[bomberman61]

B Squared Productions is proud to present...

Wild ARMs 4: The Radioplay
Episode One

Wild ARMs 4 is the story of Jude Maverick, a young man who has lived a sheltered life in the village of Ciel, a village enclosed in a bubble and suspended thousands of feet above the war-torn world of Filgaia. One day, he notices the sky around Ciel shatter, and invaders descend upon his peaceful little town. This, however, is only the beginning…

Cast (in order of appearance)

Jude: Solstice
Ethelda: CCPetersen
Archibald: Phantasm
Tony: R. Douglas Barbieri
Arnaud: Will Knavison
Yulie: Niko Ford
Soldier #1: SandsO
Soldier #2: Kylor
Villager #1: Kylor
Villager #2: SandsO
Female Villager: ToPaz

Music List
"Peaceful Days" (Chrono Trigger)
"Saint Heim" (Grandia II)
"Starting Up" (Final Fantasy VIII)
"Fear" (Final Fantasy VIII)
"Secret of the Forest" (Chrono Trigger)
"Junction" (Final Fantasy VIII)
"Wandering" (Final Fantasy X)
"Zeal Palace" (Chrono Trigger)
"Fight!! Ver. 1" (Grandia II)
"Schala's Theme" (Chrono Trigger)

Sound effects from Sounddogs and Soundsnap

Running Time: 20:48
Size: 19 MB

Stream or Download: http://bsquared.mypodcast.com/
Blooper Reel: http://www.mediafire.com/?1c0yynlmbfd


Known issues: Levels and peaking...they're my biggest issues, but I'm working on them.

Thanks in advance for your critiques and for listening, and a huge thank you to my cast!

[Mochan]

Jude: Solstice: Honestly, it sounded like a young adult, but the acting was lacking quite a bit. It seemed forced and very unnatural to me. Like you were just reading, choppily, instead of acting. You were emphasizing words that really needed to be played down a bit more, like you were so surprised sometimes, like, "And then there WAS, LIKE, WHOA." when it should have just been like, "And there was that one thing...." If that made sense. x_x Especially when you said, "Get away from her." It was so flat, like you were bored. Try putting a little more energy and naturalness to your lines and you'll definitely be great. :3
Ethelda: CCPetersen: I liked it, very parental. XD
Archibald: Phantasm: I do love you! :3 I really had no complaints.
Tony: R. Douglas Barbieri: Of course, I love you too. XD You never fail to amaze me.
Arnaud: Will Knavison: Heehee! I really love your character. At times it sounded like you were speaking a bit too quickly and just kinda running through it instead of naturally speaking it. Though, it wasn't really that noticeable, I really enjoyed your performance!
Yulie: Niko Ford: You CAN sing! Wow. =D I did like your performance, but one thing to work on, when you said, "Jude..." I think it should have sounded a bit more longing. Otherwise, very good!
Soldier #1: SandsO: Good job! No complaints! :3
Soldier #2: Kylor: Perdy good, no complaints!
Villager #1: Kylor: Again, no complaints.
Villager #2: SandsO: Cha, no complaints.
Female Villager: ToPaz: Interesting. Didn't expect that. Sounded good.

SFX were pretty good, a little loud sometimes, but not too bad. And when there were supposed to be two sets of footsteps, there was only one. So it was like Jude was running and walking, but not the other person. I didn't really understand the part where Arnaud was fighting someone....? I heard swords, but no people? I had no idea what was going on...it was very awkward. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention. XD Also, when people are thinking, it would be good to make a 'thinking' effect, just ask to figure out how to do it. :3

The leveling wasn't as bad as previous productions, so you're really improving! =D Music was definitely a lot quieter, very good job!

Over all, this was a good first episode, a little weird, but I can tell it can only get better! Great job everyone! =D

And please don't kill me for my honesty. ;_;

[ToPaz]

Yes good episode, I enjoyed all the voices very much. Lovely emotions towards the end. The sound effects made me think I was really in sci-fi heaven.

