![\"Create](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Backyard-Movie-Header-3.jpg\")
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While the classic fall bonfire is a great way to spend a chilly evening with friends, another great activity for this season is creating a movie theater in your backyard. With just a little bit of set-up, you can have the awesome outdoor ambiance of a drive-in, but with homemade snacks and drinks and no cost for admission (unless you decide to charge your friends, of course!).<\/p>\n
Before you do any set-up, you need to choose the right location. You obviously need physical space not only for theater-goers, but for your projection set-up and cordage as well. You\u2019ll also need access to power; with a long extension cord, you can do just about anything.<\/p>\n
Another consideration should be any light pollution that comes into your yard. You\u2019ll want to find a dark place, as free from the glare of street and\/or house lights as possible. The darker the environment, the clearer your picture will be.<\/p>\n
Projector.<\/strong> Projectors can be big and expensive, or affordable and portable. They can also be had on the cheap through Craigslist or eBay. There are a lot of mini projectors on the market that provide a decent picture (it\u2019s the backyard, so you\u2019re obviously not going for HD quality) and get good ratings. (The Trofny movie projector<\/a> is on sale at Amazon right now for just $95. The original price is $499. Get ’em while they last.) These often require just a tripod, rather than the small table that you\u2019d need for a full-size projector. Know that with any projector, you often need some sort of adapter cord to make it function with a laptop. They do, however, usually come with the red, yellow, and white composite cord that you\u2019d need if using a DVD player.<\/p>\n Speakers.<\/strong> Speakers are another crucial element to the backyard movie night. The tinny output on your laptop won\u2019t be nearly enough, nor would a small portable bluetooth speaker (a bigger, high-quality model<\/a> may do the trick, especially if you have a small crowd). You\u2019ll want some wireless surround sound speakers, or even an amp if you\u2019re the musical type and have one sitting around.<\/p>\n Sheet\/Screen.<\/strong> Finally, you\u2019ll of course need a screen, which is where some white bed sheets come in. Using just one can get the job done, but placing two back-to-back creates a better, less see-through screen. Make sure they\u2019re ironed, as wrinkles will impede your viewing experience. The screen can be taped to a garage, strung between trees, or even hung from a clothesline (tip: utilize bricks if the sheet touches the ground). Just be sure it\u2019s pulled as taut as can be for an optimal picture.<\/p>\n Once this is all set, grab some lawn chairs, bean bags, or even just blankets and fluffy pillows, and create a nice amphitheater around your screen.<\/p>\n Part of the fun of a spooky backyard movie night is noshing on some tasty fall-tastic grub and imbibing a delicious drink or two.<\/p>\n For snacks, it would be sacrilegious to not include popcorn. Rather than the microwave variety, make it on the stove with a popper, melted butter, and sea salt. To jazz it up even more, grab a popcorn seasoning pack<\/a>, and everyone can choose their favorite. Some other great fall foodstuffs you should have on hand include roasted pumpkin seeds<\/a> and hot apple pie (with vanilla ice cream of course).<\/p>\n On a chilly October evening, you probably don\u2019t want a cold beer. Best to have hot chocolate and mulled cider available.<\/p>\n Before he was the \u201cKing of Cool,\u201d Steve McQueen battled The Blob.<\/p><\/div>\n And now for the main attraction! You\u2019ll want to choose a movie that\u2019s scary, but not terrifying. You\u2019re not necessarily going for actual fright, but presenting your friends with a night of fun entertainment. A great way to do this is by picking an older B-roll horror flick. They\u2019re usually a little funny, a lot cheesy, and if you\u2019re lucky, partially scary. Some offer genuine chills, while others are so campy they\u2019ll have your audience laughing out loud. Here are some of Team AoM\u2019s favorite vintage horror films (as a bonus, many can be found in the public domain free of charge.):<\/p>\n That\u2019s all it takes to create a spooky backyard movie night! Just a little bit of forethought and know-how goes a long way in creating an evening that everyone will remember for a long time, and will be pining for come future autumns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While the classic fall bonfire is a great way to spend a chilly evening with friends, another great activity for this season is creating a movie theater in your backyard. With just a little bit of set-up, you can have the awesome outdoor ambiance of a drive-in, but with homemade snacks and drinks and no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":51166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42274,42273],"tags":[42281],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-51165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-living","tag-movies"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Backyard-Movie-Header-3-538x225.jpg","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Backyard-Movie-Header-3-320x120.jpg","rpwe-thumbnail":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Backyard-Movie-Header-3-45x45.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51165"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121503,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51165\/revisions\/121503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51165"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=51165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Projector](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015-10-14_0952.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSnacks and Beverages<\/h3>\n
Scary Movie Ideas<\/h3>\n
![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/10\/mcqueen-movie-poster-e1444764451993.png\")
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