"The MUSIC, the worldbuilding, the performances, the LAYERS, the nuance, the twists, the sheer queer urban fantasy pulp fiction of it all! This is what we DESERVE and I need everyone up to date like, yesterday. Best romance involving queer men since The Penumbra Podcast? I think so."
- Ella Watts, Director of Doctor Who: Redacted via Twitter
“It’s an incredible epic slow burn world build - think Penumbra Podcast or Silt Verses. It’s also a heart clenching slow burn enemies to lovers romance that will break your heart so hard”
- Auralqueer via Tumblr
"Truly the best way to describe this is "d*mmit, Seb". This podcast causes me so much stress, which I suppose is the best testament to it's writing, worldbuilding and overall vibe. I care about the characters so much that I have shouted no into the ether outside in public."
- ItMe via Podchaser
“!!!! ★★★★★ I think this is the perfect podcast??"
- Averagerage via Apple Podcasts
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Six months have passed since the finale events of Season One, and and Sebastian Fen's hands are tied. Between his questionable contract with the Augur Corporation, trying to keep his powers under control, and the secrets of the AIU, his very survival is bound to the deluge of agreements that swear him to silence. His budding relationship with Augur's poster boy, Dr. Angelo Volta, hangs over him and keeps him from stepping out of line.
But the threat of the Mercurii still looms, and with the figurehead of the city's black market on the run, Echor's criminal underbelly has unravelled into chaos. Through it all, Sebastian never stopped recording, and it's time to share it with the world.
Night Shift: An Urban Fantasy Audio Drama is a serialised pulp fiction podcast from award-winning new producer Julian Maclurg, set in a world where the dying magic of the past is steadily replaced by scientific progress, inhabited by people with extraordinary powers both natural and artificial. Featuring explicit LGBTQ+ rep and a full, diverse cast of more than 40 voice actors, Night Shift is a story of discovery, acceptance, self-worth and of looking at the world around you and saying: how can I leave this place better than I found it?
Our first season hit 49,000 downloads before its final episode, with listeners in over 100 countries and on every continent except Antartica. It's available now to listen to wherever you get your podcasts!
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Hey, I'm Julian! I'm the writer, producer and editor for Night Shift, and the voice of Sebastian Fen. Let's talk about the cost of production!
In 2022, Season 1 of Night Shift cost $6,600, a little over half of which was out of pocket for me. All of this but $500 went on paying voice actors, with the rest spent on music licensing and hosting for the show, and other fiddly bits. It's vitally important to us that everyone gets paid fairly for their hard work!
Season 2 is likely to be bigger. Planning for 18 episodes, with new cast members to play the new characters you're soon to meet, I'm anticipating needing at least $7,000 to fund our continuing adventures. Every cent we raise towards that goal helps, which is why we've chosen to go with flexible funding – we have every intention of completing Season 2 no matter what happens.
All that budget will go on paying our voice cast at a reasonable rate for their work. They're all sharing their incredible talent with us for this project and proper compensation is well deserved. All other expenses, from music licensing to hosting and marketing, will be covered out of pocket. The only thing the money raised here will also cover is the fees and expenses it costs to raise it and produce any perks, although we're offering almost entirely digital perks to ensure the money goes where it's meant to!
Our initial goal is $7,000 (around £6,070!) which covers all our actor's compensation for the season, with the addition of a few more cast members. We also have a couple of stretch goals for if we hit that target:
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If we hit $7,500, we will split the extra funds between our production team, who have taken nothing to date despite voicing a large portion of the major characters! As thanks, we'll produce a canon MINI COMPANION SERIES alongside the main episodes, where radio hosts Arlo & CJ from Echor City FM discuss in-world events of the show and interview important characters.
If we raise $9,000, we'll be compensating the production team for their voice acting at the same rate as the rest of our cast! As a huge thank you, we'll add an additional BONUS EPISODE to Season 2 roster!
If by some out-of-this-world miracle we raise $12,000, our entire cast will receive a well-deserved pay increase and Julian will novelise season one, releasing the e-book to all backers and a paperback copy to the highest tiers!
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As you've reached this part of the page, with any luck you'll have decided you like Night Shift – whether you were already a listener or you've just discovered us! But you might still be wondering if you should back the project. Will your contribution even help?
The great news is that it will! Every dollar and dime counts in a crowdfund. Every small donation takes us closer to our funding goal, and on a project like this that we're dedicated to finishing, you're making every moment of the series better when you back us.
If you're still not convinced, take a look at our fun backer rewards! Like our first crowdfund, to ensure we're able to fulfil all perks and that funds raised are used on the production itself, we've decided to make almost all our rewards digital. All support tiers receive previous rewards from the tiers below.
Here's what we've got on offer!
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Permanent name credit on the Night Shift website
- Join the Echor Conspiracy Club, our active Discord community, for live episode premieres, listening parties, theory chats and so much more!
- Additional audio including a Season 1 LoFi mix and Night Shift soundscapes to sleep, study and chill to
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Early access to episodes 1 through 3
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Season 1 bloopers and behind-the-scenes development
- A Night Shift Tabletop RPG rule-set for playing your own stories in Echor City
- Bonus audio files that don't make Seb's final cut for the show
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Season 2 script book PDF with director's notes
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Thanks by name in an episode
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Exclusive artwork as a digital download
- 12 month merchandise discount
- Personalised voice messages from Sebastian
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Name a character who'll appear in Season 2!
- Get a signed, physical script of episode 1 with bonus stickers!
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Associate producer credit for episode 1 of Season 2
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Voice a character as an extra in one episode!
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Signed printed script of episode 1!
