Update + thoughts on podfic

[luzula]

Winter has finally come in earnest--we got a nice thick blanket of snow this weekend, and it's cold, brrr. I spent most of Saturday in a board meeting over Skype, and it left my back kind of wrecked, augh. Am slowly recovering. I have tons of things on my to-do list right now, but I'm managing to stay on top of it so far. dSSS progressing satisfactorily; Yuletide on hold for now.

Recorded the first part of a new podfic yesterday, and I love how it came out! It's very different in style from the last one, and I really enjoy that. Reading different styles is something that keeps me from getting stuck in a rut, and makes me feel like I'm stretching myself and learning new things.

Speaking of podfic, I participated in the group podcasts on collaboration and on acting for pod_aware, which was fun. There are tons of interesting podcasts over there; check them out! The one I've found most interesting so far is this one by aethel, which is a study of podficcers' voices vs canonical actors' voices. Specifically, it's about how you get lots of Teen Wolf podfics [disclaimer: I know nothing about TW] where Derek is voiced in a lower pitch than Stiles because of fanon tropes, even though Derek actually has a similarly-pitched and perhaps even higher-pitched voice than Stiles in canon. Very interesting.

Which got me to thinking: I don't think I often use a systematic difference in pitch to distinguish character voices myself. For example, I usually distinguish Ray K and Fraser by differences in enunciation, pacing, and melody of speech instead. Or at least I think so? People who listen to my podfic: do you think my Fraser and Ray K systematically differ in pitch? Hmm, my Ray K might have a wider range in pitch, and go up and down more. Anyway, often when people say "character voice" they often seem to mean that they use a difference in pitch, and not all the other ways you can use to differentiate characters. Hmm.

Comments

[hazelwho]

YAY, winter!

People who listen to my podfic
Fraser and Ray definitely have different voices, but it's not the pitch. It's more the rythym and inflection behind what's being said that's different. Fraser tends to be more measured and evenly paced. Kowalski tends to be more...reactive? emotional?... and his cadence varies a lot more than Fraser's. I don't have the right words for this stuff, but does that answer your question?

[luzula]

*nods* Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking, too. I remember running into trouble in my one Ray/Ray podfic, because I couldn't manage to consistently find different voices for them, even though they actually speak pretty differently. Fraser and Kowalski, though--they are easy for me.

[seascribble]

I just spent like six hours listening to you reading due South fic, I should have more to say. Your Fraser-voice is slower, I think, and more even; not as much up and down, like you said. I can definitely tell which one you're reading, but I'm kind of at a loss to describe how.

I am intrigued! I'll have to pay more attention next time I listen to a podfic.

[luzula]

Hee, yeah, it's difficult to put words to this sort of thing, but I'm glad they're distinct, anyway. And wow, six hours! That's a lot of time.

(Er, I might have said this before, but my podfics have changed a lot over time, so if you like my recent stuff, you might not necessarily like my older stuff--I don't actually like it myself any longer. Whatever, I feel weird about that. *facepalms*)

[andeincascade]

You don't vary in pitch much at all. But the cadence of their individual dialogue is completely different. And, as I mentioned to you the other day, you use more colliquial speech with Kowalski, more proper speech with Fraser. I always know who's speaking.

[luzula]

Oh, it's good to know that the way it comes off in my head comes through for other people, too. And the colloquial/formal thing--I guess that's what I was trying to say with enunciation? Fraser e-nun-ci-ates. *g*

[baronjanus]

When I say "character voice" I mean the patterns of speech, the usage of words, the rhythms, and some more things I can't quite define, but none of them is in the actual audible voice :( On the other hand, I mostly talk about that in relation to writing prose, and not voicing it out, so maybe I shouldn't participate in this particular debate. I probably wouldn't notice pitch unless it was something extreme.

[luzula]

Yeah, I think when we talk about character voices, we mean different things if we're writers and if we're podficcers. I do think doing a good character voice in podfic presupposes that the writer has done a good job, although a good podficcer can make a generic line of dialogue sound like the character in question, too.

Talking about character voices as a podficcer, I think there's really a lot you can work with: pacing (how the speed varies within sentences + the pauses you make), enunciation, melody of speech, volume, where you put your emphasis, overall pitch, etc. And accent, of course, though I don't try to do accents because I'm no good at it.