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Post by Megalon on May 1, 2021 12:42:32 GMT -5
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Post by Megalon on May 1, 2021 12:50:20 GMT -5
Hmm... this is an interesting response to a question about non-widescreen films. I can't imagine what "change the aspect ratio" means. Stretching the film? Cropping it?
Personally, I don't see the problem with 4:3. I'd rather just leave it unchanged. I mean, color TVs had been in existence for decades when MST3k riffed B&W films. So what if Joel had taken a similar stance in 1990 and said, "B&W to me is just so tough because everybody has these big color TVs now, so it doesn't quite look right."
What an unfortunate take that would have been for the show at the time. To me, the animus against 4:3 is just as unfortunate today. Bad movies are bad movies. I don't care what their aspect ratio is. If they're bad and riffable, then I want to see them!
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Post by slainmonkey on May 1, 2021 12:56:51 GMT -5
I imagine he means cropping it, stretching it would just be horrendous!
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Post by Shark on May 1, 2021 13:07:35 GMT -5
... I really have no words. Just show the movies.
Oh FFS. DO NOT fit 4:3 programs to a 16:9. It looks like garbage. Why don't you get creative and use the space on the side for theater curtains or use it for cambot graphics or just show your 4:3 movies down on the moonbase and have some Cinematic Titanic like structure for the seating.
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Post by Diet Kolos on May 1, 2021 13:49:11 GMT -5
... I really have no words. Just show the movies. Oh FFS. DO NOT fit 4:3 programs to a 16:9. It looks like garbage. Why don't you get creative and use the space on the side for theater curtains or use it for cambot graphics or just show your 4:3 movies down on the moonbase and have some Cinematic Titanic like structure for the seating. Having the episode at 90 minutes would be an improvement over Season 12, at least. 79 minute episodes with 5 minutes of credits making for 64 minutes of riff-time over the movies. Yeah, I don't get the problem with 4:3. They're not making episodes for broadcast or a real streaming service anymore, supposedly, it doesn't really matter what the movies look like. Just "pull the curtains in" on the sides and riff. What's the problem? These are bad movies. Your undiscovered diamond in the rough like Manos isn't going to have an HD remastered anamorphic release and be ready-to-go for you.
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Post by jadenh on May 1, 2021 14:05:47 GMT -5
Yeah, just have some graphics on the sides, like curtains. It would look much better than horribly stretching the films to 16:9.
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Post by Megalon on May 1, 2021 14:19:51 GMT -5
Personally, I like the 90-minute format of the show. It's familiar and comfortable, and I always know where I'm at in the sequence based on the commercial breaks and host segments. So I'm glad Joel is keeping that aspect of the show (I even hope they keep the pointless commercial bumpers).
But 4:3? 4:3 is like B&W. It should have no bearing on whether a movie is riffed or not.
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Post by dudehitscar on May 1, 2021 14:29:52 GMT -5
the issue that I see with the 4:3 films is they do not work with where they placed the host and the bots.. which has been a gripe of mine.. tucked in the far right corner and small. I watch the show on a big projector screen (and in a movie theater back when I was hosting a local MST3K group).. It always seemed like I had to choose between watching Jonah and the bots or the movie. I agree with joel that the silhouettes took up too much of the frame in the old show.. but at the very least move the crew closer to the center.
I imagine if they centered a 4:3 film you wouldn't be able to see the bots without filling that black space with something. Others mentioned curtains and things like that.. all good ideas.. but it would be less of an issue if they just moved the crew to the center right of the film. Works for all ratios.
Stretching the image is interesting I experimented with this when I ran my group. Making the old episodes widescreen. Hated it for the host segments of course.. and generally didn't like it for the movies either. The shorts weren't a big deal.. they typically looked like crap anyway.. but it felt disrespectful to the films.
