what you were saying earlier
about cleaning up some of the areas and

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really just making the show complete.
Is that kind of what you're talking about

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is in terms of making sure all
of those daisy moments are well that and

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we also we had to retrofit a
little bit because when twenty when the pandemic

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happened, we took a year off. We took twenty twenty off and took

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it off like we're on vacation.
The pandemic was terrible, but every haunt

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once more time, so we took
that time. We really readd our story.

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We did not have enough time and
manpower to make the Haunt match that

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new story. So now we have
direction is just where to go. So

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the story is our direction tells us
where to go, and I'm headed there.

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We're headed there, so you just
keep me down the path. Base

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we're staying down the path. We're
adding Nordic elements to the Moss wife that

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area because yes she's plants, but
she's also a creature from Norse mythology,

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so we're adding Nordic elements and that's
going to look less and less like a

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regular greenhouse and more like a Norse
forest. We have one set of witches

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who didn't have a lot of area, so we're taking area from another witch,

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and we're going to add a Medusa's
lair because it's the three sisters didn't

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have as much space as they should. And I when I was a kid,

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I fell in love with the clash
of the titans Medusa's lair, that

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rattlesnake sound and the fire and the
columns, and I want to do that

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in a haunt. The challenge there
is making full size statues, so we're

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working on that, and that's something's
happening in the background, and that won't

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even be out till next year.
This year, the Moss Wife got a

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new bone tree, this whole big, sixteen foot tall tree made of skeletons,

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skeletons and moss, and that's a
nice visual and there's stuff hanging down

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so it interacts with you. Okay, So let's seconding back just a tiny

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bit, back to the ownership switch. Tell me a little bit about that.

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Why did you decide to move from
creat directing into owning. I think

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every haunter has their retirement haunt in
their brain, you know. And I've

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got this hay ride plan that I'm
going to do one day down the road.

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That's just it's very different, but
it's something that I could do and

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instead of that, maybe I'll do
this. Does it feel different on the

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day to day? It does feel
different? Everything comes to it does.

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It shouldn't feel different, but it
does, and it feels different in the

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most wonderful way in that, Yes, now I'm raising a child, but

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it's not a step child. It's
actually my child now, and that's a

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big difference. And also the people
that I have worked with for years,

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they're on board, were in step
they know that I don't have super giant

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deep pockets like they know that,
Yeah, this year has to go well,

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and we're all working towards that goal. My Stilt Beast has come here.

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We're working on still Beast to make
sure Still Beast orders are done.

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At this point. Yep, I
don't have any orders from trans World left.

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So that's because I had eight people
working on them for four or five

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months I have. I had the
staff to do it, and that actually

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freed up my time. It's my
days used to be. Last year.

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I would leave here, get home
about seven or eight, go into my

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shop at home where people were already
waiting on me, and I would work

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with them until eleven when they left, and then I'd probably work till twelve

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or one, answering email or YouTube
comments, and maybe I might have to

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edit the YouTube video before I go
to sleep and then get up to come

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to here again. Now, honestly, it's less work in a way because

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my evenings are my own, and
I have this awesome, wonderful team of

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people who are really with me for
the journey, and I'm dragging them with

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me. You're going to see me
people trams are tired of hearing me teach,

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you know what I mean. I
love me, but I love teaching.

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I love teaching, I love sharing, and you're going to see more

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and more of my team doing that
because they're coming with me. We all

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have that mindset of let's think outside
the box. Let's do what's good for

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the industry is good for us.
What's good for the industry is good for

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Dark Hour. So that's a thought
that I'm fostering with my people, whether

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they stay my people or they go
off and do their own thing. Yeah,

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I was gonna ask about because it
seems like it could be a good

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idea to have a production studio and
you have work that comes in. That

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way, you can keep a year
round team of artists because when they're not

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working on stuff for dark hour,
they can be working on stuff for other

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people. But you have access to
that talent, because talent is difficult,

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especially in the hount house space.
Like you just said, talent is the

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key having your good team. No, talent isn't difficult. Talent's easy.

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The issue that the haunt industry has
I hate, I don't like saying anything

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negative about the industry is the ego
at the top has to make room for

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the egos all around them to rise
up and pass them. You have to

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be prepared for that. You have
to be pull everybody up. That you

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can pull them all up. It's
only going to help. And there's so

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many things. Well, I now
have ten people here doing what I used

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to do alone. It's so nice
to have help. The YouTube channels.

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I have a couple YouTube channels that
are going and one of them is about

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to hit one hundred thousand subscribers.
I've got two folks here who edit video

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pretty much. They leap frog editing
videos. Every day. We are filming

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three things happening in the Haunt almost
at minimum. We're gonna need more cameras

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because we're out of cameras. And
then it's keeping track of the footage and

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don't film anything you're not going to
use. But you understand that struggle.

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But we're feeding that machine. It's
getting media images. A Haunt now is

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only as good as its images.
I was not brought up as a media

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guy. I'm learning that, but
I've got a team who's way better at

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it than I am. I fumble
my way through media six. It's diligence

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over skill for sure. But yeah, the team here is amazing. But

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everybody has an amazing team. You
have to recognize it and give them the

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keys. So one of the issue
is giving the keys away, letting these

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letting other people do things. But
they might learn all that here and then

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go somewhere else. That's true,
they might, But how many people are

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going to flock to you because you're
willing to let them learn there and then

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willing to let them grow. That's
part of it. Why do you think

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that is the hall industry works in
shadows, not spotlights. We work in

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shadows not spotlights. We want to
push our talent into the shadows. I

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think that's the mentality, that's the
difference. Whereas if it's a stage,

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you're pushing the important people into the
light, and here the important people are

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in the shadows, and you gotta
flip that every now and then. Yeah.

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Today's episode was produced and edited by
me Philip Hernandez, with post production

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by David Swape and original music composed
by Chris Thomas. We're counting down to

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Halloween with daily podcasts, videos,
and events in our sixty one day Hauntathon.

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Follow along at the link in our
show notes. Our Hantathon is made

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possible through generous support from Gantum,
Lighty and Controls. Gantum illuminates attractions worldwide

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with the world's smallest intelligent spotlights.
See what you're missing with a free demo.

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Sign up at d'antum dot com slash
demo. That's gantum dot com slash

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demo. Our Hauntathon team includes Daryl
Plunky, Emily Luis Rua Megan Spells,

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our content partners for this year include Attractions

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Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of
Ajgen, hont Topic Radio, Kevin Heinbach,

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Mused On, The Adventures, Scare
Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween

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Podcast, The Horror of Being Emily, The Scare Factor, and This Weekend

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with Nick Pegliocchini. The best way
you can support us this Halloween season is

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by sharing our Haunted on with someone
you think we'll enjoy it, and to

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follow along to our Haunted on,
sign up for our weekly newsletter at hant

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Attraction Network dot com. We'll catch
you back here tomorrow and every day until

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Halloween. Until next time, stay
scary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network production.