Podfic year in review

[sophinisba]

Okay, well, I'm still hoping to write and vid a little more before the end of the year but I'm pretty sure I'm done podficcing, so here's the Year in Podfic meme! Previous editions are on my meme: year in review tag.


Here are the podfics and other recordings I made in 2012! You can see the details and links by paging back on my podfic tag.

Collar (House)
Come In(to) My Parlor (House)
Break the Sky (Parks and Recreation)
Do You Wanna Come Over and Kill Some Time? (Merlin RPF)
Before and After (Merlin)
The Moon and the Ocean (Avatar)
Two Worlds (Doctor Who)
Like This (Merlin)
Just Listen (Northern Exposure)
Returning to the Deep (Pan's Labyrinth)
Come Back and Haunt Me (Torchwood)
Wouldn't, Would (XMFC)
Listen, Learn (Merlin)
#AnniesMove (Community)
Ever More and More (Merlin)
something to talk about (The Good Wife)
What We've Become (The Mt. Saint Helens Remix) (Doctor Who)
There are some things I need to tell you (no fandom)
A Run of Crazy Dreams (Inception/Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
Rebirth (Merlin/Torchwood)
Back in the Day (The Wire)
Practical Legends (The Wire)
Amateur Production (Community)
Trio (Merlin)
In Gear (House)
Ringed With Silver (The Eagle)
Of Apples and Spectacular Things (Merlin)
Arcane Asylum (Merlin)
Some Kind of Strength (Merlin)
Yonder Comes the Morning (Merlin)
Kit'n Kaboodle (Merlin)
shot to the heart of hell (Merlin)
Naptime (Merlin)
Making Reparations (Merlin)
Feather Pillows (Merlin)
Dom's on top again (Lotrips)
Chokepoint (Merlin)
Candles (Bandom)
if you clock me, you got me (Bandom)
Plotted (Inception)
And a Matching Bra for an Extra Boost (Parks and Recreation)
Concession (Parks and Recreation)
AUs and Kink (no fandom)
For Love of Country (Avengers)
come by any time (Avengers)
Chief Executive Officer (Avengers)
Women's Weapons (Avengers)


This year I made 47 podfics and podmetas this year (not counting my podcast with yue_ix for a total of 24 hours and 4 minutes, and an average length of 30 minutes. "Arcane Aslyum" was by far my longest ever podfic at 12 hours and 43 minutes; I'm pretty sure "Wouldn't, Would" was my shortest ever at 1 minutes and 19 seconds. For comparison, in 2011 my total was 28 and a half hours and my average length was 24 minutes. It's funny because I had made it a goal in 2011 to keep the average length at or above 30 minutes, but then I didn't go through with it. This year it wasn't a goal but it happened because of Arcane Asylum.

That's what you can say about pretty much anything that happened with me and podfic this year: it happened because of Arcane Asylum. For example:



Ha ha ha ha ha!



If you look at the list of my podfics this year it looks like there's more fandom variety than last year, but Merlin podfic makes up a much bigger percentage of the minutes than last year (because of Arcane Asylum).

Similarly, by the list it looks like I recorded a big variety of genres (the "other" here includes meta and multi), but because of Arcane Asylum and some medium-sized podfics I have way more minutes of boyslash than anything else:



So, idk, obvs I put a lot of time and feelings into Arcane Asylum. I enjoyed the experience of recording it and I'm really proud of the finished product. But most of the time when I do this kind of post I can also say I'm proud of how many of my fanworks feature ladies (and characters of color), and that is not as true of my podfic production this year.

This year I recorded more podfics written by strangers than in the past (things I found browsing through tags on the AO3) and it was the first year that I didn't record anything I'd written myself. On the other hand, a few other people recorded things I'd written and repodded things that I'd already recorded, sometimes just because they liked the fics and other times because they were inspired by my podfics. This was all great.


What was the best podfic you made this year?
Arcane Asylum, baby.

Most popular?
Now that so many people are putting their podfics on the AO3 they have actual stats to use for questions like this, and I don't because, gah, I am so scared by the amount of coding that would be involved in putting all my podfics on the AO3.

