Auror's Tale

Hello Auror’s Tale Fans,

We hope you are all having a wonderful year!

As many of you have pointed out, there are are a minefield of copyright issues when working with any pre existing series or world, especially something as successful as Harry Potter. We have encountered some of these issues, and will be reshaping our project in a variety of ways.

Most notably, we have been requested that the total runtime of Auror’s Tale be less than 80 minutes long. Therefore, we will be shortening our story arc to 6-7 episodes. This means recutting, reediting, and in some instances even reshooting the episodes of Act I that we have completed so far in order to adjust for pacing and plot changes.

At this point, we plan on finishing at least 75% of the entire series before releasing. This will make everything run smoothly once episode 1 airs. Though this is not the original plan, we know you will not want to wait for months in between episodes— it’s that good!

Many of you have asked about Auror’s Tale memorabilia. While we will be distributing all the prizes promised to Kickstarter funders, no additional Auror’s Tale materials will be made available. This goes for shirts, badges, DVDs, and any other items unique to Auror’s Tale or with our logo. The show will, of course, always be free to view on YouTube.

These are some of the conditions that we have been given so that Auror’s Tale can move forward. We apologize for the further delays that this will cause.

As we have stated before, no one on Auror’s Tale works for profit. We all volunteer to do what we do because we love film, we love Harry Potter, and we love you, our fans. We are currently planning to film the remainder of the series in June. Between now and then, we will be brining you a taste of what it’s like on the production scene.

Keep updated with our Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, and thank you for your undying support and understanding.

-PR Auror Rayne

Auror’s Tale now has 4,000 likes on Facebook! Thank you for all your support, and like our page page here if you haven’t already!

It has been a long, exciting, and challenging year up here in New York. In June, you made our dreams come true through your generous Kickstarter donations and enthusiastic support. Ever since then, Auror’s Tale has become a huge part of everyone in the cast and crew’s life. We are constantly stumbling across locations that we joke would be perfect for filming; we make up stories about how every landmark from the unicorn statue in Central Park to the lights on the Empire State Building are secretly communication tools used by the Aurors (and has anyone noticed the giant wand overlooking Union Square?); some of us (*cough*Leo*cough*) have been known to carry our wands everywhere; and I don’t think Cassandra has entered her favorite store, Gothic Renaissance, without finding at least one thing to later replicate and incorporate into her costume design for the past six months.

As with all productions run on a tight budget, we have also had our fair share of difficulties. Corrupted hard drives, finding affordable places to film in one of the most expensive cities in the world, an unprecedented national disaster, and working around the schedules of professional actors, authors, students, musicians, directors, and very active industry professionals have all contributed to the unexpected delay in releasing Auror’s Tale Episode 1.

Please be reminded that no one on this project works for pay. Your Kickstarter contributions are going towards location and equipment rentals, costuming, editing equipment, and props. Filming and editing both mean taking time out of our full-time jobs to work because we love Harry Potter, we love you, and we want to give back to the incredible world and fandom that gave many of us our childhoods. It is indeed slow work, but as a mixture of perfectionist filmmakers and Potter aficionados, we are doing our very best to bring you the best possible product, whether it means doing twenty takes of the same scene or editing frame-by-frame (24 per second!) to make certain that the effects are flawless. At this time, we cannot give you a release date, and do not want to make false promises by estimating one. However, we will continue to give you spoiler-free updates as often as we can, and we ask you to please be patient as we try to make this web series as brilliant as we know it has the potential to be!

Additionally, many of you have inquired about the Kickstarter prizes. We are not ready at this time to send those out. We have had a very small amount of teeshirts and sketches printed, as well as some awesome, very authentic looking Auror badges. However, since we are working on a tight budget, we need to continue to look for products that are of the highest quality for the lowest price before we are ready to share these goodies with you. The Master Wandmakers at Alivan’s have been especially helpful in this regard. As our official wand sponsor, they have produced beautiful wands for us, and have been enthusiastically sending designs back and forth (and back and forth, and back and forth!) until everyone is more than satisfied with the uniquely extraordinary craftsmanship involved. We can absolutely promise, however, that your contributions will not go unacknowledged, and you will receive the prizes as soon as they live up to our self-proclaimed fabulous tastes.

We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season filled with love, family, friends, and good food, and thank you so much for the kindness and support you have showed us. On to an adventurous new year!

Best wishes from your new Public Relations Auror,

Rayne Holm

Are you interested in a career in publicity, filmmaking, costuming or production? Are you interested in storytelling and creating new content for a worldwide fandom? Then we have an opportunity for you.

Red Phoenix Productions, the creative team behind AUROR’S TALE the highly-anticipated web series based on the world of JK Rowling, is looking for a few volunteers to work in our marketing, production and creative departments. Volunteerrs will assist in a lot of day-to-day aspects of AUROR’S TALE and Red Phoenix Productions operations, but also will have the opportunity to join us on-set during filming and production. Volunteers may be assigned exclusively to special projects or may be asked to assist other staff with special projects.

Roles and responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Production volunteers have a variety of different responsibilities depending upon their interest in the world of film. As a Production Assistant, or PA, your job will be helping staff manage paperwork, prepare and organize shoots both on-location and off, and assist with daily Red Phoenix office operations. Those interested in filmmaking, photography, and production are best suited for this role. This position also requires each volunteer to live within commuting distance of NYC and have some knowledge of the city.

Marketing volunteers have responsibilities including social media publishing, community management, and copywriting, but are also may vary based on interest. These offline and online ambassadors should be expressive writers who are interested in journalism, public relations, and event planning. The ambassadors will work together to connect productions like AUROR’S TALE with fans all over the world. This position does not require living in NYC, but at least one local/commutable volunteer will join our team in-house.

Creative volunteers have responsibilities from both the production and on-camera side of our work. They will work alongside costuming, visual, concept, make-up and design teams to bring that extra bit of Red Phoenix magic to life on screen. Would-be volunteers who are future make-up artists, hair designers, costumers, visual & special effects technicians and graphic designers are best suited to this role. Post Production volunteers are also needed to help with editing/AfterEffects, but must live local to the NY metro area. For all other duties, non-local volunteers may apply, but local and/or commuting volunteers are preferred.

Volunteers may be supervised per the specifications of the student’s university or college internship/practice program, and all students are responsible for all related paperwork. Volunteers will be reimbursed for some travel mileage or miscellaneous expenses incurred while working. Volunteers are also responsible for all insurance associated with travel/driving. This volunteer program is non-paid work experience.

Please send resume and cover letter to info@aurorstale.com before September 28, 2012.

andmyvaginawasbroadway:

Listening to Generals by The Mynabirds while getting a Hellhound outfit together for tomorrow. Life is good.

THIS.