INTERVIEW:
NATHAN BUTLER (PRELUDE TO HOPE, SECOND STRIKE, THAT
PREQUEL MOVIE et al)
Web site
interview conducting began 2/24/2003
Nathan Butler is a great member of our community. He makes fan films. He works on fan films. He helps people with their fan films. He fits fan films into a timeline so we can see where our beloved characters fit in the Star Wars saga. He comments on fan films (and other things) with "ChronoRadio".
I hope he has time to enjoy the sunshine sometimes, though.
Okay—basics. Name, age, location, favorite Star Wars movie.
Nathan P. Butler, 23, Fairburn, Georgia, USA (in the Atlanta Metro area), Attack of the Clones.
I start asking him my standard questions about what makes people like fan films or want to make them. Now, Nathan was the very first person to respond to these questions. I'm glad I could get an unformulaic answer to kick things off.
The fan film community, much like a hillbilly family, procreates from within its own ranks.
I really hope that's not a veiled request, and I contemplate removing my picture from my Web sites.
We have a tendency to switch partners on projects like some 1960s swinger set, which allows us to build different skills in different situations, which allows the community to grow.
I thought about this. Y'know, maybe the guy has a point. I came to fan films as a writer-director-actor. Then I learned how to edit. Then I did animation. Then I started writing scripts for fan films that never got made.
As much as we'd like to think that the community has a great influx of new blood lately, it really hasn't. There are new fan film FANS, but look around the community and you'll see the same old faces in new scenarios.
You make it sound like we've got an in-crowd.
Eh, depends on whether there is a new generation to follow those that are in their prime now.
I'm not going to doubt that we do indeed have an elite of fan films. I mean, let's face it, Clay Kronke's name carries more weight than mine. I wonder if Nathan is commenting on his own status as well... you can throw a rock and hit someone who's seen Nathan Butler's name in the credits of something.
So what about this new generation? What makes people want to watch fan films?
A lack of further televised
adventures of Star
Wars. Unlike Star
Trek, we don't
have a deluge of new materials (good, bad, or nastily ugly like "Voyager"
and "Enterprise") each week on television. A Star
Wars video production
is a rare thing, and when that void is filled, people leap at it.
Now that Star Wars is hitting the small screen (if only in a small way) for the first time in ages with the "Clone Wars" series, do you think the fan-created media trend may shrink?
Honestly, I doubt it. It's gone too long without something filling the void. It would almost take a "Star Trek" style series effort, I think, to slowly wedge the fan film community out of the picture. The "film bug" has spread too far.
To be frank, this was almost a throwaway question. I never myself thought that "Clone Wars" would make fan films lose their cool. Maybe we'll see a rise in animated films, or perhaps films that take place on the "Clone Wars" timeline. Who knows?
But Nathan's right—there will always be fan films:
We are a generation who grew up in a society permeated by Star Wars pop culture references. It is a common reference point for people of different backgrounds. It's also a fun story. Combine those and it becomes a natural outlet for creative energies.
Why do you think there are far more Star Wars fan films made than other kinds?
This goes back to the lack of new Star Wars productions, but it also is a result, quite frankly, that it's the only fan film community with a dedicated large-scale promotion system. If there were a Star Trek FanFilms.com, they'd be growing as well.
Yankey, don't you DARE.
What was the last really good fan film you watched?
What was the last really good 'real' movie you saw or watched?
X-Men (watched at home last night).
I find this answer interesting. I always ask this question, just to get a sense of what kind of movie my interviewee likes. X-Men is, essentially, a "fan film" (okay, high-budget Hollywood movie) of a comic book. People say it was done well; I agree. Does this have any significance? I don't know. Let me ramble.
Besides ones you've worked on, what's your favorite fan film and why?
The Formula. It steps out of the traditional bounds, while making fun of those boundaries at the same time. I can sympathize with the themes in the film, and it was well constructed.
What do you foresee as the next big development in fan films?
More CG characters, like those found in Kevin Blades' projects.
I foresee this as potentially disastrous, but not quite as high potential a disaster as the next:
What would you like to see in a fan film?
Nudity. No lie. Nudity and graphic violence. People keep playing with these lines but never cross them, and it comes off as cheesy. Shit or get off the pot, a'ight?
Well, for all you know, I direct in the nude.
I contemplate what it might be like to put nudity and/or graphic violence in a fan film. Obviously they're not Star Warsy, but neither are a lot of things that we manage to fit into Star Wars fan films. Heck, the digital zooms in AOTC aren't Star Warsy and they work.
