Song of the Eastern Sands: Page 29
Special post this week, everyone! As you may remember, reader Elson Wong has spent the last year or so producing a cinematic comic drama based on the first two books of Beyond the Western Deep. He’s pulled together a voice cast, added temp music tracks from various film and game scores, and added some great sound effects work. Rachel and I are super excited to see this massive fan-project come together!
How do I watch this movie?
The movie will be streamed at 8pm Eastern Time on Sunday (June 5th) on Elson’s YouTube Channel. When the stream starts, a link will appear on the YouTube page. Click it, and you’re in!
Thanks to Jerijune for the awesome poster art, by the way :)
Lastly, to accompany the premiere announcement, an original musical piece that Elson commissioned from very talented composer Hugo Junstrand just for this project:
I love the unique take on the Western Deep soundscape here — specifically how it sounds like it might be a lost composition from Final Fantasy 9! When I listen to it I’m awash in nostalgia for the colorful fantasyscapes of Alexandria and Lindblum, and capturing the sound of PS-era Nobuo Uematsu certainly no small feat. Thank you so much for the wonderful piece, Hugo, and thanks to Elson for commissioning it for the comic drama.
This week, the Sand Spiders spring into action! Beck slamming a bag full of stolen coins into an assassin’s face is one of the many “key images” I had in my head as I wrote up the original outline, and I’m happy to say that Jerome nailed it 100% — pulled from my mind as Athena from the mind of Zeus!
Rook going toe-to-toe with a Canid assassin may not be in his top-five list of smart moves, but as an ex-pirate and experienced criminal, he’s wielded more than his share of blades.
Hope to see you all at the premiere!
great idea, Beck! …but that just made them angrier.
nice thinking, Rook! take on the highly trained Canid assassin! what could possibly go wrong?
anyway, I love the action in this page! but now won’t be Beck’s teeth won’t be the only things giving nightmares…
I love the BWD theme. it really does sound like it’s from a game! I’m also hyped for the comic drama’s premiere as well!
*but now Beck’s teeth won’t be the only things giving nightmares…
(sorry, I’m getting used to a new keyboard)
Guess she put her money where his mouth is!!!
Another excellent page! Just look at those colours!
I really enjoyed this page for the fact that it’s driving the narrative forward at an exciting pace – you had the quiet and patient moments of the heist and now this dangerous encounter of Canid assassins (I’m still intimidated by Jerome’s depiction of that Canid assassin on the previous page making his way to the next victim – he looks huge!).
Also we get to see the main cast in action – like kick butt kind of action, wow I didn’t knew Beck was able to do that! Go Beck! Makes me she’s a brave soul. And as for Rook I’m very curious to witness his combat experience. So exciting.
Thanks for the spruik on the project! Only 16 hours to go! XX3 Super excited.
And Jerijune did an awesome job with that poster as well as the other one on his deviantART account. ;)
As for the commissioned composition I decided not to use it for the final project but rather it’s a personal piece of music that I can listen back to reflect on my journey making this movie. :D
Hope to see you all there! Join us for the chat and do send us voice impressions of the characters you’ll be hearing for the first time in the movie. ^^
Will the movie be available after tonight? I quite want to see it but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to the grand premiere . . .
The movie will remain up on Elson’s YouTube channel, yes :)
That Canid’s expression as his buddy’s face gets smashed with a bag of loot is…glorious.
love the comic I have been a fan for over a year. I just have one question what is supposed to be happening in the third panel? is it supposed to be the knocked out canid. other than that great page and can’t wait for Elson’s upload of the finished movie.
Hi Cursor! Thanks so much for reading, and we’re looking forward to seeing you at the premiere tonight!
And yes, in panel 3, that is the Canid toppling backward after Beck’s attack :)
Yes! I knew these guys are a bunch of softies! If my experience of playing FFV ever taught me Its the fact that throwing money at your enemies is one of the most strongest attacks you could ever do. So Beck’s “Zeninage” should be quite effective here.
Again Jerijune the poster art looks amazing, and I cannot wait until the audio drama uploads later today. The Overture sounds wonderful as well, and Alex you win extra points for the Final Fantasy IX comment.
Oh blimey! I went back to the saved log of the chat-room and missed out on a lot what you said Atelier Bagur! My apologies if it looked like I was ignoring you! X_X; lol
You and Jerome brought up an interesting question about Songs of the Eastern Sands – how do I picture the characters featured in that story – especially Beck! To answer your question I do not have a strong idea of how they sound like because the story is not complete yet. I can understand the characters moreso when I follow them on a complete journey, reviewing their mannerisms, personalities and actions featured in the story from start to finish.
