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RiffTrax are comedy audio commentaries of movies, television programs and short films featuring ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') comedians Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett heckling (or riffing) films in the style of ''MST3K'', a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer, and later the host. RiffTrax products are sold online and delivered by streaming video and download. ==History== The site was launched by Nelson and Legend Films, now renamed Legend3D, in 2006 and is based in San Diego. In 2012, RiffTrax was purchased from Legend3D by Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and RiffTrax CEO David G. Martin. As of December 2014, RiffTrax had 13 employees. The movies chosen for ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' were predominantly low-budget B-movies because the show itself was low-budget and producers could only afford films with expired copyright or that had otherwise cheap licenses. The idea of RiffTrax came about after ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' was canceled and Nelson had researched and consulted a lawyer about the possibility of directly releasing DVDs of films with the commentaries included. But Nelson realized this initial idea was not feasible since he would be "sued out of existence."〔(【引用サイトリンク】Interview: Michael J. Nelson )〕 Instead, the best way to distribute the commentaries would be to sell them independently of the films, to avoid having to obtain the rights to distribute the movies themselves. There would be no legal or monetary restrictions to prevent Nelson from producing them, though viewers would have to provide the movies themselves. The early RiffTrax were almost all solo efforts on Mike's part, but it soon became apparent that there was a strong demand for them, and Nelson was quickly able to recruit more riffers for the project. Most official RiffTrax (not counting fan-made iRiffs and the spin-off RiffTrax Presents series) have a stable cast of Mike and former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' co-stars Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, a line-up that happens to be identical to that of ''The Film Crew'' and the last three seasons of ''MST3K''. That said, the guest slots vary often; other ''MST3K'' alumni have been featured, such as Mary Jo Pehl and Bridget Nelson, in addition to Internet personalities Richard Kyanka (of Something Awful fame), Josh Fruhlinger (writer of The Comics Curmudgeon) and Chad Vader, as well as actors Neil Patrick Harris, Fred Willard, and Joel McHale, and parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic. Nelson has said that he would like to bring in other guests. The enthusiasm of guest riffers for the project led to the establishment of RiffTrax Presents, a series of tracks exclusively hosted by guest riffers and sanctioned by Nelson. The success of the guest format is such that "Three Riffer Editions" of some films previously solo riffed by Mike have been produced for the VOD service, which feature new riffs by Mike in conjunction with Murphy and Corbett, and Mike has ceased producing solo riffs since 2007. Along with the feature length tracks, Corbett, Murphy and Nelson have created riffs for a number of short films, typically educational and safety films, similar to the shorts presented before features on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''. These include films by the Jam Handy Organization, Alfred P. Higgins Productions, Coronet Films and ACI Films, amongst others. Because these shorts are in the public domain, they can be downloaded with the commentary already recorded onto them. Shorts are usually released at least once, and often twice, a week In 2008, RiffTrax launched iRiffs, which allows fans to upload commentaries to be sold on the website. iRiffs users are paid 50% of the net revenue generated by their products. iRiffs differentiates from normal RiffTrax in that both serious and humorous commentaries can be uploaded.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=iRiffs FAQ )〕 In February 2009, a contest was held by RiffTrax, in which a winning iRiffs user would be given $1,000 and a chance to develop a RiffTrax Presents title, receiving instruction and critique from Nelson, Murphy and Corbett. The winners of the contest were Doug and Rob Walker and Brian Heinz of That Guy with the Glasses, who contributed an iRiff of ''The Lion King''. The RiffTrax commentary they produced was for ''Batman Forever''.〔Walker, Doug (2 August 2009). (RiffTrax: Batman Forever ) announcement. ThatGuyWiththeGlasses.com.〕 In October 2015, Rifftrax negotiated the rights to release available ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' episodes through Vimeo via an all-access subscription plan, with a new re-release uploaded each Monday; individual episodes could also be rented through the site. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RiffTrax」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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