BTR Productions

Another month, another set of re-releases going on-line. It’s all becoming old habit for us here at BTR Towers, but at least we’re beavering away behind-the-scenes on all-new releases, whilst at the same time getting the last few fragments of our “old” releases back on-line. Let’s hope that once this re-release schedule is complete, we never have to go through it again! This must be the third time, after all!

Today we present the small selection of bloopers from our other fan audio series, Blakes Legacy: Restoration. These bloopers, which are from the first three episodes, are pretty damn funny, all things considered. We hope you find them a suitable update for today. You can find them in 128kbps MP3 format by visiting the Behind The Recordings podcast page, where you can either subscribe to the feed in your podcast reader of choice, or just directly download the MP3 files onto your hard drive.

Also updated today was the BTR Cafe, offering yet another lovely item of BTR-themed merchandise. If you wish to support the BTR web site by contributing towards the running costs, please consider buying something. Not only do you get a product, but the profits go straight back into the running costs of the BTR web site, and any production costs we might incur. Your help and support would be greatly appreciated!

In 2004, BTR Productions released the first volume in its semi-pro fantasy drama series, A Sprinkle of Stardust. This first volume, Rugby Money, introduced us to the characters of Kelly Nero and his associates, as they attempt to study and understand the mysterious world of human dreams. Could it be that dreaming is more complex than we’d first imagined? And could there possibly be a sinister and darker edge to what happens when we dream? Are we always the same person when we wake up?

Rugby Money is now available to purchase, after an absence of nearly 3 years. It is available in our Lulu storefront, where you can purchase it as an audio CD for the low cost of $10us. Alternatively, if digital downloads are your thing, you can get the entire of the release for just $5us, in 128kbps MP3 format. There is also a free MP3 streaming trailer available on the site, to whet your appetite for the purchaseable release.

We hope you are able to grab yourself a copy of this fine release, and if you do, please make sure you swing by the BTR Community Forum and let us know what you think of it. With 2 more releases to come in this audio series, as well as who knows what after that, it’s sure to be the start of something big!

Flush with our success from Christmas Under Siege in 2001, BTR Theatre was quickly booked once again by the Golden Valley / Keperra Lions Club to produce a second evening of entertainment, for the 2002 Christmas in July extravaganza. The original intention had been to produce a Natasha X adventure, which sadly was curtailed a week before performance, due to a crisis in the life of our lead actor. In the end, quick decisions resulted in a good night, and Beyond Traditional Recognition: The Stage Experience was the end result.

Two one-act plays were presented on this particular evening, with a stage adaptation of the BTR audio drama The Six Million Dollar Brain, and an adapted version of the aforementioned Natasha X script (now featuring her sidekick, Doggy X, in the lead role), being what was served up to the audience. While it was plainly obvious to anyone “in the know” that the end result was not as good as what had been originally planned, it was still a good performance, and the audience did seem to enjoy themselves, with lots of laughs flowing in both the correct, and incorrect, places.

Our BTR Theatre podcast feed has been updated, with 4 brand new video files now available for download. Not only are the two one-act plays viewable as H.264 video files (playable with the latest version of Quicktime, and on iPods and the iPhone), but there are also two 10-minute behind-the-scenes documentaries, giving you a small glimpse into what went on during the hours leading up to the performance at the Arana Hills PCYC. The quality of these presentations is of a much higher standard than that of our Christmas Under Siege release from late last year, so we hope that you enjoy the downloads.

As if this wasn’t enough, our YouTube video channel has been updated, offering two 6-minute featurettes taking you behind-the-scenes on two of the rehearsals from the ultimately aborted Natasha X & the Claws of Santa production. While this script was ultimately abandoned in this form (but was adapted for the Doggy X component of the night), we hope you find these two “bonus videos” to be of interest, especially as they give you a small glimpse into some of the material that was cut, and how the original night was shaping up, before the crisis which led to its cancellation.

Don’t forget, however, that the original audio version of The Six Million Dollar Brain is available to purchase on audio CD and MP3 digital download from our Lulu store. Click on the link to the right of this very text for more details. If you are interested in finding out more about Natasha X and her adventures, remember we have the original audio drama also for sale in our Lulu store, and BTR’s sister group Eclectica Press has a range of Natasha X graphic novels for sale. You can find the EP link at the bottom of every page on the main BTR site. It’s well worth checking out, so make sure you do!

