rustyquill
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Change of pace
🕑 Added 2020-06-29 15:01:00 +0000 UTCHi folks,
Best wishes from all of us at Rusty Towers and hope you had decent weekends. We’ve got our heads down at the moment with a number of internal projects and reviews, though it’s fair to say that trying to produce things through an ongoing pandemic is proving somewhat challenging.
With regards to one of our recent new Patreon milestones, that of finding a new part-time Communications Assistant to join me, the job description is up on our website and everyone who had previously expressed an interest should have been contacted with it as well. We would particularly like to hear from BIPOC fans or interested parties, so do feel free to share with folks. The closing date for applications is this Friday, 3rd July 2020.
Now, I mentioned that the current global situation is proving difficult for making things, and no doubt you’ll have seen this across the entertainment spectrum from movies to TV, and other shows that often rely on a studio environment. And unfortunately, Rusty Quill is not immune to these forces. Whilst we were initially hopeful that we would be able to get through this without interruption to any of our shows, this is, alas, not proving to be the case.
Parts of our contingency planning have suffered setbacks and been disrupted by forces beyond our control, not least of which have been delays with the postal service in getting recording setups out to guest actors and back again. Taken as a whole, it means that while we were definitely well ahead of things coming into this, in order to ensure that production doesn’t get too tight, that we don’t risk pushing people to burnout, and that shows remain high quality, we have had to make some difficult decisions.
One of these you already know, in that Stellar Firma Season 3 won’t be returning until December. The other big one is that we are changing the release schedule for The Magnus Archives. In a move that’s in keeping with the grand narrative Jonny has in mind for the show’s conclusion, we are splitting Season 5 into three Acts, which will come with a 6 week mid-season break between each. We feel that this will help keep the production efforts reasonable and also give listeners a bit of a breather between the different arcs, as this season has been rather heavy already, to say the least.
But, we won’t be going dark during these breaks – you can expect content on the public feed throughout the hiatus period. Some of this will be older Patreon material that we are declassifying, and some will be new things you haven’t heard, including the audio recording of the London Podcast Festival live show from November last year.
So, here is what Season 5 will now look like:
End of Act I, MAG176 – 16th July 2020
Start of Act II, MAG177 – 3rd September 2020
End of Act II, MAG189 – 26th November 2020
Start of Act III, MAG190 – 14th January 2021
FINALE, MAG200 – 25th March 2021
And, yes, this means that we will be bringing the show to a close as the crowning part of the 5th anniversary celebrations of The Magnus Archives! (MAG001 – Anglerfish – debuted on 24th March 2016)
We would like to thank all of you loyal supporters of our shows in advance for your patience and ongoing generosity through this. We hope that you understand why we’re doing this and know that these are not decisions that we have taken lightly, but for the health of the company, our staff and the shows themselves, they are necessary.
Also, don’t forget that the Patreon tax changes come into effect from Wednesday when the next pledges are taken, so you may want to keep an eye on your account if you live in one of the affected territories.
And, here's what you can expect from us this week (all shows release at 4pm UK time, unless otherwise stated):
Tue 30th June
RQG159 – Getting Airborne* (Patreon)
Wed 1st July
MAG174 – The Great Beast (Patreon)
RQG159 – Getting Airborne* (Public)
RQ Streams – Anil plays… Grim Fandango (5pm)
Thu 2nd July
STL - Season 2 Q&A (Patreon)
MAG174 – The Great Beast (Public)
Fri 3rd July
Citizen / Knight/Noble Bonus – Titlecard Speedpaint : Tharsis
STL - Season 2 Q&A (Public)
Sat 4th July
RQ Streams – Mike plays… Skyrim (3pm)
Sun 5th July
RQ Streams – Martyn performs… Photoshop Challenges (2pm)
* Provisional title, subject to change
Have a good week all!
Anil
Community Manager
Comments
Jordan L. Hawk
Total respect for these decisions, and I'm even more excited for TMA now because of being aware of the three-act structure of this season. Love the symmetry of it ending on its (approximate) 5th birthday.
Tanwen Cooper
The way I see it, that's just giving me more time before I have to come to terms with the fact that TMA is over because I am not ready.
Erin Jade Raven
Okay, thank you!
Rusty Quill
Yes, if you drop a line to hr@rustyquill.com, Suzanne should be able to check that.
Erin Jade Raven
If we didn't receive the email about the full job posting, should we get in touch to make sure our application went through? Also, speaking just as a fan, I'm glad for the chance to savour TMA while you guys take care of yourselves and production! Be safe out there!
thank you for putting your people first, it’s really refreshing to see. the episodes with no break have been really exhausting with everything else going on so doing season arcs is a really good idea imo
Kae Winters
This is a great idea, you're putting your people first, which is so important. The last thing any fan wants to hear is that the creative team burned out because they felt they had to push themselves to keep listeners happy. And I appreciate the transparency! Having dates to work with and knowing what's planned for the upcoming months is much better than suddenly having a six week break with no warning. You're all doing a great job!
elizabeth p.
I think this is a great idea, and i am actually somewhat relieve to hear you guys are practicing some self-care and allowing yourselves some time and breathing room to work at a sustainable pace. I also kind of love the idea of Magnus concluding on the anniversary of its premier. (And if you have to push it back again, that's cool too.) I am also so thrilled the live show audio is going to be released!
Kath
I am actually kind of excited about this? I guess it means I get more time to be a fan while TMA is being released than I would have gotten otherwise, and more time to talk and spin grand webs. I also like the way that three sets kind of makes the breaks gentle. Also very excited for you to have an assistant, Anil.
Ciara mc Cabe
The company should do whatever it needs so as to ensure the health, physical and mental, of all involved. You all work so hard and I'm sure everyone will support whatever measures you need to take with the content production. Good luck and stay safe.Thanks for everything.
K. C. Millheiser
I am always impressed by/have a lot of respect for how RQ models that self-care and care for each other are behaviors critical to creating great work together. Hope this new shedule does not only make production more reasonable but (most importantly) allows you all to take it a bit easier.
silvergazer31
Thank you very much for being open with the scheduling issues you all are going through. We all fully understand the difficulties, and appreciate that you are giving us a heads up now, rather then scrambling to try to push things out at the last second. If you end up needing more time then the above schedule due to further difficulties that come up down the line, or hell just another break because of how the ongoing situation is affecting all of you emotionally, PLEASE TAKE IT. It's important to me as a patron that everyone at RQ avoids burnout or unnecessary suffering, and if that means i have to wait another few weeks then thats perfectly fine by me. Please stay safe and healthy y'all!!!
Lurkin
Good decision - stay safe! Actually quite keen to savour Magnus over a longer time period, so suits me fine. Every episode is such a work of art.
Andrew Hamilton
I fully support and applaud you all taking your time to make your magic at the level you want it to be. Better patience and brilliance than haste and stress.
