A documentary about disappearing barns. A historic museum.  One night to make it feel like a theater.

The Bennington Museum hosted “Vanish,” a documentary about Vermont’s disappearing historic barns.  The film needed proper cinematic treatment in the museum’s education center — a space built for collections, not projection.  Our job was to make it feel like a theater without changing the room’s character.

We installed a large-format cinema screen and a high-lumen laser projector calibrated to the room’s ambient light and seating.  Every seat needed a clear sightline and a consistent image.  Audio was set for the film’s score and narration: present enough to hold attention, controlled enough for a quiet museum space.  Speaker placement kept the sound image clean and forward-facing.

Gear stayed out of the way — no road cases in view, cables tight to the walls, equipment positioned so the room framed the film rather than the production.  When the lights came down, the audience was watching a documentary.

After the screening, director Jim Westphalen spoke.  We had a microphone at the podium and a second at the front of the house for questions.  Playback to live sound handed off cleanly.  The Q&A ran forty minutes.  A room full of Vermonters with opinions about old barns.  The audio held through all of it.