Weekend miscellanea

[sapote]

1) Does anyone have any advice for getting into a fandom in another language? I am thinking of making the jump to reading in Spanish, but I don't know where to start. (Besides, you know, typing 'fanficción' into search engines. On the one hand, I would never do that in English; on the other hand, my Spanish reading comprehension is low enough that I will never know if I'm reading badfic)

2) Vidding is continuing to make me think thinky thoughts about narration and mood and, to be real eloquent, stuff. You know, one of the things I was the most pleased about with Backdrifters was how hard I tried to be consistent with color and lighting: I cut out a lot of clips I started with because there was too much natural daylight. And as a result I got a vid that is about 50% invisible unless I turn my monitor up, but it sure is even.

But Torchwood makes that really easy: Torchwoody stuff is almost all filmed in seriously gray surroundings, and half of every episode seems to take place at night. Doctor Who does not make it so easy. Even if I throw out Season 1 - which I have, I'm working mainly from Season 3 right now - I'm finding it really difficult to keep the colors even.

And by the way, when I say crack, unfortunately this is not the funny crack, which is a project I consigned to the WiP folder as soon as Sam Tyler, Evil Mastermind came along. No, once again, my poor vidding subjects have lots of feelings, deep deep feelings. Some day I will produce something that isn't angsty at all.

Also: I said I felt like the POV was a little wobbly in Backdrifters, but now (looking at it from the perspective of the bigger, messier project I'm in now) I feel like I did an okay beginner's job of handing it off from character to character. Now I'm in the middle of a massive bad shared POV and I'm just not sure I've got a plan to handle it.

It took me two months to make Backdrifters, though, and both of the vids I made after that were episodic and fairly easy. I guess I'm okay if I spend a while doing this one. Especially since

3) I never really understood how people could not have time for fandom stuff, and then I, you know. Got a real job. It turns out eighteen academic hours != forty-hour work week. I've been coming home too sleepy to face real tv shows, so I've been watching That Seventies Show streaming on the theory that I couldn't possibly find subtext in it.

You know where this is going. As of this morning I have written 1500 words of Hyde/Foreman, and I'm showing no signs of stopping. At least I'll have something to post!

4) There's months to go, but I am sort of excited about meeting up with the Torchwood team again. They are ridiculous and dysfunctional and I met them before I met the Doctor and just sort of accepted their warpedness at face-value. And I find myself missing them, apocalyptic fuck-ups and all. (ETA: do I need to add a sanity disclaimer when I talk about fictional characters this way? Or do you, dear friendslist, also think of presently off-air dramatis personae as if they were colorful acquaintances of yours who have been on a long vacation in another country?)

5) I have been listening to so much podfic. I will make a rec list soon, because finding a good story paired with a good reader is pretty great.

6) Hi! How are you? The internet sure has been quiet lately.

Comments

[the-rejection.livejournal.com]

If your reading comprehension is really low, start out reading children's stories and work your way up. I know it sounds tedious, but as someone who once knew French (oh how easily we lose languages without practice) I know that the cute little pictures of actions help immensely.

Since you say you won't know if it's badfic, fanfiction.net has Spanish and French filters for their searches. There's *checks* 1 short (and probably bad) Torchwood fic. (Odd: there are more than 2,000 Hannah Montana fanfics total. I - just, wow, ff.net, you suck a lot.) There are 49 SV fanfics in Spanish, whoa, wasn't expecting that. There are 3 SGA and 58 SPN, so it looks like shows on international networks like the CW will probably be easier to find. I doubt you'll find much SGA or Torchwood stuff unless you write it.

I don't know where to find good fanfiction in other languages, though. This is actually interesting, since I want to brush up on my French... I think I'll do some more searching and get back to you if I find anything better than ff.net.

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

see, I speak well enough to do spot translation, but translating an address about agricultural economics is very different from reading a story. I think I will be able to get what's going on, but the nuances that differentiate good and bad writing, not so much.

Now I'm curious how much fanfic there is for Spanish-only shows. Alborada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alborada) slash! Theirloveissohistorical! If I find any of this, I will have to rec it.

[the-rejection.livejournal.com]

Whoa! Talk about a very dramatic TV show. It looks really interesting, though - how dare you tempt me!

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Alborada is amazing. But I don't think there's any way of getting it with English subtitles, even. I was learning Spanish when I watched it, and I spent a good month going wtf! wtf! at the televisor.

[j00j.livejournal.com]

You should poke around and see if there's a spanish-language archive. I don't know of one, as I don't speak Spanish, but I know I poked around a German slash archive at one point for language practice/amusement.

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

That's a good thought - I'll absolutely bet there is. It's a pity I'm not in any anime fandoms, those seem easiest to find in whatever language.

[lurkmuch.livejournal.com]

I not only think of characters this way, I sometimes remember just in time that not all my friends know them too. One day I shall make a colossal idiot of myself in this manner.

Also, I am very much on the lookout for podfic, having just realized that I could listen to it on my walk to work each day! I would adore some recs, as I have no idea where to start. *makes puppy dog eyes*

And yes, there is not enough time in the week for fandom and working and RL and sleeping and whatnot - I share your pain. (My own classes start in a couple of days, at which point I will probably need to stop reading fic in the evenings, and doing homework instead. Grrr.)

Also? When I googled for Spanish language fic....I found a TON of Xena: Warrior Princess stuff. And so I ran away screaming. So be careful. (Unless that's a thing you dig, in which case, full speed ahead.)

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Have you been to jinjurly's mirror (http://jinjurly.com/audio.htm) yet? It's all SGA: I need to start making more of an effort to collect non-SGA podfic, but the SGA fandom does seem to usually be the first to try new things.

I suspect that the fact that someone took the time to record a story recommends the original pretty strongly, and I'm not sure yet of the courtesies around recommending readers, but right now my favorite readers are the-oscar-cat (http://the-oscar-cat.livejournal.com/tag/podfic), rageprufrock, and yin_again.

I am highly amused that XWP crosses linguistic barriers, but come to think of it, it kind of makes sense. I found some Spanish Doctor Who fic (on ff.net, of all places) that I actually kind of like, so I think I'll be wandering around on people's friendlists for a while.

[lurkmuch.livejournal.com]

You are the knower of things! You totally rock!! (I'm listening to "Things To Do in Denver" today. Lovely story, and I can't remember the reader, but she has a cutey cute cute British accent.)

Also? sgapodfic

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Man, this is making me want to record podfic. (and my accent is not cute. Unless Brits have a secret American-drawl fetish they're not telling us about?)

Today I listened to all the parts of The Best Things in Life are Free"> (reader celtic_tigress, author smittywing while I packed. I think I'm a podfic addict. (http://celtic-tigress.livejournal.com/tag/podfic)