"The OSA haunted house is a biennial event that features impressive work created by the students in OSA’s Production Design emphasis"
-- Leah Upton, 8th grade
The OSA haunted house is a biennial event that features impressive work created by the students in OSA’s Production Design emphasis. The week of Halloween is a time where most people find ways to scare themselves in honor of the “spooky season.” The OSA community looks forward to the haunted house not only because of the scary factor, but also due to the fact that their friends and family in Production Design heavily contributed to making this exciting experience come alive.
Each year the haunted house has a new design and theme created by the students. At the beginning of the school year, the students made models of their ideas for the haunted house. Some ideas from those models did end up in the final design of this project. The theme for the 2019 haunted house was Cabin Fever, which included many rooms that would be found in a cabin, such as a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and more. The middle school students all worked on the kitchen, while the highschool students worked on everything else.
Francesca Berlow, Evaline Flamer, and Giselle Franco are 8th grade students in OSAs Production Design emphasis. They all agree that having all of middle school work on one room had its cons, especially that it was very crowded.
Each year the haunted house has a new design and theme created by the students. At the beginning of the school year, the students made models of their ideas for the haunted house. Some ideas from those models did end up in the final design of this project. The theme for the 2019 haunted house was Cabin Fever, which included many rooms that would be found in a cabin, such as a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and more. The middle school students all worked on the kitchen, while the highschool students worked on everything else.
Francesca Berlow, Evaline Flamer, and Giselle Franco are 8th grade students in OSAs Production Design emphasis. They all agree that having all of middle school work on one room had its cons, especially that it was very crowded.
“For most of the time we’re all in the same room, so we have the responsibility of there being other kids around,” Franco said, explaining that you have to be careful because in a crowded place like that it’s easy for someone to get hurt.
Another challenge of working in a small space is that there isn’t a whole lot of responsibility for each person. This is a struggle especially for people who know that they can handle a lot more. “We all have something to do within the room, but it's not as much responsibility as I would like,” said Berlow.
These middle schoolers all work with power tools and intense equipment, yet they all feel very safe in their environment. Mr. Revon, the Production Design teacher, is always guiding them and making sure his students are as safe as they can be. “I definitely feel safe because Mr. Revon is a big person on safety. If you are not doing one thing right, he’s like, ‘stop, you have to do it this way,’ but at the same time no matter how many safety precautions you take you can still get hurt,” said Flamer.
“Something could always happen and at some point it probably will, which is scary to think about, but at the same time we’re trying to prevent that as much as we can,” Flamer continued.
The Production Design students feel safe for the most part, but they also understand that a great load of responsibility comes with working with these tools. “Since we’re working with other people, we depend on those people. If I’m holding the wood and she’s cutting and I let go and something bad happens, then that’s my fault,” said Franco. “If everybody knows what they are doing and is aware of how they can get hurt and what not to do, then I feel like you should be fine.” Berlow agreed that it's the students responsibility and if everyone is aware, everyone should be safe.
Another challenge of working in a small space is that there isn’t a whole lot of responsibility for each person. This is a struggle especially for people who know that they can handle a lot more. “We all have something to do within the room, but it's not as much responsibility as I would like,” said Berlow.
These middle schoolers all work with power tools and intense equipment, yet they all feel very safe in their environment. Mr. Revon, the Production Design teacher, is always guiding them and making sure his students are as safe as they can be. “I definitely feel safe because Mr. Revon is a big person on safety. If you are not doing one thing right, he’s like, ‘stop, you have to do it this way,’ but at the same time no matter how many safety precautions you take you can still get hurt,” said Flamer.
“Something could always happen and at some point it probably will, which is scary to think about, but at the same time we’re trying to prevent that as much as we can,” Flamer continued.
The Production Design students feel safe for the most part, but they also understand that a great load of responsibility comes with working with these tools. “Since we’re working with other people, we depend on those people. If I’m holding the wood and she’s cutting and I let go and something bad happens, then that’s my fault,” said Franco. “If everybody knows what they are doing and is aware of how they can get hurt and what not to do, then I feel like you should be fine.” Berlow agreed that it's the students responsibility and if everyone is aware, everyone should be safe.
Flamer explained how much control the students have when building the haunted house and how it can be scary to have that much responsibility. “I really like the hands-on aspect because usually in middle school we don’t use power tools that much, we’re just working on the design part of Production Design; but when we’re building the haunted house, we really get to do it, we really get to cut everything, and screw everything in, and we really get to design it. We’re doing everything, and to know that we’re not getting help with that really, it's just us and anything we do could be a mistake, it's thrilling and scary.”
Communication is a very important part of staying safe and productive when making the haunted house. People are working together or near each other almost all the time, so it’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Overall, Production Design is a very collaborative emphasis and the haunted house, despite being challenging, brings the students together. The haunted house will always be an important part of OSA and what helps make this school unique.
Communication is a very important part of staying safe and productive when making the haunted house. People are working together or near each other almost all the time, so it’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Overall, Production Design is a very collaborative emphasis and the haunted house, despite being challenging, brings the students together. The haunted house will always be an important part of OSA and what helps make this school unique.
