Podfic? Podfic!

[kiwisue]

How many of you listen to podfic? I've just started: I needed hands and eyes to do some chores, no-one else in the house, I thought I'd check out the very few (3) Professionals podfics that seem to be available.

I have to admit to some trepidation, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Jojo has a lovely, clear voice for this, and her two story selections, one of her own and 'Crazy Maniac' by Jackie Thomas were excellent. I had a small problem with Culf's - the sound was very low, therefore there was a lot of background static when I turned up the volume. She has a nice voice though, lightly accented, which didn't bother me, although a few phrases seemed indistinct. After reading her entry about making the podfic, I think I understand - she should definitely record more, but maybe not when her folks are asleep in the house!

Having run out of options in my fandom, I tried some others from Jinjurly's archive. I started with 'Written by the Victors' (SGA: story by Speranza, podfic by Lim & a cast of dozens). Nothing like jumping in the deep end *g*. Unfortunately I was overreaching - I'm sure that someone more familiar with the show would have followed it better. I liked the alternating voices concept, though.

I'd actually read the next story - 'We were Emergencies' (Avengers movie, Clint/Natasha: story by gyzym, podfic by revolutionaryjo), and enjoyed it and found it interesting enough to read again a few months later. Not sure if that made a difference, but in any case this podfic was a very accessible version. The present tense felt natural when spoken, where I had in fact struggled a little with it on my first time through the written work (my preferences in that respect tend to be traditional).

Lined up is a Due South story read by andeincascade, an SGA/firefly and a Buffy one read by jinjurly, and a Ritchie Holmes/Watson I picked up on a rec, but I've listened to the beginning and I'm not sure that it will work for me....

Opinion? well, I'm glad that there is podfic in the world, and I wish that there was more in Pros. I initially thought that it was more an accessibility measure but while that's an excellent reason by itself I can see now that it is much, more than that.

So what do you think?

Comments

[cathexys]

I think there are certain stories that work well on their own, often for me very long and AU ones (i.e., when you know the canon it's another layer but it's a great story and reading nonetheless). I have gotten into quite a few fandoms solely via podfic (I'm happy to share my road to hell first podfic in both bandom and hockey...headdesk), but mostly I listen to podfic where I know the canon but don't read a lot of fic (Sherlock or Star Trek, for example).

And while there are a few podficcers whose pacing or accent or sound quality make them no go's for me, I really think that on the whole podfic has come a long way and there is so much amazing stuff out there! (Plus, it's like a rec list for the fandom--for someone to put that amount of time into a story, they must really, really love it!!! :)

[kiwisue]

Plus, it's like a rec list for the fandom

That's pretty much what I was saying to snailbones on lj - podficcing is something of a filter (imperfect, but still useful). For example there is so much Sherlock BBC fic, and the amount of it that for me would be a waste of time to start reading is commensurately large - but if someone has gone to the trouble of making a recording and paying attention to the quality, then the story must be good - in someone's eyes, anyway!

I think knowing the canon is fairly important to me (and I don't really do rpf). I was out on a limb with the SGA one, because I have only seen half a dozen episodes of the show. I just liked the idea of it.

[cathexys]

Yeah, I figured you might not do RP...it often lends itself to self contained AUs, because there's too much/too little canon :D

But yes, taking a fandom you know and going for the longer stories (because those tend to create their own internal canon, so to speak) seems a really good strategy that's worked for me... (And film canons are easy, bc it's like 2 hours rather than 50-100 :)

Hope you find some things you like!!! If you do DS, there's been some wonderful podficcers and podfic

[kiwisue]

That's nice to know - I loved the show, but never really got into the fandom b/c it kind of overlapped with Babylon 5 and Buffy at the time. Shall definitely check out the podfic - is most of it on the audiofic archive?

[cathexys]

Everything gets to the audioarchive sooner or later. (In many fandoms the same day or within a week)

I think you'll find some hours of enjoyment there!!! :) Some great fics recorded by Speranza (and yes, that one wasn't a good starter fic for SGA I think :); some really long ones, like Hawks and Hands and a recent WWII AU that I haven't listened to yet, and miles of good stuff in between...