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Has anybody had or been to a Backyard Theater party? My brother had one in August, and he called it "Dive-in Theater." He used an LCD projector to show Jaws on a pull-down screen. They decorated a little by putting a shark fin in the pool, recreating a smaller version of the "Amity Island Welcomes You" billboard, posting signs by the pool that read, "No Swimming. Shark Infested Waters." They also had a snack bar with popcorn, theater candy, and soda.
Anybody want to share the details of their party?
My wife and I have decided to host a similar party at the end of September. We're going to show Raiders of the Lost Ark. I mounted a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of plywood, painted white, to an arbor in our backyard for our screen. I'm going to trim the screen with red butcher paper, crumpled to look like red velvet curtains. Using the widescreen version of Raiders fits perfectly on the screen with the projector about 15 feet away. I can cut off the letterbox at the top and bottom of the screen to fit perfectly. I'm hooking up my stereo receiver and speakers with surround in the backyard so that the sound quality will be very good. I did a quick "test run" with about ten minutes of Die Hard on widescreen. It looked and sounded great.
Decorations:
I ordered the movie poster, which I'm going to mount to some plywood and put small, white Christmas lights around for my "marquee." I'll put "Now Showing" across the bottom.
I borrowed a huge "earth ball" (6 foot diameter), and I've covered it with a big gray tarp to look like a boulder. I'm going to mount it on the roof right above the gate in which my guests will be walking through.
As the guests enter the backyard, they have to pass through a breezeway between the house and the garage. I'm decorating this area with a lot of skulls, jewels, beads, rats, spider webs, shovels and rakes.
We might make the ark of the covenant by duct taping some poles to a rectangular box with gold foil wrapping paper around it.
In the backyard, there will be several skulls on stakes stuck in the grass. For backyard lighting, I'm going to use tiki torches.
Before the movie starts, the theme song will be playing on the stereo as the guests arrive.
Snack bar:
I ordered cups from a theater supplier on-line for our soda and popcorn. The cups say, "Only at the Movies," and they come with lids. I'm having a few guests bring soda and candy. We rented a theater style popcorn maker (glass box with hanging kettle) to pop our popcorn (it is actually free, and so is the 70 servings of popcorn that comes with it).
When I started my test run with Die Hard, some bugs were landing on the screen and lens. I set up a big fan just below the screen to blow on it and keep the bugs off. I did the same thing with a little fan blowing across the front of the projector screen.
As you can probably tell, I'm looking forward to this party, which we deemed, "Outdoor Theater - Backyard Adventure" on our invitation fliers.
The party is in two weeks (Sept. 27th). If we get decent pics, I'll post them on this site.
If anybody has any suggestions for me to make this a better party, let me know.
Anybody want to share the details of their party?
My wife and I have decided to host a similar party at the end of September. We're going to show Raiders of the Lost Ark. I mounted a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of plywood, painted white, to an arbor in our backyard for our screen. I'm going to trim the screen with red butcher paper, crumpled to look like red velvet curtains. Using the widescreen version of Raiders fits perfectly on the screen with the projector about 15 feet away. I can cut off the letterbox at the top and bottom of the screen to fit perfectly. I'm hooking up my stereo receiver and speakers with surround in the backyard so that the sound quality will be very good. I did a quick "test run" with about ten minutes of Die Hard on widescreen. It looked and sounded great.
Decorations:
I ordered the movie poster, which I'm going to mount to some plywood and put small, white Christmas lights around for my "marquee." I'll put "Now Showing" across the bottom.
I borrowed a huge "earth ball" (6 foot diameter), and I've covered it with a big gray tarp to look like a boulder. I'm going to mount it on the roof right above the gate in which my guests will be walking through.
As the guests enter the backyard, they have to pass through a breezeway between the house and the garage. I'm decorating this area with a lot of skulls, jewels, beads, rats, spider webs, shovels and rakes.
We might make the ark of the covenant by duct taping some poles to a rectangular box with gold foil wrapping paper around it.
In the backyard, there will be several skulls on stakes stuck in the grass. For backyard lighting, I'm going to use tiki torches.
Before the movie starts, the theme song will be playing on the stereo as the guests arrive.
Snack bar:
I ordered cups from a theater supplier on-line for our soda and popcorn. The cups say, "Only at the Movies," and they come with lids. I'm having a few guests bring soda and candy. We rented a theater style popcorn maker (glass box with hanging kettle) to pop our popcorn (it is actually free, and so is the 70 servings of popcorn that comes with it).
When I started my test run with Die Hard, some bugs were landing on the screen and lens. I set up a big fan just below the screen to blow on it and keep the bugs off. I did the same thing with a little fan blowing across the front of the projector screen.
As you can probably tell, I'm looking forward to this party, which we deemed, "Outdoor Theater - Backyard Adventure" on our invitation fliers.
The party is in two weeks (Sept. 27th). If we get decent pics, I'll post them on this site.
If anybody has any suggestions for me to make this a better party, let me know.
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NEW (as of 1/24/05): Quick Reviews #10
NEW (as of 1/24/05): Quick Reviews #10
and if they don't pay crush them with the boulder.
