Journalism students in for a fright practising their interview skills at a Midlands scream park
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The next generation of journalists went behind the scenes at the award winning attraction, which is based at the National Forest Adventure Farm in Burton, and welcomes over 31,000 visitors every year, to see what goes in to creating a Halloween fright night.
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Hide AdWith plenty of shocks and scares, students found out more about how farmers Tom and Ivor Robinson create each of the scream-inducing immersive scares, what goes in to preparing over 130 live actors for the night and how they create each of the film style sets.
The 18 second-year BA Journalism students also had the chance to find out more about New for 2024 scare Hellcatraz, which is set to be the Park’s most intense scare yet as visitors find themselves separated and isolated in a fate worse than hell.
Joanne Hine, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Derby, said it was a fantastic opportunity for students to get real life experience in interviewing and feature writing to not only test their skills but find themselves immersed into different styles of writing.
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Hide AdShe said: "Interviewing actors, event organisers and the founder of Screamfest really enabled our students to get a taste of journalistic life as an exciting future career.
"Developing close relationships with major local businesses in this way also means our students build great contacts to use once they graduate and go on to work within the media across the UK.
"We would like to thank the Screamfest team for their time and hospitality for making this happen for our students."
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Hide AdAs part of their feature writing module at the University of Derby, students went behind the scenes of attraction Insomnia on Monday (7) to see how the scares are created before talking to Ivor Robinson and his team to get all the details on how they bring each attraction to life.
Ivor, who regularly travels to America’s largest scream park convention Transworld for ideas, said it was important they were able to offer opportunities for students to develop their skills where possible.
Talking about the visit, he said: “As a family-run farm attraction, we have always been very passionate about helping to support students and young people to develop their skills.
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Hide Ad“Screamfest is an experience like no other, so it is great to be able to share our knowledge and let future generations of journalists get a glimpse into what goes in to creating Halloween fright nights full of fun and shocks each year.
“We are fortunate to have a very knowledgeable and talented team who are very passionate about delivering the very best experience, so it was great to give students the opportunity to test their skills and find out more about what we do.”
Launching this Friday (11), Hellcatraz will transport visitors to a place which is guaranteed to get your heart racing as you are separated, isolated and subjected to the most scream-inducing scare possible.
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Hide AdThe attraction, which has been running since 2012, is spread out across the whole park taking in outdoors and indoor mazes, with six different themed scares which feature intricate film style sets and specialist lighting, sound and even smells pumped into the mazes to build the tension.
From zombies and demons to crazed clowns and the living dead, each design is specifically created for the ultimate in fear factor with hundreds of specialist prosthetics painstakingly handcrafted to create anything from boils and scars to deformed facial features, severed fingers, gauged eye sockets, bullet holes and stitches.
The event is run on selected dates until Saturday 2nd November with tickets starting from £32 (plus a £1.50 booking fee).
For more information, visit www.screamfest.co.uk.
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