Go! Tell it on the mountain!

[zvi]

fandomfan asks what's so great about podfic?. I'm not sure that it's particularly useful to have that discussion with someone for whom the mere concept hits her embarrassment squick, but, in the more general case, why do you like podfic? Why do you like listening to it, why do you like making it, why do you like manipulating it (if you make covers or podbooks or work on one of the archives), why do you like teaching other people to do it, why do you like discussing it here?

And, even more so, what do you say when someone who doesn't already get it asks these questions?

Comments

[brimtoast]

Oh, yeah, then I totally suggest it.

It's hard to rec podfics, because people seem to have quite different tastes, and in the end it's down to trying a few until you start to find voices that you really connect with.

That said, I can try to rec you some, if you want. I know a really good Skins one, which might work well for you because there's a good chance it's a fandom you're not already in (or even a canon you may not be familiar with. I wasn't when I heard the story, and it was confusing at first but I still really enjoyed it). Also, the text of the story no longer exists, so in this case it's not podfic vs. text, it's podfic vs. nothing.

Anyway, that story is here, if you're interested.

[fandomfan]

I would *definitely* appreciate recs, and the idea of a podfic that's no longer available as text is kind of perfect for this experiment.

Only thing is, I still want it to be characters I'm attached to, you know? And while I'm certainly aware of Skins as a canon and a fandom, I've never watched more than the ads for it and don't know anything about the characters.

Do you (or anyone else) have suggestions of where to go for creme de la creme podfic in various fandoms? Recs communities/lists/delicious accounts?

[brimtoast]

Well, there was amplirecathon, and lots of people recced stuff there. But what I learned from that was largely that, wow, people have hugely different tastes, because some of the stuff recced was stuff I already loved, and other stuff recced didn't work for me at all. And overall, it seemed like following a rec had about as much a chance of getting me to something I liked as selecting a random podfic from the archive would.

But if you tell me what fandoms you're interested in, I can at least give you a selection of ones I liked in that fandom (if it's one I listen in), and you can listen to the first 10 min or so of each and see if there's one that you connect with.

[dodificus]

amplificathon has a recs tag here and my journal has a podfic tag for recs here. Like brimtoast has already pointed out, one fans favourite podfic is anothers worst nightmare but at least you've got a place to start.

[fandomfan]

Thanks, both to brimtoast and dodificus for the suggestions.

I've been through a bunch of fandoms (Star Wars: TPM, Velvet Goldmine, Lord of the Rings, Lotrips, Buffy, OZ, Gangs of New York, Pirates of the Caribbean, Supernatural, Harry Potter, The West Wing, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), so if you've got specific recs in any of those, I'd gladly give em a try.

And I'll go gingerly poke around amplificathon and dodificus's journal.

[brimtoast]

Well, I really liked Old Country, written by astolat and read by fayjay, who you mentioned already being familiar with the reading style of. It's a Harry Potter/Supernatural crossover. It's pretty well-known, though, so you may have read it.

And I also quite enjoyed Your Brains Are No Match For My Tractorbeam, by chash and read by juice817.

[fandomfan]

Thanks. I'll check into it.