Want to grab any of our Kickstarter-exclusive rewards before they disappear forever? If it's listed below, you've still got time to pre-order now!
PLEASE NOTE: The physical rewards below will not ship until at least July 2022. Digital rewards will be distributed as soon as they are ready.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
MST3K Weekly Update: Nov 8-12, 2021
over 2 years ago
– Sun, Nov 14, 2021 at 05:06:50 AM
In This Update
Production: Filming begins in LA with Felicia and Patton!
Kickstarter News: Holiday cards coming in December!
Turkey Day 2021: Fan favorite movies selected + movie reveals coming!
Meet the Team: Sarah Mitchell, Set Costumer (PA)
Hail and Well Met, Backers!
Lesley and Ivan here, with your weekly update on all things MST3K.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve learned that production weeks are so busy that we haven’t even had time to finish these updates in time for Friday afternoons. So, from now on, whenever we’re in a production week, please expect the Weekly Update to arrive on Saturday.
And with that said: it’s the Saturday of a production week now, so join the conga line and let’s get this party started!
PRODUCTION NEWS
PRODUCTION BEGINS IN LA: We spent the first half of this week setting up our soundstage in Los Angeles, and yesterday afternoon, we wrapped up two full days of shooting scenes with Kinga and Max. Next week, we’ll record all of the riffs for the episodes featuring Jonah, Baron, Hampton and Rebecca, and then use whatever time remains to start shooting host segments and Gizmoplex bonus materials.
If you follow Felicia or Patton on Twitter, you might have already gotten a sneak peek at their costume fittings:
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mads’ World, and we’re happy to have ours back in uniform.
To give you a sense of the space where we’re shooting in Los Angeles – which is a lot smaller than the space where we shot in Philadelphia – here’s a quick look at the soundstage:
Jonah leans into the shot to check something on the teleprompter. We think.
The space in Los Angeles is a lot smaller than the one where we shot in PA… but just as expensive!
Jonah checks a shot on the monitor as Josh Fruehling (Assistant Director) reviews our schedule..
Just a couple of Mads and their test subject turned director. It’s a confusing dynamic.
If you haven’t filled out your BackerKit reward survey yet, this is your weekly reminder that we’re now more than a month past deadline, and need your answers ASAP in order to include your rewards in our main manufacturing runs. If you haven’t finished or received your BackerKit reward survey yet, please follow these instructions to get it submitted ASAP.
2. HOLIDAY CARDS: Printing this week + mailing in early December.
As we mentioned in a previous update, the first PHYSICAL REWARD we’re planning to send out is our MST3K HOLIDAY CARD, which we’re aiming to mail in early December.
If your rewards include a holiday card, and your mailing address has changed since you filled out your BackerKit survey, please be sure to update it by Friday, November 19, so that we don’t send your card to the wrong address.
If you’re not sure what address you provided, or need to update your address, here’s how.
GIZMOPLEX NEWS
We know that a lot of you have been eagerly awaiting more details about our progress on the Gizmoplex, and we’re looking forward to starting to share a little more of what we’re working on in these updates.
As we start to share our progress, please remember that our goal for the Gizmoplex was not to build a new platform from scratch, but to combine several other platforms and tools into a customized “MST3K-like” experience.
Throughout the Kickstarter campaign, we also know that many of you were clear that your pledges should be spent mostly on new episodes, and not on Gizmoplex development, so we’re doing our best to build our new theater with a very small team and budget.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped us from having a lot of additional, ambitious ideas and goals for how the Gizmoplex could work, so here’s our current plan: in order to make sure we’ve got the essential parts working, we’re now planning to launch the Gizmoplex in several phases.
For PHASE 1 – which we’re aiming to have working in time for the premiere of Episode 1301 – we want to make sure that the Gizmoplex site will allow you to:
Register and set up a Gizmoplex user account
Link your account to your MST3K video library on VHX
Browse and stream your collection of episodes
Browse a catalog of all episodes available to rent and / or buy
Attend the livestream premieres and special events
While there’s a lot more we’re aiming to do – especially in creating social viewing and interaction, adding watch parties, etc – some of those features will require more time to test and release, which means they probably won’t be part of the Gizmoplex when it first opens. However, as our “Founding Members”, we promise to keep you informed about the plans as we go.
