I don't believe I ever posted about my article in the San Francisco Chronicle from 2007. This was on the front page of the Home and Garden section. Reproduced here for your enjoyment. It's not entirely accurate, but that's okay. May I also direct you to my photos from that year's setup to give a better perspective of what it was actually like?
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| After recent rains Jasper retouches some of the paint. Jasper Anderson,16, Redwood City with his Halloween robotic display at his home. Eric Luse |
The Skeleton's Hand a Redwood City family's homemade haunt
Susan Fornoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Gawkers have been up and down Maryland Street for the past month, straining to hear the silly pirate jokes out of the mouths of skeletons Vern and Walter, watching to see if Will the mummy would rise from the dead, wondering what Maggie the witch is stirring in her steaming cauldron.
And, oh dear, what will costumed visitors have to do to earn a treat tonight? That's all up to the unworldly, all-seeing Magic Mirror and the brotherly wizards pulling the strings of the Skeleton's Hand, an elaborate, high-tech but down-home haunt in front of the Anderson house in Redwood City.
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| Jasper Anderson,16, Redwood City with his Halloween robotic display at his home. Eric Luse |
The "man" behind the curtain is 16-year-old Woodside High sophomore Jasper Anderson, such a fan of Halloween that when he was as young as 4, he would design his costume and then go to the store with Mom (Donna Habeeb) to pick out the perfect fabrics and trims. His Harry Potter and dragon costumes won prizes in the local rec center costume contest, and, in July, an Associated Press photographer captured his getup as Lord Voldemort at a bookstore's "Harry Potter" release party.
A budding filmmaker, Jasper also loves old black-and-white horror movies and the more recent "Pirates of the Caribbean" films - skeleton Vern is named after "Pirates" director Gore Verbinski, skeleton Walter after Walt Disney, witch Maggie after Margaret Hamilton and mummy Will after William Henry Pratt, known more famously as Boris Karloff. (Jasper's got a sly sense of humor - there's also a Frankenstein in the haunt named Karl in another nod to Mr. Karloff.)
Four years ago, Jasper started getting ideas about decorating the front of the family's two-story house, but he got stuck in a Yosemite snowstorm and missed his favorite holiday altogether. That gave him a year to plan and build - and enlist the help of his brother, Ethan, and father, Chris - for what's become an annual display opening Oct. 1.
They're quite a team. Jasper comes up with ideas and sketches them, then papier-maches frightful faces for the figures. Ethan is only 12, but his is the engineering mind that deduces (with some help from his friend Andy) how to electronically animate the creatures with circuit boards in their heads. And Dad just happens to be a contractor who will happily salvage discarded wood and Styrofoam to fabricate the cockamamy creations his sons dream up.
"That's really why we're able to do this," Jasper said on a recent sunny Saturday, watching his father climb a ladder to assemble the team's newest feature, a giant pirate ship sailing out of the top of the garage that tonight will be animated with a computer-generated pirate projected onto the boat.
"He says 'we' but really it's him," Chris said.
"Jasper is the master and we all work for him," Donna chimed in.
Chris and Donna seem proud to serve, and a little awestruck by the workings of their 16-year-old's mind. "His creativity - I'm not going to stop that," Chris said. Donna said she would like to see some more cheerful scenes, "some little happy pumpkins," but she's appreciative of the restraint that Jasper exercises when it comes to not frightening the smaller kids. The Magic Mirror, for instance, is a jack-o'-lantern face that has a scarier side for older trick-or-treaters.
"He says he doesn't want to promote gore," Chris said.
"It's creepy," said Jasper, an honor student who hopes to go to film school, "but it's supposed to be fun. No blood."
More elaborate are the animatronics skulls controlled with an airplane remote. The brothers use Adobe After Effects for animation, as well as Final Cut Pro and the free Audacity sound program. Jasper found the pirate jokes on a Web site and recorded them with Audacity, using his own voice, at quiet moments in the house.
Theirs is one of the bigger houses on their block of ranch-style homes, and that's because Chris built an addition a few years ago that includes an upstairs laundry/project room where creativity blossoms year-round. The desks are covered with paint, glue, art materials and electronica. Donna has her own projects - she makes jewelry when she's not managing Chris' business.
If there's a "make things" gene, it's surely in the family, and the Andersons will put it on full display this evening. Last year, more than 150 trick-or-treaters stepped up to the Magic Mirror, which had the face of a gargoyle and spewed vapors when it distributed treats.
First, though, it wanted a song or a dance. Jasper couldn't believe how many trick-or-treaters complied. Visitors this year might be asked for a cartwheel or a headstand - Jasper's not saying what the Magic Mirror's got in mind. He is, however, already thinking about next Halloween.
"Next year, I think all the skeletons will be a singing group in the garage," Jasper said.
Team Anderson awaits its instructions. Even Donna.
"Although my mom originally wanted to get more cheerful features in the haunt," Jasper said, "she is now shopping in the spooky aisles with me."
A budding filmmaker, Jasper also loves old black-and-white horror movies and the more recent "Pirates of the Caribbean" films - skeleton Vern is named after "Pirates" director Gore Verbinski, skeleton Walter after Walt Disney, witch Maggie after Margaret Hamilton and mummy Will after William Henry Pratt, known more famously as Boris Karloff. (Jasper's got a sly sense of humor - there's also a Frankenstein in the haunt named Karl in another nod to Mr. Karloff.)
