Creative Mastermind for Week 1/27: Cast and Crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000/RiffTrax

Happy Wednesday everyone! Hope you haven't been buried by snow or totally frozen from the cold weather that is attacking much of the United States right now. I don't know about you, but personally I HATE the cold and snow. I'm ok with it around Christmas and then after that, BAM I want to bring out my shorts and flip-flops again. I know, dream on, there's at least 2 months to go before I can even ponder the thought of warmer weather. Until then, I've got something better to help keep you warmer during this awful chill spell- LAUGHTER! and what better way to spread some laughter that introducing you to this week's Creative Mastermind (well "minds" technically.) These individuals bring their own brand of comedy to the table and have been doing so for about 20 years. I'm highlighting this great cast and crew for this special techniques in production, writing, and overall creative style in comedy. So give it up for the cast and crew of the hit-show "Mystery Science Theater 3000", plus new comedic-feature film site Rifftrax. If you know the song sing it with me... ♪♫ In the not too distant future, somewhere in time and space.... ♪♫

Ok, first things first: let's start with Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you've heard of or watched this show previously then you have mostly like come to two conclusions either 1. It's totally awesome or 2. It's totally stupid. If you haven't seen this show, this you're missing out! Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a real treat because it's a great comedy show that is almost, ALMOST set-up like a children's show. It's starts out with this cutesy song about a guy stuck in space and being chased by a bad guy. While in space he builds some "robot friends" out of parts on his ship to keep him company. In an attempt to make the good guy go insane the bad guy sends these cheesy old movies for him to watch. Instead they make fun of each of the movies and as the song suggests "you should really just relax". During the span of the series, we had two different men who played our "good guy"- Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson. The two main robot characters are Tom Servo and Crow who are voiced by Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett respectively. Other voice actors portrayed the two robot characters, however these two voices are the most notable. For the majority of each episode, the stranded man (either Joel or Mike depending on which season you are watching) and the robots watch corny, cheesy B-rated movies and make constant jokes on the acting, scripting, and visuals of the motion picture.  

What I find the most creative about this show is how clever and funny the acting is. The guys don't even have to try to "act". Most of the time it seems like natural, improvised jokes they throw at the camera. To show what I mean, here's a clip from the episode where they are watching the movie "Werewolf":

This is honestly one of my favorite jokes, I just love how they randomly start singing songs to the beat of the music in the end credits. By the way, the "Werewolf" episode is a pretty good one so check out it sometime if you'd like a good laugh! 

Something else I find extremely creative about this show is the design of the robots. They're puppets much like Jim Henson's creations, these guys could easily move, talk, spin, and everything in between through their master puppeteer. It's used as a joke in the theme song, but in all seriousness I really enjoy the visual concept of the robots. They're designed to look like common objects and parts from a ship. The most notable features are the ping-pong eyes on Crow and Tom Servo's classic gumball machine finish. Unlike cartoon characters or traditional children's show characters, these puppets aren't meant to look like a specific creature, just inanimate objects (which reminds me a little bit of Disney's Beauty and the Beast). 

When the series came to an end in 1999, a lot of people were devastated that this great cult-classic was shutting it's doors. However the cable channel Sci-fi (Syfy) did rerun the show on several occasions until about 2004. A few short years later, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett brought the magic of Mystery Science Theater back to life with a new program called RiffTrax. This time the guys decided to take their comedic commentaries to the popular and well-known films. I first came across RiffTrax around 2008 when I was looking up old Mystery Science Theater episodes and was so excited that these guys have made a comeback to their movie parody and joke ways. Since then RiffTrax has made fun of big hits like Titanic, Star Wars, Twilight, Dr. Who, and most recently my favorite movie of all-time The Wizard of Oz. 

Unlike Mystery Science Theater, RiffTrax is a seperate product and does not air on TV. Instead, you go to RiffTrax.com and purchase an MP3 of the commentary which you play along with the corresponding film or you can order a DVD of the film so you can watch the movie with our without their commentary. I've only gotten to listen to a few of the RiffTrax commentaries but I promise you they're just as good as Mystery Science Theater. Especially for you die hard fans of Twilight or anti-Twilight fans, RiffTrax does a terrific job of making fun of each scene in the movie. They constantly comment on the poor acting from the characters, and Edward's "problems". Either way it's great stuff. The thing to remember though is that Nelson and the crew are not out to "ruin" movies, the only make fun of them. I've done the same thing watching a movie and just making ridiculous comments about why a character isn't doing something. 