BtWD on the other-hand was the opposite – I had the full story completed in two volumes and it allowed me to develop a strong understanding of where those characters came from, what they’re like and how’d they react. Having the luxury of witnessing the detailed accounts of interactions and communications between characters in various scenarios allowed me to formulate a voice in each of them – especially when I’m emotionally connected to them. Hence the audition process was smooth sailing as soon as I heard what I needed from the talented cast I had hand-picked for the roles. = )
So for now I’m going to wait till SoTE is complete and then read it through several times before I can say: “Hey! I’m real like Beck here, I think she would sound like this!”. If I’m still clueless (which can happen) of how a character sounds I will rely on the imagination and initiative of the voice actors auditioning for parts – and this adds an exciting element to the audition process, they can sometimes surprise me with a tone/accent that I didn’t imagine having before for that character.
Hope that answers one of your questions and I will say that after the interview I called up Jerome, discussed about BtWD and eventually ended up doing a readout of SotES with some Uncharted 3 music playing in the background. Jerome provided an interesting voice to Theo! That was fun. X3
Also, keep up with the awesome illustration work! They’re pretty and have toony quality to it!
Haha Dont worry about it! It’s hard to keep up with the constant flow of the chat. I understand that SotES wasnt complete yet to make solid choices about the cast voices, but I was just curious if you started to get some ideas with the characters so far.
And Oh man you and Jerome did a small reading of Eastern Sands? How I wish I could’ve seen it. Thanks for replying! I wasnt expecting it to be honest lol.
We sure did! It’s alot of fun doing readouts – these are the foundations are essential to building up a potential project. Just need to have a soundtrack to go with it. Uncharted 3 has excellent dramatic/action orientated music fit for the dessert – mixed with your solemn and exotic scores but it’s lacking a cartoon element that I’m looking for. Any suggestions of films/games you may have in mind? ;)
I can think of certain pieces. Jerome actually came up with the idea of fitting Chrono Cross’s ost (such as Termina’s Theme) into the comic. The song “Exposed Plot” from Tales of Vesperia (for when the trio sneaks around the embassy) comes into mind as well.
@Veigue My goodness, look at my terrible grammar… X_x;;;
– *those* are the foundations essential to building up a potential project. I just need to find a soundtrack to go with it. Uncharted 3 has a selection of excellent dramatic/action orientated music fit for the *desert* – mixed into the soundtrack are some solemn and exotic scores. The only thing that is lacking is the cartoon element that I’m looking for. Any suggestions of films/games you may have in mind? ;)
Okay now that is fixed, time for a reply:
I personally haven’t played the two games you’ve mentioned on your comment but I will definitely look into them! Thanks for the suggestions Veigue!
I’m looking forward to listening to those auditions! You can always send samples to me to listen to at anytime via darkspeeds@hotmail.com! ;)
Fantastic page, keep up the great work
Will we be able to access the movie later, after the livestream? Cause I don’t think I’ll be able to make it.
Anyway, lovely idea, spill small spheres across the floor. Classic.
I predict some slipping and sliding on amber drops before this is all over.
BECK SMASH!!!
Great page, nice to see some action! Although the Sand Spiders are going to have some explaining to do when all of this is done . . .
The music is the real stand-out for me. I’m not sure I like it as much as the last theme we received, but that’s personal preference and does not make this one any less impressive.
You know, I thought the Sand Spiders would use this opportunity to slip away. But totally getting involved works too…. I guess. Though if they do manage to succeed in dispatching the assassins (and there’s no telling how many more of them there are at this point) they’re going to have an awkward time trying to explain what they were doing with bags full of valuables.
Well getting smacked with a bag full of amber can’t feel very good.
That was a costly attack.
All they need to say is that the assassins where the ones who where stealing it… Still doesn’t explain what they where doing there in the first place.
Awww, they stream the comic’s movie adaptation on my birthday. And I missed it!
I’m so sorry I didn’t attend, folks. I found out too late. I ought to check Elson’s channel soon!
And the action begins! Can’t wait to find out what happens next. Another thing that might be the case, Theo’s informant could be with the canid and wants to set the Sand Spiders up, make it look like they killed the ambassadors for their valuables. Then again, if the canid want to send a message to sunsgrove they would likely want them to know it was their doing. Or it’s one of those cases in which everybody knows the real reason a person got murdered/arrested/etc, but some random people get the blame and nobody dares to go against the police.
There’s something very fishy about the situation for sure.
Also, as awesome and gorgeously drawn the panel with Beck hitting the canid is, I’m not feeling the impact of the blow. When first seeing the panel I thought she’d shoved the bag in the guy’s (if it’s a guy) face or something, as his head doesn’t clearly show something heavy collided with it aside from an expression of pain.
That said this comic has had nothing but beautiful artwork and I applaud the artists on their work.
I put some of my comments related to this page on the wrong week- the movie and its poster, specifically. My bad.
I certainly didn’t expect Beck to just smash on into the combat like that. That’s. An interesting turn and I’m not sure what to make of it because this reflects on Theo. It seems like he’s worked with all of the Spiders for a bit, so he should know Beck might have this tendency. TLDR If Theo had an inkling this would happen and didn’t like it, he probably would have picked someone else. Of course, Theo might not have known and there might not be anyone else.