bethepod | Rules and all (Reply)

Introducing Behind the Pod, an interview feature series that showcases the backstage process of podficcers and podfics!

Your mods are Annapods and frecklebomb.

Have you ever listened to a podfic and wondered how they did that thing? Do you have a favorite podfic that you would love to know the backstory of? When you are making your own podfics, are you curious how other people’s process differs from yours? Is there a specific aspect of podficcing you don’t really do but would love to learn about?

On the other hand, is there a particular way you do podfic that you think people should know? Do you have a specific podfic with a backstory you want to tell? A particular technique or a project you did something specific with that you really want to talk about? Do you have experience with a less-discussed aspect of podficcing, like hosting, cover art, modding…?

If any of these viewpoints feel relevant to you, consider signing up for Behind the Pod. As an interviewer, get the answers you’ve been wanting to know! As a interviewee, showcase a project or technique or knowledge! Or do both!

If you’re curious about where we got the idea and what it could look like, check this tweet, that spawned another subthread and then this follow-up thread announcing the vague beginnings of the series.

1) What is the timeline of this project?

Right now we are doing a limited run of this idea and we are looking for 6 groups of people that are interested in either interviewing each other, or one interviewing the other.

12 May - 16 June: sign-ups
31 May: discussion post 1
30 June: discussion post 2
28 July: discussion post 3
31 Aug - 08 Sep: Mandatory check-in + posting date claiming + discussion post 4
29 Sep: discussion post 5
29 Sep: Submissions/posting starts
27 Oct: discussion post 6
22 Dec: posting ends

There is only one mandatory check-in, but there will be discussion posts on this dreamwidth every month, which double as non-mandatory, informal check-ins.

Everybody will get an email at the mandatory check-in, but as long as at least one person responds, we will consider your group checked-in. If some member(s) of the group do not respond, we will consider the person(s) who did respond responsible for making sure the remaining member(s) are still participating.

We do not believe this will be four months worth of work, but we want to give a lot of flexibility so that you have time to plan and then find a time to get together and conduct the interview. For example, you could plan your interview during the first month, interview before the end of the third month, and start editing around the fourth month.

2) How do I sign up?

Reply to the sign-up post with all your info. We’re limiting the number of groups to 6 for this first series, because let’s be honest, this is a test run, so first signed-up, first joined-up! But you can also sign-up as potential pinch-hitter if you miss out on being in that first 6.

3) Wait, pairs? Groups?

We will not be running any official matching for this round, so you’ll have to find a partner or group.

If you want to be an interviewer: First, think about who you would want to interview or what you would want to talk about. Is there a specific podfic you are interested in? Ask that person if they want to talk about it. Is there a topic that you want to learn more about? Reach out to someone who you know has done it or knows about it. Or would you prefer to host a meta discussion? Interview the creator/s of a collaborative work?

If you want to be an interviewee: What do you want to talk about? If you have a specific podfic in mind, do you want someone who is in that fandom? Think about who you know and ask. If there is a specific topic, is there anyone who you’ve talked with this about before? Ask them if they want to make the conversation more official and interview you about it.

4) Why aren’t you doing matching?

There are two reasons. First, the modding experience is more intense when doing matching than letting people match themselves. This project is going to be a new experience for all of us and we, as mods, want to dedicate as much time and energy as we can to putting out fires on the logistical side rather than the interpersonal side, to make sure we actually get a final product. Second, we believe that the interview will go more smoothly if you are comfortable with each other, and trying to build that comfort as mods brings us back to reason one.

5) I don’t think I’m interesting enough to be involved in this/Wouldn’t it be arrogant of me to be an interviewee?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: if you find an interviewer, that means at least one person wants to hear what you have to say. But insecurities are bullshit, so here are some more suggestions: try interviewing your interviewer too, so that if one interview ends up being ehhh, you still have something to submit ; find an interviewer who thinks you're the most interesting podder in the world and let them hype you up ; prepare for it like you would a presentation/conference/etc ; or just take this round to gather up your courage and do it next round!

6) Who does what now?

The workload of this project can be divided between you as you see fit, but we recommend discussing it before you sign up. There are three sections of work:

- Planning the project:
What is the topic going to be? What questions are you going to ask? How will it be recorded? Sharing the questions with the interviewee in advance can help the process go more smoothly and decrease the amount of dead air for thinking, etc, but doing the interview without rehearsing can make it more dynamic. Ultimately how much you want to plan should depend on your comfort zone, but we recommend having at least a rough structure.

- Recording the interview:
However you want to do it, and however works for you. Freetalk over voice chat, sending audio clips back and forth, recording a script like you would a multivoice, meeting up in-person…

- Editing the interview:
You will be responsible for doing the basic editing of the interview (putting the audio together if you record on separate mics, editing outtakes or background noise to your own personal comfort level), and then we will be making an episode out of it. You do not have to worry about making a professional-quality interview, but do know that we aren’t planning to edit the content of your interview a second time, so submit something that you are comfortable being the final product.

Traditionally the planning and the editing are the responsibility of the interviewer and the interviewee just has to have answers to the questions, but this is not a traditional interview! You can split up the work however you want, as long as you both know between you what is expected of you and what you expect from the other person.

7) What should the final product look like?

There is no minimum or maximum interview length. A five minute long interview is just as acceptable as an hour-plus long interview.

We’ll post submission instructions closer to the deadline, but we’re looking at audio (in future, video might also be fun, but uhm let’s keep it simple for now), .wav or another lossless format. That’s because we will be adding an intro and outro and don’t want to compress the file twice. We will take care of the cover art too.

We will be posting on ao3, crossposting here on the DW comm, and shouting about it on twitter and the podfic discord. You can subscribe to us on the Archive at BehindThePod, and follow us on twitter at BeThePod as the series comes out.

8) What about check-ins?

We are going to leave the decision of how much modding you’d like up to you. There will only be one mandatory check-in, from the 31st of August to 7th of September, by email, at which point you'll also have to claim your posting date on dreamwidth. There will be discussion posts/informal optional check-ins along the way, at the end of each month, and we'll send you reminders about them by email, but it’s up to you if you want to make use of those. In any case, we’re here if you have any questions, need help, or just want to chat about your project.

9) What happens if one of the group drops out?

That’s one of the things we’re still figuring out. If one participant drops out early in the process, the other participant could possibly bring in someone else, or the whole group could drop out and a new group be brought in. If the problem is at the editing stage, we could put out a call for a pinch-hit editor. If it’s later in the schedule, we might just drop the number of episodes to 5. It really depends on the situation. That’s why, please please please, be open with us about how things are going, so we can work it out as early as possible!

10) I can’t participate in this round, but I want to do it eventually. Will you be running this again?

Hopefully! We can’t make any guarantees until we see how it goes, but we've put a lot of thought into how to evenly distribute the modding workload, with the hopes that we will be able to run it again.

11) Rules recap: