Backyard Cinema

[paulherrin]

Highly recommend trying this out, guys. Best way to experience a film. Go outside, get a projector (I got this one refurbished, you can get good and bright, colorful, 720p stuff starting around $500, and a great projector for $10k, sometime soon Find a big sheet, wall, piece of paper, screen, whatever. Hook up your computer/player, some speakers and you're good to go. We had a 6x12 screen made of sheets and surround sound - macbook playing a bluray rip. It was amazing.

Here's a quick test we did the night before on a smaller screen.

And here's the setup. Pretty cool.

Here's an excerpt of what went down:


Sunshine - Retrospective

On the night of June 21st, just after the solstice, we gathered in the backyard to experience cinema at its best.

"Remember, it takes 8 minutes for Light to travel from Sun to Earth."

A train is coming, deep-felt roar and piercing whistle announcing its approach. Somewhere beyond, on the crisp horizon, the sun is setting. As we hop aboard the space-train, we float in the dark and featureless void and, leaving the backyard, take to the skies as a troupe of fireflies rise from the earth to be our stars. Where are we going? (to continue and find out, follow the link below)

http://backyardcinema.tumblr.com/

 

[Matthew Scott]

That's awesome man! It's such a different experience compared to watching in your lounge room...here in Melbourne there are some guys who run a bi monthly night called "Shed Cinema" which is exactly what you have here, just projected onto a shed. They screen short films and it's a great way to meet other filmmakers and crew. Thanks for sharing

 

[paulherrin]

Yeah, man! That sounds pretty cool. If I ever make it that way I'll check it out.

We're planning on showing a wide-variety of films and original content in this way. It not only immerses and connects us to our ecological framework, it also just opens up a lot of possibilities and exciting new freedoms, especially on the filmmaking side. Ideally, I'd like to orchestrate idea all the way to exhibition, in order to create a more rich and genuine experience. I'm going to start testing out some alternative formatting/viewing for narrative as a start, like shapes other than rectangles... just to help us think outside 'the box' Let me know if you have any thoughts and I'll let you guys know what results...

I've already used this extremely successfully in my projection art. Very happy with the phenomenological results and keyhole effect... I believe there might even be some kind of a subtle neurological affect, as in meditation. You really have to experience it (and be open to the experience), but here's a video...

We'll see whether 'breaking the box' works with the established film language... Might need to start speaking differently.

 

[Brad Webb]

A friend of mine projects movies against his house. He does double features that are loosely theme based. Although next weekend is Aliens/Aliens , which is a pretty tight connection.

 

[paulherrin]

A friend of mine projects movies against his house. He does double features that are loosely theme based. Although next weekend is Aliens/Aliens , which is a pretty tight connection.

lol. that's awesome though, really great to know i'm not alone here. our friend shawn nelson had this really inspiring idea to do some public screenings in the parks around portland, maybe local shorts or something as a festival... so cool. i'd love it if we all started making things happen in our circles and communities like that

and actually, on the edge of town here where i am... there's a public lakeside cinema that shows family films in the park every thursday at sundown. that's probably where i got the idea. pretty neat.

 

[Shawn Nelson]

Paul! This is cool man, glad you posted this. I hope I can get my screening going.

How did you handle sound?

 

[M Most]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-outdoors-open-air-theater-327845

The outdoor theater is on Homewood Ave., just across the street from the Pickford Center.

The community I live in (Playa Vista, CA.) also does outdoor screenings in two of the numerous parks in the community throughout the summer.

 

[paulherrin]

shawn, i'm confident you will

we had 'fake' 7.1 surround - i just used my 'creative' computer speakers/sub. went out the headphone jack of the macbook through this boostaroo amplifier/splitter. i'd have to run from my desktop to get true surround, but the rip i made of this only had 2 channels anyhow... so that just meant we were enveloped in the sound from all directions, though i admit it would be cooler to give the sound a sense of depth (and the screen, in stereo) but that's all ahead, and more complicated.

anyone know alternative methods for carrying surround sound? i'm still figuring out what's out there in the a/v tech world. you might have an easier experience running hdmi from your ps3 or bluray player... i'm guessing that probably carries the full mix.

 

[paulherrin]

Nice article, Mike! Kinda jealous of that screensize. I'm gonna try to go between two trees to get about 10 x 20-30... In that way, the four corners will be supported by the earth. Thanks for sharing.

It's very encouraging to see when film brings people together, and even more so when it reconnects us to our habitat.

Anyone else experiencing this in your community? If not, I hope these examples spur you to get involved in making it happen. And, if you haven't already, read my short write-up in case you're not convinced it will be the most magical experience of film you've had... it was for me. "Sunshine", being the awesome film that it is, obviously played a big part in immersion, but I've seen it plenty of times - big in the backyard is the best. On a side note, if you've never seen Sunshine you should, and then maybe my blog post will make a little sense...