Berkeley Street Cinema

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[Biotron2000]

I'm finally ready to make an official thread. I've been testing and tweaking and upgrading since February, and I now have our setup "locked in". We'll see how long that lasts!

Anyway, here's the Berkeley Street Cinema in action, showing "School of Rock":

[Biotron2000]

The screen is made up of a frame built from 1 1/4" PVC pipe and a painting tarp. I added grommets to the edges and sewed up the hems (thanks to my wife, Jacki for teaching me to use the sewing machine!) of the tarp, and it is held in place by bungee cords. I pounded a couple of rebar stakes into the ground and put 1" PVC over that and squirted expanding foam to try and stabilize it, but that mostly made only a mess. The legs of the screen frame slide over the 1" PVC. One day I'll fix the bent leg. Can't see it at night, though!

[Biotron2000]

My gear consists of a CyberHome progressive scan DVD player, an old Sony HTiB receiver with a dead center channel, a portable DVD player for preshow and an InFocus IN72 projector. Sound comes out of two Paradigm Stylus 150 outdoor speakers and the subwoofer from my living room. The ladder is to keep people from tripping over the wires.

[Danoplex II]

Ladder?  You mean "Cable Tray"  :-D

I use a rope light to let folks know there is something there.  I got like 150 feet for $45.00 on eBay.  Prior to that, I used solar malibu lights about every 3-4 feet.  Just one of many ideas you will get from the subscribers here.

I am going to have to put a dimmer on the rope lights to tone them down a little.  but other than that, they work well.

Way cool theater!  Will be interesting to see what thing you do in the future to "perfect" it......

Dano

[Backyard Paradise]

Great job Patrick,
Your pictures show others how simple making a screen is. If you can cut pcv and glue it into a fitting your in business!  You Made a plan, you executed it, and now you have the coolest backyard on the block. Wasn't it fun!
Kevin

[Cherry Hills]

And you have a way cool profile picture, too!

[tlogan6797]

Patrick -

Very nice! Of course, I'm partial to the PVC.

Do people just trip over the ladder now? Reminds me of the old joke about the elevator operator. He got so tired of people asking what time it is that he installed a clock above the door. The next guy in says, "Is that clock right?"

Good luck,
Tom   

[Biotron2000]

Do people just trip over the ladder now?

Not so far--but I do like Dano's idea about rope light. I have tons of it around.
Thanks for all the kind words!

Patrick

[Biotron2000]

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted.
We haven't had a movie night in about two years, because my wife had developed ALS, a progressive neuromuscular disease, and it all seemed like too much to deal with. Well, even though she is wheelchair bound and unable to use her arms, she still loves movies, and inspired me to start movie nights again.
I went to try and clean my screen and it fell apart. Not wanting to bother with getting a new tarp, sewing, installing grommets, etc., we decided to just buy a new one. We got the Camp Chef 120" screen from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033SC2SE) and set a date. Last night we showed "Tangled" (a great movie, I might add) and it was a big hit!
We're planning another one in two weeks, "Morning Glory". Haven't seen it but it looks good, plus it's PG-13, our self-imposed limit for outdoor movie.
The screen was great! The movie looked much better on it than on the old one, and setup/teardown was pretty easy to do by myself. Definitely a good purchase.
Here are some blurry cell phone pics.