Star Wars Fanworks: The Home of Fan Audio

[Nathan Butler]

SEPTEMBER 1, 2003 – ATLANTA, GA, USA

A new era for STAR WARS fan audio productions, original fan-made audio dramas and radio shows based on the STAR WARS saga, has begun. Over the past several years, STARWARZ.COM has been the host of several fan audio projects by NATHAN P. BUTLER, including the SECOND STRIKE and ANTHOLOGY audio dramas, CONTEXT concept website, and his original radio show, CHRONORADIO. Since the premiere of SECOND STRIKE as the world’s first large-scale serious STAR WARS fan audio drama on Christmas Day 2002, the fan audio genre has expanded dramatically. Recent releases like SHAVEN WOOKIEE PRODUCTIONS’ RISE OF NOBILITY and SOUTHERN CROSS PRODUCTIONS’ RESURRECTION have served to expand the genre from the hobbies of a small few creators into a fan production realm in its own right, standing alongside written fan fiction and fan films as an expression of the fans’ creativity.

Now, STARWARZ.COM’s NATHAN P. BUTLER and LOU “T’BONE” TAMBONE have joined forces with web designer SONJA NELSON to create a new, large-scale home for STAR WARS fan audio projects to act as a central hub in the fan audio community. This new website, STARWARSFANWORKS.COM launches today, September 1, with nearly 55 hours of content at launch time.

STARWARSFANWORKS.COM features in-depth news coverage of the fan audio genre, an extensive IMDB-style index of fan audio genre participants and their projects, and two dedicated project listing and hosting sections. An extensive FAN AUDIO DRAMA section features a catalog of STAR WARS audio drama projects, including hosted projects (SECOND STRIKE, ANTHOLOGY, CONTEXT, RESURRECTION, SMUGGLER’S RUN, CORUSCANT), co-hosted projects (STAR WARS: THE MUSICAL, RISE OF NOBILITY), and listings for where to find unaffiliated projects. A FAN RADIO SHOW area features hosted shows from NATHAN P. BUTLER (CHRONORADIO) and RICH SIGFRIT (REQUIEM OF THE OUTCAST), along with informative pages hosted for all three programs from DIGITAL LLAMA PRODUCTIONS (with information on where to download official episodes) and listings for unaffiliated shows.

Whether you’re looking for a large-scale urban warfare drama like SECOND STRIKE, a quick parody like CORUSCANT to add some humor to your day, or in-depth coverage of fandom at large in REQUIEM OF THE OUTCAST, STARWARZ’s new sister site, STARWARSFANWORKS.COM is your one-stop destination for STAR WARS fan audio.

Come join the site premiere excitement at WWW.STARWARSFAWORKS.COM to check out two new releases, exclusive to the site: the all-new ANTHOLGOY: THE MOB and RICH SIGFRIT’s premiere episode of REQUIEM OF THE OUTCAST and his exclusive interview with RICHARD “ADMIRAL MOTTI” LAPERMANTIER.

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That's right, "Project Sonja" AKA Star Wars Fanworks is now open for business!

http://www.starwarsfanworks.com

[T-bone]

Excellent - it's looking great. Hope people dig it.

[James T. Skywalker]

Since I got those occasional sneak previews before the launch, I'm still very impressed with the site and I enjoy the content that is there so far. It'll be a few days before I actually start listening to the stuff; I've got other things to do first (including getting copies of certain materials this week to add to my EU collection) before I get to the fan audio! style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

Great site, Nate.

~JTS

[Nathan Butler]

"And so it begins . . . " as they say.

Oops, wrong saga. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif

I'm going to start putting up "official thread" links to this forum on all the show pages on Fanworks next time I update. I've got several updates that I'm already working on.

[Nathan Butler]

Big news but can't say much. We'll most likely be doing page-hosting (like for the Digital Llama shows) for another major SW fan radio show in the near future. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

[T-bone]

Sounds good!

[Nathan Butler]

Yep. Now if only JediTalk's archives online were still around. We could bring all the radio shows out there together, y'know?

Ah well. Alas and alack, and all that.

[T-bone]

hehe - I was on there once or twice...they had an 800 number too!

[Nathan Butler]

Yep. And now all that remains is a Yahoo group and some old pages on the Web Archive site. That's all.

