my podbang <3

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

boring mod reflections

okay, so. i've never modded an exchange before, and i found the experience really interesting. i learned a lot! there are some things that would have worked better if i'd removed some flexibility for participants, but i'm not sure that's a bargain i'm willing to make. we'll see how we feel about it next year, i guess.

there was a moment, around 17 or 18 december, when i realized granting extensions might have been a very bad idea. but! then i was totally proven wrong! everyone who said they would come through did! and the people who didn't actually were upfront about the idea that an extension might not help.

next year, we either won't schedule the reveal date on the same day as the submission deadline for yuletide, or i won't participate in yuletide. /o\ i still can't believe i did that. i think i aged ten years monday, seriously.

superstitiousme and i did the matching of readers and recipients, and i think it took us both days, and we wound up with two totally different lists that were both kind of broken -- i think we could each match most of the people up, and then both had people left over who didn't match each other at all. but different people! so then we took both lists and aggregated them together until they worked. next year we're doing it with software other than our brains, i can tell you that right now.




on finding a story

so i was matched as a reader to blacksquirrel, on two shared fandoms: buffy the vampire slayer and due south. and i was very excited! i had several awesome buffy stories already on my to do list!

except.

well, her two off-limits items were unhappy endings and character death, and her optional comments asked for nothing xander-centric. meaning her taste and my taste are not really aligned, there. so back to the drawing board. which is good, actually - i mean, it isn't like i'm not still going to record those various depressing and/or xandery buffyverse epics, so this was an opportunity to look in another direction. and she gave a fantastically massive list of fandoms to choose from! so i made a short list of which ones i was interested in: jeremiah, pirates of the caribbean, sherlock holmes, veronica mars. and then i started looking. and looking. and looking.

after a few frustrating days, i narrowed to holmes. i figured, hey! i know holmes fans! and there's a fandom that's been around for freaking *ever*. there have to be epics, right? so i started looking, and i pm'ed people to ask for recs of really long stories. preferably with a good mystery!

yeah. so i have helpful friends, but i realized very quickly that "really long" means different things in different fandoms. i have never been so grateful for my wordcount firefox plugin, which at least allowed me to eliminate almost everything i looked at. finally, success! an author who came very highly recommended (katieforsythe) had written something relatively recently that was long enough! and of *course* it was the second of two companion stories, but whatever.

then there was the nervewracking bit where i messaged her for permission and quietly freaked out worrying about my lack of options should she say no. but she didn't. :)



reading my story

so, melodrama. this story was fun to read, but the style is in a way very much of its canon -- full of drama and intensity. and OMG is that ever exhausting. i mean, i do most of my podfic in snappy, snarky sg:a and due south, and even the depressing epics for those fandoms are...well, the prose itself is lighter, and the pov is contemporary, and i don't have to push emotion into every single damn word, if that makes any sense. irony and obliviousness are easy for me to read! intensity and focus are not.

i started with violin, and wow, it took me forever. something about the watson pov syntax would not fit my natural phrasing, and i swear i flubbed every single sentence at least once (when i edited the file, i cut 50 minutes of flubs. i always have a high error rate, but usually it's more like 8 or so minutes per hour).

and then there's the french. /o\

okay, so i have francxiety. seriously! i am not entirely certain why, but while i'll bluster through and give my best effort to czech and latin and any number of conlangs, french scares the crap out of me. so there i was, reading along, and...FRENCH! i stopped in my tracks. i tried, halfheartedly, but then i wound up clapping my hands to mark the spot and kept reading, so i could insert it later. and then i emailed anatsuno. who is awesome. she recorded a tutorial for me! she gave the history of the quotations, and told me about why they were pronounced the way they are (kind of like poetry, and with a set phrasing). and she sang them! :D and then aphelant saw me panicking, and asked if it would be helpful if she made me a file, too! so i could hear it as read by a native english speaker. and she slowed it way, way down, so i could mimic and speed up gradually.

between the two of them, i got to the point where i could record one phrase at a time, then edit until it sounded like i was saying it all at once, more or less. i mean, i am still pretty sure i mangled it, but! without their help i'm not sure i could have made myself do it at all. sadly, the background silence in the recording wound up really different from the main file, even though i recorded in the same space. so it's pretty easy to tell that it's pasted in. i am sad about that, but i did what i could. next time i will find the french bits before i start reading and choose a different story be ready ahead of time.

