A Report from the Head Writers (Long!)

[ChrisHanel]

There's going to be a lot here, so just stick with me. There will be a summary post after this one for all you "tl;dr" peeps.

I just wanted to address a lot of the cheers, compliments, concerns, complaints, and all out flaming that we have received over the last day or two. Riff Raff Theater is nothing without the people who submit all the jokes, so it's important that you understand how things work on our end and what's going on in our heads as we produce the final product.

The Afterglow

First of all, there are so many people that deserve huge kudos for how this riff turned out. Obviously, the biggest thanks go to Mike, Kevin, Bill, Conor, Erik, and Josh at the Rifftrax offices, including anyone else at Legend whose names we don't know and had a hand in having this all come together. We're told that this all got started when people in the office got together to watch a bit of the Harry Potter riff. If you were in that room and agreed that a project like this was a good idea, then you deserve our thanks.

Also, just as important, and just as obvious -- all of the writers on this project should feel extremely proud. As a group, we managed to produce a riff script that in my (admittedly biased) estimation becomes indistinguishable from an "Official" Rifftrax on many occasions. There were countless jokes that caused us to lose it in laughter and we couldn't have been happier with the level of comedy that everyone brought to the table.

The most important thing that we got out of this was confirmation that we know that this concept works. When we wrote Harry Potter, we spent over three months using about ten scripts and a ton of improvisation (and four recording sessions) to reach our final product. That process has now been transformed into taking seven times as much material, in a much shorter period of time, without the benefit of winging it, and still producing a top notch product.

Observations and Adjustments

It's obvious that we didn't enable such improvements without learning what we could do to better our writing process, and there's no reason to stop now. James and I have spent a lot of time, even during the writing of Batman & Robin, to figure out how to do our job more efficiently and make the end product funnier without having to kill ourselves in the process. So, this time around we're doing it in the open. We don't have Riff Raff Theater without talented people wanting to be involved, and I think the best thing we can do is show you that we are, in fact, paying attention.

I have no idea whether you got my riff. The submission process is clumsy.

Actually, most people didn't have a problem with this, but it happened enough times that it bears talking about. The submission form on the website is there because we didn't want to make the message board the sole way to get scripts to us. We had a very large amount of people submitting work that had never signed up for an account on the forums before, and we wanted to remove that level of red tape that someone would have to go through. Anything we can do to make it easier for someone to submit lines is fully worth considering and acting upon.

The form itself was coded, tested, deemed acceptable, and then promptly failed any and all expectations for operational success. At it's most basic level, it works. But it leaves a lot to be desired. Of course, people that still submitted scripts in a different manner (either through email or PM) got lost in the organizational chaos that is keeping track of almost 70 writers. We are working on all of this, either by building a better form, formalizing the process more, completely rebuilding the website, or a combination of all three.

You didn't use my joke here, and went with absolutely nothing instead. What gives, (expletive deleted)?

This is actually a spin-off of a more important (and much more predictable) question that is covered below, but we realize that some people don't know the ins and outs of how the scripts go from individual submissions to final product. So, I'm laying it out right now from start to finish. (As for what the process will be in the future, stay tuned, my story gets better.)

Step One: Scripts are reviewed individually. Person A sends in a script, and one of us goes through it, picking out all the lines we find amusing. The keepers go into the collection that is Phase 2. This is almost always done with the spirit of giving the benefit of the doubt. If we think it can be salvaged through rewording or with a particular delivery, it will stay in. Otherwise, it gets thrown out due to bad taste, redundancy, or for being just plain bad. Generally speaking, a good chunk of the content is whittled down right here. You will also notice that during this phase, its impossible to cross reference whether we are in the process of throwing out the only joke that was written for that particular moment amongst all the scripts. Obviously, we'll have some memory and natural retention for if a particular moment needs some love or if it's already had too much, but overall we're not worried about filling the script at this point, we're focusing on finding the funny.

