Strip District Horror Attraction Turns Career Dreams Into Nightmares
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Terror Town in the Strip District certainly doesn't have any classrooms or cubicles found among the gore and insanity.
You probably wouldn't want any of the ghoulish fiends as your mentor either.
But this haunt has a history in higher education.
Vanessa Sprando is an apprentice in the fine and frightful art of special effects.
"They all say it's good experience," said Sprando. "Film's a tough industry. The more you can do with film, the more knowledge you have, the better. I'll take any experience that's available to me."
The Point Park cinema production major is one of several college interns at Terror Town in the Strip.
"But I haven't had an opportunity to do horror makeup, so when they offered the internship class, I was very excited," Sprando said.
Her teacher Monica Cheuvron is a pro – a graduate of the Art Institute.
"I don't know," Cheuvron said. "I just think how much I loved it, how much I wanted to do it and I use that. Obviously she has a passion for it too, 'cause she's here."
Terror Town is a family business. Operations Manager Chris Firman works closely with all the interns.
"We have a prop department, so a lot of the stuff that jumps out and scares you," Firman said. " ... as well as the music. There's a lot going on with that. The engineering school's involved as well, and of course the marketing and that whole angle."
The fact that these students are getting college credit means these institutions are taking what they do very seriously.
"Yeah, it's really nice," Firman said, "because they are able to obtain credit for the course as well. It's nice, because our artists and the pros we have aren't just for Halloween. They're doing movie sets and have traveled on to do cool and important things."
It's a place where students like Sprando's career dreams are everyone else's nightmares.
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