On October 6th, 2007, Buffy: Between the Linesreleased its first episode, Beginning at the End, to over one thousand subscribers. Modeled after the radio dramas of the past, BBTL aims to bring a piece of Joss Whedon’s beloved television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, back to its fans.
In the finale of the television show’s fifthseason, Buffy Summers sacrificed her life to save her younger sister, not to mention the entire world. In the premiere of the sixth season, we join Buffy’s closest friends as they use powerful magic resurrect her three months later. The premise of BBTLis to discover what happened that summer after Buffy’s death, to find the untold stories and share them with the world.
The team behind BBTLstrives to keep their production as close to the original as possible. Each of the twelveseason one episodes run about forty-five minutes and have everything from their own personal theme music, generously provided by the band Beatnik Turtle, to commercial breaks and end credits. The similarities to Whedon’s Buffy don’t end there either. BBTL’s episodes are written by a fantastic team of writers who work their hardest to bring the characters back to life, staying true to their personalities and the show’s unique dialogue. The storylines are an excellent blend of the light-hearted and dramatic, and begin to shed some light on a few of the show’s more secondary characters. Explaining the motivation behind working on such a project, writer Emma Rawlinsaid, “Joss’ work made me want to be a writer, and it gaveme a lot of strength and escapism during a difficult time of my life. So I guess it’s my way of putting something back.”
The Between the Lines Studiosboasts a crew of over one hundred, and with members located all around the world, the show truly is an international effort. Effort seems to be the key term in a project like this one. Something of this magnitude is never easy to assemble, and BBTL wouldn’t be a reality without the hard work of its crew members.
After each of the episodes have been written, the scripts are sent out to the actors, who summon their characters to bring the episode to life. Most of the dialogue is recorded alone, but if the episode calls for a large group scene, the producers gather all the actors together in a group chat through the use of the internet calling site, Skype. This allows all the actors to hear and play off of each other, which can help make the scene that much better.
Once all the dialogue has been recorded, then the editing process begins. Nick Edwards, who is not only one of the editors on the show but also the voice of popular character, Spike, said that nearly an hour of editing is required for one minute of finished dialogue. “Double that for complex stuff with FXor more than three voices.” After the files are cleaned up to remove any background noise, then the editors go through the process of picking the best of each of the actor’s takes and arranging the timing. Then websites like The Freesound Projecthelp the editors find the things they need for special effects. Clay Robeson, who along withplaying Angel, is another of the crew’s editors, said that he finds the sound effects the most difficult portion of the editing process. “I’m nearly obsessive compulsive with the effects sounds, and I’ll hunt for an hour for the right one second “whoosh” for a spell for Willow.” After all the finishing touches are added, the episode is then released online.
When episode one of BBTL debuted, it had around a thousand subscribers through iTunes, now at episode ten, the number is over three thousand. The reactions from listeners havebeen overwhelmingly positive. Time after time, fans havesent in praise and thanks for bringing Buffy back. Tabitha Grace Smith, the show’s producer, mentions one fan in particular. “We have one listener, Josh, who emailed at a particularly stressful time for all of us. Josh is 26, has severe cerebral palsy and is a huge Buffy fan… I can’t tell you how many times his emails brought tears to my eyes, because we can bring something special to Josh. Even if all this work was just for him, I’d be satisfied and happy, because in the end we really wanted to bring this amazing world back to the people who love it.”
It’s not just the fans that are raving about the show either; BBTLwas recently bestowed with the Best Audio Drama Award from the 2008 Podcast Peer Awards. Smithwas also awarded with the Exceptional Podcasteraward for her work with BBTL and several others.
When asked about her favorite part of working on BBTL, Associate Producer, KimButler, said, “I love the people, getting to know them and finding great friends…I really enjoy the acting quite a bit, and I like putting together the cool sound effects, but really it’s the people. Oh wait, I’m supposed to say the fame and fortune, right?” Like the majority of podcasts, Buffy: Between the Lines is available completely free of charge. Which means that the cast and crew devote countless hours of their free time for nothing more than the satisfaction of being a part of such an amazing show. Much like the television show that came before it, BBTLis unique and leads one to wonder, what is it about this show that inspires such devotion from fans? Smith had this to say. “When you havea show that captures your soul, mind, and heart like Buffy has mine – you feel like you need to be a part of it, to give back to it, to engage in it. That’s the kind of heartbeat I have for Buffy Between The Lines. I’ve experienced so many emotions and insights from this one television show, that I feel the need to tell more stories to other people in it.”
The show’s first season is nearing its end, and the cast and crew are already hard at work on season two, which will bridge the gap between seasons two and three of the television show. That’s not all the Between the Lines Studios has to offer either. After completing season two of Buffy: Between the Lines, they will begin work on Angel: Between the Lines, searching out the untold stories from the Buffy spin-off series, Angel. Also in the planning stages, Firefly: Between the Lines and SugarShock: Between the Lines, both based off of other Joss Whedonprojects. With this bevy of projects, and the continued support from its fans, it looks as if Between the Lines Studios has quite a few more stories to tell.
