Need some ideas to set up a collision screen in my yard.

I have been projecting in the yard for a number of years.
Using wire is tricky. You need to run two wires for top and bottom to keep it from blowing in the wind. I had to sew a lengthwise pouch to run the wire through on both top and bottom. This does make it difficult to keep the cloth taut BTW on a line. It will move left and right and not keep tight creating ripples.
Or you need to weigh the bottom down, I recommend partially burying the cloth to hold in place.

1) Free standing frame PVC- You can create a free standing frame out of PVC painted black. Attach the cloth with zip ties to the PVC.
The way I stood that one up was to drive rebar into the grass and slip the PVC over that to hold it upright. You could also build PVC supports like a soccer goal and fill the PVC with sand/dirt for weight. Depends if you are using a solid screen (like a shower curtain) or a transparent one.

2)Foam Sheet with cutout- I also like the Foam sheet with the center cut out. You can attach this to a frame and have the hole filled with your projection material. You can dress up the foam to be a broken wall, crypt, whatever...

A few suggestions...

Rick_H said:

Anyone ever feel like they have "Designer Block"??

So I'm asking for a few ideas to see what you all can come up with to be able to string a cable along the red line in the attached picture. At one end I have a 6' block wall and on the other a green electrical box thats only about 24-30" tall.

I've been thinking about using pallet wood to cover the box to make it look like a beast in a box, but I need ideas for something that will extend high enough to put the cable up and still look like it belongs in the theme of a cemetary.

Thanks for any ideas in advance.

Click to expand...

If you're theme is a cemetery, why not fence it in and use a pillar to support the screen?

Depending on where the entrance to your house is, you could even create a mock entryway to the graveyard and make a gateway with pillars supporting the gate tall enough so that one can act as your base to string the cable. The other is purely decorative. By having a gate, you break up the imagery that you’re showing and that adds to the ethereal effect you’re hoping for.

By creating a fence around your property, you also keep people from inadvertently deciding to walk across your yard and right though the mostly invisible cloth you're going to use to display your images. https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-Halloween-Cemetery-Entrance-Pillars-G/ is a good place to start, or just Google "making Halloween cemetery pillars" and go to town.

On the back side of the pillars, you can attach eye-bolts or your favorite way of attaching the cables to the bottom and top. It's facing away from the street, so making it unobtrusive should be fairly easy.

If you're not up to committing to an entire fence, or just the gateway, try an obelisk framed in wood, properly weighted, and staked to the yard so that it won't fall over.

Frankie’s Girl made a great one out of all the stuff you shouldn’t use, but the design elements are there so you might give her post a look. https://www.halloweenforum.com/halloween-props/69352-obelisk-under-6-a.html . Once constructed, use the same approach as you would the pillars to attach the screen.

Both approaches leave your electrical box completely unobstructed, which is really a good idea. Sure, put a box over it Halloween night if you like, but don’t rely on it to provide any kind of support. You don’t want to hear what others will say about that if you have an HOA. Good luck. and have fun.

chubstuff said:

If you're theme is a cemetery, why not fence it in and use a pillar to support the screen?

View attachment 556003

Depending on where the entrance to your house is, you could even create a mock entryway to the graveyard and make a gateway with pillars supporting the gate tall enough so that one can act as your base to string the cable. The other is purely decorative. By having a gate, you break up the imagery that you’re showing and that adds to the ethereal effect you’re hoping for.

View attachment 556005

By creating a fence around your property, you also keep people from inadvertently deciding to walk across your yard and right though the mostly invisible cloth you're going to use to display your images. https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-Halloween-Cemetery-Entrance-Pillars-G/ is a good place to start, or just Google "making Halloween cemetery pillars" and go to town.

On the back side of the pillars, you can attach eye-bolts or your favorite way of attaching the cables to the bottom and top. It's facing away from the street, so making it unobtrusive should be fairly easy.

If you're not up to committing to an entire fence, or just the gateway, try an obelisk framed in wood, properly weighted, and staked to the yard so that it won't fall over.

View attachment 556007

Frankie’s Girl made a great one out of all the stuff you shouldn’t use, but the design elements are there so you might give her post a look. https://www.halloweenforum.com/halloween-props/69352-obelisk-under-6-a.html . Once constructed, use the same approach as you would the pillars to attach the screen.

Both approaches leave your electrical box completely unobstructed, which is really a good idea. Sure, put a box over it Halloween night if you like, but don’t rely on it to provide any kind of support. You don’t want to hear what others will say about that if you have an HOA. Good luck. and have fun.

Click to expand...

The theme is mostly cemetary. Thanks for the idea. I'm not quite sure I want to put an entry way there. I will have things in the long driveway and TOT's will be walking up to where the front of the car is now.
The picture only shows about 1/3 of my front yard. I have a double driveway on the left of the picture that is going to have a gate which will lead people to the walkway coming in from the left with a bridge (like the Spirit entry bridge).
Plus I have already built cemetary fences that circle almost all of my yard.
I do plan to build some pillars, but want those on the other driveway.

I think with the tall light post I can make an extended cable work.

As far as the electrical box, it will only be a few nights, and since I am pretty much at war with my HOA already (albeit kind of a Cold War at the moment), I don't really worry too much about short term issues, I have to worry about not screwing up my grass.

Question about Frankie Girls obelisk. Why do you say she used material she shouldn't have used?

Rick_H said:

The theme is mostly cemetary. Thanks for the idea. I'm not quite sure I want to put an entry way there.

Plus I have already built cemetary fences that circle almost all of my yard.
I do plan to build some pillars, but want those on the other driveway.



As far as the electrical box... I don't really worry too much about short term issues, I have to worry about not screwing up my grass.

Question about Frankie Girls obelisk. Why do you say she used material she shouldn't have used?

Click to expand...

I couldn't tell from the picture where your TOTs actually came into your house, so I just dropped the gateway there as a possibility. Where you would place a pillar depends on so many different things including what kind of fence you already have. But seeing as you want the pillars on the other side of the driveway, an obelisk or other tall tombstone/monument might be a better choice. It does have the advantage of being slightly away from the fence and that helps hide the screen even more.

Placing it between two of your trees might also work, although that would place the video at a completely different angle. That's what the folks at Davis Graveyard do and their ghosts really up their already spectacular game. https://youtu.be/81mDC0esyUw?t=84 shows a video of their place and about 1:20 into it, you can see the ghosts moving around in the background where their trees are.


The obelisk I was suggesting would be used as a pole for your screen. Because it needs to support the weight of the cables and the screen itself, it would be impractical to use Frankie's Girl's approach for your needs. For her use, the materials are perfect. But you can't make a sturdy support out of foam core paper. It would be too light weight and too fragile to act as a support. If you were going to make a six or seven foot tall obelisk to act as the second support for the screen, it would need to be built of wood. You could certainly skin it with foam as many folks do, but the structure has to be sturdy enough to act as a pole.

We use tent spikes to tie down almost everything we put out in the yard, and add additional weight with sand bags on some of the items we just do not want to move. You'd squish your grass for a day or two with the obelisk in place, but it should rebound fairly quickly. The tent stakes drive into the ground and when they're pulled out the holes disappear entirely. HOA aerating of a lawn looks far worse.

If it were me, I would keep the actual screen away from the power box and not rely on anything provided by the community. We never think that things will go wrong, but weirdness happens, and you don't want them coming back on you for repairs to damaged property that always costs way more than it should. I'm much more comfortable breaking my stuff than someone else's.