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Post by Diet Kolos on Oct 10, 2021 10:31:49 GMT -5
Also, can someone seriously talk to Susan again and see if she's had a potential change of.....heart and might be more willing to work with Shout if it meant a multi film deal and proper re-release treatment of the original films in addition to the MST3K's version? Seems like a win-win. That door is firmly closed until she goes to that big B-Movie in the sky. Closed-closed. Talking didn't work. Backing up dump trucks of money didn't work. Legal maneuvering didn't work. The one constant over the last 20+ years is she's 100% unreasonable, irrational and impossible to negotiate with. But there's one person she won't be able to out-maneuver for too much longer, and he wears all black. She's 80 this year. Do the math.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Oct 9, 2021 9:30:50 GMT -5
Oh yeah, the sponsor thing sounds pretty bad. Totally glossed over that. But we'll have to see.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Oct 9, 2021 9:05:57 GMT -5
Good choice. Dimension Pictures made some doozies in its brief run in the 70s. It even has Sid Haig and George Nader.
Its a 91 minute movie, for future reference.
Someone track down who owns it. Wikipedia says most of their catalogue got bought by Fox, which I'd assume means is now Disney.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Oct 8, 2021 17:23:35 GMT -5
Interestingly enough, in the newest update they shared that filming for the touring cast's episodes start filming next week, starting with their movie segments. And from the set up in the pictures they provide and how they described it, it APPEARS as though they're going to be riffing live, the old fashioned way. As nature intended.
Which is not how they described it being done in Kickstarter for this season. Perhaps they're doing it the old-fashioned way for the more accessible and easy to schedule touring cast, and the other way for the Netflix cast.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 25, 2021 21:16:51 GMT -5
Joel's intention is to make all future episodes/seasons of MST3K like he's making Season 13. He laid it out back in April, in Update #7. He feels that doing everything remotely, compositing shots, using green screen, filming in small groups at different locations, will bring the show back to its DIY roots, plus give them more creative freedom. It's also supposedly cheaper. I think the "cheaper" part is probably the real answer. If it WORKS, then the process won't matter, I suppose. That's what's important, the results. But if it FEELS like it's an assembly-line, workmanlike product that feels like it was shot over a few weekends and the compositing is awkward and distracting... We'll have to see.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 25, 2021 13:17:06 GMT -5
I know Covid and multiple casts was thrown around to explain some of the divvied up shooting schedules. But I still don't get the point of writing it all before shooting starts. Maybe so they can have set shooting schedules without running the risk of not having an episode written by the time they need to shoot.
Maybe if they REFUSE to go strictly episodic (write-shoot-edit 1 episode at a time) maybe in future seasons they could break the episodes into cours and do 3 or 4 episodes at a time.
I just...don't understand the point of buying new production space for Alternaversal with more room for writing and producing the show...if it's still being made like it's a Netflix show being put together by an ad hoc writing troupe and a cast that doesn't have a full-time commitment.
Maybe this season is the weird in-between of the Netflix style and what they want to do in the future and once the Netflix cast is gone (I can't imagine they're sticking around long for this) and they have more flexibility in writing & shooting.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 15, 2021 21:44:42 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't get that attitude the new writers have regarding "dull bits" and how hard it is to write for them. Like, I get cutting out some lulls. I don't get cutting out EVERY lull and slow bit. They're writers. They're writing for MST. If the new writers are so inexplicably unable to do the tough bits, pay Frank, Trace, Mary Jo, et al their worth to do it for them.
It also gets back to the idea that at a certain point, we're here to watch a movie and experience it, with the funny commentary on top. The commentary is enhanced by shared experience of watching the movie and understanding why its bad. Cutting the movies down the way they do reduces that viewer-riffer connection. Otherwise we're just watching endless stream of consciousness on top of disconnected goofy film snippets.
But that's just my holistic view of things that nobody cares about.
I remain hopeful that the movies won't be horribly, horribly butchered and we get 70-75 minutes of theater time in Season 13 for most of the episodes. I'm also hopeful the middle host segment returns. And the credits aren't 6+ minutes. And the riffs sound more natural. And the riffs themselves lean less scatological/nerd culture humor. And we get something more akin to the heights of Season 11 and less like the depths of Season 12.
I'm just a hopeful guy, I guess...
