What to do between shows....

[jhartley]

I have a 20 minute show this year that I was thinking of looping on the half hour, leaving 10 minutes for traffic to move. During that intermission, I was thinking I may play some soft instrumental music and have the lights just show some type of soft motion (think very slow fade across all elements). Has anyone done this? Are there drawbacks to doing this? If I were to do this, would it simply be another sequence in my show?

[mkess]

Honestly, the traffic will probably keep moving whether you stop the show or not. Most people arent going to watch the whole show at one time. They will catch a song, leave and bring back some friends and watch some more. I run about a 30 minute show on a continuous loop and traffic is always moving.

[kychristmas]

totally agreee with Mkess. Most of my visitors only stay for 2 or 3 songs. I just run my show back-to-back

[Skunberg]

I was thinking I may play some soft instrumental music and have the lights just show some type of soft motion (think very slow fade across all elements). Has anyone done this? Are there drawbacks to doing this? If I were to do this, would it simply be another sequence in my show?

There are some people that sequence their whole show in this fashion. No fast flashy stuff at all. All slow music with lots of fades sequenced to it.
And yes another sequence would be the easy way to do it.

Brian

[RobDude30]

This is my first year, so I am no expert, but I sequenced a few songs that are basically static displays as fillers that I plan to run in between the really flashy songs. I know I am not going to have enough time to properly sequence at most 3 or 4 songs, so I am planning on running the static sequences as every other song in my show. The static sequences are all slightly different in that they showcase different elements in my display.

[ctmal]

The first year we had a delay with music in the background. The next year we switched to having it run continuously. We found that traffic still moves well because people tend to leave as soon as a song repeats.
Also, we noticed that nobody stopped during the in between time anyway so they would always miss the beginning.

[dmcole]

My theory is that most of my audience are people who are out driving around (either in the normal course of events or looking specifically for Christmas lights). They'll drive by my show and if I'm lucky, they'll stop.

The show is five or six songs (depending upon the night) and runs about 15 minutes long. They might watch one or two songs or they might stay for the whole thing; I explain that the show is constantly looping in two interstitial announcements broadcast between songs.

I live on only a moderately traveled street in the back of a valley; my show is not a destination for anybody and if I didn't have anything exciting to see, nobody would stop. A gradual fade-in or fade-out wouldn't be worth stepping on the brake, in MHO.

\dmc

[budude]

My theory is that most of my audience are people who are out driving around (either in the normal course of events or looking specifically for Christmas lights). They'll drive by my show and if I'm lucky, they'll stop.

The show is five or six songs (depending upon the night) and runs about 15 minutes long. They might watch one or two songs or they might stay for the whole thing; I explain that the show is constantly looping in two interstitial announcements broadcast between songs.

I live on only a moderately traveled street in the back of a valley; my show is not a destination for anybody and if I didn't have anything exciting to see, nobody would stop. A gradual fade-in or fade-out wouldn't be worth stepping on the brake, in MHO.

\dmc

100% the same situation - unless you're one of these guys where cars line up for blocks, it's going to be random hits so they are less likely to stay for your intermission - I just loop mine over and over - that way you snag 'em all!

[klyneshouse]

This is my first year and not for traffic reasons but ,my wife is actually demanding 20 minutes of "normal" static idle time, so I put on a nutcracker piece, and then 3 songs or 10 minutes of blinky flashy.
Her thinking is to have blinky flashy start on every half hour.

I did sneek in a few arch leaps and tree spins into the 20 minutes but for the most part its pretty boring.

Not sure if I will have any traffic or what the flow will be, so it will be interesting if it even affects it.
It will be interesting how this thread pans out so I can let her read it to make her own call, maybe at least get to 50/50 like a normal give and take relationship. :neutral:

[bcstuff]

I had 9 songs with a talk intro, static lights at the beginning, and a talk exit at the end. I then played 1 song between the beginning and end as an intermission with static lights.

I felt like some people missed that I even had a show when the lights were just static. It looked like any other decorated house. This year I think I will animate everything so you can always see the lights are animated.

By the way, even though I had a tune to sign, some people just didn't get that it was animated to music. My neighbor across the street said he saw a lot of people stop for a few seconds and then drive off. He even told a few of them to turn on their radio on and they were like ohhh and would stay for awhile.

[RRohn]

I don't think you need to stop the show. My show lasts for 1 hour 20 minutes before it repeats. Traffic around the house doesn't really stop. But then again, I haven't seen anyone stay for the entire show either. If you are still thinking about the instrumental music, just add it to your playlist. Nobody will know the difference.

[ChiefWarrant]

By the way, even though I had a tune to sign, some people just didn't get that it was animated to music. My neighbor across the street said he saw a lot of people stop for a few seconds and then drive off. He even told a few of them to turn on their radio on and they were like ohhh and would stay for awhile.

I had the same problem. When I talk to people, they tell they think the Tune To sign is for a radio constest.

Personally, my lights just loop continously. The only person who I know for sure who stays for entire show is me and Mrs. PatFrost.