(And as an aside, if we don't think the line is suitable, then no amount of lack of other humor will probably change my mind. The discussion came up, "Which is better, silence or lame jokes?" I am 100,000% on the side of silence. I would rather chew my own arm off than deliver a line that the writers of According to Jim would sneer at because we couldn't think of anything more amusing. Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. And as you'll see, we're doing more to make sure this isn't an issue.)

Moving along....

Step Two: All of the lines that made Phase 2 are assembled into one script and we start attempting to lock things down. We pick out the best jokes for individual moments that have multiple lines (sometimes screaming in agony because you have 12 jokes and they're ALL really good), tweak jokes that need better wording, add in our own material as needed, and make sure that everything has the best pace possible throughout. Jokes are confirmed to not step on each other's toes or cover up the setup for other jokes. We check the script to make sure that concepts aren't used multiple times in different places, and make sure that any running gags that we intended to use are still intact (a frequent problem).

Step Three: Performance rehearsal. Saying it out loud to make sure it all works in one run-through. Final tweaks, maybe a joke or two is added or taken out. Script is locked and it goes on to wherever it's needed (live show, recording, Rifftrax offices).

Batman and Robin had lots of gaps and was really uneven. My hatred of you is justified.

Yes, we'll be the first to acknowledge that there's gaps in the 2nd half of the movie. (Well, no, actually we won't, as a few vocal people are obsessed with them to the point that the gaps are petitioning for a restraining order.) I'll quote Chaos here, as he sums it up perfectly:

The most fun and simultaneously most difficult part of this process was making the cuts. In some places, we had literally 5 hilarious jokes to choose from (this happened a lot during the first 25 minutes of the script). Towards the end, it suddenly got very difficult to find ANYTHING. 75% of the scripts stopped before the 90 minute (or indeed even the 40 minute) mark, and I could tell from the caliber of riffs submitted for the second half of the movie in comparison to the first that everybody had felt the pain of writing for this movie as much as we had.

If there had been more time, we could have written additional material for some of those areas, or gone back to those other scripts to see if any of it was funnier after another pass. We also had a 3am editing session the day before the submission deadline which, I suspect, unintentionally cut out some lines that were originally meant to be in the script. There were also a couple (maybe only 5-10, nothing significant in the grand scheme) of lines that I could have sworn were in the script that didn't make it into the recorded Riff... I'm not sure if it was a copy error on my part when I compiled the final script, or if the timecodes were off and so they conflicted with other material, or what.

I think we underestimated how little material we were going to end up with for the last half of the movie going in (especially considering how many total lines we had). There's a lot of time involved with reading through all of that material, selecting the cream of the crop, rolling it all together, going back to the movie to check that the timecodes are correct (which I am sorry to say was largely not the case), correcting the timecodes or moving the riff to another spot if it didn't fit quite right or ran over another joke, writing new material to fill in the spaces we were noticing, and so forth. All of this took place in the course of about a week, while we were doing our normal jobs, and working on the Speed script simultaneously. Not ideal conditions.

And as he also said, this is an explanation, not an excuse. You know how hard it is to wait a whole week, wondering how people will react to something after you haven't given it as much attention as you wanted? It's like being tied to the train tracks, only being there for days. At least you get plenty of time to choose your last words. I'm happy that people are seeing past the gaps and realizing just how funny this script got. That would have been the worst thing for me, if the humor level of all the writers had been overlooked in favor of bashing the silence.

The Future

So, as I said at the beginning, we learn from these kind of things. From here on out, we've made a few changes: First, all writing projects will be conducted in two phases. We'll do the first phase as normal, collecting scripts, picking out the funny stuff, assembling it into one script, and then we'll analyze what scenes still need more love. At that point, we'll put out a call for entries for specific sections of the film, maybe even for a big moment where there's no winning joke yet. This could be done in the form of a captioning contest on the website. In any case, there will be more than one chance to submit your jokes for the script.

