Pod_Aware
I meant to do an introduction post, about what pod_aware is, but I think this post by anatsuno sums it up pretty well.
On each day there is going to be a podcast addressing the days topic. You can find today's here with paraka podklb and bessyboo. It is seriously awesome to listen to! I took part in TWO - feedback and repodding. On the day of, I'll go into more detail.
I'll have things to post on accent, feedback and repodding day. But, I'm going to try to post a little something (if just my random thoughts on the topic) every day.
paraka deserves all credit for being AMAZING!
So, without further ado - DAY 1 Podfic 101/Or Why We Podfic.
Podfic: it's an audio recording of a fanfic, like an audiobook, how awesome is that? Fans from all over put their voices out there so you can enjoy fanfic on the go or just in a different way. To find out more about podfic, why we do it and how to get started, check out pod_aware on LJ or DW.
Why I podfic:
1) Because it's fun : )
2) It makes me a part of fandom
3) Connection to people - not just over shared love of certain fics, but also shared experiences of podfic.
4) Podfic - not just listening, but the reading - can make you find new things in fics, eg. new layers, new perspectives on characters.
Before I address these points, I want to talk about 'how' I got into making podfic. I was read to by my parents when I was young, even though I learned to read really early the practice continued. One of my strongest memories of being 7 is Kate reading me Harry Potter every Thursday night and one Thursday Kate had a parent's evening and I read ahead (the chapter where Snape referees the Quidditch match) and feeling really guilty - the reading was something 'we' shared and is still something I love. Then ... about a year ago (seriously a year ago in two weeks) I was writing a fantastic (!) essay on Shamela, and I was searching through so many academic papers for ONE obscure reference and I was listening to podfic. AND somehow (SERIOUSLY HOW???) THIS AMAZING podfic of Conclusions came up on my podfic playlist - first of all A) How did I download this? 2) Why didn't I stop listening to it? It's not like I knew the reader. Sometimes when I love a reader, I'll follow them into different fandoms - eg. Fayjay I followed from Supernatural to Merlin. Anyway, I got hooked! Fast forward 6 months - I'm so into bandom it's not even funny - and there isn't a huge amount of bandom podfic, and at the time (there is more now) there wasn't really anyone actively making Panic! podfic. There'd been a couple of recent awesome ones at podfic big bang, but no one actively making it. So ... I took the step.
1) I love recording fics.
I feel that podfic incorporates TWO aspects of my personality. My analytical side that enjoys interpreting texts (see my BA) and my actress side that enjoys bringing texts to life (that gets repressed by my physical limitations). I found studying drama at University difficult as I ALWAYS had to read it aloud to understand it, especially Shakespeare. Over the course of my degree I studied nearly 40 plays (20 Shakespeare, 3 Beckett, 2 Pinter, 2 Stoppard, 3 Classical, 2 Marlowe, 2 Webster, 1 Kyd, 1 Middleton, 1 Jonson, 1 Shaw, 2 Behn, 1 Hamilton). In my first year I had an entire Shakespeare unit: I loved it, but I always felt that it was hard to 'read' Shakespeare. I always liked to write my essays on texts that had good film versions, as I felt this gave me a better insight into the text than simply reading it. I LOVE the film Titus (this shall be a WHOLE other post) and I fell in love with the actor's depiction of Aaron (for Dollhouse fans it's played by Boyd) and wrote my essay on his character. Titus Andronicus is NOT Shakespeare's best play, it is over dramatic and contains some truly terrible puns and some of the action is unnecessarily grotesque. In the final scene of the play, Titus serves his nemesis, Tamora, her sons baked into a pie. Then he kills his daughter (she'd been raped by the two aforementioned sons). Then he kills Tamora. Then he's killed by Tamora's husband. Then he's killed by Titus' son and then they burry Aaron alive. One of my favourite lines from the film 'Shakespeare in Love' is mini Webster saying: 'I liked it when they cut the heads off ... Plenty of blood. That's the only writing.' - he then went on to write The Duchess of Malfi a truly amazing but gruesome play. All this is great, but to read Titus Andronicus isn't easy, so the actors truly brought the play to life for me and I ALWAYS try to get people to see it. So go see it, it has Antony Hopkins! The cinematography and innovation Julie Taymor does is fantastic - seriously Baz Lurhman has nothing on her. The scene with the rivalling brothers driving through the streets of Rome is really inspired. Also - the clothes.
I'm not saying that podfic has the same level of interpretation and innovation as film, but it does contain a lot of these elements.
