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From quick browsing across announcements of and discussions about Movie Night Events, I was unable to determine what a movie night really is. Are all participants supposed to find access (rent a DVD, dig out an old VHS, search on Youtube) to the same movie and all press play on the same instant?

I just wonder how to keep everybody "in sync" then (different editions, different play speed in 24frames vs 25 frames regions, people pressing pause for potty time or fast forwarding over boring stuff) in order to have a nice common chat experience. Or are the movies picked from a regionally available TV broadcaster or the like?

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What is Movie Night?

How is it supposed to work?

  • At the agreed time, we all gather in the main site chatroom and press start at the same time on our respective copies of the chosen movie. Generally for an hour or so before the event, there's discussion about places where you can buy/rent/view the film in question.

What actually happens during the movie?

  • As we watch the movie, you're free to chime in with any thoughts, observations, musings or questions that pop into your head.

What if I get out of sync?

  • Periodically, we pause to allow those who've gone out of sync (for whatever reason) to catch up and rejoin the herd. If a copy is available online, we might use a movie-sharing tool like watch2gether so that we're all in the same place.

How does it work in practice?

  • Frankly, it's like herding cats. We get ahead and behind. Some people are watching the wrong film. Some people can't get access to the film and try to join in from memory. Honestly it's great fun!
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    Wish I could +1 again for the herding cats paragraph. I can just imagine it...
    – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE
    Oct 20, 2015 at 19:54
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    And the idea is to pick bad movies for this, right? If it was a movie people liked, they wouldn't want to ruin the experience by chatting while they were watching, right?
    – user14111
    Oct 21, 2015 at 4:43
  • @user14111 - There's nothing to stop you sitting in silence while you watch it :-)
    – Valorum
    Oct 21, 2015 at 5:47
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    "by royal decree" - spot the Brit? ;-)
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Oct 22, 2015 at 10:59
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    "Some people watch the wrong film". I sense this could make an excellent game, where nobody's allowed to use names in their commentary but everyone pressed play on a random film at the same time. Maybe with drinks.
    – moopet
    Apr 6, 2016 at 8:30
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    @moopet - Reminds me of 'Explain A Film Plot Badly'. (e.g. "Short man struggles to return unwanted item of jewellery" = Lord of the Rings)
    – Valorum
    Apr 6, 2016 at 8:36
  • I think sharing some links/avenues for people to be able to watch the movie would be a nice add-on. People in far-off countries, like mine, where anything except the newest biggest movies require Indiana Jones style scavenging to obtain, unless we pirate them, would find this useful.
    – Suman Roy
    May 27, 2016 at 9:38
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    @SumanRoy - Top tip, don't watch it on putlocker.is or download it from piratebay. Those things are morally wrong. Wrong I tells 'ya.
    – Valorum
    May 27, 2016 at 9:39
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    @Valorum - Even if those sites hosted the content indefinitely and most weren't blocked by my government, I'd prefer to VPN tunnel to and sign up for a legal streaming service that doesn't exist here so that I could pay in USDs ( including transaction fees and x60 conversion factor) with my totally existing credit card (joke aside, why do guys love credit so much?) over a mediocrely decent internet connection with a data cap that would make most westerns cry. Because that's the right thing to do.
    – Suman Roy
    May 27, 2016 at 9:53
  • That actually surprises me. Over at arqade, they hold a movie night where a link is provided to actually join a streaming chat room.
    – Gnemlock
    Apr 11, 2017 at 8:12
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Are all participants supposed to find access (rent a DVD, dig out an old VHS, search on Youtube) to the same movie and all press play on the same instant?

Yes.

Often people will be out of sync by a few seconds to minutes.

Participants comment on the movie while it is playing, making observations, making jokes, etc.

Sometimes those transcripts are compiled together into blog posts.

Live Chat - The Day the Earth Stood Still

Live Chat - Space Seed

Live Chat - And the Children Shall Lead

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    We're trialling video-sharing using Watch2Gether
    – Valorum
    Apr 11, 2017 at 10:49

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