Podfic

[ratherastory]

Dear flist,

I have been in fandom just long enough to have heard of podfic but never to have listened to any. I'm not sure why the prospect worries me, but there are also technical considerations (such as I don't actually have an MP3 player on which to listen to it, and I can't see myself just sitting in front of my computer listening to a podfic when I could just as easily read it myself).

So, what's the deal with podfic? Why is it a good thing? Why do you like it? (Alternately, if you're not a fan, why is that? What fails to turn your crank about podfic?) What do you look for in your podfic? What makes you run screaming for the hills?

Is there the equivalent of BNFs for podfic? What's the protocol with recording someone else's fiction? Do people record their own work, or is that considered super-extra tacky?

How does it work for longer fiction? I would imagine that reading for six hours straight is right out for the vast majority of people, so do they get recorded as multiple tracks? So how does that work?

Anyway, this post is a bit disjointed, but I hope you get the gist.

Inquiring minds want to know! :)

Comments

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

I have two hours on the road every workday, so I love them like whoa. I've gotten really hooked on long ones, and sometimes the enthusiasm to jump in my car for another hour is the main thing that gets me to work.

I've posted a lot of SPN podfic recs in my LJ and on spnroundtable lately, if you want to see why I specifically like particular stories.

I don't know if there are BNFs exactly, but there are tireless podficcers whose names are to me a guarantee that I'll really like a story. Most of them read other writers' fics, but some read their own. twasadark may have recorded more hours than any other reader, and I've enjoyed everything I've heard by her. I also enjoy baylorsr and sadcypress (whose humor readings I particularly adore, though her other stuff is wonderful too). pandarus reads in many different fandoms and sometimes reads her own fics as well as those by others. She has a real flair for dramatic reading, and her dialogue is enlivened by the way she uses everything -- breath, little vocal noises, etc. -- to convey emotion. It's not over-wrought at all, which I'm probably making it sound. It sounds very real. (And she has a marvelous British accent.)

audiofic.jinjurly.com is a HUGE archive of podfic, searchable by fandom, pairings, author, reader, even length - and you can combine search terms. That place has saved my life.

I sometimes listen on my ancient iPod, but mostly I download stuff onto a jump drive and put that in my car stereo, which has a USB port (I realize most don't, but I bought a new stereo to replace the cassette-only system when I bought this car, which is old). Sometimes that means fics play out of order, which can drive me nuts searching around, but it's generally still worth the effort of chasing chapters down.

Someone, probably general_jinjur aka jinjurly, said podfic is a fan work based on a fan work, and it's true. The love and care that goes into recording these is immense.

There are different styles of reading, but I will listen to pretty much anything (and the archive doesn't give warnings or summaries, and I don't click the links to the text version, though it's right there where you can find out what you need to know) and I rarely bail on a podfic, though some things will make me bail. One podfic that had a reader who had a couple of giggling audience members as she read made me cut out early on. Another reader had copious snot-noises going, which were finally too much. But mostly I'm content with most styles; the one thing I find frustrating is readers who go too fast and aren't distinct -- words get lost under road noise, and my hearing has its not-so-great ranges.

Try it out -- I absolutely love the stuff!

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

::blushes like a blushy thing made of blush::

Aww, cheers, mate!

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

I have also recced the crap out of your podfics twice this week in spnroundtable, as part of my ongoing series of podfic recs. You rock!

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

meep!