Help make this section useful (tips for riffing)

[mikelesq]

Good interview with Mike Nelson at makezine.com:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/11/diy-rifftrax-make-interviews-mst3ks-mike-nelson.html

Talks a lot about the process of creating the riffs at rifftrax, and has some suggestions for iRiffers.

[mr.b.natural]

Good interview with Mike Nelson at makezine.com:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/11/diy-rifftrax-make-interviews-mst3ks-mike-nelson.html

Talks a lot about the process of creating the riffs at rifftrax, and has some suggestions for iRiffers.

Thanks for passing this on.  I'm just glad someone has finally mentioned iriffs in an interview with Mike.  It is also nice that they didn't just ask him about MST3K or go over the process of syncing Rifftrax yet again. 

[mikelesq]

The giveawayoftheday (again, free today only, must be activated today) is Photoupz.  It's good for removing objects from a photo (for example, for swapping out objects for posters and thumbnails).  I gave it a quick try, and it seems to work pretty well:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

[mikelesq]

Speaking of free, Lifehacker today mentioned pixlr.com.  It's an entirely web based photo editor, but it does layers.  I'd say it's more useful than something like mspaint for doing posters & thumbnails, because it has selector tools and layers, but it's less complicated than paint.net (and nowhere near as overwhelming as something like the GIMP).  And, of course, free is good.

[RoninFox]

Sweet, Mike recommends the exact mic I found. Don't have the perfect isolated place to score figured out, but still working it out.

[LucasM]

Don't have the perfect isolated place to score figured out, but still working it out.

Well, lotsa' guys bring women from the bar back to their 'pads' to try to score... you could try that.

[mr.b.natural]

I haven't used this myself mind you but this is supposed to be a way to get your work distributed and the parent company is good for raising funds similar to Kickstarter but better: http://www.distribber.com/

If anyone uses it please report to the rest of us how well it works. 

[Riffman for Hire]

One problem I found when recording in sessions is that I tend to speak the lines very fast to get through them.  I find that it helps to go back and speak the lines more slowly in retakes.  If I say a line out loud very slowly and enunciate clearly before recording, it usually allows me to nail it in a take or two.

And one thing I've noticed in certain riffs is that people start talking immediately after they say pause and that makes it harder to get the track synced. I'd suggest leaving a gap of a second or two help listeners orient themselves.

Please add readme files.  They do help.

I try not to overtalk.  But if a character is a motormouth and won't shut up, then IMHO it's fair game.

I'm torn on riffing over the credits.  I do like the idea of going all the way through the movie with riffs because it gives you the full bang for your buck.  But on the other hand, I think there's something to be said for ending the riff at the credits because it has a better sense of closure.  Cinester Theater had bloopers at the end of their Batman Returns iriff, which I thought was a nice touch.  But in the Commando iriff Sam and Rob riffed the credits, which I liked too.  To each his own, I suppose.

Skits are another area I'm torn on.  Personally I like to just get right into the riff ASAP, but again the Batman Returns riff had a great skit in the beginning that set the mood well.  If I were with a group, I might do a skit in the beginning.  But as a solo act, I wouldn't.  Also I wouldn't take too long getting to the riff.  The audience might become impatient, even if the skit is funny.

[deevolve]

I try not to overtalk.  But if a character is a motormouth and won't shut up, then IMHO it's fair game.

Agreed on that point.  I also try hard not to talk over any major plot lines.  I've noticed a lot of riffs that assume that the audience knows the movie as well as them, but it's not always true.  Some movies I wouldn't even attempt to watch unless it was with a riff (Would I have made it through Manos on my own? Not as likely.)  Others times people just need a refresher on the plot. 

I'm torn on riffing over the credits.  I do like the idea of going all the way through the movie with riffs because it gives you the full bang for your buck.  But on the other hand, I think there's something to be said for ending the riff at the credits because it has a better sense of closure.  Cinester Theater had bloopers at the end of their Batman Returns iriff, which I thought was a nice touch.  But in the Commando iriff Sam and Rob riffed the credits, which I liked too.  To each his own, I suppose.

Skits are another area I'm torn on.  Personally I like to just get right into the riff ASAP, but again the Batman Returns riff had a great skit in the beginning that set the mood well.  If I were with a group, I might do a skit in the beginning.  But as a solo act, I wouldn't.  Also I wouldn't take too long getting to the riff.  The audience might become impatient, even if the skit is funny.

