RiffTrax

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RiffTrax are downloadable audio commentaries featuring comedian Michael J. Nelson heckling (or riffing) films in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer and, later, host. The RiffTrax are sold online where users can purchase and download the commentaries. The site was launched by Nelson and Legend Films in 2006 and is based in San Diego.

Contents

[edit] History

The movies chosen for Mystery Science Theater 3000 were predominantly low-budget B-movies because the show itself was low-budget and producers could only afford films with expired copyright or had otherwise cheap licenses.[1] The idea of RiffTrax came about after Mystery Science Theater 3000 was canceled and Nelson had researched and consulted a lawyer about the possibility of directly releasing DVDs of films with the commentaries included. But Nelson realized this initial idea was not feasible since he would be "sued out of existence."[2] Instead, the best way to distribute the commentaries would be to sell them independently of the films, to avoid having to obtain the rights to distribute the movies themselves.[3] There would be no legal or monetary restrictions to prevent Nelson from producing them,[4] though viewers would have to provide the movies themselves.

Nelson has been accompanied by former Mystery Science Theater 3000 co-stars Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, Mary Jo Pehl, and Bridget Nelson, in addition to Internet personalities Richard Kyanka (of Something Awful fame), Josh Fruhlinger (writer of The Comics Curmudgeon) and Chad Vader, as well as actors Neil Patrick Harris and Fred Willard, British author Matthew J. Elliott and satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic. Nelson has said that he would like to bring in other guests.[5] Though Nelson first released RiffTrax primarily as solo efforts, there are now more tracks available with guest riffers than by Nelson alone. This spun off into RiffTrax Presents, which are tracks by guest riffers and sanctioned by Nelson.[6]

User feedback section of the 1/28/09 live RiffTrax.

As part of SF Sketchfest in San Francisco, California, Nelson, Murphy and Corbett have appeared several times performing live riffs alongside a screening of a film. As of 2008, they have appeared three times, having riffed Daredevil and Over the Top in 2007 and Plan 9 from Outer Space in 2008, the last being shown in the historic Castro Theater.[7][8] Recently the RiffTrax crew have done live internet broadcasts on Ustream.tv, riffing public domain movies and taking viewer questions.

In 2008, RiffTrax launched iRiffs, which allows fans to upload commentaries to be sold on the website. iRiffs users are paid 50% of the net revenue generated by their products. iRiffs differentiates from normal RiffTrax in that both serious and humorous commentaries can be uploaded.[9] In February 2009, a contest was held by RiffTrax, in which a winning iRiffs user would be given $1,000 and a chance to develop a RiffTrax Presents title, receiving instruction and critique from Nelson, Murphy and Corbett.[10] The winners of the contest were Doug and Rob Walker and Brian Heinz of That Guy with the Glasses, who contributed an iRiff of The Lion King.[11]

Following the inception of Joel Hodgson's Cinematic Titanic project, which involves just about every MST3K writer and performer who is not a RiffTrax regular, rumours circulated in the fanbase of a rift between Mike and Joel, but the pair have always denied that any sort of ill feeling exists and support each other's projects; in fact, Cinematic Titanic cast member Mary Jo Pehl has appeared as a guest riffer on RiffTrax, and the official RiffTrax forum includes a subsection for discussion of Cinematic Titanic episodes.

[edit] Use

RiffTrax commentaries must be synchronized at the start of the movie using a cue.[12] To reassure consumers that the MP3 file is synchronized with the film, a fictional character named DisembAudio occasionally speaks a line in exact synchronization with the movie.[13][14] DisembAudio has also occasionally been known to join in on the riffing. "RiffTrax Presents" commentaries feature a female synchronization voice, Debbie.[15] Though RiffTrax are suggested to be played on an MP3 player or with computer software, they are sold as unrestricted MP3s, allowing users to choose the viewing method that suits them the best. A Rifftrax Player is also offered as a free download.[16]

The movies chosen for RiffTrax are based on two criteria: whether the movie lends itself towards a funny riffing, and whether the film is widely available on DVD.[12][14] These criteria have resulted in a wide variety of genre and era of movies chosen to be riffed. The first audio commentary made available through the web site in July 2006 was for the 1989 film Road House, long cited by Nelson as the cheesiest movie ever made.[17]

[edit] RiffTrax Player

The RiffTrax Player is a program which automatically synchronizes the commentary playback to the DVD playback. The RiffTrax Player makes use of a hybrid file (.riff) containing the MP3 of the original commentary as well as synchronization information. The crew at RiffTrax has said that future commentaries will be released in both MP3 and RIFF formats, and older commentaries will also see RIFF-format releases in the future. As of this writing, the RiffTrax Player currently only supports NTSC DVDs.