I went to look at my files on MediaFire today and was surprised to see that "Listen, Learn" (a lovely uni AU in which Merlin is blind and Arthur does voice recordings of his textbooks) has by far the most downloads. It's a nice surprise considering that's not an especially porny story but it is one I think works really well as a podfic.

I don't know whether more people have downloaded Arcane Asylum because the files are hosted a bunch of different places. In general people tend to like long podfics but some might be avoiding that one because of the content notes.

Most underappreciated?
Eh, I don't have any strong feelings about this this year. I don't get a lot of comments on individual podfics but I have had people tell me that I'm one of their favorite readers or that I helped inspire them to start podficcing; I met someone at a con whom I'd never talked to online but who knew me for my podfic; I've seen myself recced as a go-to person for femslash podfic; and in general I've had lots of really great affirming support from the podfic community. I feel well appreciated.

Personal favorite, for whatever reason?
Arcane Asylum, baby. I am also really happy with the set of seven short podfics for the Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology, and I love "Break the Sky", "Naptime", and "Chokepoint".

Most difficult to make?
Eh, Arcane Asylum. LOL this year in podfic is mostly just one podfic.

Most "ah ha ha I can't believe I'm doing this"?
I think last year was a lot pornier than this year, in general, so there wasn't a lot that I felt extra-self-conscious about. I did record a lot of orgasm noises for "Chokepoint" but I don't think I ended up using most of them.

Most fun to make?
Arcane Asylum, baby. I especially enjoyed the parts about Merlin growing up with magic, and all the parts with Sophia (um okay especially the porny parts with Sophia).

Was there one that didn't turn out the way you wanted?
Lots of them, yeah. :( What's on my mind now is that I'm not satisfied with any of the Avengers podfics I've made so far, either in terms of my own performance or in terms of sound quality. I also don't love the two podfics I did for The Wire.

Biggest learning experience?
Eh, to be honest I don't really feel like I challenged myself or learned a whole lot this year. I mean, Arcane Asylum was big, but the process of it wasn't that much different from making a whole bunch of shorter podfics, except that I had to do more of the volume adjustment stuff that I hate at the end. Um.

What's next? Do you have any podfic goals for next year?
I'm not sure, I don't have any big projects or specific goals like I had the last two times I did this meme. Like I said, I've had microphone trouble and trouble finding alone time lately, and I don't feel super ambitious. :/

I intend to ask more people about their transformative works policies instead of just asking for permission on individual podfics. If I were less shy and lazy I would go to work on compiling a list of Merlin authors with blanket permission.

More collaborative work might be a good thing but collaborations can also be stressful, and I don't think the theatripod model is for me. I've talked about doing multivoiced versions of lolafeist's Seasons, srin's Timing Verse, and thingswithwings's Tangled, but none of them have worked out. Now leish has recorded Tangled herself and it's awesome so part of me feels like, eh, not as much of a need for me to record it anymore, but then another part of me is more excited about it than before.

I don't think I want to take on anything as big as Arcane Asylum again, although who knows what will grab me next. I think I'd like to shoot for something around 30K/3 hours and I've read a couple about that length at merlin_holidays that I think I'd enjoy doing; am anxious to find out who the authors are and how they feel about podfic.

Would you like to do this meme? Here are the questions I used. Obvs you can adapt them however you like!
<b>Stats:</b> <b>What was the best podfic you made this year?</b> <b>Most popular?</b> <b>Most underappreciated?</b> <b>Personal favorite, for whatever reason?</b> <b>Most difficult to make?</b> <b>Most "ah ha ha I can't believe I'm doing this"?</b> <b>Most fun to make?</b> <b>Was there one that didn't turn out the way you wanted?</b> <b>Biggest learning experience?</b> <b>What's next? Do you have any podfic goals for next year?</b>

Comments

[dodificus]

More collaborative work might be a good thing but collaborations can also be stressful, and I don't think the theatripod model is for me.

I'm trying the theatripod thing this year and I have mixed feelings about it. I have mostly worked by myself over the years, I'm kind of pushing myself and my anxiety levels at the idea of having to interact and read *with* other people.

