Every year, I like to sit down and analyze what worked, and what didn’t.
This particular year, it was just a minor miracle we were able to do it at all. However, analyzing the new additions:
“The Orchard”, so coined in 2010 was a night and day improvement over the 2010 concept, but still not quite where I’d like it.
One teenager stopped to ask me at the entrance. “What is this, Mr Jones?”
It’s a rare treat to be compared to the nigh perfection that is Pumpkinrot’s works. Alas, I hadn’t watched Mr Jones until this past Saturday. I can kinda see where the teen was coming from in a very broad sense, both works meaning to imply something mystical being set up with the bones and sticks.
The Orchard was one of the few successes, and I’m determined to make it return in 2015, with more proper attention than we were able to give it this year.
Jim.
Jim was another project I started years ago and never finished. Representing my first foray into animation, I’m left unsure whether I will return to animation or not. When he was working it was a marvelous, almost magical thing. A neighbor girl on the 29th went down that corn tunnel (her brother stopping at the gate), encountered Jim, and come running right back out. It remains one of the funnier things of the year.
However, I believe in an attempt to figure out how it was working, someone went fiddling at some point during the party on the 30th, and Jim took a dive. By the time I found him, it was in such a state I knew repair would be impossible with the time and resources I had available. So, a half-working Jim was on for Halloween night. Don’t know whether I’m just not going to put out future animatronics till after the party, or just stick to static.
Jim did look ominous just sitting there waiting for someone to trigger his motion sensor.
The coffins.
They really weren’t my thing to begin with. They got me through a rough time, though, and kept me busy.
Missed opportunity to do up a whole old west graveyard with wooden crosses. Didn’t even cross my mind till it was too late. (I keep seeing the scene with Ned on display outside the bar from Unforgiven when I look at this. Poor Ned.”) Not a bad idea for a whole theme, really. Just, not my thing. They sold about 10 minutes after posting them…which was kind of the point of building them in the first place.
So, where does that leave us?
Well, I’m strongly considering a fresh start for 2015. Return to the most basic elements from 2010. Full on Harvest theme.
I also discovered my city has started a scarecrow contest. I think I might just have to follow a bit of Pumpkinrot’s example, and enter such a contest. I don’t know what won, but I only saw a bunch of smiling stuffed happiness on display. Can’t allow that to stand unchecked. Last time I went looking to make a scarecrow, I stumbled on the Chimera.
Now, how do I take my style there and translate it to a more traditional ‘scarecrow’ form?