hallowed was actually a lot easier and flowed better for me. i need to go back and look at the stories again, but i think it's that the watson pov is far less certain, and much more polite, in a very formal way. in hallowed, the holmes pov is very definite and straightforward. but he's an intense guy, youknow? so i glowered the whole time i was reading. i have never frowned so much for so long in my life, i swear. it kind of made my head ache. dear mr holmes: i am glad i am not you! he probably had headache all the time, what with the intensity and the braininess and the drugs.



probably podfic editing is one of the torments in hell

no, no, i kid. editing is not that bad. it's just: i can't stay awake while editing my own files. i am a multitasker! i multitask pretty much the entire time i am awake, every day. and podfic editing takes your hands, and your ears, and your eyes, and it's not a great idea to have other applications going on your computer. i can sort of cook while editing, as long as it's just the watch a pot and stir occasionally kind of cooking (i did burn at least one dinner fairly spectacularly doing that, though, come to think of it). so i tend to sit on the sofa or the bed, looking for mouth noises and listening for flubs, and i totally zone out, and sometimes fall asleep completely. :|

that's where my need for a beta comes in -- i need someone to tell me if i missed edits due to unconsciousness. and if anyone does hear repeated phrases in my work, please tell me so i can fix them! i drank a lot of coffee to try to edit properly, but it only helped sometimes.

but! i was also, thankfully, editing files for other people, too. which is fun! mostly because even if i have read their story before, i haven't done so recently, so there's suspense! i want to know what happens next. and i get to hear their error styles, which are different than mine -- both where they screw up and how they deal with it.

my edit rate for my own work is a pretty predictable four-to-one -- it takes four hours of editing for every one hour of finished recording. turns out, i have learned to visually edit one other reader well enough that i can edit her files at something slightly faster than two-to-one. it's amazingly fast! when i edit myself, it's a mix of editing by listening and editing by looking, but i need both -- with her, the editing is *so* visual that i'm only listening to verify that i got everything -- so i am editing several minutes ahead in the file of where it's playing. and then there's the reader who i have been trying to edit by listening, because i don't trust myself to do it visually. yeah. i need to start trusting myself fast, because my edit rate for her? eighteen-to-one. eighteen hours to edit one hour! and i've actually been told by another editor working on a different piece of the file that visually editing it is a snap, and really fast. i have only just started thinking about visual editing versus listening editing! i am currently fascinated by this.



anyway. i had an awesome podbang! i am already looking forward to next year. <3

Comments

[cybel]

Fascinating.

anyway. i had an awesome podbang! i am already looking forward to next year.

It'll take a year to finish listening to all of this year's podfics!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

:D

aw, it would only take a week and a bit if you just didn't sleep or anything. WHERE IS YOUR DEDICATION???

[cybel]

It's taking a nap, thank you very much. :P

[sadiane.livejournal.com]

Only slightly relevant, but I seem to have come across an entire wave of people recently who do not particularly like Xander. This perplexes me. I had always assumed he was universally loved.

Also, THANK YOU for this :D As a podfic fan, I am amazed by the riches laid before me.

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

ah, i knew the non-xandery were there, though perhaps that's from spending time in xander & spander-centric parts of btvs fandom -- i certainly recall seeing a lot of defense and justification of being a xander fan. and that's fine! everyone likes different things, which is awesome, imo.

<3

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading about your experiences, and I, too, have found that I can't multi-task while editing. I tried crotcheting, but found that I was letting errors slip by. And my computer is stationary,so I'm stuck in my chair. I've fallen asleep, too. You are totally, absolutely awesome for the efforts you've made to spread the podfic love, and while I couldn't join in this year, maybe next year won't be quite as crazy for me and I could pull it off.

Laurie

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

it would be awesome if you could join us next year!

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I continue to bow down to your energy, your devotion, and your multi-tasking. And your ambition, and your vision and maybe even your madness.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I've found that I edit at a about 3 or 4 to 1 rate, and that I cannot do ANYTHING else--it's a totally focused effort.

Podbang has done something amazing in fandom and I can't wait to make more long podfic now that I've tried it. Thank you so much for this gift.

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

i am so happy that you have taken to it! you are my workshop success story! <3

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

*Preens and struts like a six year old boy*

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

What emerealdsedai said re: vision, energy, passion, madness. Yes. <33

This post is a great read! I love seeing your thoughts on reading/recording - Holmes must have been a very headachey person, I completely agree! So SIRIUS. *g*

I thank the goddess at least twice weekly for your existence and amazingness, dear. And for your posts. *twirls you* I look forward to hours of podfic Holmes fun!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

i think i have new permanent between-the-eyebrows furrows, and i blame it all on holmes. <3

i hope you enjoy it!

[luzula]

It's so interesting to hear about different editing strategies. Editing is actually really fast for me--it's the actual reading that takes time. (This is because I have problems with phonasthenia and my voice tends to get tired if I record more than 15-20 minutes per day.)

