If you’ve been to the Brainwash Movie Festival before, you may have experienced some minimal technical difficulties.

As much as our occasionally rushing around at 8:59 pm has added to the ambience over the years, I’m glad to confidently say that that part of the Brainwash experience is increasingly getting left behind. Technology is improving, which means so is our festival. There are two big upgrades for 2010 that are exciting (to me, anyway):

1. We are borrowing a new projector thanks to an anonymous benefactor: a 3000-lumen 1024 x 768 pixel Epson that just looks incredibly bright and clear outdoors, even with streetlights on half a block away (which did affect our old projector). It’s very impressive (maybe I’ll post some footage I took from inside a car the night we tested our equipment).
2. Even better, we have a brand-new, incredibly powerful FM transmitter! It’s straight out of China and I, uh, assume it’s totally on the up and up with the FCC, yeah. According to the specs (and I am no techie at this level), it has 1 to 1.5 watts of output. What that meant in our little test was that you could drive all over the entire parking lot (it holds hundreds of cars) and have a crystal-clear signal. We acquired this small but powerful unit — and its compact little whip antenna — thanks to another anonymous benefactor named Michael Hawk.

The combination of these two new pieces of equipment means that every spot in the parking lot assures you of having an incredibly great experience and being able to focus on the REAL heart of the festival — the movies.

And for those of you who won’t be in a car, we will also be playing the soundtrack on a couple of nice, loud, full amps, so you’ll get stereo sound even if you don’t have an FM receiver.

Finally, check out our great new sponsors on our homepage, especially the always awesome, non-profit, City CarShare. I’ve been a member since 2004 or so and thus haven’t had to own a car in years. City CarShare members will get a 20% discount at the gate!