by
Rebecca Castillo
MOVIEOKE
3.10.05
INTRO: (:12) Move over Karaoke, New Yorkers now have Movieoke. Once a week the video store Two Boots sponsor the event where people have the opportunity to play their favorite movie character in front of a crown. Rebecca Castillo reports from the Lower East Side.
SOUND: (:01) Sticks hitting each other. A man and a woman acting a scene from Star Wars. [sound fades but is under narration].
NARR: (:06) Every Wednesday, the Den of Cin lounge on Avenue A and 3rd street offer Movieoke, an event for people to act out their favorite movies scenes. [sound continues and increases volume]
SOUND: (:08) There is no escape. Obe One never told you...what happened to your father...he told me enough. [sound fades again under narration].
NARR: (:04) The Return of the Jedi movie flickers on the wall in silence while two Movieoke participants act out the scene on a small stage.
SOUND: (:09) No, I am your father...Noooo, no, that's not true, that's impossible.
NARR: (:29) Movieoke made it's debut in October of 2003 when host Anastasia Fite invited a group of friends to try acting out movie scenes in public. Now 30 to 50 people come every week and can pick any TV or film scene available on DVD, taken from the Two Boots Video store above the lounge. As the movie is projected with the sound muted, the actors read their lines and take their acting cues from a small television with subtitles in front of the crowd. Fite says Movieoke feeds into people's need for attention.
TAPE Fite: (:09) It release the inner ham in people for which Karaoke either does not work for or is tired.
NARR: (:09) The name sounds like Karaoke, but participant Antonella Insella says it's completely different.
TAPE: Antonella: (:17) I think you can be really bad at Movieoke and still do a good job. In Karaoke, if you are a bad singer you are a bad singer, and you put everyone else in misery. If you have a scene you adore even if you don't think of yourself as a good actor you can get up there and do a good job.
NARR: (:04) Tonight she chose the movie Pirates of the Carribean but is facing a small
problem.
TAPE: (:11) I chose a scene where Jack Sparrow tries is aboard the ship the Interceptor and the two guards try to stop him, but the thing is I am doing all three characters, so it's a little nerve racking.
NARR: (:03) Antonella managed to make it work.
SOUND: (:12) Antonella performing dialogue.
NARR: (:17) Tom Stadnicki is a music producer who says he thrives off the energy of performing in front of an the audience. Tonight was his first time and he decided to perform a scene from the movie Half-Baked.
TAPE: Stadnicki: (:18) It's almost like a family atmosphere where you don't have to be afraid, you don't have to be that good. You don't even have to be worried that people will come down on you or anything like that because everyone embraces whatever you do, even if it's terrible they love that too It's just the fact you had the balls to get up.
SOUND: (:07) Stadnicki performing.
NARR:(:08) With just a DVD player, a screen and a projector to make Movieoke work, sometimes there's problems. This Wednesday night, the captions on the movie Resevoir Dogs were only working in Spanish but the performer was willing to work with what he had.
SOUND: (:04) Man performing movie scene in Spanish.
NARR: (:14) Movieoke has attracted a group of regulars. Matthew Jujnic has been attending for over a year. He created the Web site and makes it his priority to perform every week since he's developed relationships with many of the other regulars.
TAPE Jujnic: (:15) Because I'm friends with these people now. It's fun, it's what I do on Wednesday night. In the beginning we didn't have much of any crowds. About this time last year the crowds were out of control. Right now it's come to a nice level.
NARR: (:13) Host Anastasia Fite says she plans to continue Movieoke on Wednesday nights but would like to see it grow.
TAPE Fite: (:13) I would like to see it everywhere, and then hopeful making people happy or at lease giving them something fun to do. I would like to be the one to make it happen being it feels like my baby.
NARR: (:15) Fite has approached some companies about creating a prototype to sell to other bars and public venues. If she is successful Movieoke may soon pop up in cities across the country. But for now, Fite says she will depend on her Web site and word of mouth to keep Movieoke growing. Rebecca Castillo, Columbia Radio News.