Second Strike can't be on TFN because of some not-family-friendly content. Butler deliberately gave up this primo hosting opportunity because he believed in what he said. He's willing to put his "money" (work with me here) where his mouth is on his statement here. I'm game. Of course, hosting space right next door to the Star Wars Timeline ain't so bad, either, but...
I don't foresee much nudity happening in a fan film. Graphic violence, perhaps—hey, we like killing each other in our fan films. But right now, I'd just be happy to see a few more women onscreen.
I think the first instance of nudity in a fan film is going to be a naked butt in a parody. And it'll be like the Kirk-Uhura kiss in Star Trek.
Enough of nudity. Back to Nathan Butler. Unless he's naked, in which case, it's a nice segue:
You may have worked on more fan films (in one form or another) than pretty much anyone. What makes you want to join someone else's project? Is there any common thread linking the ones you join (on a more than just "doing three lines" basis)?
Usually, I get pulled in by a friend or someone I've talked to in the past whom I've talked to about their projects well before true inception. Other times, I am pulled in to do voice work, which I enjoy, as I feel that I have good line delivery but don't really "look" most parts. Generally, if it's a performance I can do without totally rearranging my own schedules and I don't despise you (heh), I'm up for about anything.
// writes down Butler's e-mail address for next time he needs voices
How do you deal with people asking where Prelude to Hope's gotten to?
Nowadays I point them to Kris Newsom and tell them to give a prayer for Devon Read, who'll be with our Middle East troops very soon.
How involved were you with making Prelude to Hope?
I wasn't involved on-set at all. I went through for Devon and rewrote virtually ever scene in some form or another, filmed a quick cameo here, and created a TON of supplemental materials. I became sort of the Steve Sansweet of Prelude to Hope.
Oh, that Steve Sansweet. I'm going to resist the urge to make a facial hair joke here. Nathan continues:
I promise, someday you WILL see the CCG set, RPG stats, prequel comic, sequel story, and annotated screenplay. Oh, and the film too, I think.
I really miss the old SW CCG... Let's talk a bit about That Prequel Movie. How did you come to be involved in that?
I just answered a call on the boards for voice actor auditions. I auditioned for several and got two, quite a fortuitous moment. It was my first voice acting up to that point.
What was it like to deliver these lines that required strict comic timing... with no other people to bounce off of?
You mean I was supposed to be doing comedy? ::smirk:: I have a fairly good grasp on "people," particularly banter, so when I read something like the That Prequel Movie script, I don't need someone to bounce lines off of, so much as I just need to read and hear it in my head.
Of course, this wasn't your first brush with putting voices together. Let's talk about Second Strike. The things that make an audio drama easier to do than a visual film are obvious. But is there anything that makes an audio drama HARDER to do?
You have to make the dialogue tell the story, and keep the narration human. It is far too easy to fall into heavy-handed monologues. You also have to keep in mind that it is ONLY the dialogue and sound effects that will be carrying the tale. Your story has to be several times better than it would have to be for a fan film, just to keep it from floundering under its own banality... I used my experiences reading the scripts for the original SW radio dramas and listening to the ESB radio drama as my guide and just continued in that vein.
Somehow it's comforting to me that the old-fashioned art of the audio drama is being kept alive even in this age of Internet and digital video and QuickTime this and what-have-you. It's storytelling. It's back to basics. Oddly enough, as a film person, I don't know how to deal with an audio drama. Again, from the perspective of a film person, it seems like the bastard child of filmmaking and pure storytelling. That's why I don't review them on this site, because I don't feel I'm qualified to say anything informed about them.
Nathan knows the importance of storytelling in filmmaking. He's generally a guy who's got his act together. His opinions are reasoned and informed. Look at the nudity comment (I can't believe I'm coming back to that again). Why did I rant for four paragraphs about it? It's not because I'm obsessed with nudity. It's because Nathan put an idea in my head and allowed it to grow. Which makes sense. After all, he's a teacher.
I know he's a teacher because I did a Google search in preparation to write up this interview. And I got that information from his bio for working on the film A Rising Threat.
He's listed in the voice actor credits—right next to me.
Yep. There it is. Nathan Butler. Adam Bertocci.
And later on I got caught up in his audio drama Doubts Cast.
If that's not an indication that this guy's got a finger in every pie, I don't know what is. There are worse fingers to spread around. Okay, so Nathan's a teacher. But in a way, aren't all of us in this community teachers?
And learners?