[edit] RiffTrax On Demand

RiffTrax On Demand features DivX video files of films with RiffTrax commentaries embedded. The service offers permanent files available for purchase or temporary files available for rental at a lower price.[18] A majority of the files available through RiffTrax On Demand are sourced from Legend Films DVD releases. Recently, RiffTrax On Demand has begun releasing short, public domain, educational films, similar to the ones that MST3K would sometimes mock before a full-length movie began.[19] The colorized version of Forbidden Zone is also hosted on RiffTrax On Demand, although it was not riffed.[20]

[edit] Featured catalog

Main article: List of RiffTrax

[edit] References

  1. ^ Penny, Damian (2006-08-10). "Review: Rifftrax". Blogcritics Magazine. http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/08/10/125254.php. 
  2. ^ "Interview: Michael J. Nelson". TeeVee. 2006-10-16. http://www.teevee.org/archive/weblog/2006/10/12/150746.html. 
  3. ^ Jurgensen, John (2006-11-18). "Everyone's a critic: DVD commentaries by fans". Wall Street Journal: p. P2. ISSN 0099-9660. 
  4. ^ Kaiser, Andy (2006-08-07). "Please talk during the movie". The Grand Rapids Press: p. D3. 
  5. ^ Salas, Randy (2006-08-11). "Cheeky remarks now on RiffTrax". Deseret News: p. W06. ISSN 0745-4724. 
  6. ^ "RiffTrax Presents". RiffTrax. http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax-presents. Retrieved on 2008-08-20. 
  7. ^ torgosPizza (May 20th, 2007). "RiffTrax Live! for San Francisco Sketch Fest". RiffTrax. http://blog.rifftrax.com/2007/05/20/rifftrax-live-for-san-francisco-sketch-fest/. Retrieved on 18 November 2008. 
  8. ^ Lastowka, Conor (December 11th, 2007). "RiffTrax Live in San Francisco". RiffTrax. http://blog.rifftrax.com/2007/12/11/rifftrax-live-in-san-francisco/. Retrieved on 18 November 2008. 
  9. ^ "iRiffs FAQ". RiffTrax. http://www.rifftrax.com/iriffs. Retrieved on 18 November 2008. 
  10. ^ Legend Films, Inc. (February 4, 2009). "RiffTrax Announces Chance for Fans to Work with the Stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000". PR.com. http://www.pr.com/press-release/130229. Retrieved on 28 February 2009. 
  11. ^ Walker, Doug (March 19, 2009). "Rifftrax Winner!". That Guy with the Glasses. http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/video-updates/5482-rifftrax-winner. Retrieved on 2009-03-19. 
  12. ^ a b "RiffTrax FAQ". RiffTrax. Archived from the original on 2008-01-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20080121141119/http://www.rifftrax.com/faq.php. 
  13. ^ "Mystery Science Theater, round two". The Commonwealth Times. 2007-02-08. http://media.www.commonwealthtimes.com/media/storage/paper634/news/2007/02/08/Spectrum/Mystery.Science.Theater.Round.Two-2707873.shtml. 
  14. ^ a b "Mike Nelson Interview". Buzzgrinder. 2006-10-14. http://www.buzzgrinder.com/2006/mike-nelson-interview/. 
  15. ^ Murphy, Kevin; Corbett, Bill. (May 13, 2008). RiffTrax Presents: "Saw". RiffTrax. Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
  16. ^ "RiffTrax Player". RiffTrax. http://shop.rifftrax.com/rifftrax-player. Retrieved on 2007-11-10. 
  17. ^ "'Road House' -- it's the cheesiest, book says". CNN.com. 2000-08-16. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/books/news/08/16/cheesymovies.roadhouse.ap/index.html. 
  18. ^ "OnDemand FAQ". RiffTrax. http://shop.rifftrax.com/ondemand-faq. Retrieved on 2007-12-21. 
  19. ^ "On Demand Catalogue". RiffTrax. http://shop.rifftrax.com/ondemand. Retrieved on 2007-12-21. 
  20. ^ "Forbidden Zone - VOD". RiffTrax. July 14, 2008. http://www.rifftrax.com/ondemand/forbidden-zone-vod. Retrieved on 2008-07-17. 

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: RiffTrax
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