It worked!!!!!
So, I had this idea. What would it be like to have an outdoor concert followed by movie at our church? I mentioned it to a few others, and they seemed to think it was a good idea (notice I didn't say plan?).
So we went to work on a plan to make it happen. The date (May 21st) was selected to make it a sort of end of school event. School is out this week in most Texas communities. Plus we didn't want to be on a holiday weekend. And it gets hot in June.
So I picked a movie (Fly Away Home) and got a group from another church to come play. Our church is pretty old and don't do the "Praise and Worship" thing. I'm pretty sure most have no idea who Jennifer Knapp is, and only a few know Michael W. Smith.
Jennifer comes up to me a few weeks ago to ask how we will actually show this. Caressa (our Youth Minister) told me that Grace Presbytery (denomination office) could probably lend us a projector. I thought we would hang some sheets on the side of the building.
WWWeeeelllllllllll,
A member suggests sheetrock mounted on a frame (freestanding). duh! I hadn't thought of that, but her husband (Tracy) happens to own a sheetrock distributor company. "Kewl, this is out of control," I'm thinking.
So I pick up the projector and test in the warehouse at my job. Hmm, this might work.
Tracy and I met at the church Thursday night to assess where we will put the screen, etc. We got there at 8:15 and it is still daytime! Our flyers and announcements all said we will start at 7, and I told the band to plan for an hour. Oh well.
So we run some extension cords out and connect the DVD player to the projector. My test movie was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. By 8:45 we can see the image on the building and begin to discuss screen size and contruction. Turns out Ferris is one of Tracy's favorite movies and we are saying the lines out loud, just ahead of time.
Since Fly Away Home on DVD is not in wide-screen format, we built a 9' wide x 8' high screen on Saturday morning and I put three coats of white paint on it.
The band (Eternidad) was awesome and it was time for the movie. I had hauled the church's sound system outside and knew that it would be plenty loud. But when the movie filled the screen...
Do you remember at the end of Back To The Future when Marty had gone back to 1984 and Doc Brown was dancing around yelling, "It worked!"?
Well, that was Tracy and I.
And as the band was packing up, one of the members made this statement:
"What a great idea- watching a movie outside."
Another reminder of being old!
How many of you have ever BEEN to a drive-in?
posted by Kurt at 11:50 AM
5 Comments:
Aww, I miss the drive-in so much! I'm always saying how I wish they'd bring them back.
I think your idea was awesome and I'm sure you brought a smile to many faces! We need more people like you in the churches!
Thanks so much. I hope you've recovered from your trip.
I stumbbled across your blog.
A great idea indeed. You could make this a weekly event if you desired.
Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you, si soy Latina. Y si puede hablar espanol, pero no mucho. I can get around though! Where's your wife from?
She's what my Mojo friends refer to as a coconut - brown outside, but all white inside. She is second generation Texan from Dallas. Both parents also grew up in Dallas (in the 1930s) and were punished in school if caught speaking spanish, so they didn't teach the kids. Her sisters learned from their grandparents. She understands quite a bit though she is reluctant to speak it.
Post a Comment
<< Home