Guides

The Checklist: Planning an Outdoor Movie Night at Home in Jamaica

Nearly every problem on the night of an event traces back to something nobody checked a week earlier. So here's the checklist.

Your space

Ground. Reasonably level is the requirement. It doesn't have to be grass. Concrete, paving, tile, rough ground, all workable, because we lay flooring over the seating area regardless.

What does cause trouble is a significant slope, deep unevenness, or ground that's soft and waterlogged.

Space. You need enough depth between the screen and the back row for everyone to see comfortably, plus some clearance at the sides for the crew to work.

Access. This is the one people forget. If the only way to reach the spot is up a flight of stairs, say so when you book. It changes what the crew needs and carries an access charge. Nothing extra for ground floor setups or anywhere we can move equipment on the level.

Overhead. Look up. Low branches, washing lines, power lines. All of it matters.

Power

One working outdoor point. Our site lighting runs on its own battery power, so you're not being asked to run the whole thing off your house supply, but the projection equipment needs a source.

Test the point actually works before the day. Discovering a dead outlet at 5pm is a genuinely bad moment and it's the most common avoidable thing we run into.

Internet

You provide this. If you're streaming, the connection carries the film.

Test your wifi signal at the exact spot where we'll be setting up, not from your living room. Signal at the back of a yard is often much weaker than signal in the house. If it's shaky, sort out an extender or download the film beforehand.

The film

Decide early. Anything you can stream or buy digitally, signed into your own account. Anything still exclusively in cinemas is off the table.

Have a backup ready too. Every so often a title isn't available in the Jamaican catalogue of a service, and it's much better to find that out with a second choice in hand.

Timing

Full darkness here is after roughly 7pm all year.

We arrive two hours before your start. Make sure somebody's there to let us in. Standard bookings include a thirty minute grace period after the film ends before we start packing down.

Seating and tables

Guest seating comes with the package. Tables and chairs for eating are yours.

If you're serving food, think about where people will actually eat it. Eating in cinema seating in the dark is not comfortable.

Guest numbers

Confirm the final count before the day. Every guest needs a seat and a headset and both are counted per person, so anybody added on the night gets charged at the standard rate.

Minimum is 10 guests.

Weather

Agree your rain plan at booking. Either a covered fallback at your venue or a reschedule arrangement. Don't leave this to the afternoon.

Mosquitoes

Nobody thinks about this and everybody notices it.

Your guests will be sitting still, outside, after dark, for two hours. That's ideal conditions. Treat the area earlier in the day. Coils, citronella, or a proper spray of the surrounding bush in the afternoon. The blankets that come with every seat help more than you'd expect.

The day before

Balance settled. Yard cleared and cut. Power point tested. Wifi tested at the actual setup spot. Film confirmed and account logged in. Final numbers sent. Gate or access sorted.

The morning of

Nothing. That's the whole point of hiring a crew.

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