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podficmeta2010-05-03 03:30 pm
brimtoast) wrote in podficmeta2010-05-03 03:30 pm
Review: New Rule by bexless, read by shiningartifact
Podfic information and download link at shiningartifact's post
1) What worked
There's a lot that worked for me about this podfic. The tone of the narration fits the words well, and it's expressive without sounding overdone or unnatural. I know that we've discussed in previous posts that different people have different preferences for level of expressiveness, but this one falls in the just-right sweet spot for me.
Also, I really love the voice shiningartifact uses for Frank, who is one of the two speaking characters in the story. It evokes Frank Iero's real voice while still sounding natural and comfortable for the reader's voice. Not just the tone and pitch, but also the rhythm and prosody, feel really in-character to me. The dialogue also follows the stage directions well, for both characters.
The narration in the sex scene worked for me. Some readings of sex scenes can make me a bit uncomfortable, but here it sounded like the reader was comfortable and happy with what she was saying, so I felt comfortable and happy listening to it.
Overall, I really really like this recording. Which is why I picked it to review—I knew I wouldn't mind listening to it a bunch of times while figuring out what to write.
2) What didn't work
There are two things that didn't work as well as the rest for me. The first has to do with the voice of the other speaking character, Gerard. I think that her readings of his lines sound good and make sense, and if this were a book fandom where the character didn't have a canonical voice, I would have loved this interpretation. However, this character does have a canonical voice, and there were times when the reader said Gerard's lines in a way that I couldn't picture Gerard Way saying them. Specifically, she sometimes used a sing-song prosody that evokes the "valley girl" concept to me. I think this prosody is more common in female speech than male speech (though I could be wrong. I haven't spent a lot of time with this theory yet.), and I don't recall ever hearing Gerard use it. So it felt a bit out of place. A couple lines that are examples of this: "If you kill me, there'll be no one to rescue you from the spiders" and "if you weren't naked, it wouldn't be a problem."
The other thing is right at the beginning of the sex scene. Frank says "That’s – that’s a word, I guess," and the stage directions say that he sounds weird and is breathing really fast. The line reading follows these stage directions, but I feel like it follows them so much that it sounds unnatural. People aren't usually just panting all of a sudden. I think in this case, it would have been better to leave most of the information about breathing fast and sounding weird to be conveyed by the stage directions themselves, and just gesture towards it more subtly in the dialogue.
3) a podfic-metaish thing that the podfic made you think of.
How important is it to you that the character voice in the reading evokes the character's canon voice? Is it a big deal if it doesn't? Or are you happy as long as the voice in the reading is consistent and follows the stage directions well?
At one point in the podfic, it says that a character sighs, and then the reader adds a sigh at the beginning of the dialogue. Do you like it when sighs, yawns, etc. that are mentioned in the text are added to the dialogue, or does it seem redundant, since we are both being told that it happens and being shown that it happens?
1) What worked
There's a lot that worked for me about this podfic. The tone of the narration fits the words well, and it's expressive without sounding overdone or unnatural. I know that we've discussed in previous posts that different people have different preferences for level of expressiveness, but this one falls in the just-right sweet spot for me.
Also, I really love the voice shiningartifact uses for Frank, who is one of the two speaking characters in the story. It evokes Frank Iero's real voice while still sounding natural and comfortable for the reader's voice. Not just the tone and pitch, but also the rhythm and prosody, feel really in-character to me. The dialogue also follows the stage directions well, for both characters.
The narration in the sex scene worked for me. Some readings of sex scenes can make me a bit uncomfortable, but here it sounded like the reader was comfortable and happy with what she was saying, so I felt comfortable and happy listening to it.
Overall, I really really like this recording. Which is why I picked it to review—I knew I wouldn't mind listening to it a bunch of times while figuring out what to write.
2) What didn't work
There are two things that didn't work as well as the rest for me. The first has to do with the voice of the other speaking character, Gerard. I think that her readings of his lines sound good and make sense, and if this were a book fandom where the character didn't have a canonical voice, I would have loved this interpretation. However, this character does have a canonical voice, and there were times when the reader said Gerard's lines in a way that I couldn't picture Gerard Way saying them. Specifically, she sometimes used a sing-song prosody that evokes the "valley girl" concept to me. I think this prosody is more common in female speech than male speech (though I could be wrong. I haven't spent a lot of time with this theory yet.), and I don't recall ever hearing Gerard use it. So it felt a bit out of place. A couple lines that are examples of this: "If you kill me, there'll be no one to rescue you from the spiders" and "if you weren't naked, it wouldn't be a problem."
The other thing is right at the beginning of the sex scene. Frank says "That’s – that’s a word, I guess," and the stage directions say that he sounds weird and is breathing really fast. The line reading follows these stage directions, but I feel like it follows them so much that it sounds unnatural. People aren't usually just panting all of a sudden. I think in this case, it would have been better to leave most of the information about breathing fast and sounding weird to be conveyed by the stage directions themselves, and just gesture towards it more subtly in the dialogue.
3) a podfic-metaish thing that the podfic made you think of.
How important is it to you that the character voice in the reading evokes the character's canon voice? Is it a big deal if it doesn't? Or are you happy as long as the voice in the reading is consistent and follows the stage directions well?
At one point in the podfic, it says that a character sighs, and then the reader adds a sigh at the beginning of the dialogue. Do you like it when sighs, yawns, etc. that are mentioned in the text are added to the dialogue, or does it seem redundant, since we are both being told that it happens and being shown that it happens?
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