Author Archives: Eddy

The Old Dusty Trail

Gentlemen, we had a good run. Smooth Few Films is on indefinite hiatus.

This update has been a couple of months in the making, and I apologize for not doing it sooner. To be honest, I didn’t really know how to say it, and I was kind of heartsick about even writing it. I’ve also been busy with a lot of stuff in my personal life from work to writing a novel and I avoided it because I knew it would pain me to write it. But now that comments have come over to my personal blog queue about this site I felt like it was time to do something. So again, I apologize to those of you who have checked back here every day hoping for an update. I know there are quite a few of you (thanks to the wonder of Google Analytics) and it for real means the world that there’s that kind of dedication to our bumbling Internet troupe.

The reasons for the indefinite hiatus are fairly easy to explain. For one, Daniel moved to L.A. a month or two back in order to follow his dreams as a film dude. Him and Jace are living together and doing awesome things. I fully expect them to hit some big successes out there, and will probably update this blog to let you guys know about them whenever they happen. Daniel was always the talented one, so him leaving was what really solidified the decision for us.

Beyond that, we really did burn ourselves out from 2 plus years of throwing everything we had at Smooth Few Films. It may not have looked like much, but we gave up the majority of our free time, thousands of dollars and sacrificed a few opportunities and friendships along the way. We did all of that because we loved telling stories, and tried to do our best to tell a couple of fun ones.

Truth be told, the most fun part of the whole thing for me was seeing the way you guys, our community, really latched on to what we were doing and how you reacted to it each and every step of the way. I seriously go back through comments of old Leet World episodes sometimes, just to relive the excitement you all had for the stuff we made. I can’t speak for the other guys, but for me, that totally made it worth all of the time we toiled.

Is this the end of us working together? Not by any means. As I’ve maintained (and why I put this post off), we’ve got lots of things we want to do… eventually. What the magical conditions are and what stars have to align for that to happen is anyone’s guess. When/if the indefinite status changes, you guys will be the first to know. Believe me, I’m rooting for it.

Without being cheesy, all I can say is that I love you dudes and I’ve always appreciated the love you’ve thrown back our way, when we really didn’t deserve it. You guys are awesome.

-Eddy, signing off.

On Domination

Happy November, guys and gals.

Just wanted to stop in say it was great to see everyone’s comments on The Last Word. As I said before, I think Daniel did a spectacular job on it, and it shows. It’s a touching short, and something I’m particularly fond of.

Anyway, I promise there will be a couple of regular posts here in the next couple of weeks, including a range of topics that we still get asked a lot of questions about. I’ve been terribly busy with some other things going on personally, and that looks to clear up in the next week or two. But for now, enjoy another free track from the TLW soundtrack.

This one is the Domination Man’s theme from Episode 8 of TLW. You know, the one that plays during the entire cheesy GMod log fiasco and the zany antics surrounding that. I’m a big fan of what Jace did when he built this out for the soundtrack. I think you will be, too.

http://smoothfewfilms.com/extras/4_domination_man_cometh.mp3

One of the things people keep asking about is if there’s a way to still buy the soundtrack. Right now, the answer to that is no. Basically, sales had diminished over the last few months to where it was more expensive to keep the store going than it was to just take it down. If you hang around, we’ll just be releasing it every week for free from here on out.

In other news, who out there has played Black Ops? Thoughts? We reviewed it up on GamerSushi and I’ve been dying to play it.

Short Film: The Last Word

I think I end up saying this all the time these days, but sorry to you faithful dudes about the lack of updates around here. As I said before, there’s just not a whole lot to update on at the moment. Everyone’s kind of doing their own thing, and whether that turns into a Smooth Few Films project in the near future is anyone’s guess.

For instance, I’ve been working on a monster of a book which I just finished in this past week. It’s a huge unwieldy fantasy story that needs a ton of editing that I can’t wait to get started on. Meanwhile, Daniel recently produced a short film with his bud Ryan Hargrave for a local art show. It’s called The Last Word, and I kind of love it. Different from the tone that you guys are used to from Daniel’s work to be sure, but that’s not a bad thing.

You’ll notice a few SFF regulars in there, including Alex, who played Pedro in WZ and also ran sound for that series as well. You’ll also see Ty, the lovable Bobby King. Music by Jace Ford, in what I think is one of his best pieces yet. Plus, Daniel plays a dude that chases people and beats them up. Anyway, take a gander to see what I mean, and give Daniel his props.

Another TLW soundtrack song coming next week!

