Outdoor movie watching has been a popular activity since the 1950s when drive-in theaters were the coolest way to pass an evening with a date or alongside friends. Today, it’s a common summer event around the world to have outdoor screenings of classic movies in parks and public spaces, but it’s something you can also do in your own backyard with a projector, which is a lot easier than hauling your TV outside. It’s also a much better way of evoking that nostalgic drive-in feeling.
However, you need to make sure you know what you’re doing before you gather an audience that includes family and friends, otherwise you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Below is our list of top tips for using a projector to host an outdoor movie night:
Get a projector with enough brightness
This can’t be stressed enough. It’s a lot more fun to watch a movie outdoors when it’s warm, and this means that the weather will most likely be bright until quite late. So, unless you’re going to wait until half past nine to start watching your movie, you need a projector with at least 3000 lumens’ worth of brightness. The more lumens, the brighter the image will be and the better chance you’ll have of not having the ambient light make your movie hard to see.
Make sure you know how to hook up
No, this isn’t about what guests you invite, that’s up to you. This is making sure you don’t buy a projector and then find out it’s next to useless for you because you can’t connect it to whatever you’re going to use to play the movie. Whether it’s going to be a Blu Ray player or a laptop or a USB stick, you need to either make sure you get a player with inputs that match, or get the necessary adapters. Otherwise, you might find yourself leaving the party to find a late night electronics store.
Think about the throw
When you’re setting up a home movie room indoors, you need to factor in the best layout for the room and find a projector that suits it, but at least you know that everything will likely be in the same place every time you use it. Outdoor movie nights however, are much more haphazard, so you need a projector that will be easy to set up and one that will create the picture size you need whilst fitting into the space you have available.
Don’t sweat the details
While you of course need to make sure your guests can actually see and hear the movie, you also need to accept that you will never create the ideal movie-viewing circumstances outside. Drive-in theaters and outdoor screenings done professionally are never the same as going to an indoor theater, and neither will anything that takes place in your backyard. Get the basics right and have a great time!
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