Drive-In Movie Theater Costume

I had the idea of a drive-in movie theater with a still photo on the screen but it needed a little more excitement. While researching tiny projectors for backyard movie nights I had a spark of an idea, “What if you could project on your face!”

I created a short video using clips of people from the 1931 Dracula movie and then found footage of a puff of smoke and a bat flapping its wings. When I put them all together I added the widows peak, the arching eyebrows and growing fangs as illustrations.

The Drive-In sign HAD to include a dad pun. It reads through as “Driving me batty.”

The concession stand was my daughter’s favorite part. She thought it was so cute. I was just happy to cover the projector in a fun way.

I added dark shaded sunglasses to protect her eyes and it also gave a little Lost Boys vibe to the whole costume.

Bonus joke: I added the Back to the Future DeLorean in with the cars because Marty travels back in time at a drive-in theater in Back to the Future – Part 3.

This is me at 2:30 AM testing how the projector lines up with a face. Notice the little cross shape casting a shadow on my face? That was a temporary solution I quickly came up with to protect my eyes. I hadn’t thought of the sunglasses idea yet. It’s a little ironic that a cross was protecting a “vampire”.

The original concept