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Attempting to do something for the first time next week.

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  • Attempting to do something for the first time next week.

    Over the years I have never bothered to do anything at my house for Halloween, untill last week after watching a couple of videos on youtube of some ideas that have been done over in the U.S.
    Fortunately I have two large entrances gates into our garden, which measure 7m (22ft) across when closed.
    My idea is to cover both of the gates with a plastic decorators sheet, in which both of them can be stretched and attached to the gates with duck tape to produce a rear projection screen.
    The decorators sheets I have found in my local budget crap shop, only cost 70 cents and measure 4X4m and when held up to the light are translucent so they are perfect for rear projection.
    I have an old full HD DLP projector that still has a couple of thousand hours left on the clock, that I have workout exactly where it needs to be positioned in order that the sides of the image hits both of the gate posts.
    I will place the projector and laptop in the boot of my car, so if it ends up raining on the night, I can prop the boot lid up enough for the beam to pass through and also protect the projector.
    The next problem is the screen ratio, as the gates when closed come somewhere between scope and ultra panavision in ratio. My idea is to project the video through a piece of perspex in which it is possible to attach electrical tape to inorder to mask down the image, so there is no over spill. As this would ruin the effect from the opposite side of the gates.

    I have found a couple of Halloween video loops that have a black background so only the main action is projected such as zombies, skeletons and ghosts.

    While trying this out last week without the screen, just to see if the projector could fill the area, I didn't realize I was projecting the video into the neighbour's living room across the road. They came over to see why they had skeletons dancing over their living room wall, Ops.

    If it all goes to plan and is not a washout, I will put some photos up of the event next week.

  • #2
    Sounds like a lot of fun. What are you going to use as a screen? I don’t know the term „decorators sheets“ - is this some type of transparent paper? Or is it something made of plastic?

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    • #3
      It sounds like the translucent white plastic floor covering that is sold for protecting carpets when decoratiing to me.

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      • #4
        Hi Joerg, I think the word in German is Dekorationsblätter. It is just a thin plastic sheet.

        I discovered its projection possibilities a couple of years ago by accident. I was painting a friends dining room that has interconnecting doors into the sitting room, this room had shutters over the windows and was in total blackout. I had taped up the sheet over the door frame to seal off the room but had left the doors open behind it. I turn around and could see people walking past upside down. It turn out that one of the shutters had a tiny hole in it, and was acting like a rear projection camera obscura onto the sheet.

        The funny thing with this plastic is when it is placed upon something such as the floor it is transparent. Only when it is suspended it becomes translucent and opaque. This is not something you would want to sit and watch a movie on, but for a cheap halloween projection display it works good enough.
        Click image for larger version

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        • #5
          Sounds like fun!

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          • #6
            ​Well after battling gale force winds and torrential rain I did manage to attach the plastic to the gates and set up the projector. The effect works very well, but I don't think I will go to all of the trouble ever again.






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            • #7
              Originally posted by Steve Lee View Post
              ​Well after battling gale force winds and torrential rain I did manage to attach the plastic to the gates and set up the projector. The effect works very well, but I don't think I will go to all of the trouble ever again.

              If you encounter one smiling child who compliments your work to make this a happy Halloween, you will do it again.

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              • #8
                Steve,

                That's a very spooky effect. Nice work!

                Looks worth the effort to me!

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                • #9
                  The video shows the effect better.

                  https://www.veed.io/view/18d61ecc-ea...4d?panel=share

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                  • #10
                    Excellent Steve!

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                    • #11
                      I applauded at the end!

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