The ULTIMATE Scare Attraction Competition

Today GNG Entertainment is launching the ultimate scare attraction competition for fans and enthusiasts.  One lucky winner will get to design their very own room which will form part of our next scare entertainment experience, Scarytales Live, in March next year.  The winner will be 100% fully responsible for their own location within the maze and everything that goes with it.  You will be designing the room, choosing the lighting, choosing the sound, picking what props go in, what the actor will do, what they will say and, most importantly, what the scares will be!

To be in with a chance of winning this prize you will need a bit more information....

Scarytales Live is a sinister, twisted take on our favourite childhood stories and nursery rhymes and will throw them all together to form a nightmarish scare attraction maze preying on the familiar stories and characters we all loved as children.  The room we want you to design will be the final large location before the finale scene so ramping up the jumps, startles and fear factor is a must.  The room will be 5 meters in length and 3 meters in width and will flow as the diagram below shows.

So, are you up to the challenge?  Remember, all that you have to be certain of is that the room will be scary AND it fits in with the theme of the attraction.

The Prize

Design your own ultimate scare attraction room inside our next show, Scarytales Live
Come to the venue during the build so oversee your room and get involved with theming it as you imagined
Watch the test subjects go through your location and make last minute alterations if things dont go as you thought they would
Invite for you and 3 friends to the VIP press launch night the day before we open to the public
Get 4 free tickets for your friends and family for the show
Professional photo of you inside YOUR room with the actors

The Rules

You MUST "like" the Curious Village Facebook page (www.facebook.com/gngentertainment)
The room MUST fit in with the theme of the show - nursery rhymes, fairy stories etc
You MUST include a full brief of the room, describing how it will look, what will happen, scripting for the actor, drawings and artwork/mood boards, what scares will be included, what props you would want inside etc
Entries MUST be in no later than Tuesday the 13th of December

The winner will be invited up in the new year for a meeting with the production team to discuss the attraction and to get the fine details down for your room.  You will get to meet the lighting and sound engineers to discuss what you would like and work with them to ensure the sounds are what you wanted.  Once the build process starts in March you will then be asked back up to join us inside the Playhouse Theatre to oversee the construction of your location and get involved with the theming process.

All entries must be submitted to info@gng-entertainment.co.uk before the closing date and the GNG Entertainments team decision is final.  This email address can also be used for any questions or queries you have regarding the competition.

The attraction runs from Thursday the 15th to Sunday the 18th of March 2012 and is located inside the Playhouse Theatre in Goldthorpe, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire.  The show is a 100% non-profit event to help raise money for Sheffield Children's Hospital.

Good luck

Gaz, Gav and the GNG Entertainment team.

Building the Bunker

I get asked a lot of time how we design and build the scare attraction experiences from scratch so, he is a whirlwind tour of what you need to do.  From conception to birth, Bunker 13 took around 10 months to complete.  After Hybrid X had finished last year I knew then it would be called Bunker 13 but that was it, I had no idea how the story would go or what would actually happen inside the show.

For me, the first step IS the name, once that's sorted, everything else seems to fall into place.  I wont go into any detail here about all the creative side of tings, you just use your imagination and design the attraction of your dreams.  Things you need to consider though are concept/plot, story, theme, scripting, design elements such as website, promo video, soundscapes for each location, lighting, costumes, makeup, creature concepts, attraction layout, duration, pre-show video, capacity and all of this needs sorting before you buy 1 plank of wood of plaster board!!

So, building, not my role in the company, I leave all that to Gav but I do get involved (I have to, Gav has a tendency to alter things if I am not on site!!) so this is a simple breakdown of how we build the shows.

First step, the layout

I design the layout of the attraction and hand it over to Gav who takes what I have done and builds an accurate, structural blueprint in Auto CAD.  This tool is so valuable as it gives us a 3D rendering of the attraction before the first nail goes in and also a flat schematic of the layout with every measurement on.  This is useful for a number of reasons, not only for the quantity surveyor but also when the build is taking place, what you don't want is to spend upwards of £15000 and realise the attraction wont fit in the area your working in!!!  Once the layout is complete, the wood is ordered and the time comes to build the beast and then the fun really beings (not!)

Once the construction starts the first step is to get the base frame down and secured to the foundations of the building.  At Magna, this is relatively simple as the Face of Steel has a solid concrete base to work off.  The frame lengths are cut to size and screwed into the concrete base ensuring a VERY solid structure which wont fall over on opening day.  Once all the frame is in place you can also, literally, walk your attraction

This photo was taken from a walkway above the attraction so you can get a real feel for the size of it.  The huge pile of timber in the centre is actually 3.5 metres long so you can get a nice perception of scale.  The area containing the wood will eventually become the duelling laser maze!  Once all the frame is in place its time to start attaching the legs.  What we are doing here is no different from internal stud walling you find in any house.

The legs will form the walls which the plaster board will be attached to so we use a system of spacing every 60cm to ensure each plaster board covers 3 legs allowing us to be able to attach the sections together securely.  Once the legs are on the same setup we used for the base frame is repeated but this time on top to form a roof line.  This is also the time the structure will need bracing to ensure it is strong, rigid and, most importantly, wont fall over and crush your guests!  Plaster boarding is the next step (or any other material you wish to use like chipboard, MDF etc) and then the roof is placed and screwed in giving you (hopefully) a totally sealed attraction.

The video above shows the structure about 50% complete, tilt your head to the left to see it better, it was filmed on an Iphone!

So, once the building is done the fun begins (well, apart from all the painting you need to do).  This is where you get to install all the show controls, lights, sounds, effects etc and, when this task is done you get to fill the place with props.  Get this right and your almost ready for show time, bring the actors in, get them into the right places and allow them to rehearse for as much time as is possible.  Get groups of staff, workers, anyone you can find to go through the show so they can practice on real people then when opening day comes you will be ready to give the paying public the fright of their lives.

Hope you found this helpful but if you need any help, advice or have any questions that need a more in depth answer just drop me an email anytime - gary@gng-entertainment.co.uk

Bunker 13

Well, its all over!  Bunker 13 is now nothing more than a pile of wood but it was one hell of a show.  Over the 11 day run we entertained over 6000 people, all of who said it was one of the best scare attractions they had ever been into.  We had quite a few people through that had been through Hybrid X and they all agreed that this years show was far better than last years.

So, things happened differently this year.  In Hybrid X we had 3 scare levels depending on the time of day but this caused us some issues.  The very wording of "scare attraction" put a lot of young children off, even though it was at level 1 and was aimed at young children.  This year we had a spooky children's treasure trail instead of the level 1 experience and this really brought in the crowds.  During the afternoon session we had the standard scare attraction experience aimed at over 12's and we also had 2 over 18's nights where we really ramped up the fear factor.  This years over 18's event saw guests being kidnapped, bound and gagged with hoods over their heads and interrogated by certain residents of the bunker.  Everyone who experienced this agreed it was not only frightening but also very intimidating!

The bunker was just under 400 square meters in size and featured 7 themed locations along with pitch black corridors and tight spaces.  The shows finale was a duelling laser maze, a twist on the traditional strobe maze.  The group were split into 2 and were sent down different paths inside the maze.  They were able to see each other, interact with each other and touch each other through the fences but could not get to each other at all.  The area was patrolled by 6 actors who attacked the groups from all sides, a great end scene.

Overall the feedback was amazing, the reviews were fantastic and the attraction was a massive success.  Our next show will be in March 2012 and will be called Scarytales Live, more details to follow soon.  Enjoy this selection of images from the show, all taken by the very talented David Pickering of Better Than Joe Media