Thoughts on Andy Serkis's livestream of The Hobbit

[firecat]

Andy Serkis is livestreaming himself reading The Hobbit for charity.

The GoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/thehobbitathoncovid19appeal

The livestream (as of Friday 8 May, 1:30 pm PDT):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QOF_r_Y5-A

I often read aloud to myself. I also listen to audiobooks, and I think my reading skills are much poorer than those of the audiobook narrators I like.

I still think that's probably true, but I feel better about my reading, listening to Serkis's livestream. He's doing a great job but it's full of stutters and errors the same way my reading is. (OK he's 11 hours into his marathon, but he sounded similar at the beginning.)

And I have more respect for audiobook engineers and narrators, who probably have to work harder than I realized to put together a seamless, dramatic performance (the kind where the narrator uses a different voice for each character).

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Yes, narration is really hard! Especially when you’re doing voices, because it’s important that each voice personality is consistent over 10 - 30 hours.

[firecat]

Yes, as I continue to read and get more sleepy, that's one of the first things I lose the energy for.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, I gained more respect after making my own podfic. So much more work than I expected and it still didn't sound all that great.

[firecat]

I've only done an audio lecture on a nonfictional subject, and that was difficult enough.

[st_aurafina]

It must be so hard to marathon read like that, I feel for him.

[firecat]

Very brave of him, for sure.