I should also mention that RiffTrax doesn't have a visual to accompany the film, nor is there a side plot like in Mystery Science Theater. The guys come onto the track and introduce themselves while giving you instructions on how to keep this track in sync with your movie, so you don't miss a second of humor in the scene. RiffTrax gets to have a place on my Creative Mastermind list because the concept alone is just brilliant! It's a whole new way to experience some of our favorite films, and RiffTrax does a pretty good job of staying in line with their jokes too. Very similar to shows like Saturday Night Live or MadTV, these guys are not out to offend anyone, they just enjoy having a good time making fun of movies. Here's a great sample clip from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban for you to get idea of how they work in the "good movies" compared to the low-budget, cheesy movies of Mystery Science Theater.

Even if you're not a Harry Potter fan, you've got to admit the jokes in this clip were pretty good (especially towards the end). Either way, both Mystery Science Theater and RiffTrax gave the public a good, creative way to experience movies through comedy and natural humor. I love all of the pop culture and music references they make in each of their shows which I feel also drives their popularity. It's not offensive and it's not killing the greatness of these films either. The guys have said on many occasions there's several of these films they really enjoy and don't want to the public to get the idea that they're hating on a specific franchise, actor, director, or whatever. No matter how you put it though great writing, excellent production, and innovative character designs are all reasons why I give the cast and crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax a place on my Creative Mastermind list.

If you have a suggestion for a Creative Mastermind, please share you ideas with me by either commenting on this post or you can send it to The Creative Cabana via Facebook or Twitter. In the meantime keep warm, and watch out for frostbite! Have a great afternoon everyone. 

*I do not own Mystery Science Theater 3000 or RiffTrax. All rights and content of both Mystery Science Theater and RiffTrax belong to their respective owners, producers, writers, etc. I also do not own any of the films mentionned in this post and give all credit to their respective studios and owners for their production. Images used in this post were gathered from Google Images search results. Both videos clips came from YouTube users, and I do not own the content for those clips as well. It is not intended for this post to be an endorsement for Mystery Science Theater 3000 or RiffTrax, but instead a post of praise and appreciation for the effort put into the creating of these shows. No Copyright Infringement Intended. 

Creative Cabana Update: Part 2

Good morning everyone! Sorry to be posting a little later than I originally planned to. Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning and organizing then when I did try to publish this post my internet kept getting dropped! Oh, speaking of organizing- remember my post from Wednesday? I mentionned how this post would be dedicated to something every creative mind should have. Did you figure out what object I was referring to? If you said a planner, organizer, or agenda then you are CORRECT!
                     
                                      

It may sound a little weird talking about planners here at The Creative Cabana- I mean usually I focus on specific projects like photos, videos, DIY, etc. I guess I'm trying to say that having a good planner is a great fundamental tool to help keep your projects aligned with your schedule, budget, and if applicable- deadlines. Personally, I have been using a planner (or I guess I should really say agenda) since 6th grade.

From 6th to 8th grade, my school provided each of the students these customized agendas and it was required that we use it to keep track of assignments, activities, and school events. A lot of kids thought the planners were a stupid concept, but for someone like me who enjoys keeping an organized schedule, I thought it was a great idea! Then in high school, I simply purchased my own planner from a retail store. In high school, I was involved in a little bit of everything so writing down all of my practices, club meetings, and homework assignments into my planner was a blessing.




During all four years of college I purchased my school's planner, which contained plenty of organization for writing down assignments and already included important dates for campus events, finals week, and holidays. So naturally, planners and agendas have almost become a second language to me. Even after graduation, I took the art of agenda writing with me when I started my first "big girl" job. I bought me a great planner to use for work, but when my employment got cut my planner for 2013 didn't get much use after that.


I decided that for 2014 my goal was to be more organized and improve preparation skills for this blog, so I decided to once again invest in a planner. I work in a mall and one of the stores in the mall is a really cool calender store that was having this great sale on all planners and calenders- 75% off! So before I went to work I stopped at this store and bought this great (and cute) planner for about $3.50.    
      

