You’ve probably seen a few home videos done lately by Disney fanatics. They have been quarantined at home during this Covid-19 pandemic and have plenty of free time on their hands to get creative. What else would you expect a Disney “superfan” to do during all of this free time?
Yesterday, an artist that works on Broadway building props, puppets, and illusions contacted us. He wanted to let us know how he’s been spending his time at home during the coronavirus “shelter-in-place” order.
Brandon Hardy has had a dedicated love for Disney for a long time . . . especially The Haunted Mansion. Over the years he’s built a bunch of specialty props and has collected special memorabilia to decorate his house for Halloween. Unfortunately, his trip to Disney this past week had to be canceled, so he put his skills to good use, dusted off some of his collection (or maybe added dust to it 😉) and turned his house into The Haunted Mansion!
We’ve got to say, this is absolutely the best home “Disney ride” video we’ve seen to date! At first, you’ll think you’re looking at the actual ride or actual ride video, but in fact, 95% of what you’re looking at in this video are props and homemade projections on props within Brandon’s home! He thanked his sister for “going on the ride of her afterlife”.
Again, you’re just looking at props & effects here! Even the Hatbox Ghost is a prop in his home. He built this character last summer just before the Haunted Mansion’s 50th Anniversary. Brandon said, “He doesn’t actually work, he’s a static figure, but I played with my projector and was able to make it look like his head disappears and reappears.”
Brandon said, “I projection-mapped some shots of the ride onto the walls and ceiling of my house (the stretching room, ballroom), but all the footage in this video was shot in and around my house.” The picture of the stretching room is funny because you can see the vents in his ceiling (two vents are visible towards the top of the picture) which you don’t really notice in the video.
For Halloween this past year, he made the caretaker + his dog, and also the hitchhiking ghosts. He said he usually decorates in a way that’s “Haunted Mansion-ish” or at least inspired by it but since last year was the 50th anniversary of Disneyland’s original Haunted Mansion, he committed fully to using The Haunted Mansion as the theme.
When asked for more details on how things were done, Brandon said, “The attic bride is actually just a propped up styrofoam head with some gauzy fabric over her – I found a video on YouTube that someone took of the real thing when their ride got stopped in front of her, so I cleaned it up and projected it onto my form”.
“And Little Leota was just thrown together for the video, she’s made of aluminum foil with a little head taped on. And then I hot glued some fabric on and projected the video from the ride. I’m gonna have to make a “real” version of her one day, maybe one of THESE days since I suddenly have so much time!”
Brandon said that he has a couple of other ideas for making “rides” at home. He said he might have a great idea for Flight of Passage but, “I’d have to get a thing or two from the store and now’s not the best time for that.”
When discussing his recent missed vacation versus his home Haunted Mansion, Brandon said, “I would have preferred the real thing, but you can’t beat the wait time!”
What other “Disney at home” ride videos would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below!