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 15, 2021 6:32:42 GMT -5
Hm. Must've misread that pretty bad.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 14, 2021 16:53:21 GMT -5
And they're already doing 83 minutes uncut of Gamera vs Jiger. And let me tell you, that movie drags. But they're doing it anyways. In for a penny, in for a pound as far as unedited, possibly boring movies, I say.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 14, 2021 16:45:02 GMT -5
The way he described it, it was based on length, not necessarily objectionable content.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 14, 2021 15:07:11 GMT -5
Another update, more info. Movies are from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s & 2010s. 1 black & white.
They turned down a movie they had already licensed because the owner wouldn't let them edit it down. Apparently it was 14 minutes too long. Considering they're doing Gamera vs Jiger uncut at 83 minutes for nostalgia purposes, it makes one wonder what their ideal movie time is. I'm guessing its in the 60-65 minute range, +/-5 minutes.
Seems like a waste to throw out a movie you went to all the trouble they've described, that matches all the prerequisites...just to toss it over 14 minutes. When it would've premiered on a streaming service you own. So time limits aren't really a thing...
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 13, 2021 10:14:39 GMT -5
Well said. That's the reason I started uploading them: context. Its the thing I feel the older shows are losing the further time moves on, especially for younger fans.
Plus, the commercials I feel help the pacing (at least in the 97 minute era). But that might just be me.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 8, 2021 6:56:00 GMT -5
You want precedents? Just wait a few years until Joel gets bored and stops being interested in the MST concept again and unilaterally announces he's ending it without telling any of the cast or crew.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 6, 2021 9:45:37 GMT -5
I'll go one step further. AMC wanted to pick up the show after season 10. Guess what they showed on AMC back in 1999? Crappy old movies and no real original programming. Notice a pattern yet? And if Jim hadn't have packed it in and they did go to AMC guess what would have happened? By 2002/2003 AMC began to change its format, started producing original programming and dramas and started to shift away from crappy old movies. Guess what hypothetical puppet show would have been on the chopping block.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Sept 6, 2021 9:42:26 GMT -5
The more I've thought about it some more of a...mature opinion I start to have.
It's a two-hour show that the network doesn't have a copyright to, that they also have to pay for not only production but licensing of a film that they didn't and won't show in any other capacity.
From a network perspective, it's unwieldy and probably not worth the trouble.
Think about it this way. When MST went to The Comedy Channel, it was a new channel, they had no programming other than reruns of old TV shows and crappy movies from the 50s/60s/70s. They needed to fill 24 hours of programming. It was cheap and easy to license crappy old films back in the late 80s. They have almost no other original programming to fund. Ta-da! Perfect fit.
By the time 1994/95 rolls around, Comedy Central is starting to fund their own shows like Dr. Katz, LimboLand, The Vacant Lot, Exit 57, etc. AND importing first run British stuff like AbFab, Who's Line and Drop The Dead Donkey, etc. Their programming is that stuff and newer reruns of stuff like Dream On. They're not as desperate to fill 24 hours. AND film licensing is getting to be much more cumbersome and expensive. Gone are the days of FVI and other fly-by-night shady distributors, people are starting to pay attention to what gets licensed to cable and demanding more money. Add that to the fact that this little company in Minnesota (who's show you don't own) is starting to make more demands on you on how their show is treated, and more importantly its starting to get fairly expensive per season. Season 3 cost 1 million per 24 episodes. BBI's 3 season deal included escalator language in regards to production cost, with the amount per season going up through Season 5. Season 6's contract was probably even more expensive. While many people talk about how relatively cheap it is to make MST, it was probably the most expensive CC show. After all, the rest were sketch shows and cartoons. And we haven't even mentioned the vocal fans. And the ratings, while never bad, probably didn't justify this ever-growing headache. CC was expanding, starting to get into a majority of cable packages nationwide, and had plans for going big and mainstream. And this annoying, money-sucking puppet show is the easy choice for the chopping block.
Sci-Fi, meanwhile was a tiny operation in 1996. In few homes nationwide. No real original programming to speak of besides glorified infomercials and the occasional talk show. Their programming mainly consisted of...reruns of old tv shows and crappy movies. See the pattern? And the same thing roughly happened at Sci-Fi as happened at CC. They got bought by a bigger company whose people replaced the mom&pop corporate types like Schullman, and they focused on taking the network national with big prestige original shows like Farscape. And when you're trying to fund award-winning TV (that you more-than-likely either outright own or have a stake in), the out of town puppet show owned by some guy in Minnesota is clearly going to be the thing that gets the axe.
And the less said about the mistake MST: The Movie was, the better.
MST3K was a right place right time phenomena. They were damned lucky. And we're lucky they slipped through the cracks for as long as they did. But let's not pretend there was a vast conspiracy against them. Shifting TV landscapes did the show in.
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