iJust Finished Watching

[Hor-RIFF-ic Productions]

We tried both live DVD and burned files. We have someone bringing over hopefully different copy tonight and we'll try it again.  If we find anything we'll have to do another version instead of replacing tho since it seems to be fine with some people.

[SJP]

One hyphenated word: dual-layer.

While I wouldn't think it would be a problem on a movie as short as Dracula, if it's the Legacy collection it may have enough special features to make the movie 'pause' for a second while it swaps layers.

I run into this a LOT on the movies I've done, but they've usually been longer ones, like Terminator: Salvation or Doom.  How big a delay is there depends on the DVD authoring and the equipment it is playing on.  I have a DVD player that can pause for up to two or three seconds when switching, but the same disc on my Blu-ray loads in less than half a second.  Movie makers tend to be sneaky and put them into areas that fade to black so you don't notice if you're just watching them, but they are murder on timing stuff like riffs.  Again, while I doubt it would be in a movie like Dracula, check to see if there's an area that seems to be longer than it should be.  It can be hard to spot, believe me.

[mikelesq]

It could also be an issue with frame rate, depending on if it's blu ray, or a high def TV that can display high frame rates.  Some companies have blu ray and DVDs of the same movies at different frame rates, and how a TV deals with it dividing those frames between whatever number of frames per second it can display can mean a couple of frames a minute faster or slower (same basic reason that US and European DVDs are slightly different lengths).  A couple of frames here and there over the course of an hour or so can mean a second or two longer/shorter overall.

[Darth Geek]

Quiptracks iRiff of Lady in the Water - I haven't watched this one in a long time, so it felt very new to me. Enjoyed the riff a lot. The movie does tend to drag it down, though, it's soooo slow and just chock full of softly spoken dialog. Fortunately, the riff has enough energy to make it through, as usual for Quiptracks. This one has Tracy, Tristan and Kevin. However, the only downside is that Tristan and Kevin's voices are often so similar it feels more like two people, with one doing the brunt of the work.
Highly recommended. Especially for any poor sap who saw this in the theater and wants retribution. And given how front and center Shyamalan is in this, they riff him a new one.


The cameraman just died. He's ascending up to heaven. I'M COMIN' ELIZABETH!

(He is carrying her unconscious out the door)--- And HEAVE!

Writer, Story. Story, writer. Audience, plotpoint. Care for some symbolism?

We'll be okay here. This is safety railing.

Every polygraph in a three mile radius blows a fuse.

She's okay, she's just a narfaleptic.



The entire sequence of trying to get information from the Narf in the shower is well done. That scene goes on forever, and must have been a pain to write on.

[RVR II]

Die Hard by Riff Raff Theater

[Darth Geek]

One Wall Cinema/One Man Band iRiff of Conan the Barbarian - I really liked this one. I've enjoyed riffs from both of these groups before, and they work well together here. They each have their own Schwarzenegger voice, that is a little distinct from the others, so that helps. Because they use them a LOT. However, unlike the Blame Society riff of The Running Man, here it still funny throughout. I think they put a lot more emphasis and are having more fun with it, and it's not just pun one liners all the time.
  This is the first time watching the movie for me. I just don't have that much interest in sword and sandal type fantasy movies. That being said, I thought it was fun for most of it. And I can definitely see why it's such a revered classic. But to me I noticed similarities to The Last Airbender in how there is SO MUCH explaining throughout, and it seems to jump time over something that would be interesting, or just have a happenstance save him. He just seems to get freed randomly several times in the movie. It's clearly based on something longer and more detailed. So parts of it feel like the abridged version.
  James Earl Jones is good in this. And his attitude in the scene when he first meets Conan as an adult actually reminds me of parts of M. Bison's performance from the 1994 Street Fighter movie. I mean that as a compliment, believe it or not. The guy with the oversized hammer was HILARIOUS! Such a goofy looking weapon.
  Ok, what the hell did Conan put under the logs in the pyre when he burned his dead wife? It looks like Doc Brown's pesto logs are going off (the ones he used in the train in BttF 3)!
  Was Mongo punching the horse in Blazing Saddles a reference to Conan punching the camel in this movie?

I will mention a few technical things with the track. NO mention of a specific company logo to start up at? The first thing on the movie proper is the old Universal logo (which has a riff line over it. I use that term loosely, it's not seemingly meant to be funny). Also, there is no "and we're back" when you start the riff back up. Seriously people, this is standard fucking procedure for a reason! The first thing people want to know is if they did it right.



So...no riffs on the one guy's hat that looks like a horseshoe? Or that Conan gets that super muscled just from doing the ONE exercise for twenty years?!



His sword glows blue when dorks are around.

The "scripted dialog" bit was great!

On the journey they were forced to eat Robin's minstrels. And there was much rejoicing. yaaaay.

CAVORT! FROLICK! SKIP! PLAY!

Llllady-I hope. Oh, good.

And so Conan did not earn his tent building badge.

Hey, it's a bunch of roadies for GWAR!

"Do your Gods owe you any favors?"---Would I have this hairline if I did?

I would like to live, though.

Hey cameraman, my eyes are up here. But why are you crosseyed? Because I'm Crosstrian.

[mattwnelson]

Conan is a REALLY good one. Well done to all parties.

I think the riff that may have made me laugh the hardest was a simple bicycle horn sound, just because it was so unexpected. But after it happened there was absolute pandemonium in my apartment.

[fireyf]

The three Conan's at the end was just brilliant!

[SJP]

Wow.  Thank you.  No matter how much work goes into a riff, I always keep wondering if it is going to do well.  Especially Conan, since it was such a long time coming, it definitely reached that point where I'd heard every joke so many times that I began to wonder if anyone would find it funny.  OneWallCinema has been incredibly fun to work with and they're great guys (although it is a little funny that Conan was released after Chandu Episode 12, even though we worked on the short second), and they brought a lot of fresh stuff when we started collaborating that made it that much more fun to do.