Anyway, this is how I edit:

I write down the time (that is, how far into the recording I am) when I have to reread a flubbed phrase or make a pause (because of having to drink, or turn a page, or something). Then I underline the time to indicate a pause, and overline it for a retake (possibly with multiple overlines for multiple retakes). If the pause is supposed to be especially long or short, I indicate that, too.

When I edit, I only look at the times I've noted down, not the whole file. When editing a retake, you can see from the shape of the sound wave what you're supposed to remove, and you can also see how long the pause is supposed to be from how long it was before the flubbed phrase. Oh, and you need to start working at the end of the file (the last time you noted down), because if you start cutting stuff at the beginning, the times you've noted down for later in the file won't match where the flubs are.

Then I listen to the whole thing on my mp3-player, usually while doing housework or something. I keep a piece of paper handy to note down the time in case I missed something, or if there was an unintended sound from outside (but usually those lead to a retake). Nine times out of ten, the file is okay and there's nothing more I need to do.

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

this is really interesting! i'm not sure i could do the note-taking thing, since i could see that leading me into a lot of dwelling on how much i suck. my reading part is generally relatively fast, but a bit constrained by the way that i get really self-conscious, so i usually only read when there's no one else home. i tend to do around two hours of reading at a sitting, and i can do up to three sets of that a day before i lose my voice (four is possible, but takes liberal application of hot whisky with honey, which is hard to pair up with a lively story).

[luzula]

Huh, I can't hear your self-consciousness at all (I love your reading voice). But these things are often mostly in the head of the reader.

I think I get less self-conscious because English is not my native language. Maybe it ought to be the other way around (you'd think it would make me uncertain) but I think it just gives me a little bit of distance to what I'm reading. I'm pretty sure reading explicit sex scenes in Swedish would make me feel embarrassed. Or maybe it's just habit.

[paraka]

Wow, that's such a different way of editing than what I do. Really interesting to read.

Also, it's pretty awesome that you did something like this when you have phonasthenia.

[luzula]

How do you do your editing?

And there's nothing physically wrong with my vocal cords. Phonasthenia just means that you're using your voice wrong, which makes it tire easily. I've had sessions with a speech/language therapist to learn what I'm doing wrong, and the rest is a matter of practice (although arrrgh, it's really hard to relearn something like this). So I could even see the podficcing as being good practice for me, if I concentrate on using the right vocal techniques while I do it.

[paraka]

And there's nothing physically wrong with my vocal cords.
I didn't mean to imply anything negative with my comment, just that I know you face extra challenges to do things like podfic'ing when you have such a condition. I know, since I have asthma, which leads to a whole host of extra challenges. I have a rather small lung capacity, so I often find I can't make it through a whole sentence without needing to take a breath, and when I do breath, it can be very loud. Also, it means that if I get sick, like at all, I can't easily speak for weeks so that can really hold me back.

How do you do your editing?
Well, since I have the breathing thing, the first thing I do is go through the file and cut out all of my breaths. I've gotten to the point where I can generally pick them up visually, although I always listen before cutting because sometimes it's actually an "s" or "k" sound. Then I go back to the beginning and listen to the whole thing and remove any mistakes/repeated lines. I also make sure that I cut out the entire breath (sometimes I'll have missed parts of it, and it leaves this weird hiccup-y breath, or a bump from the cut), and that it didn't screw with my pacing too much. Sometimes I'll have to go and add pauses in so that it doesn't sound like one giant run on sentence.

Assuming I have time, and don't have a deadline looming, once the whole fic is recorded and edited, I then sit down to listen to it in it's entirety, with the fic in a word doc open in front of me and the highlighter tool at the ready. I read along on the page as I listen, and anything that sounds off, I highlight on the doc so I can go back and edit it some more, or rerecord it.

Once all that is done, in theory I would send it off to a beta to listen to, however I've never actually done that with any of my podfics before, since I'm someone who's driven by deadlines to actually get things done, however that can mean I don't do things as completely as I'd like.

[luzula]

I didn't mean to imply anything negative with my comment

Hey, no offense taken. : ) I was just clarifying what phonasthenia actually was. I had no idea what it was myself before I got it.

And it sounds like a lot of work to edit out all the breath sounds. Do you record with your mike close to your mouth? Mine's usually half a meter away from my mouth, and I think that cuts down on breath sounds, bursts of breath from plosive consonants, and stuff like that. Of course, that's not possible with all mikes.