- A personal episode dedication to you (or a loved one) at the start of one episode, and a message of your choice at the end of the episode
- Physical hardcover signed script book for all Season 2 episodes
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Executive producer credit for the whole of Season 2
On top of these we're offering digital add-ons: a digital poster, TTRPG extras, and four bonus books each containing 40+ pages of lore, stories and audio files about Night Shift (also available on our merch store) plus one BRAND NEW bonus book containing 60+ pages of brand new content!
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With years of writing and planning behind it, the Night Shift podcast is a labor of love, created by Julian Maclurg with support from Ashe Pendragon, Rey Archer, Angie Gone and Sasha Aleksandra. We're a small, amateur and LGBTQ+ team.
It matters so much to us to tell queer stories, especially ones where queerness can simply exist within the story as plainly and openly as it should be allowed to in real life. Night Shift is a story about magic and science, but it's also a story of discovery, acceptance, self-worth, and of taking action to leave the world a better place than you found it.
Our full cast of 40+ people all work remotely in their home recording spaces, led up by Julian as the voice of Sebastian Fen.
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For Season 2, we'd like to feature even more voices and will be casting for new major roles! Our Season 1 credits are below:
Crew:
- Julian Maclurg - he/they - producer, head writer, editor, and the voice of Sebastian
- Ashe Pendragon - they/them - co-writer, concept artist and the voice of North
- Sasha Aleksandra - she/her - co-writer, assistant editor and the voice of Olivia
- Rey Archer - they/he - co-writer, production manager and the voice of Cameron
- Angie Gone - they/them - co-writer, illustrator and the voice of Jenny
Cast:
V Black (they/them), Sam B. Nguyen (he/him), Chase R. (he/him), Zeina H. Chaudhry (she/they), Chantal King (she/her), Vic Treviño (he/him), Eric Raymond (he/him), Donna Xia (she/her), Kenny Armstrong (he/him), Jenny Higgs (she/her), Allegra Rodriguez Shivers (they/them), Nate DuFort (he/him), Cher Davis (she/her), Nancy O'Fallon (she/her), Peter Wicks (he/him), Ramzey Zourob (he/him), Ravynia (she/her), Jupiter Zaddack (she/they), Adam Clark (he/him), Andrew Sianez-De La O (he/they), Victor Valdeon (he/they), Doug Nesbit (he/him), Alli Nesbit (she/her), Jon Waters (he/him), Adriana Cazador (she/her), Ian Lim (they/them), Sarah Baquiran (she/her), Juwan Royal (he/him), Chris Sack (they/them), Andre Rivera (he/they), Nicole Kjeldgaard (she/her), Julián Sánchez (he/him), Aife (she/her), Daniel Jordan (he/him), Bobbi Jackson (she/her), Elizabeth Plant (she/her)
Full bios, headshots, and cast links can all be found on our website!
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Night Shift Season 2 will go into production as soon as this crowdfund has completed! For Season 1, we recorded and edited episodes as we went, releasing about every two weeks, which sometimes led to delays when life events came up. For Season 2, we'd like to get ahead, and get several episodes produced before anything airs.
With that in mind, if we hit our goal, we expect to begin releasing episodes around June 2023, releasing one every week for 18 weeks.
For backer rewards, they'll release at a time that makes sense - some will be ready by the time the crowdfund ends, but rewards such as script books and director's notes won't be made available until after the season has finished.![]()
If you'd like to support us but can't afford to pledge to the crowdfund, there's still plenty you can do! The best way to support us is to spread the word. Word of mouth is the most important factor in the show growing, so here's a few ideas to help us out:
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Listen to the show and subscribe! Seems like a no-brainer, but downloading our episodes on your fave podcasting app and pressing the subscribe or follow button does wonders (and you'll get notified when we have new episodes!) – you can find us on the biggest apps here.
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Post about the show online! Tweet about us, share your theories on Tumblr, create fan art! Share our show into an online community you're in, and tag us in your thoughts, theories, and creations. The more original posts about Night Shift that go around, the more people will find us!
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Tell your friends, family, and coworkers to listen! Few things work quicker to grab a new listener than a recommendation from someone who already listens. Plus, you'll have someone to talk about the show with, so it's a double win.
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Leave us a rating and review! A 5-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts goes a long way. You can also review on Podchaser.com or on any podcast app that displays reviews. You can usually rate on any app! The more you interact with the show on all the various platforms, the more likely it is other people will find us!
We also have other ways to support the show financially. If you'd rather support on a monthly basis and get ongoing perks, you can do so on Patreon or Ko-Fi. Plus we have some really cool merch!
Risks & Challenges
Between our team, this is our fifth crowdfund (for various projects) with all four previous crowdfunds succeeding and fulfilling rewards! That said, there are always some risks in crowdfunding.
- If we don't receive the full funding for Season 2, the biggest risk is delays. We're committed to the creation of our second season even if we don't hit our initial funding goal, so this is a low-risk project. If we don't hit the goal, it's likely the season will be delayed until later in 2023 as we raise funds elsewhere.
- The second risk we run is blowing our budget, which could also potentially result in production delays. However, whilst we surpassed our Season 1 budget by more than $1,000, the only delays we experienced were based around individual's schedules, not finances. We made it work!
- As for challenges after funding: we're working with a cast and crew of nearly 40 people total. There's always the chance something will come up in real life to slow us down, but we'll do our best to work around obstacles. Plus, we're all recording remotely, so we're as safe as we can be!
Thank You
We couldn't be more grateful for everyone who has shown interest in Night Shift - whether you've been listening since we released the first episode of Season 1, or you've only discovered us recently. Thank you for your incredible support, your constant enthusiasm, and for believing in us.
We cannot WAIT to share Season 2 with you all!
Julian x