[nikoshinigami]

Jude: Solstice- I wasn't sure I was listening to a young boy at first but the longer it went on, the more believable it was. Going to echo Mochan on the emotion though. It being episode one, I'm sure you'll get into the character and really make it shine as this continues ^_^ I especially enjoyed the scenes between Jude and Arnaud and you did a great job making those interactions flow smoothly with your tone.
Ethelda: CCPetersen- I don't know if I've heard you in anything before but now I feel the need to seek you out in something else. The richness of your voice really helps develop this mothering character and I love the contempt you brought to it in the scenes with R. Douglas Barbieri.
Archibald: Phantasm- Another voice I need to look for in other productions O_o Every scene you were in was quite enjoyable, well done.
Tony: R. Douglas Barbieri- What can I say other than that you never disappoint. Your acting skills are only surpassed by the distinctive quality of your voice.
Arnaud: Will Knavison- This voice just feels perfect for the character. You bring such excellent emotion to it and it's an extreme joy to listen to your scenes.
Yulie: Niko Ford- Hahaha XD Rather embarrassed it was so quiet when I was singing. Yeah, the Jude at 6.something could have had more longing I guess. I think I was going for disbelief but even that doesn't feel like it came though.
Soldier #1, SandsO, Soldier #2: Kylor, Villager #1: Kylor, Villager #2: SandsO, Female Villager: ToPaz; You three definitely added to the scenes at the end and had great delivery.

Mixing: Actually, I never really felt there were level issues. The music was really well chosen and never overpowered the voices, you did great with the noise reduction and the pacing was great. I felt some of the scene transitions could have used narration at times but overall the dialog moved the story along very effectively. Specifically though, the line "You're using that against us?" at around 17 minutes left me wondering "What is it? A tank? A big gun?" which was never explained and the earlier sword fight gave no real explanation. None of these are facts that needed to be explained for the sake of the plot but just left me wondering.

Overall, awesome job! I really enjoyed this ^_^

[Pixelespace]

Still listening, but I wonder if you didn't do a bit too much compression or something on the voices? There's a kind of "windy" sound around each voice, even though I'm pretty sure they didn't all send in unfiltered takes...

Anyway, very interesting and I'll have more of a critique after I finish the whole ep.

Thanks to those who commented on Ethelda (the role I played; real credit: CCPetersen).

I have a very different role in ep 2...

C aka Pixelespace

[bomberman61]

Thanks for the critiques and compliments, folks.

Mo: Footsteps give me issues and I don't know why. I do need to start doubling up on them. I try not to do too much and I end up doing too little, but once again, I'm glad you see improvement. That's what it's all about.

Niko: I'm still working on improving my transitions, which have given me problems before. To answer your question, Arnaud and Jude were fighting a huge robot (the "You're using THAT against us?!" part), but I didn't make that clear.

Everything done can be done better, so I'm excited to take your suggestions and apply them to the rest of the series.

[Pixelespace]

For footsteps (and other sound effects) have yo u looked at www.soundsnap.com?

[Phantasm]

Critique pending.
-Phantasm

[Crimson]

Ok well this seems to be a video game adaption, so I'm assuming for the most part you took the script right off the screen. The problem with that, however is that when you're playing the video game there are visuals to cue you in to what's going on. While for a radio play like this it's probably best to avoid narration, try to incorporate some short "throw in" lines for your actors to say when there is a lot of action going on and you're not sure if the sound effects are getting the message across. Like at around 10:45 instead of having Solstice say "What the?" he could say "oh no! combat robots!" or something. Kind of cheezy, but it's better than alienating your audience.

Tighten up your sound effects a bit. I noticed there were a lot of points where character speaks... some footsteps... character speaks again... more footsteps. If a character is walking somewhere there's nothing stopping you from playing the character's voice and the footsteps at the same time. Little things like this can shorten up the delays in pacing and make the story more engaging.

I know that fighting scenes can be quite difficult to mix... but the one thing to keep in mind is there are people involved. Sure you've got the sound of bullets, but who's firing? who's being fired at? Human voices are key in getting your audience to understand these sorts of things, so try to get your actors to do some shouts, screams and battle cries. Lines like "take this!" and "watch out!" and such are really helpful. Also... try not to be minimalistic... really work your ass off trying to find SFX for these scenes because if there's silence during a battle scene something is not right. Loud obnoxious bgms can help with this too .

Over all it was pretty good though. Looking forward to future episodes .