BETA TESTING: If everything stays on schedule, we’re hoping to start our first small-scale beta test in December with about 100 volunteers, and then expand to more public beta as soon as we’re ready. If you’re interested in volunteering to join the beta test, keep an eye on these weekly updates: we’ll provide a link to a volunteer registration form in early December.
BACKUP OPTIONS: To safeguard your experience, we’re also working to make sure that – even if the Gizmoplex site experiences technical problems in the beginning – you’ll still be able to attend all livestream events and access all of your own video collection through other channels. More specifically, you will always have the ability to watch all content directly on VHX, as well as through the MST3K apps that we’ll be releasing before the first new episode premieres.
We’ll explain more about how all of these options work as we get closer.
TURKEY DAY 2021: TOURNAMENT UPDATE
The qualifying rounds of our Turkey Day Marathon Tournament are complete, which means we’ve now got our four fan-selected episodes for Turkey Day!
Based on your votes, this year’s Turkey Day Menu will include:
The Magic Voyage of Sinbad
Hercules Against the Moon Men
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
Prince of Space
BUT: Just for fun, we’re going to continue the voting to see which episode comes out as this year’s favorite. These four winners will be combined with four surprise episodes chosen by us here at MST3K HQ.
That said, the real winners are everyone who watches the Turkey Day marathon this year. We’ll let Crow, Servo and GPC2 explain:
That’s right, friends! As part of Turkey Day 2021, we’ll be revealing ALL THIRTEEN MOVIES that we’re riffing for Season 13!
So, if you want to see what the next year has in store for you, be sure to tune in on THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, starting at 9am ET / 6am PT. Find all of the details on where to watch on MST3KTurkeyDay.com.
TIME BUBBLE TOUR NEWS
If you’ve been to an #MST3KLive show before, you’ll know we play music before the show and during intermission. What you might not have known is that the show’s playlist was compiled by the cast and crew, and that you can go listen to it on Spotify right now!
Also, the date for WORCESTER, MA will be announced on Tuesday, November 16, and the backer presale will be happening Wednesday through Friday with code MVSGN.
As always, you can see all the currently-announced dates and theaters on our tour website at MST3KLive.com.
COMMUNITY NEWS
Hey! You might not have heard, but we’ve got these new official MST3K forums, and boy howdy, they are a riot. Join up here if you’d like to check them out. Here are a few delicious threads from the past week:
Each week, we’re introducing you to another member of the MST3K team. This week, it's...
Sarah Mitchell, Set Costumer (PA)
1. In a sentence or two, what do you do on MST3K? I am the set costumer for the Philadelphia shoot, which means I keep track of all the costumes for cast and bots alike, make costume adjustments as needed, that sort of thing.
2. What do you love most about your job? I would say learning how to costume puppets has been my favorite thing so far! That’s a whole new area for me.
3. Tell us a fun fact about you. This might be obvious, given what I do, but... Halloween is my favorite holiday.
And that’s all we’ve got for this week.
As always, join us on the dedicated forum thread with your questions and feedback. Have a stupendous weekend, everyone!
Your correspondents,
Lesley & Ivan
MST3K Weekly Update: Oct 29 - Nov 6, 2021
over 2 years ago
– Sun, Nov 07, 2021 at 01:52:30 AM
In This Update
Production: Filming shifts from Penn to LA + resumes next week!
Kickstarter News: Coin previews, patch progress, forum status!
Turkey Day 2021: More tournament bracket updates!
Meet the Team: Fre Keck Howard, Hair & Makeup (PA)
Happy November, friends!
Ivan and Lesley here with the latest news from the past week… and as you may have noticed, this week was so hectic that we’re bringing you a special Saturday edition of the MST3K Weekly Update. And since you’ve already waited long enough, let’s get right to it!
PRODUCTION NEWS
WRAPPING UP IN PA: Even though we’ve been finished shooting in Pennsylvania for a few weeks, there’s still been more work involved to “wrap” that shoot. All of the costumes and props have now been packed, and either sent to storage (if we’re done using them) or to Los Angeles (if we’ll need them for our next shoot). We’ve also been running a lot of errands, like returning rental equipment, getting security deposits back, and making sure all of the cast and crew have been paid for their work.
