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Fourth of July
I've been wanting to use our backyard movie screen during our Fourth of July party. However, I didn't want to upset the party's usual flow,
placing my guests in what would have been the unexpected position of having to stop talking, sit down, and watch a movie.
In order to satisfy both desires, I made a Patriot Music Video which is meant to be shown primarily for the patriotic music that will be playing through the speakers and not so much for what's actually showing on the screen.
Guests can continue to chat, stop and look at a clip or two, go back to chatting, and return to the video whenever they see or hear something that interests them.
Scenes from various movies (30 in all) were all pieced together, making one long music video which lasts about 100 minutes. I included a number of Sousa marches, famous war movie themes, armed services fight songs, and older revolutionary and civil war songs. I tried to vary the type of movie as well (comedy, musical, documentary, war).
Some of the movie clips were simply left as is - such as" Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" from Buck Privates.
Some were edited so that the music from the movie gradually morphs into the music from the soundtrack album -"Col. Bogey's March" from Bridge on the River Kwai.
And some were made by using the movie's video and adding music of my choice - Peter, Paul and Mary's "Cruel War" playing over G.W. Griffith's silent film America.
| Here are some of the clips to give you an idea of what I've done. All the songs in the complete video last until the last note is played. The clips that you will see have all been cut short to save time, but still give you a flavor for the video. I couldn't do much with the audio and video fades, so they are a little abrupt in this sample. |
I use this fella on fivver.com for the narration. I think he's great, and you sure can't beat the price.
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HALLOWEEN
| I've found out two things concerning countdown clocks. 1. I like making them. It's fun cooking up the content. 2. A clock REALLY DOES settle the restless natives before a show - both the big ones and the little ones. This countdown clock is for a kid-frendly party. Nothing scary here. As for the video content . . . The scary voiceover was created by a fella (djkevinquinn) on fivver.com (I will record a SCARY voiceover saying anything you like just in time for Halloween for $5). For $10 extra, he added scary music back of his voice. There are several copies of Disney's Dancing Skeletons on YouTube, and a number of easy Halloween face painting tutorials as well. The entire singing busts clip (by Ryan Monette) can be seen here. The full Food Network clip can be found here. | |
| If you're hosting small children, you can find plenty of Disney Villain videos from which to choose as well as the short music video "It's Our House Now." |
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Poison popcorn was available all night long. Regular popcorn boxes were sprayed black. Poison Popcorn labels, adapted from a pattern on the internet, were glued to the front of each box.  |
Next year, I plan to add a couple of extra large rubber rats inside my popcorn machine. This idea (and picture) is courtesy of the Halloween Forum.
After a couple of summer seasons, I set up a Halloween video based on the post, The Hallowindow Thread. I purchased a Walmart shower curtain to use as a screen, as suggested by Sparge in the same post.
Setting the clips on a continuous loop, the show ran for about two hours nightly. Although I loved projecting the movie clips, I didn't think it was shown in the best light. My only front window is pretty narrow and parked cars always seemed to be more or less obstructing the view.
Then forum member cemeb4dk posted his halloween projection set-up. Brilliant! I lost no time copying his idea.
The projector stays inside the garage and projects onto the shower curtain. At the end of the evening, the speaker is wheeled inside, the garage door comes down and all equipment is safe for the night.
I've posted the steps I used to make the wall and the glowing torches here on the blog.
The movie is amazingly sharp, considering it's being projected onto a shower curtain.
We've had some very warm nights during October 2011 (even for Southern California) and more people than usual were taking walks in the late evening.
The video below was taken with a Flip Camera.
This set-up was a very successful decoration with the passersby.
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Christmas in July
This is a BYT party I'm planning to give in July. Haven't decided if I want to make it an old broads party (showing White Christmas or Holiday Inn)
or a family night party (showing Arthur Christmas or Elf).
Plenty of time to decide. Here are a few ideas I've collected so far.
Flyer-like invitations will be sent over the internet.
 | A movie trailer (with a couple of tweaks) will be emailed to each guest. The opening seconds of this trailer couldn't be more perfect. 
Christmas Tree Sunglasses can be found at the Oriental Trading Company. |
 | Yard decorations should be no problem - just get those Christmas boxes out of the shed. I did come across this Happy Hour Wreath by Amy, author of The Green Bungalow. Like these water bottle labels I spotted on Hostess with the Mostess. |  |
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Nothing mixes summer and Christmas better than The Beach Boys album Christmas with the Beach Boys. Throw in Jimmy Buffet's Christmas Island and you've got plenty of pre show music. |
I'll be using one or both of these vintage drive-in clips found on YouTube. I've edited the second one just a bit.
| Made this countdown clock to settle down the hyperactive elves before the movie begins. There are some advertisements and a few movie and cartoon clips that float on the top as the timer winds down. |
| Possible intermission video |
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Christmas Movie Night 2014
At the present time (Dec. 2014), Southern California is suffering from a drought of historical proportions.
Naturally, we scheduled our backyard Christmas Movie on the biggest
24-hour SoCal rainfall ever to occur since scientists first began to keep track of the weather.
I kid you not! What were the odds of that happening????
Despite the fact that we had to reschedule the movie for the following Sunday, we had an excellent turnout.
The background was designed by the singers/magic show artists who didn't seem to mind having the light in their eyes. | As each guest arrives, a full face picture was taken with my iPhone. The photos automatically streamed to my computer. Using my desktop computer (while the laptop played the main movie), I paid a visit to ElfYourself.com and clicked on the appropriate buttons. The resulting videos were downloaded and copied to a flash drive. You can include up to 5 dancing elves and choose from 13 Christmas backgrounds and music/dancing styles per video. We made several different videos, using 2 to 4 elves in each. The videos were shown back-to-back at the end of the main feature in order to keep the hyperactive elves calm prior to parents arriving to take them home. Each dance costs $1.99 to download. There's a cel phone app, but you'll need a quick and easy way (streaming?) to transfer the video over to your computer if you go that route. |
Guests were allowed to take home an unlimited number of souvenir photos.
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A S'mores Station was located directly across
from the Christmas Photo Booth.
A certain 6th grade granddaughter drew up plans for the chocolate bar.  In addition to the normal backyard movie fare (pizza, popcorn, and candy), the Serve-Yourself Hot Chocolate Bar remained open all night. Toppings included crushed peppermint candy, mini chocolate chips, whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, and mini marshmallows. |
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