After Camlann Big Bang
| Challenge | |
|---|---|
| Name: | After Camlann Big Bang (ACBB) |
| Date(s): | 2014 to present |
| Moderator(s): | crimsonswirls, Kitty-fic, k_nightfox, dylogger, narlth |
| Founder: | Kitty-fic, k_nightfox |
| Type: | Big Bang challenge |
| Fandom: | Merlin |
| Associated Community: | aftercamlann (LiveJournal); archive link After Camlann Big Bang (AO3) |
| URL: | Merlin Big Bang 2014 masterlist Merlin Big Bang 2015 masterlist |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
After Camlann Big Bang (commonly known as ACBB) is an annual Merlin Big Bang Challenge. It started in 2014, following its predecessor, Paperlegends. There is an associated support community, Camladerie and a chat using the Chatzy platform.
Sessions run annually and works by writer and artist teams are released in September and October of each year. The community owner is crimsonswirls but the moderators for the inaugural year were k_nightfox, Kitty-fic, dylogger, and narlth. As of 2018 k_nightfox and Kitty-fic continued to co-mod with crimsonswirls, and the livejournal community had 334 members listed. The community's FAQ was posted on December 3, 2013. The 2014 session had 34 entries and began story posts in August.
The 2015 session had 38 entries. The 2016 session had 27 entries. The 2017 session had 20 entries. The 2018 session had 21 writer/artist teams on its schedule.
Signups usually open in February for both artists and writers. Writers signups then close around April, while artists sign ups stay open until June. The minimum fic requirement is 25k and the minimum art requirement is one piece of art (which includes all different forms of art from videos to fanmixes). There are also signups for cheerleaders and betas which stay open until the end of the fest.
Summaries and matching
Writers and artists can pre-match before the fest begins to work together. If a writer is not pre-matched, they will submit a summary in June. These summaries will be put anonymously into a claiming post for the artists to choose from. Artists can rank their desired choices from 1-3. Artists and writers are then put in touch to collaborate.
Camladerie
ACBB has a support community called Camladerie which participants can join. Camladerie has regular snippet posts for both art and fic, with themes like 'villains' or 'supporting characters'. It also hosts polls and general support posts. Participants can use Camladerie to look for beta readers. They are also encouraged to join the Merlin Chatzy chatroom for a place to discuss their collab and also Merlin in general.
Podfic
As with many Big Bang challenges, the primary collaboration formats are text and visual art. In 2018 a poll was taken about adding podfics as a format to the challenge, which stirred some debate about how the format could be included, and whether it could be released at the same time as the text or not. The mods released the following decision on March 10, 2018:
After taking the response to the poll as well as everyone's comments into consideration, ACBB will allow podfics, partial podfics, and other creative uses of sound/recordings to illustrate the stories. We will try this out this year and depending on the response and success of it all, will then reassess next year. Podfics will fall in the art category and as with all other types of art, authors will have the ability to say what types of art they would like to receive or not receive.