Mark Booth
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 1999
- Messages
- 3,580
About twice a month, we invite up to 20 guests to join us for a couple of movies in our garage. I did a garage "makeover" several years ago, adding cabinets and B&W floor tiles. During most days and nights, we actually park our cars in there. But on movie nights, it gets transformed into the Booth Bijou Garage Theater. Since the makeover, it's actually a fairly attractive place to throw a party. However, once I hang our black "curtains" (black bed sheets), the garage really starts looking like a real movie theater! Guests bring their own folding chairs and a small cooler with their favorite beverage. We supply unlimited fresh popcorn and candy treats. We usually order pizzas for dinner between the two movies.
The theater is equipped with a 120" 4:3 screen. However, I only lower the screen enough to create a 16:9 aspect ratio. That results in a diagonal screen size of just under 110 inches. The projector is an Epson 8350. Audio is a 5.1 system. The rear speakers (permanently mounted in the garage) are Polk Atrium 5. The front speakers and subwoofer are borrowed from our living room system (moved to the garage and back again as needed). They are Paradigm Monitor 9 models (L&R), Paradigm CC-350 (center) and Velodyne 1012 (subwoofer).
The garage and living room share a common wall. Instead of moving audio gear back and forth (or buying additional gear for the garage), I opted to install speaker and HDMI patch bays on either side of the wall. That allows all of the gear in the living room to be routed to the garage, just by moving/plugging a few cables. The living room system is control by RF remote so I do not need to see the gear to operate it. The AV receiver is a Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH and the Blu-ray player is a Panasonic BLT110. I also have a Toshiba HD DVD player in the mix.
In addition to the fun of sharing movies with 20 people at the same time, our garage theater is heavily "branded" with regard to our pre-movie entertainment. We have all manner of custom Booth Bijou intros and audio voiceovers. Included in the equipment cabinet is a Mac mini, which is used as a dedicated home theater PC. I use VLC on the Mac to create a playlist and load up a string of custom intros, coming attractions trailers, and I always include a cartoon too. I also have a variety of movie trivia slides on the Mac mini that are played during the audience walk-in period (and in-between movies).
One of my dreams in life was to own a small to medium size single-screen movie theater. Something with a classic art deco feel. No stadium seating, just a long slopping floor like the theaters I went to when I was a boy.
Since that dream never came to pass (mostly because I wasn't interested in going bankrupt), showing movies in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater is the next best thing!
Here are some photos...
Our "blank canvas":
The patch bay between living room and garage:
Curtains in place, the theater ready to go:
Back wall:
Side wall with snack bar (that's a portable air conditioner in the middle):
A few chairs in place, but side lights still on:
With all the lights turned out:
The photo with the snack bar above was taken before we got a 12-ounce popcorn machine. This is what the snack bar looks like now:
I make 16-ounce batches in the 12-ounce machine. I mix my own using bulk products (Great Northern popcorn, Paragon Coconut Oil, and Flavocal seasoning). Our guests devour our popcorn! We typically go through four to five 16-ounce batches in a single evening.
Occasionally, I get retro and fool around with anaglyph 3D (I have a couple of cartoons in anaglyph). You may remember famous photos from the 50s like this one:
Here's the Booth Bijou's version of that:
You can click the link in my signature to see some additional photos, including how the theater looked before we added the curtains all around.
An 8-minute video demonstrating the pre-movie entertainment I play from the Mac mini can be seen here:
http://www.thephotobooth.net/Booth-Bijou/bbgarage/15469874_3BGZHh#!i=1158336650&k=Z22rJzW
If you'd like to look at the various Booth Bijou custom intros individually, they can be found here:
http://www.thephotobooth.net/Booth-Bijou/bbintros/15399175_bWtwjp#!i=2161304621&k=j2vcXVn
The last intro at that link is a voice-only intro done by a professional voice guy. It seems to be the one our guests are most impressed with.
Mark
The theater is equipped with a 120" 4:3 screen. However, I only lower the screen enough to create a 16:9 aspect ratio. That results in a diagonal screen size of just under 110 inches. The projector is an Epson 8350. Audio is a 5.1 system. The rear speakers (permanently mounted in the garage) are Polk Atrium 5. The front speakers and subwoofer are borrowed from our living room system (moved to the garage and back again as needed). They are Paradigm Monitor 9 models (L&R), Paradigm CC-350 (center) and Velodyne 1012 (subwoofer).
The garage and living room share a common wall. Instead of moving audio gear back and forth (or buying additional gear for the garage), I opted to install speaker and HDMI patch bays on either side of the wall. That allows all of the gear in the living room to be routed to the garage, just by moving/plugging a few cables. The living room system is control by RF remote so I do not need to see the gear to operate it. The AV receiver is a Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH and the Blu-ray player is a Panasonic BLT110. I also have a Toshiba HD DVD player in the mix.
In addition to the fun of sharing movies with 20 people at the same time, our garage theater is heavily "branded" with regard to our pre-movie entertainment. We have all manner of custom Booth Bijou intros and audio voiceovers. Included in the equipment cabinet is a Mac mini, which is used as a dedicated home theater PC. I use VLC on the Mac to create a playlist and load up a string of custom intros, coming attractions trailers, and I always include a cartoon too. I also have a variety of movie trivia slides on the Mac mini that are played during the audience walk-in period (and in-between movies).
One of my dreams in life was to own a small to medium size single-screen movie theater. Something with a classic art deco feel. No stadium seating, just a long slopping floor like the theaters I went to when I was a boy.
Since that dream never came to pass (mostly because I wasn't interested in going bankrupt), showing movies in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater is the next best thing!
Here are some photos...
Our "blank canvas":
The patch bay between living room and garage:
Curtains in place, the theater ready to go:
Back wall:
Side wall with snack bar (that's a portable air conditioner in the middle):
A few chairs in place, but side lights still on:
With all the lights turned out:
The photo with the snack bar above was taken before we got a 12-ounce popcorn machine. This is what the snack bar looks like now:
I make 16-ounce batches in the 12-ounce machine. I mix my own using bulk products (Great Northern popcorn, Paragon Coconut Oil, and Flavocal seasoning). Our guests devour our popcorn! We typically go through four to five 16-ounce batches in a single evening.
Occasionally, I get retro and fool around with anaglyph 3D (I have a couple of cartoons in anaglyph). You may remember famous photos from the 50s like this one:
Here's the Booth Bijou's version of that:
You can click the link in my signature to see some additional photos, including how the theater looked before we added the curtains all around.
An 8-minute video demonstrating the pre-movie entertainment I play from the Mac mini can be seen here:
http://www.thephotobooth.net/Booth-Bijou/bbgarage/15469874_3BGZHh#!i=1158336650&k=Z22rJzW
If you'd like to look at the various Booth Bijou custom intros individually, they can be found here:
http://www.thephotobooth.net/Booth-Bijou/bbintros/15399175_bWtwjp#!i=2161304621&k=j2vcXVn
The last intro at that link is a voice-only intro done by a professional voice guy. It seems to be the one our guests are most impressed with.
Mark