Outdoor Movie Theater

[bmac]

Afternoon Bmac,
Thats a cool idea !

The problem up here is that the wind would make short work of the screen !

Well. the jury's still out on how long it will survive here. Might get in 15 minutes of Popeye and the thing snaps off at ground level. We'll see.

I can't take credit for the originality of the idea. Many people are doing this but most on a smaller scale. I have moments when I wished I would have opted for a little smaller. But if it works, it will be an impressive movie-watching experience.

 

[elalexander]

BMac Great idea. You are the first person I heard of to do this. Our town has several outdoor family movies in the summer but my hat is off to you. I'll be watching to see how it turns out, enjoy. EL

 

[Maxfli]

Bmac,

I am sure it will work Great. I did a theater in the basement and have guided one of my friends that did and ouside theater similar to yours. In the last few years the quality of the projectors has improved dramatically, while at the same time the price has come way down. I just used a custom Paint for the screen. Can't hold the camera steady enough for a clear picture, but you get the idea. My screen is about 100", but in HD it is very good.

 

[bmac]

EL,

Thanks for the kind words. No doubt (good or bad), I'll post the results here.

MaxFli - Nice home theater. I've heard of screen paint but haven't heard from anyone whose actually used it.

If the screen works out and the kids keep asking for "Outdoor Movie Night", over time I'll upgrade the projector and then the sound system. If the whole thing fizzles out, well, I won't be out too much $$$ (more than I expected, however).

 

[VA_Joe]

The Goo paint product (Goo Systems) works great. If you are building a home theater - I recommend checking it out. Although expensive for paint - it's a whole lot cheaper than buying a screen.

Joe

 

[tommu56]

I did the same thing (20' x 40'tarp)for a Scout Camporee we had it at our flying field (model aircraft) to get them in the mood for some aeronotics the next day we played October Sky on friday night the kids loved it

Any scout ot leader got to fly on a buddy box with one of our instructors.
We allso had CAP and local Pilot club out.

The only complante at the next committy meeting was that it was going to be a hard act to follow for the next troop putting on a camporee


tom

 

[Maxfli]

Bmac,

There is a DYI section to Build your own projector screen on AVSForums.com, Lots of good information there. Not sure what you are using for the screen material, but it painted (Goo is good, but Joe is right it is expensive) AVS forums has many recipes for mix this and that to come up with a screen paint on the cheap. It worked for me. For future reference I think the Optoma h70 projector is unbeatable for $900. buy the time your ready for upgrade I am sure it will be out of favor.

 

[bmac]

Work, rain and my wife's travel schedule has slowed down the progress on the movie screen. However, when erecting the screen initially, we learned that, while not extremely heavy, the size makes it unwieldy when trying to upright the frame. Similarly, its nearly impossible to lift vertically to remove from the mounting tubes without the frame toppling over.

Tractor to the rescue. I made a beam to support the bottom of the screen and a vertical extension to my pallet forks to keep the frame upright while removing it from the in-ground tubes. I'm hardly a craftsman, so don't laugh. And, don't poop your pants when you see the frame lifted high. Again, its not heavy so tractor stability was not a problem. The pictures are of our first use - and, although we went very slowly, it was successful.

 

[gsganzer]

We've done the outdoor movie gig at the neighbors a few times. We used an LCD projector and projected it on the side of his light colored barn made with R-panels. Surprisingly, the corregation of the R-panels really doesn't cause a viewing problem.