Hi! My name is Shezu Rivera! I'm a voice actor over on YouTube who specializes in listener centric audios that put you in the role of the main character!
I adore making stories and pretty things so this is a place where I'll be throwing a lot of my stories, lore, mood boards, and more!
I want to use this space to explore my character and interact better with the listeners! I want to have a place to dive in deep with my stories and characters and so here I am!
If you wanna follow me on my other sites, especially if you want to hear more of my stories, check it out below!
If you want to listen to my audios in a huge library of different stories that put you in the center of the action and romance, check out my YouTube!
If you want to hear exclusive audios, behind the scenes, artwork, letters from your favorite characters, access to the discord and more, check me out on my Patreon!
If you want to keep up with me and what I'm doing on the daily and want a one stop shop for new stuff, check me out on Twitter or on Bluesky!
If you want to see me be chaotic and play some video games while interacting with chat, check me out on Twitch!
If you want to see more of my art, that goes over on my Instagram!
Hi Shezu! Welcome to tumblr!! Just wanted to see if you are cool with being tagged in fanart? If not that’s perfectly fine, either way congratulations on your 5 year channel-versary!💛
Absolutely!! I prefer it actually!! I adore seeing y’all’s fanart, it makes my day!! And usually ends up going in my journal~!! Also thank you!
Tldr: I love everything about this series. Sorry for the wall of text. I would have commented this on the last SitM video, but this whole thing wasn't coherent in my brain until like a month after that vid released and it felt weird to comment at that point.
I just wanna say that I absolutely adore Sunshine in the Moonlight. I've loved werewolf stuff for years, but it's really hard to find werewolf audios that don't use the alpha/omega power dynamic (no hate to anyone that enjoys/writes those scripts, it's just not my thing) and it's even harder to find non-human listeners or stuff where the listener is the one with powers.
I'm also a sucker for modern fantasy, and the world building of SitM is amazing. I love that you tied in real world mythology to explain the existence of werewolves. And this might sound weird, but I love seeing different interpretations of pack structures. In a modern world there would most likely be some sort of council or whatever overseeing the werewolf population, but its not super common to see people go into it. (Also ngl I kind of love seeing the werewolf bureaucracy bs that can come from it)
And the characters are well written too! The werewolves we've met are just people. Like anyone you could expect to pass on the street. They aren't like, wild or overly aggressive just because they're werewolves. They're all so different, but they work so well together. Real found family vibes, and I love it.
You've also successfully created one of the most well written villains I've seen in a while. Evan is one of those characters you just love to hate. And he's not even a real threat, that's been established. He can not take Sunshine in a fair fight. He's one of those villains that you don't hate seeing him show up, because you know each second he's on screen is one second closer to his inevitable downfall. We all know Sunshine will end up winning the alpha fight, but it's not the suspense of "who will win" that draws you in. It's anticipation for the moment we finally see Evan get knocked off his high horse.
I could go on, but I know this getting long and I should stop.
All of this is to say: you have created one my favorite series on YouTube currently, and I eagerly await whatever is to come. (No pressure tho! I know this vids take time, and I'd rather quality over quantity.)
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! You have no idea how much this means to me!! TT^TT This is absolutely going in my positivity box. This means so much to me, you have no idea. I'm so glad you're enjoying the story!
That's why I write and why I do what I do!
I love storytelling.
Always have.
And it feels amazing to have someone who's thought so thoroughly about my story that they have such a detailed and thought out opinion! I'm not one to shy away from long texts! I appreciate the detail immensely! I'm so glad you enjoy and I hope I can keep SitM going in a way that continues to give you something you continue to enjoy and look forward to! <3
How hard is it to make a video with the whole werewolf pack? I'd imagine getting that many VAs together isn't easy, what with differing timezones, personal schedules, ect. Even if lines are recorded separately and sent in, it still seems like a lot to keep track of.
Thank you for the question! <3
It's...a lot harder than a normal script. Even more so than a collab script with one or two extra VAs.
To date I think it's the longest I've spent on audio editing and it's one of my top two most difficult audios I've put out (the other being Neon Noir's Episode 0 which has animations).
I'll give a detailed break down of what goes into it, but tl;dr is that it's a lot harder, there's a lot that goes into getting the collabs, especially for something so large (both in lines per actor and in the number of extra voice actors), and while I do the best I can to minimize the work for the other VAs, it's a LOT of extra work for me.
I'll preface this breakdown with a disclaimer. I ADORE doing full wolf pack audios. The Pack Episode for Sunshine in the Moonlight (episode 3) was one of my all time favorite audios I've created so far and I have a couple in the future (including the next audio in the series) that will bring back the pack and I can't wait!
So, to break it down (and trying my best to remember certain things; this was a while ago and I was working hella late hours) here's how I go about the larger collab, just to give ya a scale of how things go.
Obviously starting with a script (which takes longer because dialogue between people can be very cumbersome and I have to keep in mind people's time. Larger projects are more of an ask for people doing it mostly for the love of the craft, so I create packets.
While I would love to put together scheduled recording sessions (and one day might be able to) with all of the cast, like you said, it's difficult given different time zones, schedules, set ups, etc. Even just counting the main pack (So not including Sigurd or Evan), that's a total of 6 people other than myself, all of whom are both full time employees and have their own channels.
So what I do is give them a pack about a month in advance of when I need it to edit that consists of 3 things; a break down of their character (with a sample of the voice they used if they already recorded for that character);
Example:
I give them the full script so that they have context for the story and what's going on that I have them skim through, and finally I give them a modified script that I expect them to use for recording lines that gives them only their lines and the greyed out context for said lines above and below the given line;
Example:
From there I give them a deadline of about a month with the promise that, if I don't get the lines before a week out of the deadline, I'll remind them gently. They're all busy work-a-holics and I know I've forgotten collabs before; most grievously had collabs recorded and edited but forgot to send! So the reminders are mostly safety nets for them, especially for those who have issues with time blindness.
When I receive all of the collabs, I get to work editing them together. Since they were recorded separately this usually takes a while. I think I spent some 6 to 8 hours straight just editing together their conversation over the fire.
Then I do the visuals. Since everyone has a portrait, I have to mix and make so that it's obvious who is talking.
Both the visuals and the audio are done by hand.
This is what the Audio looks like when imported into my program:
This is what that audio looked like by the end:
A similar thing happened with the visuals as well. They took me about the same amount of time of raw work (not including drawing the characters). This is how it looked by the end:
So to put a very long story short...yeah, it's a little harder, lol~
You can ask me a question about Sunshine in the Moonlight (SitM) directly, or you can ask a question of one of my characters from the series (Mari or the Pack)!
My Asks should be open (and anonymous available) so ask away!
Don't know what Sunshine in the Moonlight is? Keep Reading and I'll give you a brief summary and a link to the series!
Sunshine in the Moonlight is an F4A (Female speaker for any listener) audio series original and exclusive to my channel written by Shezu Rivera (that's me!)
The story follows Mari (The Speaker/Me) and her Best Friend turned lover (The Listener/You) as they deal with the trials and tribulations that follow Mari's sudden discovery of the Listener's darkest secret: Lycanthropy!
You take the role of the Werewolf in this one!
The Series is ongoing (if slow going, I'm trying my best) and has a planned four (4) Seasons!
If you want to have a listen for yourself, check it out on my channel! I'll get you the link to the first audio! If you like that, I also have a playlist that has all of the audios and gets updated regularly!
