Raven's Riffs - Timeline Now Available

[RoninFox]

DVD has arrived, file is downloading, feedback to follow later today.

[RoninFox]

Watched it once, and I'll have to watch it again to get some favorite lines.  Good stuff overall.  Seemed like it had a slow start, but once they were firmly in the past it picked up well.  The sync voice threw me off a bit (Meat WAudio?)  but it worked.

[Raven]

Watched it once, and I'll have to watch it again to get some favorite lines.  Good stuff overall.  Seemed like it had a slow start, but once they were firmly in the past it picked up well.  The sync voice threw me off a bit (Meat WAudio?)  but it worked.

The movie itself took at least a half hour to get started.  Still, some of my favorite jokes were actually pretty early in the track this time. 


Oh, and thanks for noticing I was trying to do Meatwad. 

[Asbestos Bill]

First the good:
- It stayed in sync;
- If I hadn't been sick when I watched it I would have laughed out loud at several of the jokes
- There were some really clever things (I tried to keep track of the best lines but I've already forgotten some of them...) The "Running... A forest... Running... ... Seems like we could've had something there." was a great way to deliver that joke. Kudos for the synchronized belching line! None of us can pull off one decent fake belch let alone two in unison. "Don't touch the ground; it's lava!" was another memorable line. There were more but those are the only ones I can think of right now....



Now the criticisms:
- Obviously, the sound quality is an issue. I couldn't understand a lot of the jokes due to this. You might need better mics, but there may be a cheaper solution.
- You should edit the intro tighter. This is a minor complaint, but it did kind of drag unnecessarily.
- The deliveries need more energy. Also, you need a lot more first-person jokes. As Tracy said, it's not enough to stand back and lob snide comments at a movie this bad. You should get in there and tear it apart from the inside. That's what it deserves. At any rate, first-person jokes (ie adding lines to the movie) are usually funnier and they have more character and energy...or maybe because they have more character and energy


Keep at it! Any idea what your next riff will be? (Aside from the community riffs I mean)

[RoninFox]

- The deliveries need more energy. Also, you need a lot more first-person jokes. As Tracy said, it's not enough to stand back and lob snide comments at a movie this bad. You should get in there and tear it apart from the inside. That's what it deserves. At any rate, first-person jokes (ie adding lines to the movie) are usually funnier and they have more character and energy...or maybe because they have more character and energy

This is probably my main complaint too.  For an example of energy level I remember an early MST3K (The Crawling Hand) where there were some explosions on screen.  Tom Servo mentioned in his then low light radio dj-ish voice "this is like Love American Style."  That never got a laugh from me.  A later episode featured an explosion and got all three people in the theater to sing "Love, love LOOOOOVE!" and that always gets me to giggle.  It was the same exact reference, all the difference was in the delivery.

[Raven]

Now the criticisms:
- Obviously, the sound quality is an issue. I couldn't understand a lot of the jokes due to this. You might need better mics, but there may be a cheaper solution.

I'm trying to figure out how to fix the audio issues but I'm not really sure how to do it.  We do all of our recording on a home audio mixer that only has AV outs.  The microphones aren't the problem, cause I can take the movie and our commentary track and burn a dvd on a home burner just fine.  There isn't a problem hearing any of the jokes (this time anyway Hollow Man wasn't good in spots cause I hadn't purchased the new microphone or  mixer yet.)  
The problem with the audio comes from trying to rip the audio off a dvd using a computer program.  For some reason it comes out quieter than it should.  I can play the dvd that I put just our commentary on and it plays at the same volume as a normal dvd but for some reason if I convert just the audio to an mp3 it just kills the volume to about 1/3 of what it should be.    If I try to turn the volume up on the recorder itself to increase the volume of the source dvd to in turn make the mp3 louder it peeks out and distorts.  It's a lose/lose unless you're one of my friends who gets a dvd version.  

- You should edit the intro tighter. This is a minor complaint, but it did kind of drag unnecessarily.

Noted.

- The deliveries need more energy. Also, you need a lot more first-person jokes. As Tracy said, it's not enough to stand back and lob snide comments at a movie this bad. You should get in there and tear it apart from the inside. That's what it deserves. At any rate, first-person jokes (ie adding lines to the movie) are usually funnier and they have more character and energy...or maybe because they have more character and energy

I hear what you are saying on this but I kinda feel like just inserting dialogue is taking the easy way out sometimes.  I'd much rather have a well constructed clever joke that only 5 out of 50 people will get right away based on some obscure reference than to just have my scripts packed full of laugh out loud zingers that half the time make no sense as it pertains to the topic.  I think that a lot of my submissions to the Riff Raff guy get left out because they aren't laugh out loud funny.  I get that that's important for the live show atmosphere so it's no big deal but on my riffs I try to mix it up.  Case in point-  on the Hollow Man riff, I've sent out about 75-100 disks so far and of the feedback I got back (probably 50+ people), I've had maybe 3 or 4 people mention a duplicate  joke as their favorite.   And I think you were one of the only ones who mentioned a joke where we were actually saying a line of dialogue for a character in the Hollow Man thread on the quiptracks forum.  

For Timeline the script we were working with was over a year old when we finally got time and the necessary electronics fixed to record it.  I think this may have had something to do with the energy level that you speak of but I'm not entirely sure.  I'm not a hyper person so I guess I'm not bouncing off the walls when I'm recording either.  If I try to fake enthusiasm, when there shouldn't be any because the movie's that bad, I wouldn't be happy with it myself.  As an excuse for not completely tearing the movie a new one-  I didn't want to.  I didn't think it was all that bad the first time I saw it.  It get's pretty old when you're watching it over and over to write jokes but Paul Walker was my only real complaint.  I never read the book to get pissed at it for ruining it and I like Gerard Butler and Billy Connolly.    