Lastly, one final mention for this update (boy, this has turned into a mammoth update!) is that our Cafepress merchandise store has also been updated today. The latest product we have on offer is a BTR-themed coffee mug, so please feel free to swing by the BTR Cafepress store and buy yourself one. The merchandise store is one of the few ways in which we are able to generate the much-needed funds to keep this web site going, not to mention free to the end user! So your support in purchasing BTR-themed gear is greatly appreciated.

Oh, and make sure you swing by the BTR Community Forum and join in some of the discussion! We’d love to see you there!

Always a group to push the boundaries on what is offered, as well as offer people unparalleled access to behind-the-scenes information about what goes on here at BTR Towers, we’re pleased to announce the brand new release of the BTRWiki, which is available for access by clicking on the link in the menu bar at the top of every page of this very web site!

While right now the BTRWiki is quite empty, with each passing day we are adding more and more information to it. The eventual aim is that if you wish to discover anything there is to know about any of the productions we’ve released, as well as biographical information on the people involved, the BTRWiki will be the ultimate resource for any fan of BTR Productions.

Please do swing by and have a look at what is on offer, as we’re confident you will find it a fascinating insight into the facts & trivia you might not have known about our work previously. If you do swing by, and wish to comment on the Wiki, please make sure you pop into the brand new BTR Community Forum and leave us some thoughts about what you thought!

Welcome, one and all, to the BTR web site for 2008! We all hope you had a fantastic Festive period, and managed to score some time off from work! As you can see, we’ve been busy behind-the-scenes over the Christmas break, refreshing the entire look and feel of the web site. We hope that the brand new skin we’ve chosen ensures you find the site contemporary, and interesting to view. Please do let us know if you find any glaring errors, as we’re hopeful we’ve not missed any thus far.

2008 is hopefully going to be a big year for BTR. At the time of writing, our current plans involve us getting all the old material fully re-released by mid year, and from that point onwards we are hoping to begin releasing the unfinished material we’ve had sitting around for the last 3 years. The current plan is to finish off our various semi-pro series between July and December of this year, and then use all of 2009 to release the final chapters in our various fan audio / video series.

You might also notice that the BTR Community Forum link is working again. After the previous one suffered a minor issue, and was forced to close down, we’ve spent some time investigating more stable forum solutions. We’re hopeful that the new one, bbPress (made by the same people who made Wordpress, which powers this site!), manages to last up some considerable time. So please do make sure you swing by, create a user account, and get stuck in to posting some ideas!

Anyway, that’s about it for now. This month’s re-release revolves around Volume 4 of our semi-pro sci-fi antholoy series Beyond Traditional Recognition, which is now once more available to buy. You can find it in our Lulu store, which can be accessed via the Flash widget to the right of this very text. It’s a cracker of a release, and was reviewed very highly when originally released in March 2004. Swing by our Lulu store to listen to an exclusive audio trailer, free of charge!

Thursday, 6th December, 2007

In mid-2001, BTR Productions became one of the first Internet-based Doctor Who fan groups to tackle their very own original live theatrical production. Produced as part of the Golden Valley / Keperra Lions Club “Miss Personality Quest” Christmas in July extravaganza, our show was the feature item in a fabulous evening of laughs, food and wine. The play, which we spent three solid months preparing, was a huge success.

Now, with the creation of a brand new BTR Theatre podcast feed, we’re pleased to report that the video recording of this one-night-only show is now available for download once again. The download is presented using the H.264 codec, and although the source material was of a low quality to begin with, we feel the on-line release is of a sufficient standard to allow anyone who downloads it a chance to be a part of that comical magic that ensured the show was such a success.

To co-incide with this re-release of the video recording, we are pleased to also announce that the script book for the evening is now also once more available. This paperback release now proudly sits alongside the other semi-pro releases in BTR’s Lulu storefront, which can be accessed via the link to the right of this very text. Featuring a gorgeous artwork cover by Brian Jordan, the raw comedy and wit of Bill Billingsley and Darran Jordan’s script is able to shine on its own.

If you happen to watch the video download, or buy yourself a copy of the script book, please do drop us a line via the BTR Community Forum to let us know what you thought of the release. Just before we sign off, everyone here at BTR Productions would like to wish all of our regular visitors and fans a very Merry Christmas, and a safe and happy New Year. 2008 is sure to be a great year for BTR Productions, so we hope you will be able to join us in the fun & excitement.

