Froggy’s Blog

When I tell people what I do for a living, my answer is that I am a claims adjuster for an insurance company. While this may be the way that I pay the bills, my true passion is what I do moonlighting. On weekends I DJ at several clubs around the Des Moines area and also Emcee weddings and other galas.

In the years that I have been DJing, I’ve learned that people expect more than just quality music. Part of your job is to create an electric atmosphere that gets people excited and promotes sociality at the get-together. This is why I bring a variety of accoutrements to supplement the music, including American DJ fog and my own auxiliary lighting.

Everyone has seen or been in the midst of a fog machine, but many people don’t know how they work. Fog machines combine boiling water with some form of cooling agent to create steam, which the machine then emits. There are several types of fog machines, but if you want low-hanging fog, you’ll need to use a fog chiller.

Chilling the fog prevents it from rising and ensures that it lingers low to the ground. Old style machines had to use dry ice or liquid nitrogen to create this effect, but now there are models that run on simple ice cubes. These new innovations have made fog machines safer and more user-friendly.

In previous weeks we’ve discussed the spooky ambience that a fog machine can lend to your Halloween festivities. It’s always a good idea to keep your guests on edge with some low-lying fog and a soundtrack that’s suitable for the season. But we neglected to mention one of the most popular visual effects that can take your Halloween party to the next level.

Think about the way witches’ cauldrons are depicted on TV and in the movies. They’re always bubbling with slightly menacing liquids, and there’s a disturbing green fog emanating from within. Why not replicate this eerie effect for your own devilish ends? You can use fog Halloween trickery to turn your punchbowl into an authentic witches’ brew. The contents might not be lethal, but they should certainly be potent.

With October just around the corner, it’s time to start planning what decorations you’ll use to make your house festively inviting for trick-or-treaters. Scarecrows have always been a popular addition to any front porch. You can even add your personal touch to the stuffed man of straw by replacing his head with a homemade, hand-carved jack-o-lantern. His face will light up, as if he’s alive, with every flicker of the candle set inside.

Spray-painted, Styrofoam gravestones are another super spooky and ever-so-popular decoration. Be sure to grab a few of them and maybe a severed human arm, which you can display reaching out from one of the graves. And for those who want constant and live mood creators, there’s nothing like Halloween fog. All you need is a tiny fog machine to produce layers upon layers of billowy fog. Get started today!

When planning a spooky Halloween party or haunted house it’s extremely important to create and maintain a nail-biting, scream-worthy atmosphere. First you’ll need a bunch of cobwebs to cover the railings and light fixtures, and if you throw in a few plastic spiders you’ll achieve that extra cringe factor from your guests. Next, you should cover every inch of wall space with black trash bags to drown out the light. To keep your space from becoming completely pitch-black, you can add a few black lights in the corners.

If you want some extra tips to make your event even spookier, read on. You can purchase fake, human body parts at most Halloween stores. And for that extra gory kick, get a tube of fake blood to smear on your kidneys, eyeballs and feet. The final mystery ingredient is a fog machine. Make sure you stock up on plenty of fog machine fluid, because if you want your fog to last all night long, it will need to run continuously.

In various Hollywood movies, live theater productions, and even music videos, fog machines are a staple for creating a particular hazy, alluring, or chilling atmosphere. To that end, a fog machine is capable of emitting a vapor that looks similar to fog or perhaps even smoke. Depending on the type of machine, they can be fueled by water and glycol or dry ice. It simply depends on the desired effect from the use of the machine.

While fog machines used to be used exclusively by professionals, they have been greatly reduced in price since the mid 2000s. This means the use of fog machines in the private sector has been greatly increased. As such, they are common now in residential haunted houses or other various Halloween displays. On the professional front, firefighters also use fog machines to train. A fog machine, after all, accurately simulates the poor visibility that will be confronted in some burning buildings.

What are some the uses of a fog machine?   The best known use is to create spooky effects in plays and movies.  Can you imagine a Dracula movie without the fog?  Fog machines are also frequently used in Halloween displays such as haunted houses or forests.

Smoke effects are also useful for industrial purposes, especially automobile manufactures for visualizing the flow of air, such as over a surface of an automobile in a wind tunnel or testing filters in air conditioning.

In order to simulate the effects of real smoke, artificial fog is often used in fire fighter training. This fog is produced from
smoke generators which are often placed throughout dummy homes where the fire fighters practice. The fog machines produce fog in various quantities, and the fire fighters must treat it like real smoke and use their skills to avoid it. While now and then firefighters will purchase a real dilapidated house and set it on fire to test out rookie fire fighters, most of the time dummy homes are used. There are certain kinds of fog juice that will simulate smoke better than others; because smoke rises, it’s important for the fire fighters to remain low to the ground to avoid the fog.

Fire fighter training is essential for rookie fire fighters because when there is a real fire, having the experience to deal with it and remain calm will help save lives, both their own and people who might need to be rescued.

Let’s face it, a lot of us have bought one of those fog machines for Halloween, used it until it ran out of juice, and then let it sit around in the closet, garage, or basement.  But now is the time to revive that fog machine with more fog juice!  With most fog machines, all varieties of fog juice will work.  It doesn’t matter if the fog machine was purchased from a store that sells party favors or is an industrial sized fog machine used to film Hollywood movies, all varieties of fog juice will work.  But what a lot of people don’t know is that fog juice comes in several different varieties.  You can find fog that dissipates quickly, fog that lingers on the ground, or fog that creates a thick haze in the surrounding area.  There are several different types of fog juice that have unique properties.

Don’t leave that fog machine gathering dust, fill it up with a new bottle of fog juice and let the good times roll.  Whether it’s for a costume party, a special occasion, or a spooky Halloween celebration, fog machines make it more enjoyable!