Four years ago, Jasper started getting ideas about decorating the front of the family's two-story house, but he got stuck in a Yosemite snowstorm and missed his favorite holiday altogether. That gave him a year to plan and build - and enlist the help of his brother, Ethan, and father, Chris - for what's become an annual display opening Oct. 1.
They're quite a team. Jasper comes up with ideas and sketches them, then papier-maches frightful faces for the figures. Ethan is only 12, but his is the engineering mind that deduces (with some help from his friend Andy) how to electronically animate the creatures with circuit boards in their heads. And Dad just happens to be a contractor who will happily salvage discarded wood and Styrofoam to fabricate the cockamamy creations his sons dream up.
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| Jasper attaching the pirate to the ship above the garage. On the roof is his younger brother Ethan helping his father Chris attach the sail. Jasper Anderson,16, Redwood City with his Halloween robotic display at his home. Eric Luse |
"That's really why we're able to do this," Jasper said on a recent sunny Saturday, watching his father climb a ladder to assemble the team's newest feature, a giant pirate ship sailing out of the top of the garage that tonight will be animated with a computer-generated pirate projected onto the boat.
"He says 'we' but really it's him," Chris said.
"Jasper is the master and we all work for him," Donna chimed in.
Chris and Donna seem proud to serve, and a little awestruck by the workings of their 16-year-old's mind. "His creativity - I'm not going to stop that," Chris said. Donna said she would like to see some more cheerful scenes, "some little happy pumpkins," but she's appreciative of the restraint that Jasper exercises when it comes to not frightening the smaller kids. The Magic Mirror, for instance, is a jack-o'-lantern face that has a scarier side for older trick-or-treaters.
"He says he doesn't want to promote gore," Chris said.
"It's creepy," said Jasper, an honor student who hopes to go to film school, "but it's supposed to be fun. No blood."
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| Ethan,13, Jasper,16, dad, Chris Anderson and mom Donna Habeeb with one of Japer's Halloween creatures hanging from a tree in the front yard. |
The parents also appreciate the life lessons their sons are extracting from their annual exercise in creativity. Jasper and Ethan clearly enjoy it when a couple of neighborhood boys check on their progress and ask how things work, and pause to chat with seniors from the assisted-living home next door who walk by everyday to see what's new.
"I thought it would upset the neighbors, creep them out," Donna said. "But Jasper treats it like a set, changing things every day, so they actually enjoy it."
Jasper's resourcefulness includes funding. To raise money for his production, he mows lawns, handles sound and lighting at an area theater, and even created a sister to Maggie the witch for a neighbor. He can make an entire skeleton from 50 sheets of newspaper and sometimes finds defective medical teaching skeletons at half price. Fingernails come from plastic water bottles, heads from wig forms covered in Crayola Model Magic clay. A thrift-store sheet wraps a mummy, tombstones are sheets of Styrofoam lettered with the tip of an empty, hot glue gun. One of his gags is just a simple piece of paper rendered into a Lost Monster posting that can go up on a neighborhood tree for amusing double takes.
"Of course, the time to shop is after Halloween," he noted.
"I thought it would upset the neighbors, creep them out," Donna said. "But Jasper treats it like a set, changing things every day, so they actually enjoy it."
Jasper's resourcefulness includes funding. To raise money for his production, he mows lawns, handles sound and lighting at an area theater, and even created a sister to Maggie the witch for a neighbor. He can make an entire skeleton from 50 sheets of newspaper and sometimes finds defective medical teaching skeletons at half price. Fingernails come from plastic water bottles, heads from wig forms covered in Crayola Model Magic clay. A thrift-store sheet wraps a mummy, tombstones are sheets of Styrofoam lettered with the tip of an empty, hot glue gun. One of his gags is just a simple piece of paper rendered into a Lost Monster posting that can go up on a neighborhood tree for amusing double takes.
"Of course, the time to shop is after Halloween," he noted.
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| In his workroom Jasper works on the servo robotic skull that goes in the pirate ship above the garage. His brother will be the distorted voice for the skull. |
More elaborate are the animatronics skulls controlled with an airplane remote. The brothers use Adobe After Effects for animation, as well as Final Cut Pro and the free Audacity sound program. Jasper found the pirate jokes on a Web site and recorded them with Audacity, using his own voice, at quiet moments in the house.
Theirs is one of the bigger houses on their block of ranch-style homes, and that's because Chris built an addition a few years ago that includes an upstairs laundry/project room where creativity blossoms year-round. The desks are covered with paint, glue, art materials and electronica. Donna has her own projects - she makes jewelry when she's not managing Chris' business.
If there's a "make things" gene, it's surely in the family, and the Andersons will put it on full display this evening. Last year, more than 150 trick-or-treaters stepped up to the Magic Mirror, which had the face of a gargoyle and spewed vapors when it distributed treats.
First, though, it wanted a song or a dance. Jasper couldn't believe how many trick-or-treaters complied. Visitors this year might be asked for a cartwheel or a headstand - Jasper's not saying what the Magic Mirror's got in mind. He is, however, already thinking about next Halloween.
"Next year, I think all the skeletons will be a singing group in the garage," Jasper said.
Team Anderson awaits its instructions. Even Donna.
"Although my mom originally wanted to get more cheerful features in the haunt," Jasper said, "she is now shopping in the spooky aisles with me."
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