BUDGET REVIEWS: Our producers have also been reviewing all of our invoices and expenses to “actualize” the budget – meaning, to compare what we planned to spend with what we actually spent, so we can update our remaining budgets to be more accurate. (Granted, most of you might not find budget updates that interesting, but we want to make sure you know that we’re being careful with every single dime of what you pledged!)
PREPARING FOR LA: With our first PA shoot complete, most of us have turned to preparing for the next round of filming, where we’ll shoot most of this season’s Jonah-hosted episodes. Since that starts in less than a week, there’s been plenty to do, including: reviewing and approving props and costumes; getting models finalized for our miniature model shoot; doing final revisions on scripts; making sure we’ve got each day’s shots listed and scheduled; getting the scripts printed and loaded into the teleprompters, and so on.
PAGE TURN MEETINGS: We’ve also been working through a series of what are called “page turn” meetings. In these sessions, the producers, director, cast, and key crew positions – like our costumers and prop masters – review each script, one page at a time, to make sure we’ve made all of the decisions that have to be made before we get in front of the camera, and that everything will be ready to go on time.
PREPARING FOR TURKEY DAY: Finally, our post-production team has been hard at work editing all of the new segments that will appear in this year’s MST3K Turkey Day Marathon, including a very special surprise. More details on that in next week’s update!
First: thank you to the 300+ backers who finished their surveys this week!
Second – with apologies to everyone who is done – we need to keep mentioning this: we're still attempting to reach the final 10% of backers who haven't filled out their reward surveys, so that we can include your rewards in our main manufacturing runs. If you haven’t finished or received your BackerKit reward survey yet, please follow these instructions to get it submitted ASAP.
2. CHALLENGE COINS: Unfinished coins from the mint!
This week, we got a much closer look at the progress on the CHALLENGE COIN rewards, with clear photos showing what each coin will look like before the enamel coloring is applied:
We’re pretty excited about these, and can’t wait to get them into your hands. If your pledge rewards don’t include one (or all) of the CHALLENGE COINS, good news: you still have another week or two before we place the final quantity order, which means you can still grab them as stand-alone Add-On Rewards.
3. MISSION PATCHES: If at first you don’t succeed...
While these updates are usually focused on sharing our positive progress, we thought it might also be interesting to share an unexpected problem we’ve been dealing with over the past month, and in this case, related to the MISSION PATCHES add-on reward.
As you might remember from our Kickstarter page, or from the BackerKit survey, we had already finalized and shared the design for all four “host” mission patches in the set… and, after a lot of back and forth, we signed off on these final proofs from the manufacturer:
We’ve hidden the numbers on Jonah and Emily’s patches, since we haven’t announced how many episodes they’ll each be hosting.
As you can see, these are pretty much identical to what we showed you on BackerKit, so we went ahead and asked the manufacturer to make an initial batch that we could use on screen for the new episodes. But when we got back the actual patches, they looked like this:
And while they’re not terrible, they’re definitely not what we approved, either. The general consensus on set was that Jonah came out looking like Dwight Schrute, Emily came out looking like Heath Ledger’s Joker, and all of them look like they’ve been run over with steamrollers.
So, even though it added a lot of extra work and some re-negotiation of prices, we ended up taking the job elsewhere, and convincing another manufacturer who we know from the first Kickstarter to step in and handle the patches. A few weeks later, we received their physical samples:
We were a lot more satisfied with these versions, so these are the ones we’ll be using on-screen in the new season… and the ones you’ll receive if you got the Mission Patches as an Add-On Reward. (And if you didn’t, we ordered about 100 extras, which you can still reserve right now on BackerKit: if you want them, click here to get yours.)
4. BACKER STATUS on MST3K FORUMS: Activating this month.
Finally, one more reward update that we’ve gotten a lot of questions about:
If your completed BackerKit survey indicated that you do want to be designated with a special “Backer” status on the MST3K forums, you won’t need to wait much longer. Using the email address you provided for your forum account on BackerKit, we’ll be activating your BACKER STATUS before the end of November.
Please note: If you already have backer status and didn’t provide the email address of your forum account in BackerKit, you will lose your designation when we activate it for all confirmed backers. If you’re not sure whether you provided an email address for your forum account, we’ve posted instructions on how to double-check your survey answers.
