Voice Performance Option in Bandom Reverse Big Bang

[podklb.livejournal.com]

So a few weeks ago, somebody contacted me asking if I had any ideas for how to make podfic work in a reverse big bang. I was thrilled by the question, since I love it when challenges make an effort to include podfic artists, and I think the solution that we came up with is pretty awesome (ETA: though, to clarify, it does not involve actual podfic, but rather voice performance, which is only one aspect of podfic as a fanwork). The guidelines for submitting a voice performance for the reverse big bang are at the comm, and I'll copy/paste them below the cut as well.

Guidelines for Vocal Performers

You are signing up to perform and record an open scene between 30 seconds and 5 minutes long. Open scenes are - purposefully - ambiguous dialogue, so it is your performance itself - the pacing, emotion, sounds, inflection - is what will really inspire your authors.

Background noises (slamming doors, telephone ringing etc) are allowed if you wish to include them, but please no music.

Examples of open scenes to use are available here, though if you want to write or find your own (ambiguous, dialogue only scene), you are welcome to. You can read an example and explanation of open scenes here.)

If you want to make cover art for your voice performance you are absolutely welcome to! Cover art can be as generic (landscapes, graphics etc) or as specific (Brendon/Spencer) as you’d like. If you choose to do cover art, then you must have it ready for submission with your performance by November 11.

Open scenes are marked as ‘character a’, ‘character b’, but if you want to specify characters, you may. (Just be aware that it is limiting your author pool to those who write those characters.)

The spirit of the challenge is for the author to work solely from what they hear in the performance, but obviously there is some information that can't be communicated through an open scene. For this reason, we are offering the option to performers to include notes about squicks and/or non-preferred pairings (eg. if you don't want porn, or incest, or character death, or don't want to read specific characters/pairings). Please be mindful that the more limitations you include, the smaller your pool of authors will be.

I am posting about it here a) because I think it will be really fun for podfic artists who are interested in bandom to sign up and b) because I want to spread the idea, in case other reverse big bangs would like to incorporate voice performance as well!

If you want to contribute a voice performance to bandom reverse big bang, the signup post is here.

Comments

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

I admire your dedication to finding a way to make this work, but... Since you're talking about spreading this idea specifically, I feel it is appropriate to step in with dissenting opinion. So here goes.

In every other possibility for reverse big bang participation, people come up with something that is a fanwork in its own right. When they're done, they have a finished piece of fanwork, be it a mix, a comic, a photography, a manip, etc.

When someone chooses the option you've come up with, they're not doing podfic. Podfic is not, actually, part of this challenge.

What's there is vocal performance, which of course has things in common with podfic, but nevertheless is not it.

More over, you write that their piece's goal is 'to inspire'. You present it in a way that I find off-puttingly author-centric (when I thought that big bangs and reverse big bangs were all about highlighting other forms of fanworks than fanfic, and about equal collaboration).

(incidentally: do rules in a reverse big bang warn off artists to be careful when/if including a specific character or pairing in their work, because it means reducing the pool of authors that might pick their stuff? Perhaps; though I don't remember noticing that before.)

Anyway. I've had a day-long migraine and I'm not very articulate right now, so, sorry if my objections seem unintelligible, but, yeah. I think there are ways to include podfic in a reverse big bang, AND I think it's great that you've found a way to include voice work in yours, but I don't think the one equals the other.

If other reverse big bangs were thinking about including podfic, I would hope they have a good long preliminary discussion about it, because there are many ways it could work that, personally, I feel would represent an actual inclusion of 'podfic' itself, podfic as fanwork, rather than vocal performance.

This being said, may the force be with whoever finds this participation to the challenge fun! Far be it from me to discourage people from doing what they want and enjoy. Maybe this formula and this vocabulary will even entice new people into the fold of the recording fans, which would be fantastic. Maybe voice work will inspire great stories (why would it not). I absolutely hope so.

As I hope that one day another reverse big bang finds a different way to go about it, and does in fact include *podfic* in its offering.

[podklb.livejournal.com]

(To clarify, that description is not my words. I gave the idea to the comm mods and talked out how it would go, but they ironed out the specifics. I really like what they came up with wording-wise, but it didn't come from me.)

When someone chooses the option you've come up with, they're not doing podfic. Podfic is not, actually, part of this challenge.

Yeah, sorry if the way I introduced the post made that unclear at the beginning. The reverse big bang doesn't call it podfic anywhere, though trying to think of a way to include podfic artists in a reverse big bang is what inspired the idea. I posted it here because I think it is an idea that's interesting to podfic artists, but it's definitely not actual podfic. It doesn't include the fic choice aspect, which is very important, the aspect of incorporating music, or probably a bunch of other aspects of podfic that I am not thinking of at this moment.

This is voice performance, which in my own podfic work is the central aspect of what I consider my art. I know that many podfic artists do not feel that way about their own work, and I think that view is entirely respectable and valid. Really, my interpretation of what podfic means to me heavily colors how this played out. It seems to me a great way to distill some of the art that goes into what I do as a podfic artist without making it something fic-dependent and therefore something that couldn't really fit into a reverse big bang. Some other options that were discussed would have relied more on other parts of what podfic artists do, and I'd love to see reverse big bangs that took those ideas and tried them out. That said, I also can't wait to see how this plays out. For one thing, I feel like it makes a strong counterargument to the idea that what podfic artists do is just read fic aloud without adding anything of their own art to it. If you can have this piece of voice performance artwork that *inspires* a fic rather than being inspired by a fic, then it shows that voice performance is artistry on its own.

