Fanboy Sci-Fi Theater
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« Reply #447 on: November 29, 2009, 12:13:22 AM » |
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Re: Mr. B Natural's review of Fanboy Sci-Fi Theater's GAMERA SUPER MONSTER...
I just finished watching Fanboy Science Theater's "Gamera Super Monster" and I was pleasantly surprised by this iRiff. It’s pretty good. The audio/video is about average, maybe even a little sub-par. (even for an iRiff) Some of the jokes are actually really good while most are okay and a few are just bad. Most of the references were tired and obvious but I suppose that is to be expected. At least one of the references was great though. I am referring to Gamera’s impersonation of the cowardly lion. At first I was worried the group was going to do what so many iRiffers do and that is make too many jokes and thereby hinder the audience’s ability to get into the movie. But they calmed down after a while and eventually had a reasonable pace. Though it is worth mentioning that I felt the jokes got weaker as the movie progressed. The delivery is very weak (especially by Michael LaSorsa) but I’ve heard worse and perhaps with time it will improve. The skits and such were okay but it would do them a world of good to learn some basics of filmmaking, like lighting and acting. They need to improve their sound as well. For example, the audio wasn’t in sync with their lips during some of the opening intro movie. And I’m sorry but they are almost as bad at singing as I am. Now that the major criticisms are out of the way I will say that I found the overall experience enjoyable, I would recommend it to fans of iRiffs, and it shows great potential. It’s clear that a lot of work went into this and I admire their dedication.
If the Riffers desire an even more detailed critique (and maybe some filmmaking tips) while it is still fresh in my mind they can email me.
The following isn’t directed specifically at this iRiff or iRiff group but instead is something I’ve pondered before and something that resurfaced after I discovered what format “Fanboy Science Theater” would be using.
I find myself a bit on the fence about mimicking MST3K with iRiffs. On the one hand it seems kind of cheap to try and rip off something for your personal gain but on the other hand if I had the resources I would totally be doing it. Complicating matters are considerations like it is less about trying to rip something off to leach off a name’s success and more about fanboy love and homage. Another random consideration is that when you so closely mimic MST3K you are essentially trying to equate yourself with it and basically saying “We’re as good as MST3K!” Which is a bit risky and unlikely to be true. I suppose I am able to look past the attempt at resemblance and still enjoy an iRiff on its own merits but I do feel that there is enough creativity out there to come up with new formulas. For instance, I find it a bit odd that everyone always tries to come up with back-stories that involve a group being forced to watch bad movies even though the content is created by individuals who willingly subject themselves to bad movies. And does everybody need robots? I understand that people miss MST3K but no one will ever again be MST3K through imitation so why not spread your wings a little? People will only be disappointed when you’re not as good the original show and even more will start off hostile at your attempt to replicate the experience. Why start out with strikes against you? Like I said, I’m still not sure where I stand on the issue and I’m sure if I knew enough of the right people, had the space, props, money, and the patience I would be all over it. I wish to again explain that this brainstorm is not directed at any specific group but is meant as a general observation. If there are groups interested in including skits or other user-filmed material please make sure you have the proper equipment and know-how first. A good mic, halfway decent lighting, and passable acing (at least not just reading lines) are essential if you want your audience to think about anything other than how poor your production values are.
Mr. B and I have directly discussed his review of our work in more detail, and I welcome the constructive criticism, although I think it goes a bit too far and gives one the impression that Mr. B didn't like the iRiff, which is not the impression I received in our direct conversations. In regards to any comments about lighting, audio/video quality, delivery, etc., one has to keep in mind that we are all amateurs who are just doing this for fun. None of us claim to be professionals, and this is our first attempt at doing an audio/visual VOD iRiff, so we are bound to make some mistakes. However, we are also bound to improve with time, and I hope that people will be willing to give us a chance to do so. Also, keep in mind that the format of the show is that a Pizza Delivery Man is locked in the basement of an obsessed B-movie fan, not on a satellite in outer space, so it is only right that the show appear somewhat homemade, since that's what it is. While I agree there is always room for improvement, I think the show's flaws add somewhat to its cheezy appeal.