TIME BUBBLE TOUR UPDATE
The TIME BUBBLE TOUR kicked off last week, and we are thrilled with the show so far! Here’s where the tour will be this week:
Nov 6: Rochester, NY - Auditorium Theater - BUY TICKETS
Nov 7: Washington, DC - Warner Theatre - BUY TICKETS
Nov 9: Chester, NY - Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center - BUY TICKETS
Nov 10 & 11: Boston, MA - The Wilbur - BUY TICKETS
Nov 12: New Haven, CT - Shubert Theater - BUY TICKETS
And, of course, you can see all of the upcoming tour dates and available tickets on MST3Klive.com.
TURKEY DAY 2021: TOURNAMENT UPDATE
This week, Hercules Against the Moon Men held strong against Warrior of the Lost World, and The Brain That Wouldn’t Die fought off a challenge by The Touch of Satan. This means both Moon Men and Brain have secured places in this year’s Turkey Day Marathon!
Today’s vote features the fan favorite Prince of Space locked in battle with underdog Village of the Giants. Can the combined powers of Tommy Kirk and Beau Bridges fend off the mighty Krankor? Your votes decide!
COMMUNITY NEWS
Hey, look at these fantastic forums! They’re amazing! Join up here if you’d like to experience the joy for yourself. Here are a few delicious threads from the past week:
Each week, we’re introducing you to another member of the MST3K team. This week, it's...
Fre Howard Keck, Hair & Makeup (PA)
1. In a sentence or two, what do you do on MST3K? I am the hair and makeup artist during the Philadelphia shoot for the show.
2. What do you love most about your job? Meeting all the wonderful cast and crew. Everyone is so nice. This has been one of my favorite jobs ever!
3. Tell us a fun fact about you. I used to be a sign language interpreter!
(And, since she was too modest to talk about herself much, we’ll add that Fre has a really great on-set presence, and radiates a warm, positive energy that helps everyone else feel calm and appreciated. Thanks for all of your hard work, Fre!)
And... that’s all we’ve got for this time!
Next week, we should finally have a little more news for those of you waiting for Gizmoplex details, as well as a tease of what you can expect if you tune into this year’s Turkey Day Marathon.
As always, join us on the dedicated forum thread with your questions and feedback. And have a suitably autumnal weekend, everyone!
Your correspondents,
Ivan & Lesley
MST3K Weekly Update: Oct 25-29, 2021
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Nov 03, 2021 at 01:13:58 PM
Meet the Team: Gary Glover, Production Designer & Artist
Happy Halloween,friends!
It’s Friday again, and we're mostly just scared at how fast October went by! After a few weeks of brief updates from set, we're back in the saddle this afternoon with some new details about the Kickstarter, the launch of the Time Bubble Tour, and the kind of detailed weekly update you've come to expect! As always, Lesley and Ivan are your crypt-keepers, here with the latest frights. Let's check it out, shall we?
PRODUCTION NEWS
EPISODE SHOOTING: As we reported last week, we're thrilled to confirm that we have now finished shooting four episodes of the new season featuring our newest cast members (Emily, Nate, Conor and Yvonne), who had about 24 hours to rest before they headed to York, PA for final rehearsals for MST3K Live's TimeBubble Tour.
Even though we shared a lot of behind-the-scenes photos from our Pennsylvania shoot last week, here are two more we wanted you to see:
Joel frames a shot for a Gizmoplex video featuring the #MakeMoreMST3K Snow Globe!
A shot of most (but not all!) of our incredible Philadelphia cast and crew, just before we wrapped.
BACK TO PREPPING: Now that we've wrapped up our first block of shooting, our entire production team is back in the office working hard to prepare for the next round of filming, which begins in Los Angeles in just a few weeks. As part of that, our crew has packed up a lot of the costumes, props and robots used during our Philadelphia shoot, and shipped them off to York (to use on the live tour) and Los Angeles (to use when we film more episodes).
Servo and the costumes are headed for York. The U-Haul boxes are headed to LA.
NEXT UP: For our next round of production, we'll be shooting in Los Angeles for 1-2 weeks with Jonah, Baron (Servo), Hampton (Crow), and Rebecca (GPC + Synthia). We'll also have several days where we pick up all of the scenes involving our extended cast, including Grant Baciocco (Waverly), Russ Walko (Growler), Patton Oswalt (Max), Felicia Day (Kinga Forrester), and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester).