Pardon Our Dust2Dust

I now bring to you guys the third track of the illustrious TLW soundtrack penned by sir Jace Ford, Dust2Dust. Many of you will remember that we released this tune under the name of Ambush at Bombsite B when Episode 4 of TLW first aired. Since then, Jace has done a little bit more to it, and I actually love the re-release more than the original, and that’s saying a lot.

Listen. Enjoy. Feel epic.

http://smoothfewfilms.com/extras/3_dust2dust.mp3

Right click and save as to save that to your demon machines.

I saw a pretty cool review of Web Zeroes the other day, and I thought I would pass it along. Definitely nice when people recognize the hard work that went into the show, and the spirit of its geekitude, something we really strove for during its production.

And continuing on that cool stuff vibe, I’ve got a couple of more links for you guys. One, for all of you old school PC gamers out there, we got a retro feature up on GamerSushi the other day about how to make a Myst movie that doesn’t suck. Two, I’ve done a piece on my blog about my ridiculous fan nerd love of Final Fantasy 7 and how it changed me as a gamer.

Attack those at your leisure.

Daniel + Bytejacker = Awesome

I was looking through the site the other day, and I can’t believe I forgot to post this back when it happened. One of the bonuses to being on Revision3 for a couple of seasons was the opportunity to meet some awesome folks in the same boat as us. This afforded us double rainbow like powers to create epic crossovers.

You already saw Daniel make an appearance on the Revision3 show Film Riot, where he demonstrated some of the audio techniques we used on Web Zeroes. But did you know that he also appeared on their indie video game show Bytejacker? Nerd and host Anthony Carboni did an episode where he toured the offices of Revision3, speaking with people from the other shows. One of those people included Daniel, who appeared as his character Ray from Web Zeroes. The results were hilarity and plaid. Daniel shows up at 3:57.

In other video game related news, today we posted an article over at GamerSushi about the top 30 upcoming games of 2010, and I love it. Go check it out. Got any you’re looking forward to?

More free soundtrack titles coming next week, plus hopefully some video/pics from Fantastic Fest.

One Year Later

Well, it passed. Leet World ended just a little over a year ago. A nutty show, and a nutty ride. You guys are nuts, too.

I’d write a big thing about my thoughts about the year since, but I’d rather hear more of what you guys think. What are some of the highlights and lowlights of you for TLW? I’ve got a few of my own.

Highlights: Mendoza’s arc. Both season finales. The “can of worms / Council of Elrond” episode, S2E11, where most of the mysteries were spilled (still feel like we pulled that off decently). S1E7, because I feel like it was the first episode where we “got it” and the formula and quality for all subsequent episodes clicked.

Lowlights: I know a lot of people will boo me for this, but S1E1. The fact that we introduced Mendoza so late. Probably the only true “filler” episode we did, S1E6. The faceposing in Season 1. Not having the time to utilize the comrades/SWAT Bras more fully.

Go ahead and share yours.

In other news, we’ve been told from a Canadian friend that Day in the Life of a Turret was shown/referenced on TV there. While we’re unsure of the network (though it might have been G4), it seems the context wasn’t entirely positive. Still, we’re curious if anyone saw this?

Also, if you were planning on checking out Daniel’s panel appearance on Rooster Teeth’s Best of Machinima Panel this weekend at Fantastic Fest, that has been officially moved to Sunday at 2:30 PM. This is a bummer for me, because I was going to drive down for it on Saturday, but now I can’t. Sad. Face.

Fantastic Fest Plus Rocking with the Producer

ProducerHowdy and hello.

Thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes you gave us. It’s great that so many of you are still around from the earliest days. Also fairly flattering. A special thank you to all the lurkers that came out of hiding to utter a few words of gratitude. Another weird anniversary is coming right on the heels of that one: next week marks a year since TLW ended.

In terms of news, the main thing I have to offer is for those of you who live in Texas. Next weekend, a cool thing called Fantastic Fest will be going down in Austin. It’s a huge genre film festival, and from what I hear, it’s pretty rad. Anyway, Rooster Teeth organized themselves a machinima panel, and they invited one of us to sit in on it. Since Daniel won the fist fight (it’s the gangly arms), he gets to be on the panel with some other machinima dudes.

If you are anywhere nearby, the Best of Machinima screening will happen on Saturday, September 25 at 4 PM at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. They’ll be showing Day in the Life of a Turret. Stop by and troll Daniel.

Also, because I’m nice, here’s a free download of the Producer theme from the TLW soundtrack. Figured since the anniversary of his death is coming up and all, it only made sense. This is probably my favorite track on the whole thing. Enjoy!

http://smoothfewfilms.com/extras/2_theproducer.mp3

Right click and save as to download.