Thursday, 8th November, 2007

We’re back again, and this time in celebration of Doctor Who’s 44th anniversary, which is only a couple of weeks away. The central aspect of this update is the documentary we released back in November 2003, celebrating the then 40th anniversary of the show. It also takes you behind-the-scenes on the production of our 40th anniversary audio drama, Dominion. As well as this, we’ve also got a whole slew of other audio downloads to support it. The full list for this month’s update is:

• Second Sight audio trailer
• Dominion audio trailer, audio bloopers reel, & two-part behind-the-scenes video documentary
• Present, Past, & Future Danger audio trailer
• Marinus Alone audio trailer & two-part extended bloopers reel

The audio downloads have been encoded as 128kbps MP3 files, while the Dominion video documentary has been encoded using the H.264 codec. If you’re running the latest version of the Quicktime software, or use an iPod, an iPhone, or have an AppleTV, you will be able to view or watch these files without any issue. They’re on the Behind The Recordings podcast.

Also, if you enjoy the Dominion video documentary, you might be interested to know that there was an extra “third chapter” recorded at the same time. Jacob Aldridge: The Man Who Wasn’t There is a short comedy piece that is available on our YouTube channel. This piece interviews Jacob Aldridge about his non-involvement in Dominion.

Make sure you let us know what you think of these releases, especially the bloopers reels and the Dominion documentary!

Thursday, 11th October, 2007 

After the enormous download success that was last month’s Behind The Recordings podcast launch (the last 4 weeks saw a massive 160gb of data downloaded off our server, which is a new record for BTR!), we are pleased to be back, and with further updates to the podcast feed. This time, however, we’re turning our attention to audio downloads, and we are pleased to present the following “bonus features” from our Series 1 and Series 2 Doctor Who fan audio dramas:

• Darkness Falls trailer 
• The Invasion of the Daleks bloopers reel
• The Magical History Tour cast & crew audio interview
• The Sahul Continuum trailer
• Fortitude in a Slipstream trailer
• The Ouroborous Heart trailer

These have all been encoded as 128kbps MP3 files, and so are playable on any modern computer and on any modern portable audio device of your choosing. We hope you enjoy these little bonus items, and if these are the first time you’ve heard them, do make sure you pop by the BTR Community Forum to let us know what you think of them. Besides, listening to these trailers might just want to make you go back and re-listen to the actual audios themselves. Who knows?

Thursday, 13th September, 2007

Back in 2000 BTR Productions recorded one of its most controversial Doctor Who audio releases, Darkness Falls. This was controversial with the fan audio community simply because of the varied styles and tones used throughout the four episode release. It was also the first Doctor Who release in any form to include strong language, and as such the first episode even carried a warning that this episode was for mature listeners only.

During one of the recording sessions for this release, BTR also dipped its toe into the realm of video recording, with a “behind the scenes” documentary produced. Including interviews with the key players in BTR at that time, along with an exclusive look at the recording process itself, the documentary was released in late 2002 to high praise. Sadly, due to various web site re-launches and codec changes over the years, the documentary has been offline for some 18 months.

Now, a brand new podcast feed is being launched today, with the 7-part Recording Darkness Falls taking pride-of-place as the first release. This new podcast feed is designed to take you behind-the-scenes on almost all of BTR’s various releases, in all of our various product lines. The podcast feed will be a mixture of video recordings, interviews, documentaries, and of course of infamous bloopers reels, which are arguably more entertaining than the actual releases!

You can access the new podcast feed by clicking on the link to the left. Recording Darkness Falls has been re-encoded from the MPEG-1 master files using the H.264 codec, and is playable using the latest version of the Apple Quicktime software on both Windows and Mac OS X, as well as on all current generation iPods, the iPhone, and the Apple TV.

Please let us know in the BTR Community Forum what you think of this release, as I am sure you will all agree it offers a fascinating insight into the early days of BTR Productions, with some nice forshadowing of what was to come in later years…

Thursday, 16th August, 2007

We continue our journey into the realm of video-on-demand downloads for your mobile platform of choice, by updating our mobile BTR web site with a slew of new video titles. Joining our four Six Minute Movies are the Short Trip & Side Step releases Deep Undercurrents, Time To Go Home, The Welcoming, Weary Death, A Quiet Beach Somewhere, Christmas Comedy Special, Kindred Spirit, and Ekka Winds.

All of these movies have been encoded using the 3GP varient of the MPEG-4 codec, and are optimised for mobile phones with a screen resolution of 176 x 144 or higher at 32k colours. You can access the mobile web site by clicking on the link to the right of this text, and it should work without incident on any phone accessing through a GSM Edge network or faster.

Please let us know what you think of this mobile video channel experiment by leaving some thoughts in the BTR Community Forum. We’re always keen to hear what people think of our work!