Then, after a brief break for Thanksgiving, we'll resume for another 1-2 weeks in December before wrapping production for this year. We'll give everyone a few weeks off for the holidays, and then we'll spend January finalizing everything we need for our third and final shooting block, which will begin in mid-February, just after the MST3K LIVE tour ends.
EDITING BEGINS: Finally, even though we still have a lot left to shoot, we thought you might be excited to know that the editing and post-production process is already underway. Our editor(s) have begun logging and reviewing the footage captured on set, and will start assembling rough episode edits that Joel and the team can review before we start shooting in Los Angeles.
As most of you already know, we're still attempting to reach the last 10% of backers who haven't filled out their reward surveys, so that we can include their rewards in our main manufacturing runs.
If you HAVEN’T FINISHED YOUR SURVEY, we’ll still do our best to make sure you get all of your rewards… but the longer it takes to get your survey, the more your choices may be limited for options like t-shirt design, color and size. So, help us help you: please get your survey submitted ASAP. If you still have questions, let us know.
If you HAVEN’T RECEIVED YOUR SURVEY, we are probably having trouble getting in touch with you. Please check this article in our Backer Support KnowledgeBase for instructions on the fastest way to get help and receive your missing survey.
And again, if you have submitted your survey, don't worry: We’re still moving forward with reward manufacturing for everyone who has sent in their answers, so that we can get your rewards delivered ASAP.
2. CHALLENGE COINS: Preview of metal dies from the mint!
We're eagerly awaiting the first physical samples of the CHALLENGE COIN rewards, but so far, the production process is off to a good start.
Just this week, our coin-making partner sent along this photo from the mint where our coins are being printed, showing the dies for three of the designs:
We're expecting the first full-color samples within a few weeks, and will be sure to give you a look at those when we get them.
3. SURPRISE REFUNDS: Some of you overpaid on BackerKit!
A small handful of backers – about 100 of you – may have noticed that you received $30 refunds from the #MakeMoreMST3K BackerKit this week. If you were among those backers, don't worry: we haven't canceled any of your rewards! We just discovered a small number of people who selected the same reward upgrade twice when filling out their BackerKit surveys, and were charged for it a second time. We don't want anyone overpaying, so we went ahead and refunded the additional $30 upgrade charge that you had already paid for – but you'll still get all of the rewards you're expecting, including the full set of 20 CLASSIC BONUS EPISODES that Joel selected for this Kickstarter.
4. IN-PERSON SET VISITS: Plan for mid-to-late February. Exact dates coming soon!
If your Kickstarter rewards include an IN-PERSON SET VISIT to join us in Philadelphia during the final 1-2 days of production, don't worry: you haven't missed anything. As of now, we're still expecting to schedule your set visit for mid-to-late February 2022, during our last two days on set. We're finalizing the exact timing now, but we'll contact you in the next week weeks to confirm your schedule for visiting set.
5. VIRTUAL SET VISITS: More set visit sessions coming in November and December!
For those backers whose rewards include access to our VIRTUAL SET VISITS, we're making final arrangements now for a set visit in November that will let you spend an hour watching our cast record the riffs and silhouette segments for an upcoming episode, as well as additional sessions in December, January and February. We'll let you know the date of the NOVEMBER VIRTUAL VISIT in next week's update, but you can expect it to take place during the week of November 15-19 – and, as always, if you can't join the set visit live, we'll make sure you're able to re-watch the full video afterward.
6. ONLINE CLASSES WITH JOEL: We'rescheduling the livestream lectures and discussions!
For backers whose rewards include access to Joel's livestream classes about movie riffing, robot puppeteering, and designing inventions with magic, good news: we can now confirm that the INTRODUCTION TO MAGIC & INVENTIONS class will be live-streamed on SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 2022. As of now, we're planning to hold the INTRODUCTION TO MOVIE RIFFING class in March 2022, and the INTRODUCTION TO ROBOT PUPPETEERING class in April 2022, so stay tuned for exact dates and times.
7. GIZMOPLEX UPDATES coming later this month!
Finally, for those of you waiting for news about the future of the GIZMOPLEX virtual theater and apps, good news: we've been working on them non-stop, and should have more specific we can share before the end of November... including details on how you can volunteer to participate in the first backer-exclusive beta test period! Keep an eye on this month's weekly updates for more news.