Second, we've greatly improved our tools. I won't go into specifics here, but we have an Excel grandmaster in Chaos. We now have every resource to know how many gaps we have in the script, how long they are, how many riffs we rejected that would be in that section, and who wrote them. Automating this process is a huge timesaver and will result in much fuller scripts from now on.

We're also working on a system wherein everyone can be using the same timecodes, either through an .srt file that can be burned onto a DVD or alternate system. We can't go around burning DVD's with timecodes burned in and sending them out to everyone (due to the amount of effort and laws broken to complete that process), but we're looking for a good Plan B.

Lastly, Every effort will be made to never work on multiple scripts at the same time. I think that note speaks for itself. If Mike Nelson comes calling again, I reserve the right to either ignore this rule, or postpone the other project indefinitely.

To close, I will say that it's been the greatest privilege for you to put your trust in James and I to coordinate this effort. This is just one effort to show that your trust is not misplaced. If I have one regret in all of this, its that I wish I knew what I know now when we received the chance to write this riff for Rifftrax. But that tends to be what we always want in any huge undertaking. My personal hope (and I know I'm not alone) is that this isn't the last time we get to do something like this, and I also hope you'll come along for the ride again.

*pushes button*

-Chris

[ChrisHanel]

Summary Post:

Haha, fooled you, like I'm gonna give you a free pass on reading my great post.

[mrbasehart]

Great post Chris, I haven't gotten my copy of Batman & Robin yet, but I'll certainly check out the Riff when I do.   I have a couple of questions though: 

When you're reading through a submitted script, how familiar to you is the film? I'm only asking because it seems just reading through the script would see the editors pick out more gags that are funny on their own, rather than any observational humour connected with the movie.

Did you have any PAL DVD users submit scripts? If so, how did they/you cope with the timecode differences with the move?

[ChrisHanel]

While reading the script submissions, we've usually watched the film a few times already in preparation and because we're usually trying to get a head start in brainstorming our own riffs. Plus, I don't think I'd ever choose to riff a movie without already watching it. All of this applies to Chaos, as well.

Personally, I'll have the DVD queued up in case my memory needs refreshing or if the description in the script of when the riff happens is too fuzzy.

We have a process for PAL conversion that's Excel-related, I believe Chaos can answer that one.

BTW - holy crap, i hadn't noticed that I'd passed 1,000 posts. Go me.

[Chaos]

I'll field both of your questions, sir, as I probably have the most experience with both.

1) "How familiar are you with the movie?"
Very. I (and my wife) write our own script for each movie we are riffing. By the time I actually get your scripts in hand, I have probably watched the movie from start to finish twice, and and least two more times stopping and starting to write detailed or reactionary riffs with setups and whatnot. By the time I am holding the 10-40 scripts from you guys and starting to read through them (I am the one who makes the first round of cuts, because I am the one who compiles the scripts and does all of the boring coding stuff that nobody besides me is interested in), I pretty much know the movie by heart (sadly). I don't usually need to watch the movie when I am reading a script to see if a joke works, because I remember at least the general idea of the scene. On occasion, I WILL load up the movie again and watch a scene with a script, but usually if I am unsure of the intent of the joke, I will give it the benefit of the doubt and pass it on to round 2. MOST gay jokes, steroids jokes, and "wow, that was stupid!" jokes get cut during this stage.

2) "What about PAL scripts?"
We didn't receive any this time, but we had one for Harry Potter. There is a mathematical correlation between the NTSC and PAL format. By applying a numeric adjustor in Excel, I can convert a PAL script into NTSC timecodes (to within 1 second). This is close enough for us to include the material in round 1 and 2 of script compiling. Towards the end of the writing process, when we are starting to lock the script into final form, Chris actually goes through the entire movie one joke at a time, making sure that a) the timecode is right, b) the joke takes as long to deliver as we estimated, and c) that the line doesn't conflict with other lines, the setup for later lines, or in-movie events/dialogue that we consider necessary to be silent during. During that final process is when any little irregularities between NTSC and PAL timecodes, or timecodes given to us by someone who didn't write it down correctly or had a slightly different version of the DVD than us get cleaned up.

