Backyard Theater: Batman Begins

I almost forgot to update you guys on my foray into backyard movie exhibition.

Last Saturday (July 12th), one week before the release of the now legendary The Dark Knight, I hosted a Batman Anticipation Party. For the party, I fulfilled a long gestating dream and set up un petit cinema in my backyard for a screening under the stars.

There were no stars, but luckily the rain held off, and overall it was a success.

First we battled over Batman trivia, then we watched a wonderfully dated reel of drive-in concession stand commercials (my favorite is the one for movie pickles).



Next, I threw on a compilation of the trailers for all of the previous Batman movies, and finally we sat in awe of the TDK extended trailer. The main event was Batman Begins, a fitting primer for sure.

That was all set up on my laptop (using powerpoint, idvd, and quicktime) which I connected to a standard office video projector and a couple of speakers.

I set up the screen by attaching two old vinyl signs together which I then staple-gunned to three wood posts that I drove into the ground. Then I fastened a large sheet of black-out cloth to the signs (usually used behind curtains to protect them from the sun) with self-adhesive velcro to give the screen a smooth look. It ended up looking really good with almost zero imperfections in the image.

The photos (sort of) give you an idea what it was like:

I highly suggest you bring this idea into your own backyard/neighborhood. Let's stand for community rather than retreating into our personal home theaters!

If you want some more hints, definitely check out the great website/messageboard Backyardtheater.com. The awesome people who contribute really gave me the jumpstart I needed to put my urges for outdoor cinema into practice.