End of the Year Fanworks Meme: 2016
Stats: Podfic (171 stories, ~36 hours worth of footage recorded overall), 1.5 fics
So I produced a greater quantity of podfics this year compared to last year, but less in terms of hours of footage recorded. About 120ish of those podfics were created for Amplificathon (WHICH I WON \0/). This was definitely the year of short and sweet podfics created in mass quantities. XD
In terms of writing, I mean, I kept to my pattern of 1-2 fics per year. XD I wrote one story that was part fic/part headcanon and I started a WIP.
Most popular?
Fic: I mean, out of my whole 1.5 fic produced this year XD the sex-pollen part fic/part headcanon was a tad more popular in terms of hits/kudos than the Orthax AU WIP. To be fair, it's been around for much longer.
It's always hard to judge "popularity" for podfics. By what metric? Hits? Kudos? Plus, my pod-together projects usually "win" in terms of hits AND kudos but it's hard to tell how much of that is for the podfic and how much was for the text. So outside of pod-together, the Darcy/Steve podfic I made for analise010 lay your hands on me got the most hits. This surprises me NOT AT ALL. :P Thanks Darcyland fandom. And in terms of kudos, the delightful Finn/Poe/Rey Tumblr Notfic where our intrepid threesome get accidentally married by food was my most kudos'd. Again, this surprises me NOT AT ALL. :P
Most underappreciated?
I do A LOT of podfic for tiny, obscure fandoms, so the lack of feedback for those is not surprising. But hmmm...I guess I would say, for the amount of work I put into them, the relative lack of kudos/comments for 11 Characters That Never Were The Slayer (multifandom crossover), We Live in Awkward Times, My Friend (Protector of the Small), and until all these shivers subside (Critical Role) were a little sad-making. These were some of my favorite performances, with a lot of character-voice work that I was really proud of, and these were all 1hour+ podfics. So. *hands*
Personal favorite, for whatever reason?
Oh geez. Well here were a few of my favorites.
until all these shivers subside (Critical Role) was my favorite long podfic. It required the most thinking and planning in terms of performance choices, especially with how to interpret the dream sequences in audio form. I'm incredibly proud of the final performance. I cried real tears while performing this.
In terms of series, I loved doing the Interstitial series (The Martian). Mark Watney is my favorite narrative voice ever, and I had so much fun performing his ridiculous voice logs.
One Girl Revolution (multifandom) was a perfect confluence of so many of my favorite things--crossovers and badass women of all sexualities and colors--and it was pretty fun to kick down the doors on the opening day of Amplificathon with a 1000+ point podfic. XD
Finally, Facing the Music (multifandom crossover) was a surprise favorite. To me, this podfic is one of those perfect examples of how podfic can totally transform its source work. I love the way using the music completely changed the way the story was structured and I was so pleased that the author really enjoyed the way I mixed things up.
Most difficult to make?
Definitely my pod-together project with Domenika Marzione, A Symposium on Personnel Management with a Focus on Intra-team Dynamics (the We Don't Need No Civil War remix). Between finding the appropriate environmental sounds, MAKING MY OWN environmental sounds, and clipping and mixing the roadtrip songs, this podfic definitely was the most work I put into a podfic this year just in terms of sheer hours. But I'm very pleased with how it came out.
Most "ah ha ha I can't believe I'm doing this"?
Hmmm....I don't think I did any really weird podfic this year? I've mostly gotten over any and all shame, tbph. XD But I guess the weirdest podfic I did (and I did a lot of weird, obscure ones for Amplificathon) was Curiouser and Curiouser, which was a Sherlock (BBC)/Curious George crossover. I know. Neither of those are my fandoms, but it was actually super charming and well...I did it for the points. XD
Most fun to make?
Drunk Historians Through the Centuries (Drunk History/multifandom historical RPF) was so. much. goddamn. fun. I ended up performing it live at Podfication and tbh...IT KILLED. :P The other one I really enjoyed was my pod-together project with DizzyRedhead, Run the World (MCU). I love playing with filters and sound effects, and I love collaborations. I'm incredibly proud of how that news sequence worked out, with all these podficcers contributing such lovely performances.
Was there one that didn't turn out the way you wanted?
I guess Get Me to the Church on Time (Sorcerer to the Crown). And that was mainly because I attempted character voices, but my British accent wasn't working for me that day, so I just recorded it in my normal accent.
Biggest learning experience?
I'm going to say a significant portion of my Amplificathon 2016 oeuvre, because that was the period where I really committed to doing character voices and accents. I did Dress Up (Cotillion) entirely in a British accent, and I did Daphne's POV in What Waves Cannot Take (Nation) in a British accent. I made a valiant attempt at Tali's Russian??? accent for Hamster Dance (Mass Effect) and then there was the entiiiiire melange of accents that was portraying just about every single Dragon Age Inquisition character for Of Flowers and Happiness, the Elusive Nature of Which. Which is all to say that Amplificathon was an excellent warm up for doing character voices in the Critical Role fandom. I mean, my shitty British accent is still shitty, but it's a lot easier to fall into it than it was while recording for Amplificathon.
What's next?
More Demons, Desires, and Dark Sides. I've never done a WIP before so this is new. Also, luxheroica and I need to figure out whether we're doing this Critical Role Mummy AU XD
In terms of podfic stuff, I...sigh, I really need to finish that one MCU longfic that I was supposed to do for Podfic Big Bang, then Marvel Bang, and then failed miserably at doing. It's hard because MCU and I are on the outs right now so I have no motivation for working on it. But it's been 3 goddamn years. I NEED TO DO IT. I'm in the same boat for finishing all the one-shots for the Run verse. I SUCK. I KNOW. I'll get to it, I swear.
