The Lazy Genius Podcast - #27: The Lazy Genius Movie Night

Episode Date: June 26, 2017

1. Get ideas from Pinterest! The Lazy Genius Movie Night Pinterest Board 2. Here are a few things mentioned in the episode. Your Guide to Summer Movie Nights - my favorite list of movies on Netflix right now A geeky post on how to choose a projector and set up an outdoor movie screen How to set up an art cart The projector we'll probably get once I'm not scared of the technology (even at 1800 lumens, it apparently has great brightness. Here are some Wizard of Oz party photos: cake, the Tin Man and a Wash and Brush Up girl (yes, that's Emily), and me as the mayor of Munchkin City... asleep This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, it's Kendra and you're listening to The Lazy Genius Podcast. Here I'm going to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today's episode is episode 27, The Lazy Genius Movie Night. Okay, I love movies. Here's the pitch. It's summer and movie nights. It feels like an essential thing, right? It's getting darker later.

You can stay up longer. You can pay money to have people eliminate every mosquito in your your yard and do your movie night outside if you want. Are you kidding me? This season is screaming for a movie night. So let's figure out how to do one, the lazy genius way. In the playbook today, we're going to just simply map out a super lazy genius way to have people over to watch a movie without feeling like you're opening a theater or planning a wedding reception. Simple is king here. Okay. So let's figure out how to make it so simple that it can even be kind of spontaneous. The main formula is this, okay? Invite some people over, feed them, you can pop

popcorn, turn on Netflix, turn off the lights. End of story. You can have a great time with just that formula. Now, I think that there are some other things that you can do, and questions you can ask, to enhance your movie night, but there are just suggestions. You don't have to do anything that's coming in the next 15 or 20 minutes if you don't want to. We don't want to complicate already simple things, right? But if you really love having people over, and if you love movies and want to be really specific in what you choose and who you invite and what food you eat and what you watch and all that, keep listening, okay? You don't have to make it a big thing, but if you want to, I hope you enjoy this episode. So let's talk about where you show your movie, who you invite

to see it, what you eat while you watch it, and a few other housekeeping. tips that are worth a quick mention in today's playbook. Okay, so let's get started. So where, let's start with the where. Where do you have this movie night? Okay, your options are pretty simple, inside or outside, right? And if you're inside, you can use your TV, obviously, or you can rig up some sort of bigger projection situation depending on your house and how many people are coming and the mood you want and frankly, the sanity you have to spare for the whole thing. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. Setting up a projector and a screen and hooking it up to the computer and speakers and all the things makes me feel a little nuts because my brain does not speak technology. So if you're

like me, you have two options. One, just watch it on your TV. Okay? It's great. You know how to use it. Wonderful. Or two, you outsource. If your friend or your spouse or your friend's spouse, is really into tech stuff, give them the homework. So you don't have to worry about that part, right? You can just be like, hey, husband or hey friend or hey friend's husband. You know how you love tech stuff? Want to figure out how to rig up a movie in my backyard? I'll take care of the food and everything else.

If you can just figure out how to get the movie up, done deal. It's like modern day bartering. So if it stresses you out, share the load. Outsource it. Don't do it yourself or just watch your TV and it's totally fine. And there are lots of things online about how to rig up a screen in your backyard or whatever it is. And so I will include those in the show notes for this episode along with lots of other stuff. So if you want to check out those show notes, you can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash movie night.

Okay. So keep the setup simple, outsource it if you want, what have you. But consider the part of where you're going to have it done. It's a pretty simple question. in or out and then if you have the stress, if you don't want the stress, outsource it or just use your TV. Okay, so next, who do you invite? Now that my friend, it all depends on what you want, okay? Do you want everyone to be quiet and actually watch the entire movie?

You should probably skip inviting little kids or friends who you haven't seen in a long time that you just want to end up talking to, right? do you want to watch a movie that sparks a lot of conversation after? Consider like whether your friends that you're inviting have little kids and maybe they don't have the ability to stay up as late as you're hoping or maybe if you're wanting to talk about like a darker subject matter there might be some friends of yours that just aren't really into that kind of conversation, right? Maybe you want to be nostalgic and watch something that's old and dumb but still really awesome that you loved when you're, you were a kid, maybe you should save that movie for friends who enjoyed it too and maybe like skip the movie buff friend who sometimes can be a little bit judgmental off this particular guest list, you know, you don't have to choose just like one group of people and one way of doing things. You can have lots of different kinds of movie nights, but you just want to make sure that you're matching the right people with the right purpose. Okay. And yes, of course, a wonderful purpose is just to have fun. And frankly, you might think I'm a little bit nuts talking about this.