I mean, I actually *do* consider the voice performances produced in this challenge as something that would be able to stand as fanworks on their own. If the voice performer just names who the two characters are, and possibly (but not necessarily) provides a situation, then it totally counts as a fanwork to me, certainly at least as much as a mix would.

I have had long discussions, though, with people who do not see voice performance as the central piece of their podfic artistry, and those people also love and care about their art immensely, and if you feel that this post is harmful or belittling to them then I sincerely apologize.

when I thought that big bangs and reverse big bangs were all about highlighting other forms of fanworks than fanfic, and about equal collaboration

I don't know much about reverse big bangs, but I know more about big bangs, and I never saw them as an equal collaboration thing. It seems like one fanwork always comes first and then the other is inspired by it. In big bangs, the art is inspired by the fic. In reverse big bangs, the fic is inspired by the art. I could be wrong, but that's how I've seen it. When I think (attempts at) equal collaboration, I think something more like pod_together.

incidentally: do rules in a reverse big bang warn off artists to be careful when/if including a specific character or pairing in their work, because it means reducing the pool of authors that might pick their stuff? Perhaps; though I don't remember noticing that before.

This reverse big bang also has mixes, and the mixes have the same warning. With artists, it's obviously pretty hard to not specify character at all, but there is a warning that crossovers will make your pool of potential authors smaller.

As I hope that one day another reverse big bang finds a different way to go about it, and does in fact include *podfic* in its offering.

That would be cool, definitely. I guess maybe... someone could podfic a story and then the author could write a sequel or spinoff based on the performance of the podfic? That hadn't occurred to me before, but that would certainly be an interesting idea for a reverse big bang to try.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Oh no no, I don't think this post is harmful or belittling in any way! And actually, since I don't really use music of effects in my own podfic, I'm with you in that voice performance is pretty much the extent of my art. It just so happens that I don't think of myself as a voice performer, and I wouldn't participate in something like that simply because I don't record if I don't first happen upon material that makes me want to record.

Which I suppose makes it sound like there wouldn't be any way (for me) to make podfic the first piece in the chronology of a reBB, but actually I do think that is possible.

For example like you touched upon in your last paragraph. Or another way! Podfic artists could submit a podfic (excerpt, draft, whatever the first stage would be) to a reBB, with the express idea that the goal of the writer will be to write something that doesn't have to be a sequel but has to match some other element of the podfic: style of writing, pairing or relationship dynamics, universe it's set in, etc. There's loads of things that can be worked out (and that I personally would feel a lot more drawn to).

About BBs & reBBs: the fact that one work comes chronologically before another is just, to me, part of the mechanics of the setup. It doesn't infringe on the possibility of the works being a collaboration, in the sense that each piece can (and should, imo, but I recognize that this is another discussion entirely) have equal stature and equal footing. So I'm upset whenever a BB/reBB uses vocabulary or sets up things in ways that makes it clear that one work is not just the primary work in chronological sense but also the Primary Work in the amount of respect it gets, and in the way other works are considered subordinate to it. That's the part that upsets me. 'inspired by' doesn't mean 'less important or worthy', you know? But anyway, I digress.

I can definitely see why you're excited about this, and I look forward to seeing - well, and listening to - the results. :)

[pennyplainknits.livejournal.com]

Hi! I've just had my first go at doing an open scene (I wrote my own, kind of like improv?) and I just wanted to say thank you SO much for trying to find a way that podfic performers can play in this challange.

The inclusion of podifc is so rare in these kinds of challanges and I'm so happy and pleased that you've not just ignored those of us that like to express our fannish love through the spoken word! I know it must have been difficult to find a way to make it work as podfic tends to be a companion fanwork, so to speak, and I can understand why some other podifc performers might have reservations (ones I don't share, I should stress) but I'm just so glad that fest/challange organisers are at least seeing podfic as an option.

Anyway, I'm still trying to decide which open scene to submit, but I just wanted to say thank you!

[podklb.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way. It makes me so excited to see podfic (or in this case, part of the art that podfic artists do) treated with respect and included in things. I also recognize that we're at a time in the world of podfic where we're breaking a lot of new ground and figuring out how things are going to go, and it's not going to be perfect the first time. I am really excited to see how this goes, though. I plan to submit a voice performance—I have my scene chosen and my interpretation of the scene decided on, but I haven't officially signed up because I don't want to promise I'll finish in time until I've at least had the chance to record. Hopefully I'll be sign-up number 6, though, and hopefully most or all of the voice performances will get fics written to go with them, and hopefully it will turn into a thing that shows people how much creativity goes into podfic as an art form, hopefully hopefully hopefully...

And if none of that big stuff, then at least hopefully it will be fun and a cool acting exercise for the people who participate! I can't wait to hear yours, and I'm excited about the performance whether or not it ends up getting a fic to go with it ♥