So I produced a greater quantity of podfics this year compared to last year, but less in terms of hours of footage recorded. About 120ish of those podfics were created for Amplificathon (WHICH I WON \0/). This was definitely the year of short and sweet podfics created in mass quantities. XD
In terms of writing, I mean, I kept to my pattern of 1-2 fics per year. XD I wrote one story that was part fic/part headcanon and I started a WIP.
Most popular?
Fic: I mean, out of my whole 1.5 fic produced this year XD the sex-pollen part fic/part headcanon was a tad more popular in terms of hits/kudos than the Orthax AU WIP. To be fair, it's been around for much longer.
It's always hard to judge "popularity" for podfics. By what metric? Hits? Kudos? Plus, my pod-together projects usually "win" in terms of hits AND kudos but it's hard to tell how much of that is for the podfic and how much was for the text. So outside of pod-together, the Darcy/Steve podfic I made for analise010 lay your hands on me got the most hits. This surprises me NOT AT ALL. :P Thanks Darcyland fandom. And in terms of kudos, the delightful Finn/Poe/Rey Tumblr Notfic where our intrepid threesome get accidentally married by food was my most kudos'd. Again, this surprises me NOT AT ALL. :P
Most underappreciated?
I do A LOT of podfic for tiny, obscure fandoms, so the lack of feedback for those is not surprising. But hmmm...I guess I would say, for the amount of work I put into them, the relative lack of kudos/comments for 11 Characters That Never Were The Slayer (multifandom crossover), We Live in Awkward Times, My Friend (Protector of the Small), and until all these shivers subside (Critical Role) were a little sad-making. These were some of my favorite performances, with a lot of character-voice work that I was really proud of, and these were all 1hour+ podfics. So. *hands*
Personal favorite, for whatever reason?
Oh geez. Well here were a few of my favorites.
until all these shivers subside (Critical Role) was my favorite long podfic. It required the most thinking and planning in terms of performance choices, especially with how to interpret the dream sequences in audio form. I'm incredibly proud of the final performance. I cried real tears while performing this.
In terms of series, I loved doing the Interstitial series (The Martian). Mark Watney is my favorite narrative voice ever, and I had so much fun performing his ridiculous voice logs.
One Girl Revolution (multifandom) was a perfect confluence of so many of my favorite things--crossovers and badass women of all sexualities and colors--and it was pretty fun to kick down the doors on the opening day of Amplificathon with a 1000+ point podfic. XD
Finally, Facing the Music (multifandom crossover) was a surprise favorite. To me, this podfic is one of those perfect examples of how podfic can totally transform its source work. I love the way using the music completely changed the way the story was structured and I was so pleased that the author really enjoyed the way I mixed things up.
Most difficult to make?
Definitely my pod-together project with Domenika Marzione, A Symposium on Personnel Management with a Focus on Intra-team Dynamics (the We Don't Need No Civil War remix). Between finding the appropriate environmental sounds, MAKING MY OWN environmental sounds, and clipping and mixing the roadtrip songs, this podfic definitely was the most work I put into a podfic this year just in terms of sheer hours. But I'm very pleased with how it came out.
Most "ah ha ha I can't believe I'm doing this"?
Hmmm....I don't think I did any really weird podfic this year? I've mostly gotten over any and all shame, tbph. XD But I guess the weirdest podfic I did (and I did a lot of weird, obscure ones for Amplificathon) was Curiouser and Curiouser, which was a Sherlock (BBC)/Curious George crossover. I know. Neither of those are my fandoms, but it was actually super charming and well...I did it for the points. XD
Most fun to make?
Drunk Historians Through the Centuries (Drunk History/multifandom historical RPF) was so. much. goddamn. fun. I ended up performing it live at Podfication and tbh...IT KILLED. :P The other one I really enjoyed was my pod-together project with DizzyRedhead, Run the World (MCU). I love playing with filters and sound effects, and I love collaborations. I'm incredibly proud of how that news sequence worked out, with all these podficcers contributing such lovely performances.
Was there one that didn't turn out the way you wanted?
I guess Get Me to the Church on Time (Sorcerer to the Crown). And that was mainly because I attempted character voices, but my British accent wasn't working for me that day, so I just recorded it in my normal accent.
Biggest learning experience?
I'm going to say a significant portion of my Amplificathon 2016 oeuvre, because that was the period where I really committed to doing character voices and accents. I did Dress Up (Cotillion) entirely in a British accent, and I did Daphne's POV in What Waves Cannot Take (Nation) in a British accent. I made a valiant attempt at Tali's Russian??? accent for Hamster Dance (Mass Effect) and then there was the entiiiiire melange of accents that was portraying just about every single Dragon Age Inquisition character for Of Flowers and Happiness, the Elusive Nature of Which. Which is all to say that Amplificathon was an excellent warm up for doing character voices in the Critical Role fandom. I mean, my shitty British accent is still shitty, but it's a lot easier to fall into it than it was while recording for Amplificathon.
What's next?
More Demons, Desires, and Dark Sides. I've never done a WIP before so this is new. Also, luxheroica and I need to figure out whether we're doing this Critical Role Mummy AU XD
In terms of podfic stuff, I...sigh, I really need to finish that one MCU longfic that I was supposed to do for Podfic Big Bang, then Marvel Bang, and then failed miserably at doing. It's hard because MCU and I are on the outs right now so I have no motivation for working on it. But it's been 3 goddamn years. I NEED TO DO IT. I'm in the same boat for finishing all the one-shots for the Run verse. I SUCK. I KNOW. I'll get to it, I swear.