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

I am so delighted to have the podbang fics all lined up for my attention (I'm in the middle of a week without using my car much, so I'm not getting in a lot of listening time, and I'm saving them for my long commute). I'm sure there'll be a rec post or several out of that (I've written 3 in a series so far on podfics that are pre-bang.)

You are a goddess of awesome; thanks for all you do for fandom!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

heh. podfic is *made* for listeners like you! thanks for being a reccer and booster -- we have too few.

<3

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

OMG your effort! Thank you so very much. And I'm torn between loling and apologizing for the mis-match in DS and Buffy tastes. After just seeing the Holmes movie, I'm pretty happy that you ended up there b/c now there are six hours of Holmes storytelling just waiting to extend the pleasure of the movie.

I remember thinking, one day as I was editing for what seemed like forever, about how there was someone, somewhere doing the same thing for me. And just how lovely that is :) The fandom gift economy rocks - thanks for making this happen :)

It's funny, because I think melodrama is actually easier for me to read - mostly my concern is monotone, and if every word is DraMaTic then I'm less worried. But clearly this is a personal preference issue! It's fascinating to read your account, because I have wondered how much of podficcing is a common experience, and how much is a personal one.

Thanks again! You're a fantastic mod and a wonderful reader!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

hah! i thought our taste mismatch was hilarious. and i was actually pretty pleased that it pushed me into looking at the array of other fandoms you had on your list -- that was awesome.

yes! i mean, for me, in exchanges, i pretty much always hit the "i will do this thing for my recipient if i have to weep blood to get there, srsly." which keeps me going! presents are great; unexpected presents are great; but knowing someone is anticipating a present and it's all down to you to make it the best possible? that's fantastic.

i think part of the challenge, for me, is that my actual talking is very animated, and my own internal voice is very somber and deliberate. and reading something that actually pushes out the drama and emphasis more, makes that gulf wider, kind of drags my internal voice along? possibly that makes no sense. but my brain is kind of quiet and murky, on the inside, and things don't clarify until they come out (i never really know what i'm going to say or write, before i start getting it out/down, which is why my extemporaneous logic and debate skills are for crap, and why i love the internet and the ability to type things out, then impose structure once i can see it). okay, now that looks unrelated and tangential, but my point is that melodrama makes me talk in my head before it comes out of my mouth, because there are peaks and troughs in feeling all over the place, not predictably. and that's fun! it's totally fun to extend like that, it just takes a lot more focus and push, you know?

podfic is so weird. it's so of-the-body. :D

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

Our unconscious thought processes are apparently soul mates b/c I understand exactly what you mean. But I've also had to develop this voice/persona for public presentations that I think of as very separate from me, and I found that was the space I inhabited for reading - one where I have to very deliberately turn off the self-censoring inner critic who wants to be perfect and just focus on performing. I don't know if that's for better or for worse - fan fic probably shouldn't sound like an academic presentation, or vice versa. And yet.

"podfic is so weird. it's so of-the-body. :D"

This is interesting because I kept thinking that while editing - the weirdness of being able to isolate and replay and erase (or not) my own breath. Breath is everything - it's life, it's energy, it's speech, it's connection between the body and the world. And there I was, holding my own breath and judging it and deciding its fate. Of the body and out of body. Kind of existential, that.

[luzula]

podfic is so weird. it's so of-the-body. :D

I just happened to see this comment today, and it is so true! I mean, I find that it helps my reading to match my body language and gestures to what I'm reading. It's so funny how the voice is influenced by what (seemingly) unrelated parts of the body are doing.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

On the flexibility issue: are you thinking primarily of deadlines and assignments, or more technical things?

I ask because I was struck by the amount of post-production work that went on (I submitted four MP3 files, and you had to convert them to one long MP3 plus an M4b--steps I could have easily done myself to save you time), and I wondered if you had any thoughts about setting some formatting guidelines next time.

Assuming you have any desire for a next time...

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

:p

actually, i was thinking mostly of sign-up process and fandom range. but i really enjoyed the range of fandoms as a reader, despite the lack of guarantees that fic of the right length existed in half of them. perhaps this can be addressed with more planning.

the post-production was *easy*. just time-consuming. <3

[pennyplainknits.livejournal.com]

You are made of all things awesome, such as robots and beignets. I can't believe all the stuff you did, and I think podbang has been awesome for raising the profile of audiofic as a means of fannish expression

The visual editing is SO much easier than listening editing- when I was reading a lot of SGA I got to know what 'John' and 'Rodney' looked like in audacicty, and by the end of Reparo I was finding I could even distinguish between the different voices I'd done. I still wound up listening to all of it all the way through, but being able to see the shape of words did help. I've never read any Holmes fanfic, but I shall be interested to listen to the recording!