It comes down to choice-  I wasn't the biggest fan of the quiptrack for Lady in the Water (and to be clear I'm not trying to bash you guys).  That one felt to me, like you were just trashing the movie and just calling it bad over and over instead of actually telling jokes about what about it was bad (if that makes any sense).  I'm may have been a little biased because I did enjoy the movie by itself but there were certain jokes that I found amusing.  The overall tone just didn't sit right with me.  I guess it could be put on par with Mike and Kevin's Star Wars Episode I.  I really liked that riff but a lot of people didn't because they thought it was too hostile.  I happened to agree with Mike and co.  on all counts so it didn't really bother me, but I can certainly understand how others would feel that way.    

Keep at it! Any idea what your next riff will be? (Aside from the community riffs I mean)

We tried a little experiment writing an entire riff in a single day, but we ran out of time to record as well, so hopefully a new title will be out in a couple of weeks provided I can find time to edit any mistakes we might make when we try to record it (hopefully this week).  It's one of my old friends that hasn't done any mike work in the past so we'll see how it turns out.  As far as the title- maybe I'll see if anyone wants to play a 20 questions game when I have it ready to go.  (I get a little tired of waiting for the promised projects out there so I don't want to give out the title yet).

Either the above title or The Fugitive will be the next one ready and provided I can find the time,  I still am planning on putting out Maximum Overdrive as well.  Unfortunately for that one I was planning on doing that with a co worker who has since switched jobs and now works an entirely different schedule than I do.  I may have to kidnap him or make it a Thanksgiving or Christmas break project.  There is definitely material in there that I absolutely won't let go of so it will be out, I just don't know when.



Oh and Asbestos Bill,  thanks for the feedback.  Seriously.  

[Invader_quirk]

Thing is, if you're not really into your riffing of the movie, it's hard for me to be. Enthusiasm isn't necessarily what we mean by energy. You can be angry, disgusted, amused-- whatever fits, but if you don't care, then it's hard for me to. I get that you're not an energetic fellow, and that can be funny, but I'd suggest having your other riffer be the energetic type to even that out.

The bottom line is that you don't seem like you're having much fun.

Also, concerning first person lines... I don't know why you assume that they inherently have nothing to do with the situation or that they can't be clever. Regardless, any one type of joke gets old after a while, and it would be a good idea to throw in some more first person lines just to mix things up a bit. Obviously, you don't think we're comedic geniuses, so our comments may mean little to you. I do, however, urge you to watch one of our newest QuipTracks before deciding you don't like our humor. We've gotten alot better since Lady in the Water (which I barely like anymore). 

By the way, Asbestos Bill pretty much spoke for me as far as "the good", so I didn't bother re-posting it. Oh, but he didn't mention one of my favorite lines: "The moderately paced and the slightly perturbed". Heh. 

By the way.... again.... I definitely think you have potential, and you should definitely keep it up!

[Raven]

I didn't want to make it sound like Lady in the Water was the only one I've watched.   I haven't checked out Van Helsing yet but I enjoyed Sky Captain and Godzilla,  I haven't had time to watch them all in one sitting which is what I prefer to do before leaving individual feedback on the episodes.  My favorite joke in Sky Captain (that I remember) was the 3 of you all picking a captain to voice at the same time and saying "I'm the captain and I say we should go Left/straight/right."  The one that sticks out for me in Jurassic Park was the line about Toucan Sam.  And you guys had by far my favorite joke in the Speed riff from the Riff Raff show.  I wouldn't have taken the time to put those covers together if I didn't think you did good work. 



Oh, for the record, I was having fun when we were recording Timeline but I can't speak for Andrew.   

[Tank]

I had fun, too.
Thanks everyone for your feedback. 
I was worried I'd fall flat on my face.

[Invader_quirk]

Oh, well, ignore my entire post then. 

[CartoonDiablo]

nicely done

I think you skipped on some golden potential riffing material like how the hell do mirrors contribute to time travel?

But all in all I liked it.           

[thesciphishow]

WEll I finally got a copy of the film and i'm remixing the audio currently.

I tried converting the movie to NTSC from the PAL version I have but the final riffs ended up about 10 seconds off.

So instead I converted the riff to PAL speed and i'll see how that goes

Jason

[thesciphishow]

Ok i've remixed and reencoded everything. After a bit of fiddling around it looks like everything lines up and the film is good to go.

I watched a bit of it and jumped to the end to check things lined up. Hopefully i'll have a chance to sit down and watch the whole thing during the week

Looks funny so far.

The

"If you're using Audacity just go to Effects->Change Tempo and enter 4.271%. That'll convert it from NTSC->PAL"

trick that was suggested for alien worked perfectly on the Timeline riff to make a PAL version.

Jason

[RoninFox]

The

"If you're using Audacity just go to Effects->Change Tempo and enter 4.271%. That'll convert it from NTSC->PAL"

Yeah, that's worked perfectly well for me when making PAL versions of my riffs so far, though it does affect the pitch too.  I can't remember off the top of my head how much I had to pitch it down in order for it to sound normal again.  I'll be sure to keep notes next time.

[Asbestos Bill]

The

"If you're using Audacity just go to Effects->Change Tempo and enter 4.271%. That'll convert it from NTSC->PAL"

Yeah, that's worked perfectly well for me when making PAL versions of my riffs so far, though it does affect the pitch too.  I can't remember off the top of my head how much I had to pitch it down in order for it to sound normal again.  I'll be sure to keep notes next time.

Then you're doing it wrong. Use "Change Tempo" not "Change Speed"