But I personally believe it's worth taking just two minutes to think about what you want, what you really are wanting out of your movie night, and then the best group dynamic for what you want. So you can be a genius about who to invite what movie to choose, et cetera, et cetera. Those two minutes of genius will actually let you be super lazy about the rest of it because everything just kind of falls in a place. You give yourself really specific limits and then makes everything else so much easier. I love that. Okay. Now you can also start with like the group of people rather than starting with the purpose of the thing. You could start with the people and work your way backwards from that. So like a few ideas could be you want to invite families with kids, right? Whether you have your own

kids or not, maybe you just want to invite some of your friends who have little kids. Um, maybe adult friends like both men and women, maybe just a girl's night. Maybe you do. Maybe you do. You do. You just. You do. You a like a movie night kind of on Mother's Day weekend with a couple of your girlfriends and their moms, maybe folks from the neighborhood. There are so many options. You start, you can start with that group dynamic and then just kind of let everything else compliment that. Okay, I'm just a really big believer in group dynamics and so I really enjoy being genius about that thing, but you certainly don't have to. Okay. So those are just some thoughts for you to consider when you're thinking about who to invite. Now let's talk about everybody's favorite topic, or at least mine, food. Oh my goodness.

What food do you have, right? Now, the simple answer is, drum roll, popcorn. Of course. Just pop a massive amount of popcorn and call it a day. I'll also post links to some of my favorite popcorn recipes because honestly, popping your own corn is shockingly easy. And it's actually easier, I think, if you're feeding more than four people. because otherwise you're going to be popping, you know, seven bags of popcorn. And that can get a little bit annoying and expensive. So it's much easier than you think to pop your own popcorn. So check the show notes for that.

Now, if you want to go beyond popcorn, you can start. There's so many different, oh, you guys, I can talk for so long about what to make for a movie night. It just makes me so excited. So you could have dinner or not. You could start with dinner and kind of give everyone a chance to just sort of chat and catch up before you actually watch the movie, especially if your goal is for eyeballs to be on screen, you know, to actually watch the movie and for no talking, really. And so for something like this too, where everyone's just kind of like hanging out and milling about,

you want to choose foods that can sit for a little while that are really easy and self-serve, like pizza or hot dogs, maybe stuff for like tacos, you know, like a taco bar or nachos or something, anything that is easily scalable, depending on how many people, are there and stuff they can sit out for a little bit without getting gross, okay? Or, or, and here's my favorite thing to do, but I'm a little crazy. You can go kind of the extra creative mile and choose food that matches your movie. I know. Okay, so let's say you're having girlfriends over to watch Shuck a lot.

That Johnny Depp movie, when he's not really crazy and he's like the hottest that he ever is his entire life. Oh my gosh. If you've ever seen that movie, it's the perfect girl's night movie. It's so good. But it's a movie about a hot Johnny Depp and Julie, is it Juliet Benoche in that? Yes, it's Juliet Benoche. And it's a movie about chocolate. Like there's so much chocolate in that movie. There are other things, but so much chocolate. So clearly, if you're watching, Chocolat, because that's what you have to say when you, when you say that movie title without the E at the end, shock a lot, you have to serve chocolate, right? You can have like just bits of dark chocolate, hot chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate truffles.

You can have just a big bowl of like candy bars and no one cares. But you have to serve chocolate. Like, oh my goodness, it's so fun. Or if it's like a British movie, you could serve tea and scones or something. If it's a superhero movie, like an Avengers like Captain America kind of thing, you can serve, you can like have everything be red white and blue you know like Captain America you don't have to put stars on everything but you could kind of make all the food red white and blue um if you have the time and the interest choosing food that fits your movie is such a fun payoff I mean it is like one of the most fun things that I do in my entire life I love it so if there's any the tiniest part of you it it's like oh that sounds so fun do it do it do it do it do it okay

So, but in the same, in the same vein as outsourcing the projection technology, if food, if that's not your speed, if figuring that stuff out, it's just not your speed, you can outsource that too, right? Most people, when you invite them over, are like, cool, what can we bring? So tell them what they can bring. Or you can actually, if you do like a real invitation or even just email or text or something, include it in there, say, we're having a movie night and we're watching Star Wars. So everybody come and bring your favorite snack.

And if you want to make your snack, Star Wars themed, go for it. You know, like give people the option because some people might really want to have fun with that. And then they can spruce up your party and you didn't have to do a thing if that's not your thing, right? So outsource if you want to. A couple of years ago, though, because you don't want to, here's the thing. You don't want to make people feel pressured to do that because who wants to feel pressured to do something that they're not comfortable doing? Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art.

