The Texas Haunters Convention™ is a great place to learn some new skills!

This class will walk you through how to best utilize show design for the maximum numbers of scares in your haunt.

This class will guide you through the creation of LED lighting for haunts and costuming.

• Understanding the colors of LEDs that are available
  • Including where to order them
• Understanding how to wire them up – It is much easier than you think!
  • You will learn the few tools that you need and how to use them
• Adding effects to your LED’s
  • Strobes
  • Fades
  • Flickers
  • Switches

In this class, Mitch will explain the fundamentals of mold making and casting.  He will also cover troubleshooting common molding and casting problems in addition to material selection tips.  This class is ideal for those new to the world of molding and casting as well as those with some experience.

Frightening Energetic Aware Reliable

Your patrons have selected your entertainment as an entertainment choice.  The ultimate goal of haunted house acting is entertainment and the best way to know you have succeeded is to provoke a reaction.  A startle, true fear, laughter, or even awe are good reactions and let you know you are getting the job done.  How do we do this?  By learning the basics.

In this session, you will learn one of the most valuable things in haunted house acting which is how to quickly evaluate the customers you will see.  If and when you know how to identify certain members of your audience, you will learn a big secret to the success of any GREAT haunted house actor.

Haunter’s Enthusiastic Actor Retention Training using the three R’s!

This class will cover aspects from Recruiting (acquiring paid and volunteer actors), Reinforcing legal stuff/hiring, to Retention year after year in a single or multi-haunt setting.

From adorable cat videos, to Let’s Plays, to a series that could rival Red vs Blue, learn what to do to start a successful YouTube channel from the ground, to the penthouse suite.

Have you ever looked at an amazing airbrush makeup and thought, man, I wish I could do that?!  Well, you can, and Emerald Scott-Farmer is here to teach you the basics of the whole operation.  In this hour session, she’ll teach you the basics of airbrush selection, use, and maintenance, as well show you how to lay down the fundamentals to make a great character makeup for your show!  There will be a live demonstration as well as opportunities for hands-on learning where you will use an airbrush!  Come learn how you can bring the ghoulish beauty of airbrush makeup to your Halloween looks.

This class will guide you through how to bring your creations to life using motors.

•  The class will have operating props so you can see first hand how to create these motions for your haunt props.
• Understanding the operation of the motor.
  • Connections
  • Rotational speeds
• Understanding how the circular motion of a motor can provide more motions than just things rotating.

Follow Culley Franks as he explains how he walks through the costume distressing process.  He will explain the logic behind how fabric realistically weathers and distresses achieving a realism most costume designers overlook.  This class will show you how to achieve a high level of realism only using tools from your local home improvement and hobby store, and he’ll only use the scissors once (maybe twice).

Brandon will walk you through the various techniques he uses around corpsing skeletons.  Learn how to use basic plastic wrap as well as more realistic “skin” techniques. He will show you how to incorporate wood stains and saddle dyes for a truly creepy professional look.  This is gonna be a fun class and a must for taking your skeletons to the next level!

Something led you to the haunting world.  Whether it be your passion for acting, visiting a haunt that blew your mind, or you are just attracted to the spooky side of life.  No matter what your introduction into this crazy world is, one thing remains the same, you want to scare the crap out of people and have a blast. 

You have the passion, now how do we get to working at a haunt?  In this introduction, Cary will teach you how to make a great first impression during interviews and ace your first audition by teaching you some of the most basic but effective scare techniques.  She will also go over proper haunt etiquette and how to care for your body while scaring.  Get ready for a crash course of things you need to know in order to make a great haunt ghoul.

Stunts and Stilts can be a great addition to any amusement park or haunted attraction by building the shock and awe factor. Whether it’s a strange creature towering over you, charging and sliding at your feet, or lunging full speed in mid-air just to land right in front of your face; it is sure to get the attention and scares you’re looking for.

Utilize the success and knowledge of your senior acting staff. What has made them successful? Why do they continue to scare? Empower them to teach what they have learned. Although it may appear to be simple, conducting a training session requires specific skills and knowledge of how people learn. Trainers who have taken the time to consider their own approaches, understandings, and skills will be better equipped to provide comprehensive, active and effective training courses.

This training program provides the groundwork for trainers to begin developing and refining their training and facilitation skills using a variety of methods to deliver the best learning experiences and improve learner engagement and retention.

The profession of writing has taken numerous twists and turns since the invention of the paper and pencil, but the idea of the starving author is going away. Why is that? The invention of the internet! Learn how to break into this medium and write for horror stories such as Creepy Pastas from MrCreepyPasta himself.