TURKEY DAY 2021: TOURNAMENT UPDATE
The Turkey Day Tournament continues! This week, WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD fought off DADDY-O to advance, and MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD won out over EEGAH to secure the first spot in this Turkey Day Marathon! (We’re going to keep voting to see who “wins,” though!)
Today’s battle features WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD attempting to fend off a new challenge by HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN. Get your vote on here!
COMMUNITY NEWS
Have you checked out the new official MST3K forums yet? Join up here, it’s a rager. Here are a few sample threads from the past week:
The TIME BUBBLE TOUR kicks off in York, PA TOMORROW! (Wow, that came up fast.) Rehearsals have been going great, and are continuing as we write this update, with the first public preview performance scheduled for TOMORROW NIGHT! The entire Alternaversal team is proud of this show, and of our terrific cast, and can't wait for you to join us for... MAKING CONTACT.
Coming soon, to a theater near (many of) you!
We had a sudden flood of tour date announcements come through this week, so buckle up.
As always, you can see all the currently-announced dates and theaters on our tour website at MST3KLive.com.
MEET THE TEAM
Each week, we’re introducing you to another member of the MST3K team. This week, it's...
Gary Glover, Production Designer & Artist
1. In a sentence or two, what do you do on MST3K? I’d say I’m really a “Jack of all Trades” (Master of some!) that would include: Illustrator, Visual Development, Production & Concept Design, Photoshop Jockey, Matte Painter and poster maker. I became involved visually with MST3K in the 90’s as I created T-Shirts, mouse pads, calendars, stationary and The Bot Building Booklet for Best Brains,Inc. I worked with Joel on posters for Cinematic Titanic and then got invited for Visual Development early in 2015 for what would become Season 11 of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot. The past six years has been the icing on my work cake!
2. What do you love most about your job? I’m incredibly lucky to do what I do for the show! It’s an amazing process to work with all of the team of creatives and clever folks associated with MST3K. Getting to do so many posters over the years has been so much fun for me. Illustrating seasons 11 & 12, the last three live show posters, the hybrid B-movie poster series, and my involvement this season with the production is really a high point in my career.
3. Tell us a fun fact about you. My family and I have been mesmerized with MST3K since the early Comedy Central days, and I began sourcing parts and building bots. It was my bot building that got me hooked up with Joel. That was 20 plus years ago and they can’t get rid of me!
That's all for this week! As always, please join us on the forums in the dedicated forum link for this update, and share your questions and feedback.
And have a spooky-good weekend, everyone!
Your Tricked-and-Treated Correspondents,
Lesley & Ivan
MST3K Weekly Update: Oct 18-22, 2021. Hello from Week 2 on Set. PLUS: BTS Photo Dump!
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 04:02:37 AM
In This Update
Production: Wrapping up shooting in PA. Lots of photos!
Kickstarter: Please submit your overdue reward surveys ASAP!
Events: Turkey Day Voting + RiffTrax Live Halloween show!
Tour News: Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, Georgia!
Helloooooo Backers!
It’s time for your Friday update, and this week’s installment will be a little different, because both Ivan and Lesley have been on set all week for the first block of shooting on the new season of episodes that you made possible. So, here’s what’s happening.
PRODUCTION NEWS
We’ve got a small but mighty crew here in an unmarked studio near Philadelphia, and the entire team has spent the past two weeks hard at work filming new episodes that introduce our newest (co-) test subject, Emily Connor (Emily Marsh), and her own versions of Crow (Nate Begle), Servo (Conor McGiffin) and GPC2 (Yvonne Freese).
We’ve also been shooting some scenes with Synthia and Mega-Synthia. Originally, we also planned to have Pearl here as well, but due to some last-minute scheduling conflicts, she’ll be joining us on set next month in Los Angeles instead.
Jonah has been doing a fantastic job of directing all of the scenes, including a few new musical numbers we can’t wait for you to hear – and with the help of Josh Fruehling (our Assistant Director) and Sarah Morisano (our Unit Production Manager), we’re pretty much right on schedule and on budget!
This afternoon, we finished shooting the last scenes we needed for Emily’s episodes… which is good, because on Sunday, this cast will head out for a week of final rehearsals, and then head to cities near you for MST3K LIVE’s TIME BUBBLE TOUR! And even if you caught this cast during the last live tour, you should know that they’re somehow better now, so you’re in for a good time.