I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Because, okay, here's a story. A couple years ago, I threw a Wizard of Oz party. It was one of my favorite theme parties I've ever thrown. I've thrown a lot of theme parties, by the way, and it's one of my favorite ones. And one of the elements was that it was a costume party.

Now, usually costumes make me want to die. I do not like them at all. But for this party, I was super into it. It just felt like it fit. And I knew that some of my friends would really be into it, too. But there were also some friends who invited who I knew wouldn't be into the costume idea. So I just went ahead and lowered my costume expectation. I gave everybody permission to dress up if they wanted, but they didn't need to feel like

they had to in order to come. You know, like sometimes you get invited to something. And they're like prerequisites and you feel a little bit like, well, if I don't do what the host is asking me to do, I feel like I'm not being a good guest or I'm not going to be as welcome as I would like to be. So just make sure that you put people at a. in that way, right? You can let the ones who want to get excited and creative do that. They might really love it, but don't make it a rule for those of your friends who don't necessarily

want to. Okay? So just remove as much pressure as you can. I will, some of these costumes were so good. So I'm going to put a couple of pictures in the show notes. Again, lazy geniuscollective.com either, hold please, the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash. movie night. So you can see some of those pictures because they're so much fun. And also, because I love you so much and because I'm a crazy person, if you go to those show notes, I will also include a few ideas of like themed foods for different movie nights. So like some things that you could serve if you're watching a Harry Potter movie, for example. So I will include some ideas to kind of get your juices flowing or you can just totally like use those.

ideas for your own movie night. I think that would be great. So go to the show notes. You can see this as well. It's a really rich show note day, guys. Okay, so a couple of quick housekeeping items kind of before we wrap up. Number one, turn off the lights. It makes such a difference. Even if you feel a little bit silly doing it, especially if it's like, you're inviting your grown-up friends. I'm like, okay, we're turning off the lights. I'm telling you, it really just changes the atmosphere, especially that you're going to have to turn off the lights. If you're using a projector. But especially if you're using just your TV, it does help add to the atmosphere since your TV is not quite the same as, you know, that light coming from behind you and that

little sound from the projector. Do they even make that sound anymore? I feel like they're all probably digital at this point. But anyway, you get the idea. Turn the lights off. Turn the lights off. Number two, pull out like all of the throw pillows and blankets that you have in your house. and put them in the room or the yard if you're doing it outside, put them where you're going to watch the movie. Just go ahead and give people just automatic permission to get cozy and comfy, especially if they're on the floor, which is kind of likely depending on the size of your crowd that you have.

But just go ahead and have it all out there so that people can sort of get themselves all situated and they don't have to, like if it's out, they know it's okay to use that stuff, right? So just go ahead and pull it all out. All your blankets. It's so fun to have a big old. pile blankets when people come over to watch a movie. So turn off the lights, pull out all your blankets and your pillows. Third thing is have a, if you, okay, again, I take my movie nights kind of seriously, but I would have a pre-planned intermission. If you're going hardcore, right,

when you're watching your movie and you're like really kindly suggesting, but super suggesting that everyone actually watched the movie and not really talk, then I think it's helpful to choose a spot in advance to stop the movie about halfway through. And you can tell everyone beforehand that you're going to do it, right? Before you hit play, it's like, okay, guys, we're going to have an intermission in the middle. But that way, they know it's coming. You can refill snacks, take bathroom breaks. If you've got kids at the movie and some are getting really unruly, it gives, like, parents a way to kind of cart them out without disrupting the whole movie and the group and everything. So just pick a spot in the movie about halfway through. Just don't pick

one that's like a huge cliffhamer cliffhanger um but go ahead and pick that in the beginning and have a pre-plan intermission and it could really kind of help kind of the the vibe especially if you are a bit rigid like i am where i'm like nobody's any words because the movies are very very serious um i promise i'm a really nice host but if if if the movie that we're watching is really important and some people haven't seen it yet i just want to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy the movie in the best possible way, right? Nothing wrong with that, I guess. Maybe I'm a little nuts.

Okay, and then the last housekeeping rule before we go is to just be, I love how this is the last one as I was just like, no talking, is to be considerate of your guests, okay? If you have ever watched a movie with someone who has different, like, sensitivities to you or kind of like triggers that you do, it can be really uncomfortable, right? You might personally be like totally fine with like a lot of F bombs or like somebody losing a limb, but your friend might not.

