Thread: Using Video Projectors in you Haunts

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Hi everybody. Just wanted to pass along some advice on something that can add a lot to your Halloween show....video projection.

I have an older LCD model projector that I have used for several years now and I find that it can have many uses. They can be used to project images of characters on a screen, or create very interesting lighting effects.

Many times, people ask me why my displays looks so good. Well in most cases, they are nothing too spectacular, but in my job as a video producer, I've learned to LIGHT things so they appear impressive.

Last year, I made a display that represented an underwater coral reef with a singing pirate skull and clams as backup singers. It was just made out of paper mache over a chicken wire frame and used servos to move the characters. I think what really made it sell as being underwater was my use of the video projector.

YouTube - Halloween 2009: The Pirate Coral Reef

In this clip, you notice the shimmering underwater light. I achieved it by using a Mac computer graphics program called "LiveType" which had a stock underwater pattern. I made a special DVD that had this pattern edited together in a continuous loop.

My projector was mounted up high on a stand and hooked to the DVD player which projected the image down onto the display. I really think it works.

This year, my display was an animated skeleton lounge singer named Boney Bennett. I knew I wanted to use the projector again and decided to have it shining imaged on a translucent screen behind him as he sang.

I made a large frame up from 2X2's and stretched a black somewhat sheer stretch lycra lover the frame. The projector was set up INSIDE his piano and was hooked to my DVD player.

What's cool about this effect is that even though the image show up on the screen, you can still see THROUGH the screen, making the image look like it was floating in mid air!

YouTube - Boney Bennett in Concert!

Pretty cool, huh?

With this display, Boney did several songs. I made different "chapters" on my DVD for each of the segments. One was based on showing the lyrics to the song, one was of skeletons dancing along etc.

By "hacking" my old DVD player, I was able to get my laptop running VSA to "cue" each segment when it needed to be played buy sending a pulse to my "Kit 74" board. You just have to author the DVD so it sits ready to go at the main menu (which is black) then plays the first segment, then goes back the the main menu and sits waiting at the second button, the plays that segment when cued etc.

If it's done right, the show just cycles over and over without any problems.

Here is one of the segments I edited together for the show...

YouTube - Halloween Background Video.mov

You'll notice the dancing skeletons in the sequence. They were created by an animation program called "Poser" which actually has a skeleton model ready to be animated. I tried to make his do classic jazz moved to match the show.

Well that's all for now. To read up some more on my display go to my web page at

http://www3.sympatico.ca/geoffholmes/home.html

Bye and Happy Haunting next year!!

Awesome....still a big fan of your pirate coral reef!

daffy that is truly amazing and just love Boney Bennett and his movement. Also love frankie in the background to. The coral reef was also great but for some reason Boney stole the show!

Wow! I have thought about using a projector but was unsure just how much of a projector I would need to get good results in an exterior display. Do you have any info on the one you used?

My projector is just an older cheapo LCD one I kind of commandeered from work. Any of the lcd ones, no matter how "outdated" seem to work fine because haunts are usually done in dark conditions, so the brightness of the projector is usually unimportant. I actually had to turn the brightness all the way down so the "black" areas of my projections wouldn't look grayish and lit up.