Rifftrax: Godzilla (1998)

[Trekker4747]

The guys are at it again using Kickstarter to raise the money to fund a big-name riff event they want to do this August.

Their target this time? Godzilla (1998) starring Matthew Broderick.

This is the second time the guys at Rifftrax have used Kickstarter to fund a riffing event as they did this last year to try and to fund a riffing of "Twilight." In that particular case Twilight was their top goal but in the KS pledge page they said that if they couldn't secure the right to Twilight they'd try and to get some other big-name movie. They ended up getting Starship Troopers.

Their goal was to get $55K which they achieved, and then some, in the first day. This time around they're looking to get $100K and have said that they, for sure, can get the rights to "Godzilla" they just need to secure the funds to purchase them.

Plenty of good rewards in the various levels including signed posters and exclusive riffs on "shorts" (including the granddaddy of all shorts, "Duck and Cover."), an MP3 for the studio version of the Godzilla riff (to be played with your DVD at home like old-school Rifftrax) and discounts/gift certificates on the RT site.

This Riff is set to take place in August and should be a good one!

 

[publiusr]

...exclusive riffs on "shorts" (including the granddaddy of all shorts, "Duck and Cover!)

Now folks really need to let the whole thing go about making fun of Duck and Cover.

That is actually sound advice. Nukes create a tornadic blast--remember that, during tornado warnings, precautions in schools actually take the form of duck and cover. You have more time to prepare than if you see a flash.

Speaking about seeing a flash--take Chelyabinsk. What did people do? They saw a flash--and moved towards the windows to see what was going on--the opposite of duck and cover.

And by the time they made it to the multiple panes of glass, the shock wave from that multi-kiloton event was just reaching the ground.

That's stupid.

Understandable, from a human perspective, but still.

Had they gotten under a table, there would have been no injuries, save from that one wall of masonry that collapsed--and getting under a table there would help--as in earthquakes.

 

[Mr Light]

I don't understand, why do they need to raise 100,000 in order to do a commentary track on a movie? Is this so they can purchase the DVD rights and sell DVDs of it? Why not just release the audio track on the internet? Profit?

 

[Trekker4747]

I don't understand, why do they need to raise 100,000 in order to do a commentary track on a movie? Is this so they can purchase the DVD rights and sell DVDs of it? Why not just release the audio track on the internet?

Anymore they've largely been doing videos on demand with the video of the movie and their commentary already tied together and down-loadable in one go. This has largely been their business model for the last couple of years as their MP3 riffs have largely dwindled as they've done more and more VODs. By and large the VODs they've been doing are either public domain movies or movies they can purchase the rights too and still make a profit off of them through the sales.

In the case of Godzilla (1998) they're doing one of their live shows where they broadcast the movie to theaters to theaters across America and Canada with them on stage providing the commentary. Up until recently they've done this with movies they can get the rights too (or don't need the rights to) on the cheap. Last year they did a Kickstarter to buy the rights for a Live-Riffing of the first Twilight movie. They raised $250,000 but were unable to secure the rights to Twilight and did Starship Troopers instead. (The Kickstarter did warn of the possibility of not getting the rights to Twilight and they'd have to go with another movie.)

This time out they wanted to do Godzilla (1998) which would require a large amount of money to put down to get the rights to broadcast it to theaters nationwide and profit from it.

The Kickstarter was successful, they achieved their goal within 12 hours or so. I've not seen anything yet as far a expansion goals.

Profit?

This is usually the aim of any business, yes.

As for the "Duck and Cover" post above...

While "duck and cover" is a worthwhile thing to do in many emergency situations the humor of it is in that doing this during a nuclear explosion is largely pointless. On the very fringes of the explosion, yeah, you're likely to survive the blast itself but still need to worry about debris and glass. But unless you're out on that very edge? Chances are the building you're in is going to be turned into a great big ball of shrapnel in which case hiding under your desk isn't going to help you at all. To say nothing about fallout and other side-effects of a nuclear explosion where, again, hiding under your desk isn't going to save you.

 

[publiusr]

A nuke "wastes" a lot of energy at the very center, and the debris plume can blow away from you, depending on where you are.

A lot of storm chasers refer to the largest supercells as H-bombs due to the way they look. They can even have a pileus cap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileus_(meteorology) similar to nukes and volcanic plumes.

Worse, it can spawn a twister that can last for hours and chase you--no end in a single thunderclap.

 

[Trekker4747]

Rifftrax has added a Stretch Goal, if they reach $250,000K in 2 weeks, they need a little more than $100,000 to get there, they'll be able to Riff Anaconda in October.