How I miss those creative years...

[mdibiofuel]

Listen up.  I remember MST3K...I remember the hits and the misses, and I remember being willing to give Mike, Joel and the 'bots a break when they swung and missed.  The Film Crew efforts and The House on Haunted Hill are admirably funny riffs; like a good Mistie, one can tell that a lot of effort went into the timing and the jokes and the humorous comments.

Along comes Rifftrax espousing the same formulaic (but good!) MST3K treatment, promising yet more laughs and good humor.  And I've been waiting, hoping that Rifftrax would get better as the crew settled into the format and the new digs.  Alas, instead of laughter, I've been surprisingly annoyed with the way the crew rolls right over dialog with rants reeking of black humor while I immediately wonder if the Rifftrax has gone off-sync.   I long for the absolute certainty that the crew is right on target with the script.  Since Rifftrax relies on synchronization, please stop the rants and bring back the razor-sharp comedic timing during those critical pauses.  Because when you're not funny, and you are Riff'ing over dialog, what's off-sync -- the Rifftrax or your riffs?  Your job is to make the listener absolutely certain that "we're in this together" instead of making us cringe while you three bicker in poor consonance with the film.

So it's as simple as this: 

Mike, Kevin and Bill and guests:  when there's dialog in the movie, why don't you restrain yourselves and wait for that perfect moment to insert a clever riff.  The rants have to stop.  We know the movies suck, but we also love them.  We can't hear you when you speak over the well-known dialog unless we fiddle with the volume, and then something is too loud later on.  What's supposed to be a comedic romp turns into a bunch of people talking over each other.  The black-heated rants during a film ("It's hurting me to watch this movie, owie owie") rarely worked in MST3K, and they just don't work when you are busy wondering if your Rifftrax is synched up to the movie properly, especially when your rants bowl right over a bit of loud dialog.   We know the films have problems, and I must give you credit for your wonderful choices for films to Riff upon.  But enough already with the "Ouch" comments and rants.  Please, I love you guys -- you just need to work on your timing and return to good-hearted fun, and avoid the Dark Side.  Bring balance back to the Force, if you can.  I hope you're not too jaded.

Sincerely,

kJc AKA mdibiofuel

[Junkyard]

While I understand where you're coming from, I think, you have to remember something: This is not MST3K. They're doing something different. The rants are part of the additude of the new thing.

[Douglin]

A problem with your request is that sometimes there are no gaps between lines.  In some scenes where characters are arguing and shouting over one another, a few minutes could go by without a riff, if that happens in some of these films, like the Bourne Identity, there's a chance the viewer will get more caught up in the movie than in the Rifftrax and then they've kinda failed.

And sometimes there's a line that has great potential for a joke, that is immediately followed by another line, should they just ignore the chance to riff that first line?

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

man you may have to accept that THIS is no longer something you enjoy.  Or rather that this is no longer something that you remember liking.  i like the rants at times.  ESPECIALLY in wickerman and star war menance.  sometimes they arent so interesting.  but the level of vehemence in your rant is odd.  

[BathTub]

Welcome to the forums! Isn't it lovely to be able to look back with those lovely rose tinted glasses....

[mdibiofuel]

Vehemence = "intensity or forcefulness of expression".  What's so wrong with that?  I want very much for Rifftrax to succeed and be entertaining as billed: "hilarious DVD commentaries of Michael J. Nelson - Star of the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000!"   They invoked the hilarious legend, not me. I can still read clearly with rose colored glasses. 

Timing is everything.  One well-heard riff is worth two poorly-heard riffs.  Granted, I might be having some trouble because there is much less silence in films these days, and there are loads of special audio effects that the crew necessarily has to talk /over/ in order to be heard.  So fine, talk over the special effects -- but let the dialog set itself up for riff'ing, otherwise I wonder if the RiffTrax is off-sync or if the volume is wrong because I can't hear the riffing for the dialog, or other way 'round.  In most cases, the writing is so bad that there's not long to wait for a killer opportunity.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

A problem with your request is that sometimes there are no gaps between lines.  In some scenes where characters are arguing and shouting over one another, a few minutes could go by without a riff....

You mean the way that they shouted over the long date-at-the-drive-in scene and the bit with the lady that won't blink in The Indestructible Man?  The way they talked over Exeter to have Ruth think to herself about the bad gas she smells in MST3K: The Movie?   I'm sure there's other instances but I can't think of them right now.

They have shouted down the action on the screen when they've wanted to.  Sometimes it's been a joke about how quickly the characters are talking to each other!   The fight between Rommel and his friend about Rommel wanting to sell his half of the bike shop to raise money to hunt JC, for instance?

I'm afraid it might go back to the fact that they're doing mediocre-to-decent movies now....not "golden turkeys".   It's like they're showing the films some respect.  Not a lot of comedy in that.

