SLIDES
There are a number of suggestions concerning retro Drive-In countdown clocks and concession stand ads in Cherry Hills' BackyardTheater post, Intermission Slides and ppht's post, Dancing HotDog video?.
Got PowerPoint? You can make your own slides if you do.
If PowerPoint isn't your thing, Steve Good, a creative fellow over at the AVS Forum, has designed several "Coke Slides" that you can incorporate into your pre show. He supplies a link to a number of sample slides. It's worth your time to take a look at his creations.
Another creative poster on the AVS Forum has designed a number of Pixar film trivia and fun facts slides. He has been adding sets since '08. All the sets, which are available for free, can be found on this post. Two samples are shown below.
In the past, when I had a boat load of pictures to turn into a slideshow, I used iPhoto. The newest version of iMove also has some great ready-made slide show themes. I also use PulpMotion. For an example of what PulpMotion is capable of producing, see Kids' Team Parties on another page.
TRAILERS
Movie trailers can be downloaded from YouTube, comingsoon.net, and iTunes Movie Trailers.
Since the Coming Attractions portion of my pre show is used solely for entertainment purposes (and never for announcing any real up-coming attractions), I'll show an old sic-fi or 1940s film noir trailer (very campy). When showing a remake of an older movie, a trailer from the earlier version of the same title is used. For example, when we watched a segment from the Horatio Hownblower A&E series, I used the Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. trailer (Gregory Peck, 1951).
The video on the lower left is an original drive-in ad that introduces trailers for up-coming movies. The video on the lower right is a homemade version that uses the audio from the original. An explanation of how it was made can be found below.
In retrospect, I would like to have placed a number of chairs, preferably filled with patrons, and taken the picture of my BYT more toward dusk.
If you have a newer Mac, you'll have iMovie 11 installed. It's a software editing program that offers 15 movie trailer templates where you can simply drag and drop video clips into the template, choose your own wording for the places that contain captions/titles, and it automatically creates your movie trailer. Action, documentary, sports, pets, supernatural, and travel are a few of the themes available. The following trailer was made with the Epic Drama theme.
Creating A Clip to Introduce Trailers
The video on the lower left is an original drive-in ad that introduces trailers for up-coming movies. The video on the lower right is a homemade version that uses the audio from the original. In retrospect, I would like to have placed a number of chairs, preferably filled with patrons, in front of the movie screen and taken the picture of my BYT more toward dusk.
1. Take a picture of your backyard theater and import it into PowerPoint.
2. Using the Duplicate Slide command, make a second slide.
3. With Slide 2 chosen and the HOME tab selected, choose Rectangles under the Shapes Menu.
4. Draw a rectangle over your screen.
5. With the newly drawn rectangle still selected, choose an appropriate green under the Fill Menu.
6. With the second slide still selected, click the Transitions Tab. Then select the Fade Button.
7. Click on the first slide to select it.
8. With the Home Tab selected, choose Text Box under the Test Button.
9. Draw a text box. Type the Welcome message in the text box.
10. Make a separate text box for each animated word.
Do not arrange the words over the movie screen yet. (Actually, you can if you wish, but they're awfully hard to deal with when they're layered.)
11. With the Animations Tab selected, have each word or sentence appear on screen using the Zoom entrance effect.
Have the words leave the screen with the Curve Down exit effect.
12. Click the Reorder Button in the upper right hand corner to open the Custom Animation Tool Box.
13 Use the Tool Box to arrange the entrance and exit animations in the proper sequence.
14. Center the text boxes on the movie screen, one on top of the other.
15. Play the two-slide PowerPoint "presentation" and use screen capture software (Mine is Snapz Pro Z.) to record the movements.
DO NOT delete the video portion of the original ad yet. If you do, the audio will disappear along with it.
18. Move the original ad's audio under the new Screen Capture Movie. | 19. Delete the original ad's video. |
20. Fine tune your new movie where necessary.
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