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am really fascinated about my visual editing learning curve. I edited someone who repeats a lot (like 1:30 cut down to 35 min!), and I'd just visually look for repeated beginning and listen in on the first and last and then delete all but the last. It cut down so much work!!!

Love you being able to distinguish Rodney and John!!! (I have an S reading issuer, so reading J2 with Jensen, Jared, Chad, Chris,...you get the picture...not fun! :)

[pennyplainknits.livejournal.com]

Something I do is click my tongue after every time I make a mistake- so I can just look for the long lines and zoom in on those, knowing there will be a cut just before them. It's very helpful!

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

I actually tend to just go back and record over mistakes, so that my rough draft has no repetitions. It's the breaths and hissing that I have to edit out.

But I've heard a lot of people doing the clicking or clapping...and that's visually really obvious indeed!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

nom beignets.

i had never read any before! it's a lot of fun. <3

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

You know I think you rock but this detailed description? Wonderful!!!!!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

<3

[fish-echo.livejournal.com]

i have only just started thinking about visual editing versus listening editing! i am currently fascinated by this.

Oh, that is fascinating!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

yes! and the way they are both in use simultaneously. and the way we acquire the ability to read this weird graphic waveform, so that we can tell what sounds are which, kind of. i cannot get over it!

[fish-echo.livejournal.com]

It's intriguing enough for me to want to get involved with the editing process :) I wish there was a place you could say 'I am interested in being a podfic beta'...

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

dude! many people need a beta to grab! i will put you on my list, but go ahead and post to the community with the offer. <3

[fish-echo.livejournal.com]

Yes'm!

[fish-echo.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I can't create tags. Could you tag my DW and LJ posts as 'beta offer' or some such so people can find it more readily?

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

done!

:D

[fish-echo.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[jesse_the_k]

I'm trying my first podfic today, inspired by all the wonderful ones I've enjoyed this year. Just wanted to poke in my head and say thanks, as well as virtual bouquets of honey and gin, to you for your awesome, enthusiastic cheerleading. You've helped open up an entire new experience in fandom! YAY you!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

yay! and YAY YOU for trying it out! poke at me if you need *any* help or opinion or encouragement. <3

[luzula]

Hey, I happened to see this comment today. Good luck with the podficcing, and I, too, will be glad to help if you need it.

[lian-li.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's fascinating -- I could visually edit Fleur's segments, but not mine. (well, mine were a lot more faulty, so...) I was kind of forced into visual editing because my listening editing rate? is more 20:1 /o\


goal: speak in a way that allows for visual editing myself!

(I mean, I *can* spot my flubs without hearing, mostly, but only if I zoom in so far that it goes just as slowly as listen-edit.)

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

yeah, it also depends on the story, too - i mean, i know i have recorded at least one story that called for a very flat affect, and i'm not sure i could have visually edited that -- harder to pick things up.

i don't have a very large screen, and i am not naturally good at shape recognition (or, hmmm. lack practice at it, is more likely). so i am generally not zoomed out enough to see more than one repeat and feel confident about it. which is fine for some readers, but it takes others (and me, often) multiple tries to get it right. so i can often only wipe out one flub at a time, rather than a whole series of them.

what i can *always* get visually is plosives and gaspy breath (er, and sneezes and throat-clearing). that looks very distinctive and usually shouldn't be there (sometimes it should! and judgments like that are the creative part of editing, i think).

[cookiemom6067.livejournal.com]

How do you do visual editing? And what makes it a snap (for your editor friend, if not for you)?

I'm starting to worry that my editing was sloppy. I'm hearing 1:4 as pretty typical, but I was averaging about 1:2. God, somebody shoot me! What did I miss?

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

second thing first: your error rate was probably just lower. i stumble over words and transpose nouns a lot. and if you edit close to when you record, you sort of anticipate the errors because you still recall making them -- i have a bad habit of recording, then shelving for weeks (or months) before i edit.

visual editing is recognizing repetitions in the sound wave display -- then you can pick the last repeat and the first one, verify them quickly by listening to a second of each, and delete the first one and everything in between, so you don't have to listen to the screwups. i suspect the other editor is more visually confident -- in the hard file, the repeats were long strings, so they were hard to see all at once. when i was editing for another friend, her repeats were very short phrases. since i could see them all at once, i didn't second guess and fret. i feel like once you edit a bit, you start to learn to read the waves, sort of -- you can pick out some words, and recognize rhythms. the new reader i was doing, with the hard file, was new to me -- i didn't know how to read her, yet. now i have learned, and i got far faster after the first few hours.