And, while we don’t have a lot of time to write a more detailed update this week, we have been taking a lot of behind-the-scenes photos for you. See for yourself:
Joel and Matt review some last-minute script revisions.
Costume rack just next to the kitchen, for quick access!
Emily gets prepped for her next scene by Fre, our incredible hair and makeup artist.
A behind-the-scenes look at what is behind the scenes. Literally.
Jonah and Joel confer on the details for a host segment.
You wanted pictures of the snack table? You got 'em.
It's been a long two weeks. GPC2 is all of us.
Jonah and Emily review script revisions before shooting a take.
The greenscreen often needs a paint touchup to remove wear, tear and scuffing.
We're on a tight budget. We only had enough color for Servo.
EVENT NEWS
TURKEY DAY TOURNAMENT 2021: The Turkey Day Tournament continues! As a refresher, for this year’s Turkey Day Marathon, YOU are choosing four of the episodes by voting for your favorites. Here’s where the competition stands as of today.
RIFFTRAX LIVE: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: Elsewhere, our pals at RiffTrax — Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett — are heading back to the big screen, with a RiffTrax LIVE Halloween performance of Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes! They'll be broadcasting to over 700 theaters across the U.S. this Tuesday, October, 26th. Visit Rifftrax.com/live to find a participating cinema near you!
RENO, NV: Your tour date will be announced on Monday, October 25 at 10am PST. Your backer presale (code: MVSGN) will run from Tuesday October 26 at 10am PT. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday, October 28 at 10am PT.
YOUNGSTOWN, OH: Your tour date will be announced on Tuesday, October 26 at 10am ET. Your backer presale (code: MVSGN) will run from Wednesday October 27 at 10am ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 29 at 10am ET.
ATLANTA, GA: Your tour date will be announced on Tuesday, October 26 at 10am ET. Your backer presale (code: MVSGN) will run from Wednesday October 27 at 10am ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 29 at 10am ET.
You can see all the currently-announced dates and theaters on our tour website at MST3KLive.com.
That’s it for this week. Next week, it’s back to the production office to prepare for our second block of shooting in November – but that means we’ll be able to update you on some of our progress with Kickstarter rewards and Gizmoplex development.
In the meantime, join us on the forum thread for this update, and let us know what you think. Have a restful weekend, all!
Your Correspondents,
Ivan & Lesley
MST3K Weekly Update: Oct 11-15, 2021. PLUS: A Message from Joel!
over 2 years ago
– Sun, Oct 17, 2021 at 01:23:20 AM
In This Update
Production: Done with Week 1! Set Photos + the IATSE Strike
Kickstarter: No news this week. Please submit late surveys ASAP.
Turkey Day 2021: Voting has begun – cast yours now!
PLUS: A Special Message from Joel!
Greetings from Week One on Set!
It’s Friday, and somehow, amidst the intensity of our first week of shooting, Lesley and Ivan (but mostly Lesley) are here with the latest news! It’s going to be a quick one, as we have a lot going on, but let’s get into it, hmm?
PRODUCTION NEWS
DONE WITH WEEK ONE: The big news is that we’ve started shooting, and it’s going fantastic! We’ve recorded the riffs for four episodes and half a dozen shorts, and are now on our second day shooting host segments – which actually puts us 1-2 days ahead of our schedule. That means we’ll have more time to shoot bonus content for the Gizmoplex, Turkey Day, and other surprises. And, while we can't tell you too much about the specifics of what we're shooting, we do have some pictures to give you a sense of what's going on:
Production isn't official until you see a photo of the slate. So, now we're official.
Jonah (director) and Josh (A.D. and producer) watch a take on the screen.
L to R: Producer Matt McGinnis; behind the camera; Crow waiting for his cue (right).
L to R: Jonah, Nate, Emily, Joel & Conor
IATSE STRIKE: In other news, as many of you have seen, IATSE, the union that represents the skilled technicians, artists, and craftspeople behind every American film or television show you watch, as well as many live shows and concerts, has voted to strike on Monday if they cannot reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. IATSE is advocating for stricter limits on the length of the workday, as well as harsher penalties for productions that force their crews to work through meal breaks, and also fair pay for people who work on “new media” streaming services productions.