Plus, as usual you have unwittingly made me feel annoyed with myself that once again I've recorded 100% m/m slash:/ I always have *intentions* but that's no good unless I follow through!

[sophinisba]

Yeah, I was trying to psych myself up to audition for something and then I saw the notes about multiple rehearsals and decided, no, not this round. I mean also because there weren't any Merlin projects, heh.

Hey, if m/m slash is what you're into it's a good thing to record! I write a lot of het and femslash so it comes naturally now but with podfic you do have to go out of your way. Especially when I'm doing stuff for kink_bingo, gosh, going through the tags on the AO3 just gets me so much John/Sherlock and Erik/Charles and a few other popular m/m pairings.

If you do want to do some other kinds of podfic though it might be good to have a more specific goal, like once every two months or one of every five podfics, or something? Or participate in a specific challenge like audiofemme or the Awesome Ladies anthology. That's been helpful for me anyway.

[dodificus]

Yeah, because of the nature of fandom I'd have to go out of my way to record more female centric podfics and I always forget or am too lazy. You're right though, setting a specific target or participating in a challenge would be a good way to achieve something. And I *do* want to.

[jelazakazone]

Oddly enough, the five projects I've been involved in have all been femmeslash. It's a little trend I am thinking I want to continue despite the trouble finding femmeslash:D

[dodificus]

:D I've only recorded one femmeslash and that was a gift for someone. THERE ARE MEN EVERYWHERE:P

I think I'll have an easier time finding gen fic with the female characters that I enjoy. I'm on a Game of Thrones kick at the moment (watching season 2) and there approximately 5 TRILLION awesome women in that show.

[jelazakazone]

"It's raining men, hallelujah it's raining men" LOL!

Oooh, awesome. Merlin just ended tonight and the femmeslash there is not so good because they are so awful to the women, it's painful.

I should go find some good Once Upon a Time fic to record. I never feel the need to write for that show, but there have to be good stories out there.

[dodificus]

Merlin just ended tonight and the femmeslash there is not so good because they are so awful to the women, it's painful.

It's so bewildering how they got it so disgustingly wrong:/

[jelazakazone]

So bewildering, isn't it? They got some stuff so right and other stuff so wrong.

[sophinisba]

I've actually had really great experiences as a reader, writer, and podficcer of Merlin femslash, canon mistreatment of female characters notwithstanding.

[jelazakazone]

Good point. It's canon that mistreats the women, not fandom, but I do feel like I'm in a little corner when I do the lady stuff. I mean, I'm apparently in a little corner anyway, which I'm mostly ok with.

[sophinisba]

I don't know Game of Thrones at all but one of my favorite Merlin writers netgirl_y2k, has been writing a lot there and I highly recommend her stuff.

[dodificus]

I think I'll have to ask for specific story recs because I haven't read the books and I don't want to get accidentally spoiled for what's to come in the series. I feel like just randomly reading could end badly for me.

[cantarina]

Sign up for one of the audiofemme fests! (We may have a second something something in the works, if f/f isn't your cup of tea.) There's also always Awesome Ladies :D

[dodificus]

I just went and subscribed to audiofemme, so that's a good start. The hard part is thinking about which women I'd be interested in reading about and then *finding* the stories (if they exist).

[cantarina]

Put out a call for recs! Odds are someone you know or someone in the Twitter Podfic Brigade can help (Pro tip: We're *always* delighted to share.)

[dodificus]

Twitter does know all:D Hmmmm, maybe something about Danaerys and her dragons would be interesting....*ponders*

[cantarina]

AGREED. Yes please to Dany podfic!

[cantarina]

I've had some really great experiences doing collabs. My favourites have actually been ones I've recorded while in the same room as the other podficcers. (So. Much. Giggling. And such amazing energy!) If you get the chance, I really recommend it!

Also, yes! You should love Chokepoint. I think that's one of the best ones you've done in the last year.

[jelazakazone]

Wow. You did a lot of podficcing! Hats off to you.

Also, I adore Listen, Learn. It's one of my favorite podfics and I thought Chokepoint was brilliant.