Reviews - Podfic Critical Feedback Exchange

[zvi]

paraka has organized the Podfic Critical Feedback Exchange. Any participants in that exchange are welcome to post their work here, if they so choose.

As participants have just gotten their assignments, I wonder how y'all are planning to evaluate the feedback. (Also, amplificathon's amplirecathon is kicking off.)

So, let's talk a little bit about what information is useful in a review of podfic. Do you want to know about the reader's accent? Do you wish people would talk about how well the reader embodies the different characters or the voice of the narrator? Has the volume been properly mastered? (← watch zvi throw around technical terms she only sort of understands!) Speaking of technical terms, is it helpful when a reviewer uses technical terms or not?

I realize that there have been few if any podfic reviews to date (and precious few recs), so, in some sense, I suppose, we'll be projecting, rather than working from what we know works. But that's okay.

(P.S. If you've noticed that I keep posting to the comm every two days or so, that's not an accident. I'm hoping you guys will start kicking in with questions that you'd like the comm to chew over, but until then, I shall keep priming the discussion pump.)

Comments

[dodificus]

Do you want to know about the reader's accent?

This is developing into a tiny pet peeve of mine, I think. Unless your accent is so thick that you can't be understood by your listeners then I get really annoyed when readers posts *apologise* for their accents. To me it's saying that unless you have an American accent then there's something wrong with the way you speak, that American is the norm.

As to reviews in general, I think it really depends on what you're reviewing because certain things, good or bad, are going to jump out at you. fiercelydreamed has an excellent grasp of the up and down of Wilson's voice, candlebeck isn't afraid to yell when yelling is called for, that kind of thing. Everybody has their strengths and their weaknesses, it's just that in podfic people are much less likely to point out the weaknesses. Maybe you speak too fast/slow, maybe you sound awkward during sex scenes, maybe your sound quality sucks, maybe every character sounds exactly the same.

[zvi]

Are we actually talking about the same thing here? I asked if listeners wanted to know about the readers' accent, and you were upset that readers sometimes apologize for their accents. I agree that apologizing for one's accent is unnecessary, but do you think listeners who have preferences for accents (and it's weird to me how the accent thing is always framed as Americans vs. everyone else, I always find accents incongruous with the source most noticeable in British canons) are dirty imperialists?

Also, too thick to be understood is an interaction between the reader and the listener histories, it's not something one can analyze independent of reader response. I mean, I have occasionally turned the closed captioning on for Life on Mars, and that's native English speakers not being understood by a native speaker of a different English.

[dodificus]

Are we actually talking about the same thing here?

Probably not, I went off on my own little tangent.

[zvi]

I think it would be terrific if you made a top level post about accents and American not being the default. *smiles winningly*