In other news, did anyone get Halo: Reach? I’m loving it. Also, check out the new GamerSushi. Loving that, too.

Another SFF Birthday

Portal CakeWell, last month we officially passed the three year birthday of Smooth Few Films. That’s right, in August of 2007 we first started posting Leet World episodes, and the rest is kind of history, I suppose. A good or bad history? Who knows. In fact, thanks to Matt and the trusty Web Archives, we actually have a snapshot of the old Web site, in that first week of posting.

It’s funny thinking back to those first few weeks. We’ve told the story several times in a variety of different ways, but we honestly thought we would only make a few episodes and then stop the whole thing. It was unplanned, partially spontaneous, and then the support for what we were doing was ludicrously overwhelming, which helped us through some of the more brutal production runs. Interesting fact: we came this (imagine me holding my finger and thumb really close together) close to quitting during the production of Episode 11 of Season 1. Two series and a few years later bring a bit of perspective, and it’s been a mostly nice ride, though it’s had its own share of bumps. Which is why the current break is rocking our faces.

Anyway, I’m curious: of the people left that are still faithfully checking this site (thanks so much, by the way), how many of you were here since the very beginning? If not, when did you first stumble across our humble abode on the Intertubez? Answer away, commenters and lurkers.

P.S. Stay tuned for more free tracks of the TLW Season 1 soundtrack.

Easy Listening

I apologize for the lack of updates. As you guys know, we’re on kind of a break for a bit, enjoying some good books, movies, video games and the like. You know, normal life stuff. But as I said before, the creative fires won’t be quelled for too long, and hopefully we can give you something on that front in a bit. You’ll be the first to know. Or something like that.

Anyway, last post I promised some cool content, and I’m here to deliver. You may have noticed that we decided to take down the TLW Store a bit back, or maybe you didn’t because you loathe stores of all kind. Either way, the TLW Soundtrack was being sold there for about two years running. Since so much time has passed, we thought we would be nice and give out a few of its tracks for free, starting with the TLW Theme Jam that you’ve heard on a couple of videos here and there. It’s basically the normal Leet World theme, but with some extra sauce from Jace. Anyway, it’s one of my favorite tracks on the album, so I hope you enjoy it.

http://smoothfewfilms.com/extras/1_leet_world_theme_jam.mp3

Right click and save as to download. More coming soon.

In other news, who’s seen Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World? I’m hearing fantastic things about it, and I can’t wait to see it.

The Question of What’s Next

Question blockMan, it’s been quiet around here lately, eh? Since Web Zeroes ended a few weeks ago, the wheels have been turning a bit slow around the SFF wagon, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped altogether. The biggest and most frequently asked question that we’ve seen in the last month or so has been: what’s next? I wanted to answer for that you guys as best as I could so you know that we haven’t hitched a ride on dragons out of the country or something.

The short of it is this: we’re not quite sure what’s next. That’s not for a lack of ideas at all. In fact, we actually have a surplus of them. The tricky part is narrowing it down, which will only come with time to weight out their pros and cons, and also time to chill out a bit. For real, we’re just starting to get used to having our weekends back for the first time in several years, and we’re going to enjoy that for a bit before we throw ourselves onto the content skillet again. It is a hot and buttery place. OK, that metaphor got kind of weird.

Anyway, the only thing I can really tell you is this. Our next ideas aren’t exactly small potatoes. They’re big. Orca fat, I guess you could say. Up until now, we’ve done everything without a budget and without a huge supply of time. Everything has been quick, free and dirty. The last episode of Web Zeroes is something we were able to throw a bunch of time at, and I think the effort really shows. As a result, we’re going to make sure that whatever we do next we tackle with both time and money. Just think: if we’ve pulled off the stuff we’ve done so far without a budget or ample time, it’s tough to imagine what we could do with just a little of both. Or a lot of both, which would be preferable.

And no, these do not include TLW. In conjunction with wanting to do our next project with the aforementioned time and money, we also want to be able to own it. TLW is the opposite of that, as we’ve discussed on many a fine occasion.

So, stay tuned. I promise more info is coming, along with regular updates. Some things that we’re hoping to have on the docket in the next few weeks include more lost TLW factoids, some Web Zeroes features and other cool things I can’t say just yet. In the meantime, check out GamerSushi, where we’ve got cool gaming news and podcasts.

In other machinima news, have you seen this Gears of War 3 trailer created by a variety of producers including The Duo Group, Treadster Media, Kootra and Sound Wizardry. I love it.

Discuss, gents.