In regards to whether one "should" or "should not" attempt to copy MST3K's format, I think that should be up to the people who are doing the iRiff. No one is trying to say we are "as good as MST3K" (although I think our work is at least comparable to their first efforts on KTMA). A lot of iRiffers have done movies that have been previously riffed on by MST3K or by RiffTrax, so aren't these people also saying that they are "as good as MST3K"? Practically EVERY iRiff I have ever heard recycles at least a few jokes from MST3K (even Mr. B), so that shouldn't be considered a crime. The MST3K crew used to recycle jokes all the time, so should they be considered "unoriginal"? I do find it interesting that Mike Nelson and company rarely use any lines from MST3K on RiffTrax, but when someone said "Time for go to bed!" while Tor Johnson was shuffling around on screen during the PLAN 9 live RiffTrax, it got the biggest reaction from the audience at my theater. I think a lot of good jokes are worth repeating, or else I wouldn't keep watching old Abbott & Costello movies ("Who's on FIrst?" STILL cracks me up after all these years) or old episodes of MST3K. While this format may not appeal to some viewers, I'm sure there are plenty of MST3K fans who DO appreciate the old style of riffing. If there weren't MST3K fans out there who still loved the show, there probably would not be a RiffTrax website, let alone any iRiffs. This is why there is also a forum devoted to MST3K on this very website. In fact, most of the people I talked to at the theater for the RiffTrax live were fans who loved and missed MST3K--most of whom had never even bought a RiffTrax before.
In our case, we are fans of MST3K and enjoy working within that format. Whatever others may choose to believe, we consider it an "homage" and NOT a rip-off. I've had the Fanboy Sci-Fi Theater concept in mind for many years, even before MST3K was cancelled (which means long before RiffTrax). This was something we had planned to do, so it wasn't like we couldn't come up with anything better and decided to rip off MST3K at the last minute. Also, one cannot copyright an idea (such as riffing on movies, or else we'd ALL be getting sued), but they can copyright the expression of that idea. While our expression does bear some resemblance to MST3K, I think it also has its own unique qualities (except for our theme music, which is a blatant rip-off of MST3K, but I don't know how to write or perform music, so I guess they can sue me for that much). Isn't Cinematic Titanic also "ripping off" MST3K by using the silhouettes? Besides, I have seen fan-made riffs that TOTALLY copy MST3K from the robots to the sets, including fans pretending to be Joel or Mike...and I've still found some of them to be very entertaining. I never looked at them with any disdain for daring to compare themselves to MST3K; rather I appreciated their love of the show and their dedication in attempting to recreate it.
Most iRiffs that I've heard don't even bother to give any background story and just riff on the movies, and that's fine, but I think what we are doing is fine, too. At least we are going the extra mile to try to give our show something extra and to make it stand out. I'm not sure how many other iRiffers are doing the same thing, or whether they are also emulating MST3K or not, so I can't say how "original" we are when compared to other iRiffers out there. I doubt that "everyone" is doing the same thing, because none of the iRiffs that I've bought were doing it. And at least we did NOT use robots (and before anyone asks, Donovan is a brain in a jar; he is a puppet, but he is NOT a robot) and tried to come up with our own characters. Hmmm, doesn't Disembaudio qualify as a "robot"? As for being "forced to watch bad movies", I'm afraid that's the only rational explanation I can come up with to explain why anyone would actually do this sort of thing! I miss the concept of being forced to watch this stuff, because it was more fun to see Joel, Mike and company suffer. Now, when I hear Mike or Kevin or Bill start complaining or crying about how bad the movie is, I think "Why don't you just get up and leave the studio? No one is FORCING you to watch this!" Of course, they watch because it's how they make a living, and I know that's the real reason why they watched the movies on MST3K as well, but it's just not the same.
In the future, we are planning to do some more audio riffs of recent movies like WATCHMEN, and we will probably rely less on the MST3K style for these, because they aren't the type of movies one would see on MST3K. I think if you check out our earlier audio riff of KING KONG, you will find our style somewhat different there. Not to say that we didn't recycle an occasional joke from MST3K (one has to come up with material wherever one can find it when watching a 3-hour Peter Jackson marathon), but we weren't aiming to copy MST3K (even though we cleverly tried to imply that "Art" and "Tim Gizmo" were the same robots from MST3K, but their names and likenesses had been trademarked by Dr. Forrester). However, when it comes to Gamera, how can one NOT riff in the old MST3K style? And while I readily admit that we did recycle some old MST3K lines, we also provided our share of ORIGINAL jokes as well. While I haven't actually taken the time to weigh all the jokes, I think we had at least as much (if not more) new material in addition to the old favorites. Also keep in mind that these movies use a LOT of stock footage, which makes it hard to keep coming up with new material for the same monster fight scenes 2 or 3 times in a row (in fact, we actually had an argument between the characters about re-using the same jokes from another Gamera movie, which in itself was fairly original). SUPER MONSTER, DESTROY ALL PLANETS, and GAMERA VS. MONSTER X are the only three Gamera films not used on MST3K because they were released in the USA by AIP and not Sandy Frank. So we felt a need to riff on these movies in order to finish what MST3K started, and we also felt a need to give the fans of MST3K the kind of riffing they would have expected to see from Joel or Mike back in the good ol' days. And it sounds as if we achieved that goal (whether for good or bad is in the eye of the beholder), so I am proud of what we accomplished so far. I hope that fans will stick with us, because it can only get better from here (it certainly can't get any worse, can it?).
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