[Nathan Butler]

Booyah! Just hooked up with the guys from Star Wars en Direct. Fanworks is now doing a page-hosting setup with them.

That leaves only the bygone Jedi Talk . . . and don't rule that out yet . . . heh heh heh.

[Nathan Butler]

UPDATE: Rich Sigfrit will officially be joining the site staff as of tonight.

[T-bone]

Excellent.

[Nathan Butler]

(All part of the insidious plan so that when things go wrong, people can say, "Dammit, Rich!" rather than "Dammit, Nathan!")

[Brian]

The site looks great! I'll encourage everyone to listen to my episode of Chrono Radio if you haven't already.

http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/chronoradio.html

Mine is "Games and Tokens" (Episode IX). Also dubbed the best episode of CR ever! heh. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif

[Nathan Butler]

I thought so, at least. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

That's the one that I used as the standard bearer as the preview episode in the Dragon*Con CDs I gave out.

[Nathan Butler]

Just added the Jedi Talk and Stormtrooper Bob pages, along with the audio mp3 file of the Fan Audio Panel from Dragon*Con 2003.

[Nathan Butler]

Just added Tatooine TV and did the weekly/bi-weekly/whatever update of the featured personality and the random quotes and such on the right column.

[stone_mite]

You guys have done a great job with the site. This is the first time I've ever actually come to The Galactic Senate and only really found it because of a link on StarWarsFanWorks.com. So, naturally, this is my first post.
I've listened to all the CR episodes on the timeline page, as well as DLR (the guys I originally got hooked on!). I've actually been meaning to ask a question about your interview with Kevin Rubio: Where was Chris Hanel? I thought he was desperate to get onto that show? Anyway, keep up the great work with CR, SW FanWorks.com, Anthology and (if you decide to do it after all) Context.

catch ya round

Chris

[Jans_Walker]

Too many Chris's.... style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif

-Chris Too

[Nathan Butler]

Nice to have you here, SM.

Basically, Chris was wanting to get in somehow, but it'd have to be by him being here or by 3-way calling. No one had access to the 3-way calling, and Chris said he litereally would drive up to do the interview alongside me, but it wound up being an almost last-minute setup with Kevin. We actually recorded while he was eating dinner at a pizza place. Chris just had no means to get here and be part of it.

[leandar]

I'm enjoying the site as I get the chance to check it out. Looks like this is gonna get to become a major Star Wars site soon.

[bluemilk]

that would be schweet! style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hehe.gif

[Nathan Butler]

Speaking of big:

The next big update should be Wednesday afternoon. It should include:

1. News Updates
2. Tatooine TV Statistic Update
3. ChronoRadio #11
4. Requiem of the Outcast #2
5. Anthology IV: Addiction

And perhaps more, depending on the time I have throughout the week. I'd like to get the FAQ up by then, or the "WaveLab for Dummies" tutorial, but I'm betting those are both going to have to wait at least another week.

Then, of course, on Oct. 6, we have the release of the Dragon*Con Fan Audio Panel video, which will be in either 5 parts or a lower-res 1 part file, with a separate exclusive intro file that amounts to a "ChronoVideo" clip.

We'll also be starting to recruit some reviewers in the near future. Details will be included in the update.

[Nathan Butler]

New editorial up on the site from Tatooine TV's Jeff Roney!

[Nathan Butler]

Update: The fifth episode of Anthology, the final one to be written and mixed by yours truly, is now in its final stages of mixing. The episode, called Responsibility, is a sort of prequel to Second Strike that deals with a much younger Captain Kal S'Darcis, a supporting character from Second Strike: Descent.

Right now, all of the lines, sound effects, and ambient sound have been mixed together, and I'm going to be doing some final volume and left/right balance checks on the files tonight or tomorrow. Once that's done, all that remains is the music.

I was intending on putting this out on Dec. 1 for the anniversary month of Second Strike, but if all goes well, I'll go ahead and do it at its regularly scheduled release time of Nov. 1.

[Nathan Butler]

Site update: We just got the go-ahead to have a page for SW: The Radio Play, so expect a new page created for that project sometime in the next week or so.

[Nathan Butler]

I'll play with creating an official thread for it here in a bit, but...

Lux Radio Theater's The Adventures of Luke Skywalker has joined Fanworks for a featured project page.

[Nathan Butler]

And we'll be adding another today! Lila Atherley's "Episode III Spoof" is coming to Fanworks!

