Movieoke

Movieoke

Movieoke is a form of entertainment in which an amateur actor or actors perform along with a muted DVD in order to give voice to the character in the film.  The film is projected onto a screen behind the actor and onto an alternate monitor which provides subtitles and action cues.  Movieoke is a popular form of performative and interactive entertainment which began in a screening room/bar in New York City in early 2003, and has since spread to other parts of the world. 

Word origin

The word stems from the English word "movie" and the Japanese word "karaoke", which itself stems from the word kara (空), meaning "empty", and the English word "orchestra".  This term used to be slang for media where pre-recorded acting is substituted by a live performance.  The term movieoke can be interpreted as "virtual movie" because one can act along without the presence of a camera or crew.  In the United States, the word is often pronounced as /muːvˈoʊki/, and in Britain /muːvˈəʊkɪ/. The Japanese pronunciation is /mɯːbiːoke/ (These pronunciations are in IPA.) 

History

Karaoke has been a common form of musical entertainment at a dinner or a party in Japan, as in the rest of the world, for a long time.  This tradition appeared in the earliest Japanese mythology. 

Its newest cousin, Movieoke, was created and launched by Anastasia Fite in a screening room/bar in The East Village of New York City in 2003.  A projector is connected to a DVD player so that the image is cast onto a screen behind the participant(s), an alternate monitor is placed in front of the participant in order to provide them with line and action cues from the film.  Anastasia would mute the voice of the actor(s) in the film so that the participant could give voice to the character in the film, much to the audience's participation and delight. 

Since these early Movieoke events, other businesses have cropped up which make technological advances allowing for people to enact Movieoke on their home computer, one such company is KaraMovie Inc., who introduced the MoXie Player in 2006 which provides the means to receive movieoke content via the internet.  Live Movieoke events for the public still take place periodically around the world.