[Douglin]

...I wonder if the RiffTrax is off-sync or if the volume is wrong because I can't hear the riffing for the dialog, or other way 'round.

How are you watching/listening to the movie/rifftrax?  Drift shouldn't really be that much of a concern in most cases, some people have had trouble playing both the rifftrax and the dvd on their computers.  Real player, I think, has a lot of troubles.

Of course if you re-author your own discs (guide in the technical forum) you can fix the volume troubles and be sure it will be in sync, although it does take a bit of extra effort, the results can be very satisfying

[Junkyard]

That is the other thing. The commentaries with Mike and Co are optional. Back in the MST3K years, you couldn't just pick up any movie in creation off of Amazon. That is how those movies got seen. There or nowhere. So whether they meant to or not, they were presenting and preserving films that would otherwise never be seen. So not talking over the lines often was part of it.

But the movies they do now, you have to have it before you can enjoy the riff. If you really want to watch it in full, do so. They can't stop you. Then, maybe you can enjoy the riff and maybe you can't. But they have more freedom to actually talk during lines for comedic effect or whim, and more power to them.

[Compound]

Quick question: have you ever heard of the Picard Maneuver? Bear with me for a sec here.

See, back when Star Trek: The Next Generation came out, in the second season they redesigned the costumes to be two piece suits (A top and slacks) instead of the one piece jumpsuits that had been used in the first season. But one little thing started happening. Every time that Patrick Stewart stood up or sat down, he'd unconsciously tug on the bottom of his tunic to straighten out the wrinkles. Now, most people that I knew never even noticed Stewart doing this.
Some of the Trek fans that I knew did notice it, and for the most part, they were amused by it. But there were a handful that simply could not watch the show anymore because of it.  No matter what else was going on in the scene, everytime Stewart pulled on his tunic, they noticed it as if there was a big flashing arrow labelled "He's doing it Again!" pointing at Jean Luc. And it drove them nuts.

Look, I haven't noticed the problem that you're talking about. But obviously you have. And it's having the same effect that the shirt tug did to those Trek fans. If I can make a suggestion, why not take a break? Watch the Film Crew stuff when it comes out, and after a few more months try another Rifftrax or two and see if you still notice those types of riffs.  If you still can, well, you're probably out of luck.

[Junkyard]

I should mention, though- it is interesting to hear people's thoughts on something many of us haven't thought about before.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

Vehemence = "intensity or forcefulness of expression".  What's so wrong with that?  I want very much for Rifftrax to succeed and be entertaining as billed: "hilarious DVD commentaries of Michael J. Nelson - Star of the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000!"   They invoked the hilarious legend, not me. I can still read clearly with rose colored glasses. 

Whats wrong with it?  why would you allow anything so trivial to cause such intensity.  its a show you dont like.  big deal.  if you dont care for them oh well. 

you want rifftrax to succeed?  well no worries they have.  They seem to be very monetarily successful. And to refer to his past job as legend is strechting the truth.  or at very least stretching the definition of the word.  the battle of the alamo has become legend.  teh battle of thermapole (sic) is legend.  The holy grail is a legend.  Mike nelson is really funny and had a funny niche show back in the day.  not really a legend.  However its no big deal them doing this stretching as its common marketing practice.  So common you should be used to it. 

in the words of douglas adams.  DONT PANIC. 

[TrueblueDS]

And, if all else fails, do what I do.  Sharecrow has been my savior already with these things, especially when it came to lining up the Rifftrax with the movie.  This holds especially true with the one disc Lord of the Rings.  That program also gives you the ability to bring the volume of the riffs down if you don't want to hear it overtake the movie.

Perhaps it's worth a shot, yes?

[mdibiofuel]

I shouldn't respond to trolls, but I don't want folks to get confused by sarcasm_made_Easy.  For the record, please note that I quoted http://www.rifftrax.com: "hilarious DVD commentaries of Michael J. Nelson - Star of the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000!"   The quote was not a product of my "vehemence", but rather a direct quote from http://www.rifftrax.com. 

Why waste your time responding to a little poster like me if you're ambivalent about the topic?  Troll -- j'accuse, sarcasm_made_Easy.  MST3K  or RiffTrax are trivial?  ...well, let's just say that I still get goosebumps when I hear the MST3K theme.  It has never been a trivial relationship.  Which explains why I'm Still Circulating the Tapes. 

Thank you for the suggestion to look inside this forum for methods to transcode the Rifftrax audio into the actual movie track -- I'll look at that immediately to solve my synchronization and volume problems.  I use Media Coder so it should be pretty easy if I rip my DVDs and transcode away.  Thank you vehemently for your well-meaning suggestions.  Trolls go home.

[RVR II]

If I couldn't convert the Rifftrax onto the dvd, I'd probably be annoyed some too, BUT I enjoy Rifftrax the way it has evolved (kinda like its the 21st century version of MST3k)