Did Rifftrax move to Minnesota?

[Troy's Dad]

I was browsing wikipedia, jumping from article to article, and landed on Mike Nelson's page where it was stated he moved back to Minnesota in 2014. It seems all the other Rifftrax members have moved back to Minnesota as well. I'm curious if the entire company is now based in Minnesota, or if main operations are still in California and Mike, Kevin, Bill, Bridget and Mary Jo remote in for the recordings.

As a Minnesotan myself, I'd be very happy to know that Riffing has returned home.

[Mod City]

I certainly don't have an answer to that, but I might as well chime in anyway. Now that they're technically not affiliated with Legend, I suppose anything is possible. Though to me it would seem unlikely that they moved the entire production to Minnesota. Whether that means the whole team moving to Minnesota or firing the staff in California and hiring all new after the move.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if they commute, to some extent, anyway. They travel to the east coast to do the live shows, after all.

Even if the writers/cast have moved back and they remote in to the main office in California, does that really qualify as Rifftrax moving to Minnesota?

I like the idea of Mike and crew being back in Minnesota, too, but I guess I don't know what I would say about where Rifftrax is officially based.

[monkeypretzel]

Kevin never left Minnesota, and Bill moved back there a decade ago from a brief sojourn to LA around the time he was writing Meet Dave. They used to record most riffs remotely, with Kevin and Bill in MN and Mike in San Diego, which is why in the older RiffTrax you can hear Kevin and Bill crosstalking or laughing over each other, but not over Mike. Mary Jo had lived in Austin for year, but she too moved back to MN around the same time as Mike, possibly a year before or a year after.

The business offices of RiffTrax are still in San Diego (specifically on Clairemont Mesa Blvd in the neighborhood of Kearny Mesa directly south of Miramar MCAS, former home of Top Gun), and it's listed as a California company but the only people working out of that office space are the David Martins, Sarah and a few other business/financial staff, and I think Casey June the editor. Everyone else works remotely due to the wonderfulness of the Internet Tubes; Conor is in Vermont, Sean in LA, Erik in Oregon, etc. Conor touched on this in an interview I heard a few months ago and it seems to be working well for everyone. The riffs are recorded in Kevin's home studio in Bloomington, MN, which you can see in most of their Talkin' DripTrax videos.

[Troy's Dad]

Thanks for the replies! I've noticed an uptick in quality and general happiness/camaraderie among the riffers over the past 3-4 years and did wonder if something had changed. Having all the riffers physically together really has rubbed off on the content, and I think the rest of the Rifftrax staff being in different parts of the US is a wise move. For such a web based entity it makes sense for them to be remote work friendly.

I think what tipped me off was Mary Jo's YouTube show featuring cameos from Bridget and I realized they were all in Minnesota. Very cool stuff.

[Mod City]

Interesting stuff, monkeypretzel. I was aware that some of the guys had moved back to Minnesota but not the specific details, like the fact the Murphy has his own home recording studio. That certainly would be more convenient.

[zombiewhacker]

If the boys are back to recording their riffs together at the same time, that's good news.

I noticed that a lot of their earlier trax had a "phoning it in" quality that their Film Crew eps and their Rifftrax Live sessions did not.

Reminds me of when Pixar did the first Monsters Inc. Billy Crystal insisted that if was to be doing the movie with John Goodman, that they had to record their scenes together, like an old radio broadcast. Pixar agreed. I think the results pretty much speak for themselves.

[Troy's Dad]

Nov 26, 2018 18:23:16 GMT -5 zombiewhacker said:

If the boys are back to recording their riffs together at the same time, that's good news.

I noticed that a lot of their earlier trax had a "phoning it in" quality that their Film Crew eps and their Rifftrax Live sessions did not.

Reminds me of when Pixar did the first Monsters Inc. Billy Crystal insisted that if was to be doing the movie with John Goodman, that they had to record their scenes together, like an old radio broadcast. Pixar agreed. I think the results pretty much speak for themselves.

This is why Rifftrax Live is top tier Rifftrax for me. I love the goofy interactions, occasional flubs, and visual gags that we get to see thanks to the picture-in-picture that they occasionally do. I also like that they play off the audience reaction and go off script sometimes.