Slashdot Mirror
Former Host and Writer of MST3K Launches RiffTrax
dougman writes "Today James Lileks mentioned his 'friend and all-around comic genius/good egg Michael J. Nelson' called, to tell him about his brilliant new project, RiffTrax. Here's the pitch:
'...free-lance commentary tracks. Bottom line: Mystery Science Theater 3000-style commentary for big famous beloved movies like Titanic or The Matrix. The hitch: you have to provide the movie. It's genius: no worries about copyright. You buy the commentary tracks for $1.99, rent the movie or get it out of your collection, load the commentary on your iPod or burn it to a disk, then watch them together in true you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate bliss. ... The first movie is Roadhouse."
Cool! I voted for The Matrix as the next one to be riffed." While I (and many others I know) preferred Joel, Mike was not without his share of funny moments too. Without Crow and Servo it just might not be the same, though.
Stay frosty, boys, we've got a flame war coming! Joel vs. Mike seen on radar, heading straight for us! Batten down the hatches, prepare all escape pods, brace for impact!
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
The site mentions the possibility of having other people join Mike on the commentaries. As far as we know, Mike has kept in touch with Trace Beaulieu (Crow S1-7), Bill Corbett (Crow S8-10) and Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo S2-10) and is still on good terms with them, so it's not impossible.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
I think this is really great, but sometimes my favorite parts of MST3K were jokes they played with the silhouettes on the screen. In one of the Godzilla movies, there was a bird's-eye-view scene of some Japanese soldiers with round, white bubble-helmets on. Joel stood up, knocked on one of the helmets, and the soldier looked straight up into the camera! :D Classic.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
...of Wizard People, Dear Reader, a similar one-off project by Brad Neely; it's an audiobook-style replacement narrative for the first Harry Potter movie that, when synched up with the DVD (or DivX or whatever) makes for a freaking awesome movie.
Don't forget you can use ShareCrow to sync these commentaries easily if you have a Windows machine that uses compatible DVD player software.
...)
(And check Commentary Central for a bunch of freebie alternate commentary tracks, including my own for Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
This raises a good question: what if the MST3K folk were to release their commentary as a file that, when combined with the correct DVD player, would place their overlayed silhouettes over the movie. BAM! All the advantages of MST3K, no copyright worries over the movie.
Imagine the fun the bots could have with some of the real stinkers that have been released too recently to be available to them: MST3K of Waterworld, or of, well, any Adam Sandler movie.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Without actually embedding them in video feed youre not reproducing the work
There are also numerous examples and case courses resolved against copyright holders in cases of parody and criticism.
Nelson has a mountain of case law on his side, but youre right, i wouldnt put it past these people.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
IANAL. However, my completely IANAL-ish opinion is that these are not copyright infringement, and fall in the realm of fair use. I say this because I believe this type of work is nearly the same thing as writing a review of a movie, or posting some facts about a movie.
Most movie reviews are very similar to an additional audio track, save for the fact that one is designed to be synced up to the movie, and the other is written on paper. Reviews often comment on aspects of the film, such as a specific scene or a recurring theme or something. The only real difference an audio track has is, once again, the fact that it is designed to be played along with the film.
Posting facts about a movie is also considered fair use. You can say "this movie is two hours long", or "the lens looks messed up in these scene", and this is not infringement. An audio track seems to be very similar to this.
Other types of media also follow these rules. It is not infringement to say "this painting is ten feet tall", or "Mark Knopfler used a Gibson Les Paul when he recorded 'Money for Nothing'". It is also not infringement to say "Charles Dickens sucks".
There's even prior art: Dark Side of the Moon.
Consciousness is a myth. Trust me.
CowboyNeal *DOES* know that Mike was a writer on the show from season 1 on, and the head writer starting season 2, right.
That's one thing that I've never understood about the Joel vs Mike thing.... The writing staff was pretty much the same for both (with the huge exception of Frank Conniff leaving. Things were never quite as.... surreal afterward).
jf
I just downloaded Road House from the site and it's in MP3 format. I doubt you have to worry about any DRM getting in the way.