Halloween type movie safe for kids but not too kiddie?

[SithMaster]

I noticed you turned scan lines on.  Going retro are you?   

So which movie suggestions are on the maybe list?

[RTSDaddy2]

I know they'd all be black and white, but have you considered things like the original Frankenstein, Wolfman, etc?  Somebody has to keep the classics alive!

[Ginsu Victim]

I know they'd all be black and white, but have you considered things like the original Frankenstein, Wolfman, etc?  Somebody has to keep the classics alive!

Referred to previously in this thread as the Universal films.

[ChadTower]

I noticed you turned scan lines on.  Going retro are you?   

So which movie suggestions are on the maybe list?

Try as I might I can't picture my house as authentic without those lines.  I can't believe how good it looked on just the vinyl siding - big too.

It's very likely going to be The Ghost and Mr Chicken... if I can't get that, then The Corpse Bride.

[ChadTower]

Did it again last night with Temple of Doom... this is a lot of fun, though the family is starting to complain that it's too cold.  Wimps.   

Of course, just after it gets dark I'm in the house getting some food and there is a knock on the door.  It's Animal Control looking for a "pit/bulldog mix" that is loose in the neighborhood and has attacked one dog already.  So now I can't leave the kids alone out there and we spend the night wondering if an attack dog is going to jump on one of us from the bushes.    

If it's not drunk drivers ending up in my yard (happened twice) or motorcycles cutting through my driveway because I'm on the corner (several times) it's a freakin' loose pit bull.  There seems to be some widespread conspiracy to stop us from using our yard.

[Necro]

Would Attack of the Killer Tomatoes hold the attention of kids?   

Wait, Monster Squad is PG-13?  WTF for?  I saw that last year and it was a kid movie just about.  How the hell is Monster Squad PG-13 but Poltergeist is PG?

We watched AotKT last night (bunch of around 30 year olds)...

It didn't hold OUR attention....the pacing is horrendous in that movie.  I would go with Return of the Killer Tomatoes if anything .

[SithMaster]

Chad are you lumping the snow plow guy in under drunk?

How high are your fences?  Depending on the mix it might be safe if you fortify your yard.

[ChadTower]

Chad are you lumping the snow plow guy in under drunk?

That's my assumption, given the angle he came into my yard and how far he came in.  He came in at a 90 degree angle to the street, through 3' deep bushes, and was only stopped by a 5 story maple that is behind them.  There was no logical reason for him to be driving in that direction.  Thankfully he didn't damage the maple because the snow on his plow is what stopped him and not the plow itself.  The highway dept guy who came to look at it said it's very possible but since we had no way of knowing if it was one of his guys or not there wasn't much he could do.  It was surprising that he didn't just flatly say "no, my guys would never be drunk". 

How high are your fences?  Depending on the mix it might be safe if you fortify your yard.

Only fence is on one side of the lot and there are actually two of them.  They are parallel between us and the retail lot next door.  One is the original fence which predates the retail building - standard 6' close pickets.  That is mine.  A foot or two from that is the fence the retail lot owner put in.  That one is much heavier and is maybe 8' high.  The side of the lot facing the street is lined with contiguous bushes 12' high.  The rest of the perimeter is lined with various other plantings or driveways.

[Darkmend]

This was a favorite of mine when I was a kid
Monster Squad
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093560/

[Ginsu Victim]

This was a favorite of mine when I was a kid
Monster Squad
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093560/

Did you even look through this thread first?

[ChadTower]

You could show them Cool as Ice.  That movie scared the hell out of me last night.

You will never get those 90 minutes back.

[ChadTower]

Halloween outdoor showing is probably off... weather has turned too soon.  Had to scrape my car windows this morning.  I can still show it indoors, though, so it's not a total writeoff.  The living room has one big offwhite clear wall that worked pretty well in tests.  The surround sound system is in there, too, though that may be odd since the channels would all be reversed using that side of the room for viewing.   

So I look towards next year.  The main goal is to make it easy to set up and take down.  Right now I'm using an improvised setup of sawhorses/ply table, an old receiver and speakers, and a plastic lawn table for the projector.  It's okay but I want something small I can just roll out but still has enough power to work outside.  I'm thinking of building a wagon for this.  Take a car stereo and power it off a PC power supply... I have an old amp and a couple boxed car speakers that were good when in use.  Shouldn't be hard to build a wagon that mounts all the hardware, stores the speaker boxes, and has a little place on top for the projector to sit.  Then I can just wheel it out, put the projector on top, pull the speakers and place them, and fire it all up.  At the moment I'm thinking a modded Xbox running XBMC would be great pending a little research into exactly how XBMC displays over VGA.


EDIT:  or I could just buy this.   

[koz319]

If the side of the house doesn't work out well, or you need a more portable screen:

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=0&ic=48_0&search_query=inflatable+screen


I have the Gemmy (blue) one, and it's been a blast. 

[ChadTower]

I've heard those are cool but they cost too much for how often we'd use it.  I picked up a whole bunch of drapery blackout cloth, which comes highly recommended at the AVS forums, for $10 with a coupon.  My son and I will probably make a frame out of PVC that we can knock down into 3-4 pieces for storage.   There is no hurry on that since the siding works better than expected.

[Nannuu]

Saturday the 14th

[Ginsu Victim]

Saturday the 14th

Man, there's one I loved as a kid, but haven't seen in so long, I remember nothing about it.

[Nannuu]

Saturday the 14th

Man, there's one I loved as a kid, but haven't seen in so long, I remember nothing about it.

