Stock photo of Halloween decoration on the door of the house. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
LEHI, UT— Baird Manor has been putting up a Halloween display for 20 years. “In the past, we’ve had a yard display with homemade animatronics and some small digital effects. People could [walk around] and see the show and then come trick-or-treating,” says the owner of the house, Jeff Baird. “[What we’re doing now] allows people to stay a little farther away but still get some Halloween fun.”
Baird says it’s kind of like a drive-in movie. You can even tune in the audio on your car stereo. He says “It’s about a 7-8 minute show. It’s going to have different scenes and digital effects on different parts of the house.” That 7 or 8 minutes was the result of many, many, more hours of work.
First off, Baird said he needed a very bright projector. “About 3000 Lumens, that we shine on the house.” Then the software does its job. “We map the elements of the house. We draw lines where there are lines on the house, draw shapes around the window, etc. Then we apply the FX to that map.”
Baird got the digital effects from a few places. Some from stock photos, some they purchased from companies, and some they made. “My nephew is the mad scientist behind the scenes. He’s created his own and is even (sharing them) with other haunted houses.
Asked to rank the “scary” on a scale of 1 to 10, Baird replies that is a “2 or 3.” He says, “we’re heavily influenced by Disney’s Haunted Mansion. (That) doesn’t go for the big startles and the blood and gore. It’s more family friendly. It’s spooky-slash-fun.”
Baird says the show is running nightly, when it gets dark, now through Halloween. Find out where to go by checking out the Baird Manor facebook page. Their Youtube channel has videos of their display and some other local haunted displays they like.