Okay. So don't pick something that's like really, really skewed one direction unless you're very familiar with your crowd and know that everybody's going to be okay with it because there's nothing more uncomfortable as far as moving nights go is being the one person who's like, I don't want to watch these people have sex and everyone else seems fine with it. Like, it's so awkward. It's the worst, right? So just be sensitive to kind of the lowest common denominator of sensitivity in the group.

There are lots of movies that don't have a lot of kind of like highly objectionable material. You can find a lot of really fantastic movies that entertain people that don't have to, yeah, that can kind of make everybody feel okay. So just be sensitive to your guess. Be considered of them with that kind of thing. Now, you might be thinking right now, hey, Kendra, you actually haven't mentioned any actual movies yet. You are right.

I have not. But fret not. Because I have written an entire blog post about great movie night movies. And I will link to that in the show notes as well at the lazy jeaniescollective.com slash lazy slash movie night basically i feel like sometimes um i like personally like reading about movies rather than listening to them because then you can just sort of scan it's like oh i've seen that one i've seen that one i've seen that one so um what i've done is i've written a blog post for you they're broken up by like who might be watching them with you so um families adult friends

um girls night that kind of thing and i've only included movies that have really decent Rotten Tomato Scores, for one, and movies that are currently available on Netflix. So you don't have to, you know, kind of go searching for them. And that way you can also be sure that the movie that you choose is going to be good. You know, like some movies we watch when we're kids and we're like, please, everybody come and we're going to watch this movie. And you start watching, you're like, man, this thing is crap. Why did I like this?

Or you just know that you have a really sentimental attachment to it, right? And everybody else might not feel the same way that you do. So choosing a movie that have a really good Rotten Tomato score is helpful in that. Like you know that your favorites also are going to be crowd favorites too. Okay. So I hope that you are really inspired to have a summer movie night, even if it's just one. Part of me wants to do one like every weekend. I feel like that's, you know, kind of a lot.

But even if you don't do it with like inviting people over, just do it with the people that live in your house. Like it's just so fun to do some thing kind of special and on purpose that way. Okay, before we go, let's do a quick lazy genius tip of the week. Okay, this one's super random, but it kind of saved a whole art project crisis in our house. Right now, the boys are home from school, right? So I've got all the kids home for the summer. And one of the things that we're trying to do every day is for the kids to make something. And usually that means something with Legos or something with the stuff that's in their art cart.

and I will post a link to what I mean by ArtCart because I wrote a blog post about that. I'll put that in the show notes as well. But recently they were making something and they needed like sturdy paper like cardstock. Well, I didn't have any card stock. That's not something I usually have in the house. We just have, you know, like normal construction paper

and computer paper. Guess what works great is cardstock, you guys? File folders and I will bet dimes to dollars. I don't think that's the saying, but that's okay. I will bet a lot that you have, like I do, just like all these random file folders, you know, because you can't buy just like a pack of three unless they're $7 and super cute. But you know those regular just sort of like beigey manila file folders that you were given a stack of when your dad cleaned out his office when he retired or you were a kindergarten teacher for a little bit and you still have all these file folders? You guys, it's cardstock and they work so great. for our projects and they're also like double wide like double wide card stock it's the best

thing so now so many of their projects i'm like grab a folder just go grab a folder like it's so great so if you've got folders lying around and you're like what can i put in these folders nothing use them for our projects if you have kids around such a great thing um great way to use those that just keeps sitting in your drawer forever with nothing to put in them empty file folders are sad we need to put them to good use you guys and this is a great way to do it okay I'm so glad I'm just so glad that you listen

week after week just makes me so happy and so if you enjoy listening and you want other people to be lazy geniuses just like you are please share this episode and this podcast in general with your friends and one of the great ways that you can do that with friends that you haven't met yet aka strangers

aka people on iTunes or Apple podcast I think think that's what they call themselves now, actually. Apple Podcasts is to leave a review. And I know everybody asks for you to leave a review and you're tired of it, but it really does make a difference. So if a podcast means something to you, it would be such a kindness for you to give the creator of that podcast to do a review. So I'm saying that for me, but I'm also saying that for anything that you listen to that you love, go do them a solid man and leave a review. I mean, it just makes a huge, huge difference. So if you have left one, I read them all, and they're so encouraging to me. I just

can't thank you enough for them. And if you have it and want to, hop on over and do it. It takes like two seconds from your Apple podcast app on your phone. Or you can do it on like your desktop. Does anyone still do that? Does anyone still have a desktop? It feels weird to even say or desktop, right? All right, I'm so glad you listen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for being lazy geniuses, and I will see you next week. And until then, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Bye, guys. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life, because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough.

Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to becoming you wherever you get your podcasts.