Pics of the Ferry Theatre finally ready for public viewing (1 Viewer)

[Jack Ferry]

After over a year of working on this entirely by myself, I am 95% finished and watching movies! Still to be done: poster frames and adding the theater seats. (An old sofa serves for temporary seating.)

Take a look and pass along any suggestions you'd like. I'm just going to ignore them anyway. (Kidding!)

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/gall...-Ferry-Theatre

 

[Neil Joseph]

Looks nice. What projector is that? Are you going to have a row of seating in front of the existing one in the future? How large is the room and screen?

 

[Parker Clack]

As Mike Myers would say "Excellent".

Nice set up for sure. What projector and screen are you using?

Parker

 

[drobbins]

Nice theater. I like your screen wall. I also just finished mine last weekend. It is the Basement Theater. I also use a 4805 projector. It looked great out of the box and awesome once I calibrated it.
Dave

 

[ScottATL]

Your theater looks great. What size screen is that, and how large is your opening to the wall. I like the idea of a curtain behind the screen, where did you pick that up from?

 

[Jack Ferry]

The room is about 20' x 13'. The screen is a very simple homemade blackout cloth and pine boards combo that's roughly 84" x 48". I could have gone bigger on the screen, but that seemed to be a nice size in my projection tests.

I'm using the InFocus 4805, and I'm thrilled with it. I do notice the fan noise at times since I sit directly under it, but it's not too bad. (I'm also the only one that notices it.)

The stage and arch were built in part because of the odd layout of the (original) room. There's a large angled fireplace behind the stage, and there was no good way to put the screen on the back wall. I therefore built in front of the fireplace, knowing that if I want to use the fireplace at some point I just need to unhook the hanging screen and open the curtains.

A local theater owner was kind enough to give me six theater seats that I am in the process of painting and reupholstering. Once done, four will go on the riser and the sofa will go in front. Next step (when funds permit) will then be to lose the sofa and get 3 HT recliners.

It's probably not clear from my lousy photos, but I built the wall columns so I can add standard size film posters between the columns. That will happen once I find some reasonably priced frames. (Or I may build the frames myself.)

I did this "on the cheap" every step of the way. My paint was from the oops pile at Lowe's: $5 for 5 gallons. The carpet was a discounted special order not picked up by a customer: $150. (I would have preferred a dark pattern rather than a berber, but that was too good a deal.) Even the Fluance speakers ($180 on ebay) and the remanufactured HK 125 receiver ($150 ebay) were the result of bargain hunting. (Sound is terrific.) Total cost with equipment was probably about $3000 to $3500.

I'm convinced that anyone that really wants to do an HT project can do it. (With a lot of help from you guys!)

 

[Jack Ferry]

Scott, I'm not sure where I got the ideas I used, but I mainly stole them from other theaters posted in the Member's Theaters gallery. There was one there with a similar design, but I can no longer find the link so I can't give him credit.

I used curtains as an easy way to create a false wall, but still allow use of the back stage area. Since the riser is not bolted to the floor, I can actually put it behind the stage and create an area for a drum kit if my son decides to trash the place with bad live music.

Um, maybe I won't tell him the riser can be moved...

 

[Ron-P]

Very impressive Jack!

 

[Jack Ferry]

Thanks Ron.
I was thinking about The Driftwood when I was taking the photos. As much trouble as I had lighting the photos, I don't know how you can possibly take decent photos of your theater since its so dark.

 

[Ron-P]

It's tough, very tough. I have a thread going on for this new screen wall I'm building and the pics are coming out pretty bad, even with additional lighting in the room.

When the project is done I plan to bring in some powerful flood lights.

 

[Chris Hovanic]

Jack

Nice Theater!

As for poster frames... Im not sure what your looking for but I built a lighted poster box for my room. I used a quick-load frame from Spotlight Displays and attached it to a box frame that houses a rope light.

even if you dont want to backlight the poster the frames are well worth the money. (esp. if you change your posters out)

Here is my thread whith links to pictures.

Again Nice Theater

 

[Jack Ferry]

Thanks for the suggestion, Chris. The Spotlight Displays frame is a little too wide for my use, but I really like your lighted frame project. Maybe I'll give that a try for the hallway - I mean lobby - area.

 

[Jordan_E]

That looks SO nice!

 

[Joel...Lane]

 

[Joel...Lane]

I hope this doesn't seem nosy but in your second pic which shows the rear of the theater, it looks like there's a blue curtain hanging on the wall beside the right side of the couch. Is that covering a window or is there another reason it's there? I was thinking equipment rack but you seem to have your equipment on the shelf behind the couch.

 

[Jack Ferry]

The blue curtain (leftover velvet my mom had) covers a glass sliding door. How to handle the sliding door was one of the tougher challenges. I originally wanted to remove the door altogether, but thought that could be a safety code issue. I considered replacing it, but why replace doors you aren't going to use? I finally decided to place drywall over the side that doesn't open, leaving the sliding door operational. I then put up the curtain, expecting I would also need to do something to eliminate light leaks. However, the room is dark enough in the daytime even with the light leak around the curtain, so I may keep it as is.

The blue seems to clash a bit since nothing else in the room picks up the color, but I may use the same color for the theater seats.

 

[BrianKR]

Excellent job Jack, KEWL ROOM!

 

[Jack Ferry]

I just added a couple pics now that the posters are up, but they're lousy quality. (The pics, not the posters.)Hopefully you can at least get the idea of what it looks like.

Plastic is no substitute for non glare glass. I find the reflection in the "glass" somewhat annoying, but no one else seems to notice. (And isn't that the way it always is with so many HT issues?)

I am happy with the Goldberg reel with film wrapped around a couple spools. It's a fun detail. (Thanks Steve!)

 

[Kevin_F]

Nice job jack, how high is your seating platform? How is it built?

I am near completion of my own project in the basement (finished all 900 sqft) and I am about to build a platform for my second row of seating. Once this is done, the carpet goes down and I can begin to buy the good stuff

 

[Jack Ferry]

Thanks Kevin. The riser is 4'x8' and 8" tall. It's pretty basic construction: 3/4" plywood on top of 2 by 8s spaced out every 16".

There's quite a few threads about platform construction you may want to look at. I know some people go with 2 sheets of plywood (and more), but mine seems to be sufficiently heavy and stable.