Selling Out: Live entertainment certainly has its fair share of challenges. You’ve got to create a compelling show, market it to your audience, deliver an incredible experience while audiences are there and then (ideally) keep them talking about your show long after it’s over.
3 comments:
This is a great idea! I'm sure we have all spent a couple of hours laughing as we looked at the old picture book we found while cleaning out the closet! I have come across many pictures and videos like the ones the haunted house in Canada has produced and I think they are not only a great way for others to hear about the experience and get a good laugh out of it, but also for the people in the picture to remember a time when they had not control, see a different side of themselves. This article makes me wonder however, how one might bring something like this to the entertainment world outside of haunted houses. I know that they also sometimes do this with roller coasters but, is there a way to make this an interesting part of theatre performances? I think there is some possibility here. I think that if someone wanted to even make this a part of a show, that can certainly be interesting.
I love looking at photos and watching videos of people who have gone through haunted houses. It's hilarious to see what reactions people gave to the haunted house. It's fascinating that the funnier the photos the scary the haunted house seems to be. This remind me of when I visit theme park, ride a scary rollercoaster and see the scream photos from the drop at the end. Sadly, because of our smart phones, we can't take pictures of our experience and we have to buy them instead. This is fine because it's their property, but just seeing what you experienced makes you want to go again and seeing if you react differently then you did before. I can see this being a good tactic to getting more audience members for their performances. Other companies I see using this tactic are movie theater, festivals, and conferences. See other people having a good time at an event definitely will pull in a bigger crowd and keeps them talking.
In my personal opinion, the more I talk about a show, the more successful it was. For instance, my freshmen year I saw a show downtown called Measure Back, which consisted me and a fellow classmate going up a creaky elevator only to sit in a mess of a semi-industrial/ possibly apartment -esque space on cinder blocks. That aspect alone had me talking about the show for days afterwards, as the seating added to the overall atmosphere and feel of the show. The show ended up being very visceral and intense, feelings that were definitely magnified by our unusual and uncomfortable seating. In order for someone to end up talking about a show for a long time afterwards, there needs to be an aspect of the production that brings the audience out of their comfort zone and keeps them there for as long as possible. With Measure Back, it was a combination of the cement seating and the interspersed pornography that played in the background. You can take this principle and apply it to any number of shows. Cirque productions, for example, captivate you in a such a way that you are worried for the actors' safety or straight up stunned by the acrobatics being performed. Even in the case of this haunted house in Ontario, people are being scared out of their minds. With those pictures on the internet, they're being brought out of their comfort zone. That's how you do it, folks.
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