Obviously, I appreciate a riff that goes through the credits.  They don't have to make fun of the credits themselves like Rob and I did (I still chuckle when I think about Jackie Burch, by the way) and could wrap up some ongoing joke from the riff.  I think it's abrupt otherwise and you miss out on some prime jokes. 

Glad you made it through Commando by the way, and I hope you enjoyed more than just the credits.  We'd love to hear your thoughts in the iJust Finished Watching forum or in a personal message; so far we've only gotten feedback from friends and they are biased because Rob and I are so blindingly sexy.

As for skits, I think they are best avoided.  If you want to do sketch comedy, do that instead.  I listen to riffs for the jokes about movies, that's the whole point.  Sure sometimes skits are funny, but the success rate is far too low.  And like you said even the good ones can go on too long. If you have a skit so brilliant that you HAVE TO include it, end it as quickly as possible.  I say better yet, just don't start it.

[mikelesq]

The latest version of Photoshop (CS6) is now in free beta:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshopcs6/

It's only good for a couple of months, and I'm certainly not making enough off of iRiffs to justify $500 for software to make my posters & thumbnails, but a lot of the features may find their way into Photoshop Elements, which is more consumer priced.

I've played with it a little, and the Content Aware tools (which let you snag an object in the picture and basically erase or move it and automatically fill in the background) would save me a ton of poster making time.  I use Paint.net, which does not have a similar function, so I spend a lot of time going pixel crazy, and my understanding is that a similar tool in the GIMP is not very user friendly.  Cutting and moving is supposedly new; the ability to cut and fill is supposed to be in Photoshop Elements.  Does anyone have any experience with it?

Also, it now includes a video editor, but it doesn't capture audio (at least not that I can find), so it's not really suitable for riffing.

[mr.b.natural]

I thought I would mention that while researching the mic that Mike recommended in the makezine interview I found "Blue Microphones Yeti and Yeti Pro."  Unfortunately I haven't actually used either of them yet but they look really good and I am going to get one as soon as I can.  Of course, the Pro cost almost as much as I have made off of iRiffs in over three years but if one is serious about this stuff it looked good to me and my headset is wearing out.  CNet also agreed the yeti is top notch stuff.   

Perhaps the coolest thing is that you can tell it to only focus on the sound directly in front of it.  This is nice since the computer you would be using it with is likely giving off background noise and in general ambient noise is the most annoying thing about sound recording.       

[fireyf]

I thought I would mention that while researching the mic that Mike recommended in the makezine interview I found "Blue Microphones Yeti and Yeti Pro."  Unfortunately I haven't actually used either of them yet but they look really good and I am going to get one as soon as I can.  Of course, the Pro cost almost as much as I have made off of iRiffs in over three years but if one is serious about this stuff it looked good to me and my headset is wearing out.  CNet also agreed the yeti is top notch stuff.   

Perhaps the coolest thing is that you can tell it to only focus on the sound directly in front of it.  This is nice since the computer you would be using it with is likely giving off background noise and in general ambient noise is the most annoying thing about sound recording.       

I just got the Blue Snowball and it's really great.  It has that same feature to block out the noise from behind.  It costs less than the Yeti too.  Amazon has them for about $69 or so.  They don't show the price but if you put it in your cart you can see what they are charging at the moment.  I recorded "This is Hormel" with the Snowball and it sounds really good.  A big leap over the old headset.  Not as many settings as the Yeti but it is more than adequate for recording riffs.

[mikelesq]

I started using the Snowball two riffs ago, and the difference is night and day from my MS Lifechat (which itself was a huge improvement over my cheap Plantronics).  Much richer sound.  The popshield I made from a hangar and a sheer sock also helped.  I got it on Amazon for $70, worth every penny.

[mr.b.natural]

Yeah, your guy's riffs with the snowball do sound pretty good.  Certainly seems like a cheaper alternative.  If I were rich I would offer to buy all iriffers one since we all need to to our part to have the best possible audio quality.  The truth is the low quality of one hurts the group as a whole since customers might assume all iRiffers are bad or don't care enough about quality based on a poor experience with one or just a few groups.     

[mikelesq]

Today is World Backup Day.  Don't forget to back up half finished scripts/recordings/etc.  Anything you wouldn't want to start from scratch, back it up.