Podfic directors wanted

[luzula]

Would you like to direct a multi-actor podfic? There's a challenge comm called theatripod where a director chooses a fic and casts actors into the roles. Then there are rehearsals and a final recording over Skype. I suggested a couple of due South fics I thought would make interesting projects over here.

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Not volunteering because I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO GET INVOLVED IN NEW THINGS right now. But, being curious about the processes of podfic and podcast/radio plays (which some of my friends are involved with), I will ask: what is the director's job in a project like this? Cat-herding + selecting which takes of lines to use to assemble into a whole? Something else?

(I direct live theatre, which is part of my curiosity, as "director" for these sorts of projects seems to be a very different sort of job...)

[luzula]

The answer is: I have no idea! This challenge is a new thing in podfic, and I get the impression they're doing it as an experiment to see how it would work. I've certainly never done it--I've collaborated with people, and I really really love doing that, but nobody's done any directing there.

Also, I recced one of your stories over there as something I thought would be interesting to record that way, since it read kind of like a play to me. : )

[desireearmfeldt]

Hm, I wonder if they're hooked into the whole online-radio-plays community, then...

How do you do your collaborative podfics? Does everyone just record their bits and then someone sticks them together with whatever additional production value adding is desired? Or is it more complicated than that?

Aw, thanks. :)

[luzula]

How do you do your collaborative podfics? Does everyone just record their bits and then someone sticks them together with whatever additional production value adding is desired?

Basically, yes. Although we usually choose to record together because we feel that someone reads this character well and another reads this one well, etc. And we usually beta-listen to each other's contributions, and we discuss the text and the reading, etc.

I'm talking with a fellow podficcer about recording something over Skype, though, where we'll read dialogue together, so we can actually respond to each other in real time.

[desireearmfeldt]

Interesting.

I would think it would be easier/better (from an acting standpoint, not a logistical one) to record with the actors actually playing out the scenes in real time together, rather than everyone recording their own lines in isolation, though I get the impression the latter is standard for podcast radio plays. (Though the group I'm closest to being affiliated with is largely an exception to that rule & have their roots in live theatre.)

The whole question of how much to make podfic like a play vs. like a book-on-tape is an interesting one, too (though I hear there are also multi-actor books-on-tape). Because even a story with dialogue doesn't usually break down quite so neatly as an actual play, in terms of which character is speaking/acting/referred to in a given sentence/paragraph.

(As an actor--though I've never done voice-acting before--I've got podficcing on my radar as something it might be fun to get into someday; though I'm a little balky about the need for equipment and recording clue and so forth, and also see previous comment about having no time to get into new things right now. :) )

[luzula]

Most podfic is not like a play, actually, and I don't think anyone is suggesting that it should be. It's more like someone telling a story. Actually, that's exactly what it is. : )

And most collaborative podfic is not like a play, either--I mean, we don't usually splice together dialogue (though some people do). Usually we take a story that is told in alternating POV, or split up into separate pieces some other way, and take turns reading the whole sections, so it's like several people taking turns telling a story.

But yeah, I do agree that if you're to do podfic that is meant to be like a play with several actors, then it would be better to act it out in real time, and I think that's part of what Theatripod is trying to do.