Stuff that occurs to me

All of my 'how to' posts are tagged here. The most popular posts are about blocking and private accounts on Twitter, also the science communication jobs list. None of the science or medical information I might post to this blog should be taken as medical advice (I'm not medically trained).

Think of this blog as a sort of nursery for my half-baked ideas hence 'stuff that occurs to me'.

Contact: @JoBrodie Email: jo DOT brodie AT gmail DOT com

Science in London: The 2018/19 scientific society talks in London blog post

Sunday 10 April 2011

How does one actually go about screening a film outdoors then?

Edit 13 April 2011: I wrote this post on 10 April 2011 and on 12 April 2011 I heard, from @PopUpScreens, that Jurassic Park was to be shown on 11 August in Hall Place, Kent. I like to think that my blog helped ;)

Edit 16 April 2011: Coincidentally this week there have been a couple of science blog posts about dinosaurs , mentioning velociraptors. See Brian Switek's "That's not a dinosaur!" and Ed Yong's "Dinosaurs around the clock, or how we know Velociraptor hunted by night" and maybe buy a 'No raptors' t-shirt from xkcd to help you sleep at night.

You might also enjoy this massively slowed down version of the theme song from Jurassic Park - I strongly doubt that it's 1,000% slower than the original (as labelled) because you can follow what's going on, compared with 9 Beet Stretch* which stretches Beethoven's 9th into a 24hr piece and the tune is completely divorced from the original. Either way it's lovely.

*Make sure you listen to the beginning of the episode, although the segment discussing 9 Beet Stretch is at the end.

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If I had my way then one summer night on Blackheath, as daylight turns to dusk, a projector would whir into life and first it would show this:


saying something like "Jurassic Park follows shortly". Jurassic Park theme tune mix.

Then the screen would go dark and the Earth would appear*, along with the words UNIVERSAL, and the soundtrack of the fictional jungle / forest creatures that live on the fictional Isla Nublar would quieten the crowd as the first dinosaur and Bob Peck appear on the screen.
*works well in Firefox, tries to download weird stuff in Chrome

I've no idea how to make that sort of thing happen though I hear about people putting on films all the time, how do they do that?

I presume I'd have to do the following:
1. Get permission from Greenwich Council or landowners to show a film on Blackheath (possibly Lewisham too)
2. Get permission from Universal to screen Jurassic Park, and acquire a copy of the print for screening
3. Hire a projector and screen and get it safely installed and pay for someone to run it
4. Inform various bodies and possibly pay for a small police presence in case the raptors get everyone all scared and rioty
5. Pay for people to tidy up all the heath on the next day
6. Consider having stalls selling xkcd merchandise relating to Jurassic Park, stalls with information about how to be an archaeobotanist (I know a couple of these, shouldn't be that hard) and related palaeontological fields, chaoticians and geneticists, also food and drink stalls where you can buy tempura and perhaps Belgian beer. Not forgetting cushions, pac-a-macs and blankets. And perhaps stalls with information about genetic disorders...
7. Tell people about it - posters and whatnot as well as via the information superhighway (give the event its own website for example).

In short, how much money is this going to cost me?

Until then, I'm collecting all the open air screenings in London that I hear of in the hope that one day someone will screen Jurassic Park. (I don't mind if it's not me, but I'm definitely up for it)

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