Initial tests revealed I needed to adjust the scale, focus and brightness. I purchased some green tulle to match the background. So, we opted for Option 2-projecting an Oz head on a scrim, or semi-see-through fabric.

While that would have been amazing, a slight gust of wind might blow the fog away, ruining the effect. We researched many ways of doing this (including one really cool way of creating laminar flow using 800 drinking straws!!!). Option 1 involved projecting a video of an Oz head on a thin curtain of fog. To achieve the floating effect, we considered several options. The plastic caps were fascinating in their own right, and careful observers will see that they make great Munchkin hats!įrom there, we constructed the Oz throne, one tube at a time, finally adding the front pieces and ‘altar.’ Nice! That made their removal astonishingly fast. I tried many means to extract them, until some clever folks (thanks Macias family!) figured out that all you had to do was simply twist them to unscrew them.

One predicament I encountered was that these tubes had plastic caps wedged into each end, which were impossible to remove. Next, on our painting days, we painted them green, the kids making short work of the long tubes. After several trips to several stores, I had a yard full of carpet tubes. I tried many carpet stores, without much luck and eventually discovered that Home Depot was willing to part with several of their tubes. I had had success before using tubes from the middle of carpet roles. I needed about 14 tubes.Īfter that, I had to search for long tubes. Then, I cut up pieces of paper representing the tubes I would use to help me determine how many I would need (they are about 12 feet long, 4 in. model of the house to check the size relative to visitors (young and old). To start the design, I re-created Oz’s backdrop in Photoshop and created a quick mock-up in paper, to put along side my 1 in. So, we decided to swing for the fences and try to have our own floating Oz head. That would have made this Mechanical Engineer happy, but still, it wasn’t quite what we envisioned. We could have also gone for the steampunk mechanical version used in Wicked.

We could just make a cardboard version, but we didn’t feel that would convey the excitement that we wanted. We knew we wanted a wizard somehow, but weren’t sure what would be the best way to do it. What would a Wizard of Oz themed Halloween house be with out the Wizard of Oz? One of the most striking images in the original movie involved the head of the Great and Powerful Oz floating in front of a throne/altar surrounded by smoke and fire.

Wizard of oz haunted house slot machine