Hopefully that fully answers your questions.

Oh, I see Chris shot out a quick response while I was typing... heh. Tricky bugger...

[jetjaguar15]

Chis and all at Riffraff- Thank you so much again for being willing to undertake this project. I am thrilled/happy/estatic/overjoyed that I had the opportunity, and that I actually got to hear Kevin utter one of my jokes. Honestly, I don't really care about the what could have been done better  - I'm just thrilled to have had the opportunity and would do it again  in a heartbeat.

[Bob]

Cool, I was wondering what your processes were.   You all seem to have put a lot of thought into it and seem committed to tweeking it to make it better for the long run.

Time and circumstances  have not allowed me to submit any scripts/jokes in the past, but I would love to have the chance in the future.    That is, if you avoid British movies with kids with magical powers and/or wizards.     I got a ton of steroid and gay witty and urbane jokes just waiting to be told.

[SmilinJackRoss]

Chis and all at Riffraff- Thank you so much again for being willing to undertake this project. I am thrilled/happy/estatic/overjoyed that I had the opportunity, and that I actually got to hear Kevin utter one of my jokes. Honestly, I don't really care about the what could have been done better  - I'm just thrilled to have had the opportunity and would do it again  in a heartbeat.

QFT.

I really hope that Mike & Co. had fun with this, and will want to do it again sometime. 

[JoshWay]

I'll add my voice to the chorus - you guys did a fine job and I appreciate the opportunity. I would/will do it again given the chance.

[MontyServo]

Since you two are in a talkative mood...   

Any idea when the posters are getting sent out?

Did I get any riffs in the final Speed script, and if so can you let me know if they get a laugh at the live show?

How long after the Speed live show will an MP3 version of the riff be released?  Any timetable for that or the Tron MP3?

Any word on what the next RiffRaff Theater project will be?  I'm sure quite a few of us would like to get cracking as soon as possible, to allow more time to work on it.

I wasn't too into the idea of fan riffing when you guys first announced it.  But now I'm hooked!  Can't wait for the next riffing opportunity!

[ChrisHanel]

The task of sending out posters belongs to Rifftrax, not us, I cannot speak for them. I do know that they're working on it, though.

I don't have the script in front of me, but I believe that you have lines. I'll post a report on the live show on Saturday.

We'll be discussing MP3 versions soon. We needed to get the B&R riff and live show out of the way before we really could get back to thinking about them.

Same goes for the announcing next script. We have plans to release 3 riffs at once, so it'll be Tron, Speed, and 3rd project yet to be named. (I will also add that this won't be the norm, it just happens to be the way things worked out.)

I hope this whets your appetite appropriately.

-Chris

[jetjaguar15]

Chris - Has the Rifftrax gang shown interest in having you do another fan-written riff anytime in the future?

[gammer]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the explanation. This really puts everything into perspective and has been a great learning experience. I'm sure Mike and Co. were biting their lips during the "quiet" parts, but in the end I'm glad they stuck entirely to the script. This undoubtedly will help with future releases...and from what I can see it already has Riff Raff looking how to improve the next one.

Thanks and keep up the great work.

[Chaos]

Chris - Has the Rifftrax gang shown interest in having you do another fan-written riff anytime in the future?

There hasn't been any kind of conversation about "what comes next" (if anything) yet. I think we're still trying to settle down from the whirlwind of activity in both camps.

[MontyServo]

Chris - Has the Rifftrax gang shown interest in having you do another fan-written riff anytime in the future?

There hasn't been any kind of conversation about "what comes next" (if anything) yet. I think we're still trying to settle down from the whirlwind of activity in both camps.

I'm sure that the sale figures will also play a part in what (if anything) comes next from the Rifftrax/Riff Raff connection.  I'm sure there are more than a few movies that they are interested in riffing, but would rather not have to watch the movie multiple times to write for it.  They could leave the really dirty work to us.   

Of course, that is complete and utter speculation on my part.  Who knows what might come in the future?