        

There's no secret to finding a good planner, it's all in preferences and what style you like. I like the planners where there's a full calender section, and then you can write on "weekly" pages. This allows me to quickly scan a month for events, and then I can be more detailed in the weekly sections. I also like planners that have handy references in them- which this one has a lot of because it's based around a girl's routine life. So each month has little facts and tips to follow. For example one month has tips for dressing for interviews, another month is dedicated to DIY projects (yeah, that's gonna be fun!) What about you though, what kind of planner to do you like to use?

It may sound silly, but finding a good planner can sometimes be a little challenging because you have to decide how much organization do you want your planner to have. Are you looking for something that's strictly professional or would you like to have a little bit of fun in it? Personally, I look at an agenda the same way I think of ringtones. Someone with a fun personality probably has some silly sound or song for a ringtone, but a stern individual might prefer something simple and basic. Planners can be the same way, but you can add some flair to a planner even if you stick with a more traditional style.

One year for Christmas, I bought a planner for Mom to use for school. My Mom loves music so I tried to find a good planner that had a music design to it, but all I could find were standard planners that were formatted nicely for her, but had no creative design to it. So, I bought stickers! Yes, I said stickers. Specifically stickers that are commonly used for scrapbooks. I found several musical stickers on sale and bought those to decorate her book with. She loved it!

This is just a great (and budget-friendly) alternative to giving your planner a little creative, and fun edge! Don't spend $20 for a planner that has One Direction or Star Trek on it. Find some cool stickers to place around the cover of your planner instead. You can also create a collage on the cover of your planner book using newspaper or magazine clippings as well. A creative planner for a creative mind can lead to excellent planning, better budgeting, and effienceny in your projects. Now that I've informed you about this great creative planning tool, it's time I used mine to start preparing for next weeks posts. If you ever have any creative ideas you'd like to share with The Creative Cabana please feel free to leave your suggestions on this post or visit us on Facebook and Twitter. Until next time, have a terrific Friday everyone! TGIF!

*Images of the "Gal's Guide" planner and the gray planner with musical stickers, are my own photographs and each planner is part of my own property. All other planner images were collected from search results on Google Images. No Copyright Infringement Intended.

Nope, We're not dead!

Hey there gang! It's Danielle, founder of The Creative Cabana. Long time no see, right? I can't begin to tell you how awful it's been going three weeks without posting! That's definitely a first, and hopefully the last time that will happen. A lot has been going on me which has prevented me from being able to keep up with The Creative Cabana as I had planned. As you might recall, my family and I moved just before Christmas- so that's been a process just unpacking and settling in since then. In addition, we started off the new year with everyone sick with the flu (except me, so I got to play nurse). Then of course there's the working part, where I've spent time working in retail and that alone pretty much drains my energy by the end of the day. Thankfully though, the unpacking is reaching it's final stage, no one is sick at the moment, and the job as been steady, so it's back to doing what I love: sharing creativity with you! I can't thank you all enough, for being soooo patient and loyal to The Creative Cabana during this frustrating time.

Ironically, as I'm writing this post I'm listening to a great song by Gloria Estefan "Coming Out of the Dark", which pretty much sums up how I feel about this blog. We're "coming out of the dark" and entering the public eye again with more creative projects, and ideas than ever! Over the last few weeks I have been brainstorming different ideas for new creative projects and formats to explore. Some projects will have to wait until the weather improves, but I have few tricks up my sleeve that will help you get through the rest of this cold and snowy winter season. Some of the topics I'll be focusing on include photography, graphic design, and art- more specifically drawings. It's all in the works at the moment, but trust me when I say you've got plenty to look forward to from this creative gal.

Also, next Monday I will be starting up again with the weekly posts of Creative Mastermind and I'm really looking forward to sharing some amazing creative talent with you. My next post, which should be up either tomorrow or Friday, is dedicated to a new concept and item that I have invested in. This item is essential to every great creative mind out there, and hopefully it'll help me keep up on my New Year's Resolution: to stay organized. Know what I'm talking about yet? Check back for the next post to see if you have the correct answer. In the mean time friends, keep warm and stay creative! Have a great Wednesday!

*I do not own Gloria Estefan or "Coming Out of the Dark". This song is the sole property of Gloria Estefan and the respective songwriters/producers. It was used in the post only for reference purposes. No Copyright Infringement Intended.