I am so tempted to record myself reading my favourite scenes of Shakespeare. Not just my favourite monologues (Aaron!, Iago! Edmund! - is it weird that my favourite bits of Shakespeare are by the bad guys?) but some of my favourite banter scenes (Beatrice and Benedict, or the gender bending scene of AWESOME in As You Like It).
Did this answer the point? Um ... kind of? Anyway, I love the process of recording. I love giving a voice to the characters in my head, and I love how performing makes me feel. Performing makes me feel creative and accomplished - not just the posting and getting feedback, just the creative process and listening to it for myself. About a year before I started podficcing, I recorded the first 100 pages or so of a m/m/m novel that I love, this isn't something I'd share, but I wanted an audiobook really badly and it didn't look like there would ever be one.
2) I love that making podfic makes me feel like more a part of fandom. I like to write, but I haven't got the discipline to be a 'writer'. With podfic I feel that I am creating something new and am contributing to fandom. Before I got into podfic I was terrible and nervous about engaging with people. Over about 18 months of heavy lj use, I probably commented on fics I read 5 times, and podfic ... never. Now, my fic reading comments has gone up to 50% and podfic up to maybe 90%. I take commenting on podfic quite seriously. I am talking to people and I love it.
3) I love the idea that my reading touches people. My favourite kind of comments are when people tell me that my podfic gave them an emotional reaction. I am quite drawn to reading fics that are a bit sad and intense, so knowing that how I felt while reading comes across makes me feel amazing.
I listen to podfic when I'm trying to get to sleep a lot. I can get incredibly annoying insomnia, so podfic has saved my life on numerous occasions. podklb has made the most AMAZING podfic of Forever Now and honestly I have raved about it a lot (she made me like GEN people) and this was last year when I was trying to write an evil essay (cue lots of stress) and I'd been really ill and was a bit depressed. I couldn't sleep and I was still listening to her at 7am. Without this podfic I probably would have been suicidal by this point.
Also - I love podfic fandom! - it's been so awesome and welcoming even though I'm new. I love talking to people about it and I loved making the podcasts even if I think I was a bit shy.
4) In the same way as reading Shakespeare helps me understand WHAT THE HELL he is talking about. Podfic can bring to life a text in a different way to the way you felt about it while you read it.
I love podfic as a way into fandoms, especially when you aren't very familiar with the source material. I listened to bandom podfic before I knew their music, before I knew what the characters looked like.
On each day there is going to be a podcast addressing the days topic. You can find today's here with paraka podklb and bessyboo. It is seriously awesome to listen to! I took part in TWO - feedback and repodding. On the day of, I'll go into more detail.
I'll have things to post on accent, feedback and repodding day. But, I'm going to try to post a little something (if just my random thoughts on the topic) every day.
paraka deserves all credit for being AMAZING!
So, without further ado - DAY 1 Podfic 101/Or Why We Podfic.
Podfic: it's an audio recording of a fanfic, like an audiobook, how awesome is that? Fans from all over put their voices out there so you can enjoy fanfic on the go or just in a different way. To find out more about podfic, why we do it and how to get started, check out pod_aware on LJ or DW.
Why I podfic:
1) Because it's fun : )
2) It makes me a part of fandom
3) Connection to people - not just over shared love of certain fics, but also shared experiences of podfic.
4) Podfic - not just listening, but the reading - can make you find new things in fics, eg. new layers, new perspectives on characters.
Before I address these points, I want to talk about 'how' I got into making podfic. I was read to by my parents when I was young, even though I learned to read really early the practice continued. One of my strongest memories of being 7 is Kate reading me Harry Potter every Thursday night and one Thursday Kate had a parent's evening and I read ahead (the chapter where Snape referees the Quidditch match) and feeling really guilty - the reading was something 'we' shared and is still something I love. Then ... about a year ago (seriously a year ago in two weeks) I was writing a fantastic (!) essay on Shamela, and I was searching through so many academic papers for ONE obscure reference and I was listening to podfic. AND somehow (SERIOUSLY HOW???) THIS AMAZING podfic of Conclusions came up on my podfic playlist - first of all A) How did I download this? 2) Why didn't I stop listening to it? It's not like I knew the reader. Sometimes when I love a reader, I'll follow them into different fandoms - eg. Fayjay I followed from Supernatural to Merlin. Anyway, I got hooked! Fast forward 6 months - I'm so into bandom it's not even funny - and there isn't a huge amount of bandom podfic, and at the time (there is more now) there wasn't really anyone actively making Panic! podfic. There'd been a couple of recent awesome ones at podfic big bang, but no one actively making it. So ... I took the step.
