Will you let the Gill Witch ‘borrow’ your face for Halloween?!

A webcam-projector project for the 2019 Ulverston Candlelit Walk.

One by one people stepped up to stare into (or indeed stick their head through!) the ghosts mouth. As they did their distorted face appeared in giant proportions on the Gill Witch.

The head is made from plastic milk bottle heat-gunned together and staple gunned onto a frame.

We did an early test to see if we could project from inside the house.

The body base is a boiler suit stuffed with plastic bags and made poseable with wire mesh and cable ties.

I did a lot of bedroom testing to get the image right. Not at all creepy!

The crazy giant heeed bedroom testing was partly me getting my own back for Jennie putting one of her glowing baby heads in the bed to wake me up!

Here’s what I woke up to on the pillow next to me.

Anyway, back to the Gill Witch…

Witch and ghost ready to go in our tidy lounge! Ghost eyes and teeth courtesy of Dot. .

Jennie lends her face to the Witch for an early test.

The view from the back with my face poking through.

This was the first time I’ve used a Raspberry Pi and Pi Camera and coded in Python, but it all worked out brilliantly and I didn’t need to lug my computer about the place and risk it getting wet. I enclosed the Pi and Camera with some shoddy woodwork and popped a tiny ball lampshade on as an eyeball (gaffer tape iris). Here’s the setup.

The Raspberry Pi and Camera box was strapped in place on a shelf inside the ghost’s mouth.

The Raspberry Pi all snuggly in its box.

I didn’t have any time to take pictures on the night but here are a few people shared with me:

People played around with putting their faces further from the ghost to create smaller faces.

Facepaint and masks worked great on the night.

Children loved it although I spent a lot of the night on my knees holding a stool for them to stand on so they could reach the ghost mouth.

Perhaps Holly wasn’t as impressed as others!