What a blast! It was good to see familiar faces and some new ones at the Mississippi International Film Festival - Horror Genre, on Saturday. NAPS members Mike Chapman, Kim Frith, and Mike and Kimberly DeLorenze manned the booth for the NAPS Team. Lauren S helped out also during the afternoon and evening. These members spent the day interacting with the public, showing them EVP, photo and video evidence from cases, explaining and answering questions about the paranormal, and how our team helps people and families in need.
To Select Team Members:
I (Mike) want to thank Team Members Kim Frith, Kimberly & Michael DeLorenze and Lauren S for their hard work and dedication to make this show and our booth such a tremendous success. People, even those on our own Team, have no idea of all the hours and hours of extremely hard work, time, sweat and money that ya'll put into making our presentation and booth so professional, informative, and visually appealing. All that hard work pays off in offering the public a really well done presentation. Your efforts also help the paranormal field at large, because in presenting our field to the public in such a creative and professional way, they take us much more seriously. Even those associated with the paranormal who saw us yesterday often commented, "Ya'll are truly the real deal!!!" One of our primary goals as a Team is to change the way Mississippians and Louisianians think about the paranormal and those of us who investigate it. Due to your extremely hard work, sacrifice and dedication, you are changing minds and paradigms inside of people about how they think of us and the field. Yes, it is also difficult and hard work to haul all that equipment and gear around, pack it, load it, carry it in and out, pack it back up and unload it again, but it is worth it! (We are also getting that process down too!) Thank you!
Challenge to NAPS Team:
To our other team members: I challenge each of you to take part in these shows, because it will deepen your understanding of the field, and how you fit into it. When you work all day at explaining and talking to real people about what we do, it changes you and expand your horizons. It's hard to explain that feeling, but it will happen! You need to take part in this at some point - not every show, but some of them. It will make you feel really good at what you do with NAPS and help you see that paranormal investigating is not just investigations and outings, but is about identity as a person and educating the general public. So, please get involved in the future - take the time out of your schedule to take part in these occasionally. We don't do these shows that often, and I'm not asking you to do every one of them, just take part every once in awhile on one. I certainly realize you have other interests and families. I guarantee you, you will come away truly blessed, so it's for your own growth and benefit that I ask you to get involved. Trust me on this.
A Bit About Our Presentation Booth:
From left to Right, our booth displayed the following: We had a large 42" high-definition TV showing a looping Power-Point presentation about NAPS. Lauren S was responsible for this presentation, and she did an amazing job - thanks Lauren! It had sections on Who we are and What we do, our Methodology; our Team; the recent investigation at Magnolia Hall; our Equipment; and samples of our Evidence. We plan to continue to improve this slide show by adding additional evidence, especially short video clips! We also plan to expand our Power Point library of presentations designed for various audiences and purposes. This, our first one, was designed for shows like this one.
We next had one of our High-Def infrared cameras on a tripod with a TV monitor pointed at passers-by, so they could see themselves and see what they look like on infrared camera. This was a big hit, and offered an interactive treat with those who came by our booth. It drew lots of laughs and smiles. They could see themselves in the familiar look of what they see on Paranormal TV shows, of the eerie way a person looks in infrared. [One thing we decided we would do in the future is to record this, as some of the interaction and responses were priceless - things we could show clips of in the future to draw laughs and help people have a good time!] In front of these TV's was a sign-up sheet for our monthly newsletter The Guardian, and a cover of the newsletter itself in an attractive plastic stand-up display. We had over 16 people sign-up for this by using this sign-up form. Kim Frith manned this portion of the booth for most of the day.
Next in line was a large spread of some of our equipment that we use on investigations, including EMF detectors and meters, photographic cameras and camcorders, ITC and EVP recorders; atmospheric instruments and static pods, samples of trigger objects, and our communications equipment. Items like the FLIR i7 camera made a big hit during the show as people got to look at each other through the thermal imaging system. Mike Chapman manned this section of the booth. People were very impressed with our equipment and were amazed at what all goes into an investigation.
Photo at Left:NAPS Lead Tech Michael DeLorenze plays EVP evidence for a couple of ladies at our booth.
Next was our EVP and audio evidence portal, which was a dedicated laptop showing Wavepad audio software. Michael DeLorenze would play select EVP that we had collected for people to listen to. He had a splitter with two sets of headphones on it so two people could listen at the same time. It was a big hit, and peoples' eyes would grow large as they listened to spirit voices. Then, on another dedicated laptop, Kimberly DeLorenze had video and photo evidence that people could see of us in action with anomalies such as true orbs and ghost photos. This also was a big hit.
Finally, there was a very impressive large display board on an easel with much of our printed evidence photos and information from select investigations. This display was put together by Kim Frith and caught a lot of attention. The booth overall was professionally presented with black floor-length table cloths, signage, colorful images, TV and computer screens, and friendly, helpful and informative people manning each section. We also had a portion of one table with items for sale, such as bumper stickers, shirts, and hats. This is something we came away with yesterday as wanting to put more effort into in the future, to raise more money for the team, as we are a non-profit organization that needs donations and sales in order to operate. Yesterday we brought in $42. Not great, but a start in the right direction, as every dollar counts.
A lot of detailed thought and planning went into our booth, and even more work to execute it. We come away from shows like this (and the Fright Fest last February) with a written list of new ideas and improvements to incorporate into our booth going forward. We compiled a list yesterday of how we can get even better, but I must say it was very impressive and I was very proud of NAPS! We also were approached about participating in three upcoming venues in the future. Good work guys!!!
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