[Kheetor84]

Spoofs? Oi, those creepy little things they are.

[Nathan Butler]

Well, we've already got parodies. This is another one, but it's an older one by someone we've heard of. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif

[Nathan Butler]

Another update for ya. Anthology: No Way Out is almost ready. Steve finished mixing before New Year's Eve, but their child was born on NYE, so it sorta delayed it. Go figure. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

Anyway, he had to split the file into seven segments to get to me, and one of the segment splits came through a little garbled, so once I get the patch to put in over that spot, we're good to go.

It sounds amazing. You can tell why Steve's the professional mixer who went to school for this stuff, and I'm the amateur flying by the skin of my mivonks. Steve definitely has a different flare and style, which is exactly what the series needs as it shifts from my "morality tales" to a greater variety of new tales by different writers. It also runs longer than the usual episode, at only a few seconds shy of half an hour.

I'm hoping to get it released tomorrow, but it just depends on when Steve has the chance to toss up that little segment and when I'm able to patch, export, and upload. It'll be well worth the wait.

Also, speaking of worth the wait, I haven't put up a news byte, but ROTO #5 is also being worked on right now. A part of Rich's recording of the episode (a portion he says sucked anyway, heh) got recorded over (he uses a camera to record, rather than a computer setup), so they're re-recording that segment and still intending a release this month sometime.

And . . . Rich and I are now working on a sort of freebie commercial to promote Nexcess.Net (as thanks for fast support and overlooking some oopsies in bandwidth a couple of months ago), so you can expect that commercial skit to make its debut in the next ROTO, as well as the next CR, though the ROTO will come first.

[Nathan Butler]

Look for some old favorites (a series of five to be exact) to appear on Fanworks soon, resurrecting the archives of a show whose site is currently dead.

[Danath Vel'triarr]

A show who's eps 3 & 4 dont work at the current host?

[Keiran_Horn]

It begins with a D, I'll say that. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

[Nathan Butler]

Someone's ep's 3 and 4 don't work at their host? Eh?

[Danath Vel'triarr]

Heh, I was close. Instead of DLRPG I was thinking of the 5 pre-TFN LLC hosting of DLR version 1 style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif

[Nathan Butler]

I had forgotten those were on the DL.com server. I PMed Chris via the TFN LLC boards just now. If they can get the links changed over to point to the DLR *page* at Fanworks, not the exact file links, for those five episodes, we'll host 'em.

[Nathan Butler]

I'm assuming it's because of people downloading things for the awards voting, but this has been the most overall successful month yet for Fanworks in terms of bandwidth measurement.

Granted, we got our butts kicked (heh), but we topped every other month since September when we opened. Yay, rah, fan audio! style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif

[keithabbott]

Over at RiseofNobility.com, we aren't anywhere near our mark of September when we released RoN, but we did do better than November and December.

Just some stats...

# of unique visitors:

Aug 1820
Sep 1384
Oct 343
Nov 212
Dec 146
Jan 275

We really ran into bandwith issues once Natalieportman.com and NatalieEmpire.com posted about our audio drama. It was crazy, but considering we dont have news up there right now I'll count 275 as pretty darn good.

Keith

[Nathan Butler]

Well, for us, all the StarWarz.com family sites share one account, and we just sort of try to eyeball what any given member site will end up using. We've steadily expanded to take up anywhere between 30 - 40% of that, which is fine, as long as the others on the group don't use 60 - 70%, y'know? But, hey, it works.

In terms of visitors, we seem to vary widely. On our quietest month, I think we were at just under 5,000 for the month, whereas in our busiest, we've neared 6,500. I think it just depends on how often we post news, how often people check for news, and such.

What's most telling for us, I think, is download numbers, rather than visits. I mean, sure people can visit, but are they listening to anything?

For us, the big draws tend to be Anthology, Second Strike, ChronoRadio, Requiem of the Outcast, and Betrayed Federation. CR consistently tops the number of downloads, with ROTO or a new Anthology consistently coming in second for a month.

What I like, personally, is the fact that the vast, vast, VAST majority of our visits come from people making a direct request for our domain, rather than comiong over from somewhere else. I think that gives us a bit of a sense of doing well on our own.

[Nathan Butler]

I'll leave it to Eric to announce the release in an official thread, but . . .

