Karamovie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karamovie(Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 karano, "empty" or "void", and ムービー “movie") is a form of entertainment in which an amateur actor or actors perform along with a DVD on a computer. The DVD is typically of a well-known movie scene in which the voice and perhaps camera shot of the original actor in a scene is absent or reduced in volume. Closed Captioning is usually displayed, sometimes including ON AIR lights synchronized with the actor’s script lines on DVD viewing screen to guide the script reading. Karamovie is a popular form of entertainment which began in the United States in early 2003, and has since spread to other parts of the world. Karamovie engenders a significant amount of culture, specific to its enthusiasts, and this culture, unsurprisingly, varies from country to country.
Contents |
[edit] Word origin
The Japanese word stems from the words kara (空) which is short for karano, meaning "empty", and Movie which is Movie, meaning "Movie" in Japanese. The words together make a contraction literally meaning "empty movie". This term used to be slang for media where pre-recorded acting is substituted by a live performance, thus it is written in katakana. The term karamovie can be interpreted as "virtual movie" because one can specify a key to the movie and start acting along without the presence of a camera or crew. In the United States, the word is often pronounced as /kɛriˈmoov/, and in Britain /kæɹɪˈmuv/. The Japanese pronunciation is /kaɽamovie/. (These pronunciations are in IPA.)
[edit] History
Karaoke has been a common source 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, Karamovie, originally started as bar room diversion for patrons. Whereas a projector would be connected to a DVD player and the video image would be cast against a backdrop or screen. Friends of the amateur actor would rapidly mute the actor’s voice in the original movie so that it was rendered imperceivable and the amateur actor could recite the lines of the muted actor from the original movie. Many legal issues were and are raised by the display of copyrighted material in a public venue. For private karamovie play there is no legal issues. From the earliest karamovie conception of manual muting sound on a movie media device has undergone technological advances replaced this with DVD playing software. In 2006, KaraMovie Inc. introduced the MoXie Player that provided the means to receive karamovie content via the internet. Its catalog of movies is limited, but the advantage of continuous updates and the karamovie software saw it gradually replace traditional methods of play. Karamovie software connected via internet links to provide instant high-quality movie are becoming increasingly popular.