Did want to mention about the opening, since it was brought up...
1. I could be mistaken on one or two of my earlier riffs, but I don't think I've ever used the "And we're back."  I always just tried to get the first sync line as early as I could, so if there is any line-up issues, they are corrected within a minute or two of starting up.  In fact, the reason I didn't want to do it is because I thought I read in the forum years ago that "And we're back" was old hat and getting tiresome.  I could've read it backwards, but ever since then I deliberately avoided doing it.  In other words, my bad.
2. I could've sworn we mentioned the Universal logo via PPD...if we didn't, it's a holdover from the "Universaaal!" thing, since the plan was to start after the fade out before we decided to keep that line.  I don't know, we thought it was funny.

Beyond the opening:
3. Did mention his amazing physique via torture wheel in the product description.  I too suddenly realized that was a missed opportunity.  Ah, well.  Maybe that can be thrown into Destroyer somewhere (not that I'm working on that, but it'd probably be fun).
4. The bicycle horn got me when we did it, too.  Glad we had a joke that wreaked absolute pandemonium.  We would have settled for partial, but absolute works, too.
5. The Three Conans are available for bar mitzahs and weddings.  However, they will not perform at hospitals because of the chemicals and the illness and the not allowed to bring cell phones into radiology and all of these things and AY AY AY AYYYYYY!

[k1]

My original hope for the Conan riff was that we'd be done with it by Christmas so we could have the Three Conans singing Deck The Halls, but since we missed that I had to come up with another idea. I'm pleased with the choice. 

I'm glad the "scripted dialogue" was enjoyed by someone.  That was kind of poking fun at the complaints of "Ugh, why does EVERYONE use the 'Line?' riff now?"  Why? I thought it would be funny if someone complained about it & I could say "hey, we never said 'line?'.

I'm glad that having so many Conan lines in the riff wasn't overbearing.  I was kinda worried about that, but I was ok with how we spread them out across the three of us to help keep it from getting stale since we all had different takes on the voice.

I'll add on to what SJP said, there were so many lines in this that (still) crack me up even after watching the darn thing about 900 times.  The 'Crosstrian' bit, "the mountain gorilla" thing, bike horn, "Hey check it out, an ashtray!", "I'm Brian Doyle Murray", the bad joke skeleton bits, etc.  I definitely feel like any riff I'm involved in ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE a bunch of lines that crack me up even after the 74 billionth time I've seen them.  And most of all, HAVE FUN WHILE RECORDING.  It helps when people watching can tell you're having fun.  (And given that you're not going to get rich off of making iRiffs, why not at least make it fun for yourself?)

Oh! Before I forget!  Is there any interest in merch for this riff along the lines of our G.I. Joe riff merch?  We have an awesome design that I commissioned  from mattwnelson based on our "Comedy Is Hard, Impressions Are Easy" video bits leading up to the riff.  (I could also probably come up with some other designs and whatnot if there's interest.)

[mbkerr]

SAPPTrax_Sacks riff of The Terminator
I wish the female voice had also been a riffer. But there is still variety in voices and you can tell the two guys apart.
Vocal performance is really good. Joke density is nice, not too low.
I do like that they will occasionally laugh at each other's jokes. It's annoying when done too much, but when only done a little, it really gives a feeling of hanging out with your friends.
There is more background hissing in the intro than during the riffs, so don't let that discuorage you.
I would recommend it. Did this group do any more riffs? I couldn't find any. I would check out others of theirs if they did.

Drum machine and synthesizer demo button pressed by Brad Fidel.

What the hell is that encessant knocking. (this is an excellent running gag. Keeps getting funnier)

Now no one can find her. Ha ha! Mission accomplished.

Bobbin' my head to generic 80s rock! (the performance on this is fantastic!)

Consierge! (this one was awesome!)

Filmed in real time!

Oh wow...man, I feel like such an ass for not coming back here sooner.  Your kind words and reviews do my black heart good.

Thanks so much for this, man.  It's really made my day.  We did the Terminator Riff hoping to do more, but with everyone busy with other stuff (we don't exactly live too close so it's hard to get everyone together) and the seemingly lukewarm reception, I'm ashamed to say we put our other Riffs on hold...but seeing comments from you and Riffman for Hire, we're definitely gonna try and do more.

Again, thank you so much.  It's really appreciated!

[Darth Geek]

Two days late, but I just watched the Hor-Riff-ic Productions riff of Friday the 13th - For the millionth time, everyone should watch all of the riffs from this group!



Camp Crystal Lake, murder free since-oh, never mind.

Well, I can either follow the short girl in the red cloak, or the trail of breadcrumbs. Either way, I'm bound to find safety.

"What do I do?" - I've already wet my pants, and I'm out of ideas.

[Mrs. Dick Courier]

Just watched Josh Way's shorts Volume 2.  Good.  Also picked up his Petrified World.  Which is directed by Jerry Warren, so it should be fun.  And Laser Mission.  Gonna watch Petrified World tonight.

[ElegantButler]

You somehow manage to pique my curiosity. So I, too, picked up a copy of Petrified World. I took a few seconds to look at the demo and fell in love with it.

[Darth Geek]

Killer Klowns From Outer Space, buy Elegant Butler - Ummm, well, I normally try to keep things positive on this thread (as much as possible). But this is...barely a riff at all. I only got ten minutes in, and that's because I like this movie. In ten minutes, there were (I counted) only 7 riffs. Yes, over a minute in between. There is also an issue with breathing on the mic being quite prevalent, and background hiss throughout. The voicework is very dull, almost disinterested.
I cannot recommend this riff.