STAR WARS: CROSSROADS: EPISODE I, the crossover with STAR TREK: DEFIANT is now available on Fanworks.

http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/crossroads.html

[Nathan Butler]

A heads-up: Fanworks will soon host pages for the dead project Space bumpies and the newly-relaunched project Jedied. Stay tuned.

[Danath Vel'triarr]

Space bumpies? Wouldn't that be a little difficult in audio? style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/evil.gif

Just kidding style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

[Nathan Butler]

heh. Well, it was done. Long dead, but done.

[Nathan Butler]

Just realized: We just passed the 6 month anniversary of the site going live on Sept. 1, 2003.

The site, which started out as just a small subsection of StarWarz/Timeline that hosted ChronoRadio, Second Strike, Doubts Cast, Dreamscape, and Resurrection, has, since becoming an independent entity, become the one major source for SW Fan Audio on the 'net, and I'm happy to say that the GalacticSenate.com Fan Audio and StarWarsFanworks.com Message Board has become, it seems, the top place for discussing SW fan audio as well, finally surpassing the TFN Fan Audio board (set up before the GS board) this past month, with its "lead" in post count and activity steadily growing.

So, thanks for the support, feedback, and discussion.

[Keiran_Horn]

Hehe, nice work everyone. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/trooper.gif

[cinemafreak]

No kidding. Doing great so far. And you can tell by the interviews that many dreams are being fullfilled by the work that Nathan and his helpers have put into the site.

That's right, Starwarsfanworks.com The home of Internet Fan Audio

[Nathan Butler]

Btw, site update: I just removed the release schedule pinned topic here on GS and added the info to the site via a "open in new browser" link on the left column of Fanworks. You can pull up a list of all known projects set to release in 2004 from here on, along with release date info, and creative team lead names.

[Nathan Butler]

And another one joins the fold upon release. Keep an eye out.

Gah, that's three friggin' secret things this month. STRESS!

style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

[Steve Mollmann]

Originally posted by Nathan Butler@Mar 12 2004, 11:03 PM
Btw, site update: I just removed the release schedule pinned topic here on GS and added the info to the site via a "open in new browser" link on the left column of Fanworks. You can pull up a list of all known projects set to release in 2004 from here on, along with release date info, and creative team lead names.
Nathan, you can add "The Universe Key" for a Late Summer 2004 release

[Nathan Butler]

Sweet.

Okay, no more updates (including that one, which will be up soon) until Wednesday. I have everything ready for our two new releases that day.

[keithabbott]

What do you guys think of this title?

"Star Wars: Surrender of Promise"

[Nathan Butler]

Not bad.

[Danath Vel'triarr]

Ooh. Nice.

You know, if you drop the "of Promise" you could go for a really raunchy audio drama style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

Edit: Speaking of raunchy look at which number post this is style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

[Nathan Butler]

Nah, remember what happened to fan fiction when that slash writer did the story about Vader molesting Han.

It was all downhill for fan fiction from there.

[Danath Vel'triarr]

Originally posted by Nathan Butler@Mar 26 2004, 02:20 PM
Nah, remember what happened to fan fiction when that slash writer did the story about Vader molesting Han.

It was all downhill for fan fiction from there.
Okay, good point.

damn.

[Spacehunter24]

Originally posted by Nathan Butler@Mar 25 2004, 11:50 PM
Nah, remember what happened to fan fiction when that slash writer did the story about Vader molesting Han.
style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif

[keithabbott]

I'm very glad I missed that one. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sleeping.gif

[cinemafreak]

Originally posted by Nathan Butler@Mar 26 2004, 12:50 AM
Nah, remember what happened to fan fiction when that slash writer did the story about Vader molesting Han.

It was all downhill for fan fiction from there.
But if anybody is looking for a fanaudio idea......

[Nathan Butler]

"I am your father" = "Who's your daddy?"

[Danath Vel'triarr]

Girlish scream "Mom, Jacen's peeping at me again!!!"

[Nathan Butler]

So, Keith, is that the new title for Linda's untitled project?

[keithabbott]

It's only a considered title at the moment. So nothing has been decided quite yet.

[Nathan Butler]

Okay, folks, in about 3 hours, I'll be putting up the new releases. Aside from the page update for The Logan Chronicles, which you can already download from Michael Sheridan's site, we'll have 4 new and 1 revised release(s) by that time.