Mass Effect Fan Film RED SAND Looks Impressive [Trailer]

UATDV

I loved Mass Effect since the first game.  The depth of the characters and the story really made those games amazing and addicting.  The art design for those games are also great and them unique.

I figured with the release of the new Extended Cut DLC for Mass Effect 3 coming out today I'd show you something some fans from the University of Advancing Technology have been cooking up for some time.

The thing that caught my attention was the star's name, Mark Meer.  Now that might not sound familiar to you right away (unless you're as obsessed with IMDb as much as I), but he is actually the voice of Shepard from the games.  That's right, Shepard himself is doing a fan film based on the lore of the games.

Here is the description of the plot from the video's description...

"Serving as a prequel to the MASS EFFECT game series,"Red Sand" is set 35 years before the time of Commander Shepard and tells the story of the discovery of ancient ruins on Mars. Left behind by the mysterious alien race known as the Protheans, the ruins are a treasure trove of advanced technology and the powerful Element Zero, an energy source beyond humanity's wildest dreams. As the Alliance research team led by Dr. Averroes (Ayman Samman) seeks to unlock the secrets of the ruins, a band of marauders living in the deserts of Mars wants the ruins for themselves. Addicted to refined Element Zero in the form of a narcotic nicknamed "Red Sand" which gives them telekinetic "biotic" powers, these desert-dwelling terrorists will stop at nothing to control the ruins and the rich vein of Element Zero at its core. Standing between them and their goal are Colonel Jon Grissom (Mark Meer), Colonel Lily Sandhurst (Amy Searcy), and a team of Alliance soldiers tasked with defending the ruins at all costs. At stake - the future of humanity's exploration of the galaxy, and the set up for the MASS EFFECT storyline loved by millions of gamers worldwide."  -UATDV

According to a comments made by UATDV on the trailer video on YouTube the film will be around 10 minutes in duration and should be released later this summer.


Here is the original teaser showing more of Mark Meer's character, Grissom...

Now I have to admit I thought this was just going to be about the drug called "Red Sand" that was referenced in Mass Effect 2 when I saw this teaser back in February and not actually based on stories alluded to in the games.  The fact that I thought that shows how "well versed" on the lore I am.  Oh well, I do understand it now though.  If this ends up being done well I think it could prove that a Mass Effect film franchise is possible.  I'm pretty sure there is an official one in the works based on the original game, but you never know what will happen.  As far as I know there is just a script for now, it could be scrapped completely like the Halo movie was.

Hopefully they change the official Mass Effect movie to be about something else in the universe and not based solely on the original game's story because that can have several different outcomes.  Maybe have it about completely different characters.  I don't know... Time will tell.  This is a topic for another time.

Hopefully I enlightened you to something you may not have seen before.  This is my goal for this blog; to help people get their art noticed.