1) I love recording fics.
I feel that podfic incorporates TWO aspects of my personality. My analytical side that enjoys interpreting texts (see my BA) and my actress side that enjoys bringing texts to life (that gets repressed by my physical limitations). I found studying drama at University difficult as I ALWAYS had to read it aloud to understand it, especially Shakespeare. Over the course of my degree I studied nearly 40 plays (20 Shakespeare, 3 Beckett, 2 Pinter, 2 Stoppard, 3 Classical, 2 Marlowe, 2 Webster, 1 Kyd, 1 Middleton, 1 Jonson, 1 Shaw, 2 Behn, 1 Hamilton). In my first year I had an entire Shakespeare unit: I loved it, but I always felt that it was hard to 'read' Shakespeare. I always liked to write my essays on texts that had good film versions, as I felt this gave me a better insight into the text than simply reading it. I LOVE the film Titus (this shall be a WHOLE other post) and I fell in love with the actor's depiction of Aaron (for Dollhouse fans it's played by Boyd) and wrote my essay on his character. Titus Andronicus is NOT Shakespeare's best play, it is over dramatic and contains some truly terrible puns and some of the action is unnecessarily grotesque. In the final scene of the play, Titus serves his nemesis, Tamora, her sons baked into a pie. Then he kills his daughter (she'd been raped by the two aforementioned sons). Then he kills Tamora. Then he's killed by Tamora's husband. Then he's killed by Titus' son and then they burry Aaron alive. One of my favourite lines from the film 'Shakespeare in Love' is mini Webster saying: 'I liked it when they cut the heads off ... Plenty of blood. That's the only writing.' - he then went on to write The Duchess of Malfi a truly amazing but gruesome play. All this is great, but to read Titus Andronicus isn't easy, so the actors truly brought the play to life for me and I ALWAYS try to get people to see it. So go see it, it has Antony Hopkins! The cinematography and innovation Julie Taymor does is fantastic - seriously Baz Lurhman has nothing on her. The scene with the rivalling brothers driving through the streets of Rome is really inspired. Also - the clothes.
I'm not saying that podfic has the same level of interpretation and innovation as film, but it does contain a lot of these elements.
I am so tempted to record myself reading my favourite scenes of Shakespeare. Not just my favourite monologues (Aaron!, Iago! Edmund! - is it weird that my favourite bits of Shakespeare are by the bad guys?) but some of my favourite banter scenes (Beatrice and Benedict, or the gender bending scene of AWESOME in As You Like It).
Did this answer the point? Um ... kind of? Anyway, I love the process of recording. I love giving a voice to the characters in my head, and I love how performing makes me feel. Performing makes me feel creative and accomplished - not just the posting and getting feedback, just the creative process and listening to it for myself. About a year before I started podficcing, I recorded the first 100 pages or so of a m/m/m novel that I love, this isn't something I'd share, but I wanted an audiobook really badly and it didn't look like there would ever be one.
2) I love that making podfic makes me feel like more a part of fandom. I like to write, but I haven't got the discipline to be a 'writer'. With podfic I feel that I am creating something new and am contributing to fandom. Before I got into podfic I was terrible and nervous about engaging with people. Over about 18 months of heavy lj use, I probably commented on fics I read 5 times, and podfic ... never. Now, my fic reading comments has gone up to 50% and podfic up to maybe 90%. I take commenting on podfic quite seriously. I am talking to people and I love it.
3) I love the idea that my reading touches people. My favourite kind of comments are when people tell me that my podfic gave them an emotional reaction. I am quite drawn to reading fics that are a bit sad and intense, so knowing that how I felt while reading comes across makes me feel amazing.
I listen to podfic when I'm trying to get to sleep a lot. I can get incredibly annoying insomnia, so podfic has saved my life on numerous occasions. podklb has made the most AMAZING podfic of Forever Now and honestly I have raved about it a lot (she made me like GEN people) and this was last year when I was trying to write an evil essay (cue lots of stress) and I'd been really ill and was a bit depressed. I couldn't sleep and I was still listening to her at 7am. Without this podfic I probably would have been suicidal by this point.
Also - I love podfic fandom! - it's been so awesome and welcoming even though I'm new. I love talking to people about it and I loved making the podcasts even if I think I was a bit shy.
4) In the same way as reading Shakespeare helps me understand WHAT THE HELL he is talking about. Podfic can bring to life a text in a different way to the way you felt about it while you read it.
I love podfic as a way into fandoms, especially when you aren't very familiar with the source material. I listened to bandom podfic before I knew their music, before I knew what the characters looked like.