Me too, I only remember bits here and there.  Now I have to find it, I have a 5 year old that might really enjoy that.

[Nannuu]

Does The Private Eyes count as a Halloween movie?

[ChadTower]

Time to resurrect this... anyone else planning on doing some outdoor showings now that the weather is warming up?

[ClubNinja]

After looking at this thread for the first time, yes. 

[shardian]

I showed Monster House last Halloween. I of course also did Hallowindow - which is officially a yearly tradition! The Hallowindow setup is perfect for outdoor movies. I was never comfortable with bringing expensive equipment outside.

This summer? Yeah I might do a movie here and there. Since I got the arcade set up, the neighborhood kids keep bugging us to throw parties. With the double door opening and/or the new large shed, I have a few more very good places to project an image. I would use the face of the building for violent PG-13/R rated stuff, since it would be contained to only my backyard.

I'm glad you brought this up so I could brainstorm about it a bit more.

[ChadTower]

Don't brainstorm too long - check these speakers out!  I just picked up a pair to use on the "rollout movie cart" I'm planning.

[shardian]

What's the point of all-weather speakers on a cart, if none of the electronics ALSO on the cart are all-weather?

[ChadTower]

Not a ton... but 80% off is its own point.     See if you can find better fully housed speakers for $50/pair.

The main advantage here is that these come with nice mounting hardware from what I can tell.  I use Cambridge Soundworks speakers for the home theater in the house - so I know I like the sound. 

[ChadTower]

Today's annoying Freecycle post:

We are hoping to have outside movie night with the kids this summer to keep costs down. Does anyone have projection equipment we could use for this purpose? Also a projection screen would be great too.. 

It's not like I've put in dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars to get to where we can do this easily...     Why didn't I think of just asking Freecycle for an expensive projector, a laptop, a screen, and a sound system?   

BTW, the movie projection cart I mentioned before is finished now.  Picked up a small a/v rack at a yard sale, modded it with wheels, added some side supports for extra stability and a place to hang the speakers, mounted the speakers, attached an outlet strip.  On it is a 5.1 receiver, a modded Xbox, the projector, and one empty shelf for a second video source we we want to use the Tivo or another console instead.  I can put up a pic if anyone is interested.  I haven't tried these speakers outdoors yet but they sound really good at high volumes inside.

[Ginsu Victim]

I can put up a pic if anyone is interested.

Please do so.

[ChadTower]

Please do so.

Sorry it took so long... btw, picked up a 96" projector screen off CL today for $65.   

[Ginsu Victim]

Nice setup (and nice find on that screen). I just spent the last four hours in my backyard, which is the longest I've spent out there aside from doing work. Wife and I went and bought water guns and water balloons and had a full-on war. It was fun.

Edit: Backyard....not "backward"

[ChadTower]

Heh.  That sounds like fun.   

I'm already finding the limitation of this setup.  The cart isn't very strong so next time I find a better one or build it myself.  I need a sub since those speakers are great for outdoor volume but aren't really bringing the explosions home.  Plus the way I have it set up, you have to sit to the side of them or you're in the way of the projector, so you're really only ever hearing one of them fully.  And the next one needs to have much bigger wheels.  These 2" rubber ones aren't doing it on this grass.  This cart is good for now but I'm already planning a better one for next year.

Next step now is to decide the best way to rapidly deploy that projector screen.

[shardian]

I'm starting on my outdoor screen tonight. Hopefully it will be ready by Saturday for the first showing.

I'm going 16x9 ratio, and it will be about 12' diagonal. Bought 8 yards of blackout cloth, along with other misc materials.

[ChadTower]

I bought a bunch of that cloth last year too.  Never did get around to coming up with a decent way to mount it outside without tons of effort.  I'm tempted now to just put up a couple of pressure treated 4x4 posts with maybe a 2x4 crossbar.  Then I can mount it on hooks next to the house but not have to drill any holes in the siding.  IIRC the biggest issue with the cloth was getting a 16x9 screen that was tall enough to be wide.  They just weren't selling it in the shape necessary to do that without a seam.

Saturday night I just leaned a couple 2x4s up against the house with drywall screws near the top to hang the screen housing on.  Worked for tonight but wouldn't have stood up to any wind.

And  another drunk driver crashed in front of our house during the movie saturday.  Thank god this one was across the street since we were actually sitting there this time.  Dude crashed into a tree 50ft from us, pulled away, tried to turn around and hit a pole, then took off and eventually flipped his car half a mile away nearly killing the guy in a second car.   

[shardian]

Yep, you have to make a seam. I've seen more than a few diy people hire out the sewing work. Many folks got the fabric sewed, and a bunch of large grommets installed along with black strapping along the edges for $70 or so labor.

[ChadTower]

Yep... make sure you can clean it once that's done, though.  That's one of the scary parts about using it outside after all that work.  All I need is for the thing to fall in the grass and get a big brown spot in the middle.

[shardian]

blackout cloth is machine washable. Though with that size I think I will be relegated to hand washing. 

[ChadTower]

blackout cloth is machine washable. Though with that size I think I will be relegated to hand washing. 

Hrm... the stuff I saw on this stuff all said dry clean only and the fabric roll at the store said the same thing on the care tag.  If you really can machine wash it then a hose and some soap would do the job just fine.

[shardian]

Well now I am confused. The internet is telling me dry clean too. I read the machine wash and "iron on cloth side only" remarks right on the bolt of cloth. Now I need to go look again I guess.

[ChadTower]

Maybe you bought a different cloth?  It took me a half hour in the store to find the exact right cloth.