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Post by dudehitscar on May 1, 2021 14:40:53 GMT -5
Personally, I like the 90-minute format of the show. It's familiar and comfortable, and I always know where I'm at in the sequence based on the commercial breaks and host segments. So I'm glad Joel is keeping that aspect of the show (I even hope they keep the pointless commercial bumpers). But 4:3? 4:3 is like B&W. It should have no influence on whether a movie is riffed or not. I'm all for cutting the movie and eliminating one of the host segments to keep the episodes shorter than the true lengths of the movies. Rifftrax can get exhausting by doing the whole thing.. Birdemic in particular. These are bad movies and so there is usually plenty of dull sections to cut. The only times that I felt cheated by the cuts were the mcdonalds scene in mac and me and This island earth. Also the riffing in a ton of episodes and rifftrax runs out of steam by the end.. it usually takes a movie with a bizarre WTF 3rd act to change that dynamic.. it's the reason that Cave Dwellers is an all time classic and Ator was merely just good.. 90 mins max please. It also gives folks an incentive to look up the original movies and possible give the creators some business if one is particularly charmed by one of the bad movies.
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Post by dudehitscar on May 1, 2021 15:07:38 GMT -5
"We’re looking into it on a couple of different levels, and we would really like do that. It’s really different, and it’s very ambitious to shoot a live show. We’re up for it, and we’d like to try it.
So to answer your question, I believe we’re planning on…I think the touring cast is going out once COVID is wrapped. We’re already planning another tour. We’re interested in recording those new ones, if possible."
I really think that going on a huge multi-date live tour with just the emily cast is not going to do well in 2021... making the tour much shorter, hitting the major cities on weekend nights, and then recording it to share on the gizmoplex while Jonah makes more studio episodes with his cast would be a really great mix.
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Post by dudehitscar on May 1, 2021 15:49:34 GMT -5
hearing Joel's thoughts on the sci fi era lighting is interesting... I definitely don't agree with him on that. I love the look of the Sci fi era host segments. To me that felt like more like they were on a spaceship. It also was closer in visual tone to the theater segments.. the CC era episodes were quite an adjustment for me at first and I think that lighting works better with joel's brighter red jumpsuit.. CC era lighting with Mike's dark green suit didn't look so good.
I like the lighting of the SOL in the jonah era too.. Just wish they would vary the camera angles more often.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2021 16:21:29 GMT -5
"The tough thing with me with Master Ninja is that it’s made for TV. And so, the aspect ratio is… It doesn’t really give you that immersive academy aperture vibe."
I get Joel isn't a tech guy or a film historian, but if you're going to use "Academy aperture," at least make sure you're using it in the right context? Academy ratio is (and always has been, since it was implemented in 1932) 1.375:1. For all intents and purposes, it's 4:3, the very aspect ratio he's saying doesn't work for the show. /nitpick
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2021 16:29:09 GMT -5
have some Cinematic Titanic like structure for the seating. This would actually be really neat. I get that the "three guys in the bottom corner" look is the visual hallmark of the series, but I think they could stand to play around with it a little bit after 220 episodes. Now that they have teams of puppeteers running the bots in the theater segments, would it be possible to show Crow standing at a railing instead of seated? We already know they can have Servo fly all around the theater, so why not have him hover around the old CT-styled set? And it would probably give you more room to interact with the screen, as long as the characters can freely move across the bottom of the set.
That's the kind of experimentation that would make all the changes to the puppeteering worth it to me, especially if it helps accommodate Academy ratio 4:3 movies.
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Post by dudehitscar on May 1, 2021 17:01:01 GMT -5
no thanks on the cinematic titanic style.. I never liked it. It really holds that riffing project back for me.
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Post by BoB3K on May 2, 2021 11:51:37 GMT -5
Personally, I like the 90-minute format of the show. It's familiar and comfortable, and I always know where I'm at in the sequence based on the commercial breaks and host segments. Seasons 1-4 of the show were ~97 minutes. Seasons 5+ went down to 92 minutes. When I first noticed this, I was kind of bummed. I think they could stay at the upper 90s and be okay. On the other hand, they riff newer movies now (80/90s instead of 50s/60s) and it makes sense they should push that number up to accommodate the longer average running time of movies, like maybe into the mid 100s.
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