Hello chums, long time no see, which funnily enough has been the problem with Movieoke…………
Anyhow more of that later. Back in July old Cube Friend Colin Smith blessed us with his unmeasurable talent. Colin played for around an hour, showcasing a lot of standards, some originals, the odd montage and frankly far too much Genesis….
Anyhow the lad done well son, he done well.
Afterwards we had Movieoke with me and Colin as usual playing a bit of mood music and playing some tunes to ‘heighten the mood’, and Tom to whip up the audience into a frenzy, problem was said audience just weren’t there, well that’s never stopped us……
An interesting musical version of The Big Lebowski there. Shamefuly we then went all a bit drama studenty with NO FILMS but suggestions by Lea (she’s the one you’ll hear yelling in the background
Now I love Movieoke and put alot of effort into it, as does everybody else, so it’s been a real disappointment to see not many people come and support it, especially when it can be so funny. I blame Max Blackout for succumbing to an interweb virus……
Rant over, expect to see Movieoke sporadically from now on I’d say, though if you are desperate for it let me know.
Ciao for now, 
Richie Paradise
It’s tricky with the Movieoke attendance – as I see it, and said before, the problem seems to be promotion and also comprehensibility for potential audiences, coupled ( cripled ? ) with wanting to avoid being *too* visible because of legal issues in publicly screening lots of bits of movies in one night.
It’s Tom’s baby ultimately, but Mark tried to take it somewhere else with the “Max Blackout’s Movieoke” suggstion, and bringing in Colin, and Richie ( which was, er, my idea ).
Trouble is people seem confused as it what it is, and it just doesn’t seem to have a big enough draw on it’s own. The take on it I’ve mostly heard is it works best attached to another party night where people are there, in a party mood able to see exactly what it is and ready to join in.
For my part – with the low attendance I didn’t feel I couldn’t justify doing Max Blackout, which involves such an inconvenience to several people all with other commitments ( in terms of the various bits of equipment which needed to be borrowed and set up each time ). I did enjoy it though and if we could afford some dedicated kit would probably still be doing it, schedule permitting.
Max Blackout as a character was an idea to make the Blackout tent at Ashton Court more coherent, and there the equipment ( and audience ) was all ready to go – and I think it was successful in making it hang together.
For Movieoke though, despite undeniable moments of brilliance from Colin & Richie, I don’t feel we have ever really ironed out the wrinkles that would make it unmissable , and using Max isn’t really the answer for that . . . ( he worked well as a rude inturuptor stopping people going on too long, but that in itself doesn’t work when there are long waits to the next setup, which I think is the real problem, and I don’t feel I can be entertaining enough in those situations to keep the momentum up . . . )
What would be needed, as we’ve said pretty much from the start, is a dedicated system, not only for using Max, but fundamentally for getting the clips up quick, by either using custom DVDs or a harddrive – It doesn’t have to be super slick – this is the cube, but if something is too drawn out and we can’t blame people for not taking hold of it. But making this happen, quite understandably, has proved too big a job to get done.
It’s a shame because it’s a really interesting use of the resources that we have to do something that couldn’t really be done anywhere else, and when it does work is amazing, but at the moment it seems to me frustratingly just out of reach as a reliable and sustainable event.
Cube TV is similar in some ways ( i.e. using various clips, undisclosed in the programme ). I’ve been to most of those, and numbers have varied over the weeks, but CubeTV has had a pretty respectable crowd for a Cube Tuesday over all I think.
Movieoke could/should be able to be a draw as a ‘brand’ in a similar way, but it is trickier because it is basically karaoke, i.e. a bit of a booze up and a laugh, so is suited to a more weekend slot, but the attendance just doesn’t really seem to justify that as a night on it’s own . . .
I agree old chap. I seemed to take it over, well as much as arranging if everybody was around and up for it and unsympathetic programming didn’t help in that it was put on without consulting any of those involved it seemed to me. Maybe we should drag it out for a volunteers party and on special occasions, I love it and consider it a feather in my cap getting the opportunity to have a good laugh and a good ol’ knees up tooo. Though me and Colin were getting a bit Chas and Dave at times……….
Must say Chas and Dave do more for me than Genesis !
Have you heard Tori Amos covering Chas and Dave?
no
no but i have heard Chiz N Dave playing snooker