If you’re wondering what that means for MST3K and our production schedule, the short answer is: It won’t affect anything.
There are several reasons for that. We’re a fully non-union shoot, and have no IATSE crew – which means no one involved would be affected by a strike. In addition, our shooting locations on both coasts are not on union backlots, or in facilities that are likely to have picket lines, which means our cast (who are members of SAG-AFTRA and would not want to cross picket lines) won’t be affected either. And – most important – our production already adheres to all of the terms that IATSE is pushing for, and are abiding by all of the labor adjustments they are hoping to negotiate in their new contract.
That said, even though MST3K won’t be affected by an IATSE strike, we do want to take a moment to express our unconditional support for their efforts. Without the hard work of IATSE members, most shows wouldn’t get made at all… and everything they’re negotiating for isn’t just reasonable, but essential to ensuring their members’ basic quality of life and safety. If you’d like to read some of the personal stories driving this strike, check out @ia_stories on Instagram.
KICKSTARTER NEWS
No news is good news! In this case at least. Ivan is on set this week, and says there are no major Kickstarter related developments, so we’ll resume Kickstarter news in next week’s update. However: if you still haven’t filled out your survey, please do so!
EVENT NEWS: TURKEY DAY '21
The Turkey Day Tournament continues! Just as a reminder, YOUR VOTES will choose the four fan-selected episodes for this year’s Turkey Day Marathon (we’ve chosen the other four). In the first battle, The Magic Voyage of Sinbad edged out Lost Continent to advance to the next round.
In today’s match-up, Parts: The Clonus Horror faces off against The Brain That Wouldn’t Die. Cast your vote on our Turkey Day page, or on the forums, and make your feelings known!
COMMUNITY NEWS
Have you checked out those official MST3K forums yet? Join up here if you’d like to check it out. Here are a few selected threads from the past week:
Finally, we have something different for you to finish out this week’s update: a special message straight from Joel, written this afternoon on set. Keep reading below for that.
Otherwise, that’s that for this week! As always, if you have questions or feedback, come join us on the dedicated forum thread. (Also, Lesley wants to know what you'd most like to see photos of from set — we can't promise anything, but let us know what you're dying to get a look at.)
Thanks for everything, friends, and have a smashing weekend.
Your correspondents,
Lesley & Ivan
Dear MST3K Preservation League,
Hey again, it's Joel. Today marks the end of the first week of our shoot for Season 13, and it has been a tremendous amount of work from many talented parties. I have a few minutes while our writers make some script adjustments, so I thought I’d take a minute to write to you all.
Josh Fruehling, our Assistant Director, just announced that we’ve got five minutes until we start shooting again, so I’m writing to you from the greenroom of an “off the radar” studio near Philly. More on that later.
Right now everyone is a bit giddy, and we’re doing really fine work, so far. Jonah Ray is doing an incredible job directing these episodes, and guiding the cast to give really beautiful performances. In fact, things are running so smoothly that we’re ending the week slightly ahead of schedule. For a producer such as myself, that’s a good feeling.
I’m also happy to report that everything we’ve been planning for the past year is finally becoming “real” and legible. This afternoon, Emily and the Bots will finish their second full episode, which means – when added up – that we shot over two hundred pages of scripts and riffs this week. Getting these elements recorded represents the work of about a hundred people so far, and from my perspective, the riffs are as good as anything from the Netflix season, and even from many of the well-loved classic seasons.
The sketches are markedly different, though. Emily, Nate, Conor, and Yvonne have chemistry that is unique, probably because they spent months on the road together and did nearly 100 performances during MST3K Live’s The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour. If you saw the last live tour, you know what I’m talking about.
However, they also got a new perspective on MST3K, because they all wrote on many of the episodes this upcoming season. Simply put, they’re now able to be familiar with the material in a way they couldn’t before, and it shows. I’m not going to say anymore about it though, as it’s time to put away the grease gun. All I will say is that they’re doing a terrific job with these new episodes, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
After we finish shooting next week here in the Philly area, the cast – along with our long-time collaborator and friend Tim Ryder, who will be directing the live tour – will start a week of final rehearsals for the upcoming “Time Bubble Tour,” which starts on October 30th.
Whew. So grateful for the help and support. It’s thanks to all of you that we are here doing this now, and I’m so glad we’ll be able to share these episodes with you.
