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.

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.

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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 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.

Releasing stuff on the Internet, we get so used to just putting a video up and moving onto the next thing. Viewer reactions are just words on a screen, so it’s just a really nice break to see people face to face who love the show and to hear their laughter while we watch in a big group. Nice to know that there have been some folks enjoying it in that way at their own homes. Or at least, that’s the hope.

Anyway, we’ve put up a time lapse video of the entire series wrap party. Check it out. Many thanks to our buddy Ryan Johnson for putting it together. Music is by Jace, of course, and it gets pretty rocking by the end. He’s the one whose face appears about halfway through, by the way.

And yes, Ahmad and Leeroy are there in the fray. Happy hunting.

Earth Angel

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Web Zeroes Theme

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Techstrogen Theme

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We’re seriously getting tons of great messages about the finale so far, and we really appreciate all the support we’ve seen from all of you. Enjoy the awesome music.

In this episode, the guys put everything on the line to get their show done in time to deliver it to Revision3. There is some battling, advice from war heroes, BttF-ing, and more. I think it stands as maybe the best episode we’ve done, and among some of our best work, partly because of Jace’s killer anthem near the end of the episode. Then again, I’m a little biased.

There’s not really much else to say to you guys about the episode, other than thanks for watching it. We always knew that we would lose a lot of viewers after Leet World ended, so those of you that continue to hang out, comment, watch our show and share it with others are among some of the cooler folks on the planet. If you’re interested in reading some more of my thoughts on the end of Web Zeroes, I’ve put a few over on my blog. And if you happen to be in the Houston area, you should come say hi to us at the WZ Series Wrap Party this Saturday, where we’ll be hanging out and having fun.

For now, hit the jump to watch the final episode!

Again, big thanks. I’ll be posting in the next few weeks with some extra content, I hope. A few people have asked what’s next for us, and the big answer is “I don’t know”. As I said last week, we’re taking a break from actual production for a bit, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be active.

Speaking of us being active, you should check out our brand new GamerSushi podcast, where we talk about Transformers, Crackdown 2 and Saturday morning cartoons.

Enjoy the episode!

Many big thanks to JJ, who penned a great episode yet again. Also, I’d like to give a shout out to Miguel, who plays Scott, and did a fantastic job. Give those two guys a hand, as well as Jace, who always kills it each week on the musical front. These people are like ninjas at their crafts, so it’s cool that I know ninjas, I think.

And now for some news…

The season 2 finale (Episode 25) will also be the finale of the show itself. Next week will mark the end of Web Zeroes. We’ve known that’s how it was going to be for a month or so now, but couldn’t really talk about it until the release of this episode. I wish we could have told you guys sooner, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. I think it’s important to note that ending the show is our decision, mostly because it has just been too exhausting to do the show as a part time job in addition to our day jobs. We’re thankful to Revision3 for the opportunity to broadcast this show to a much bigger audience than we had before, and for allowing us the privilege of being their first scripted series.

What does this mean for the future of Smooth Few Films? Well, we’re not entirely sure. We need a few months off to sort things out, take some rest and then go from there. I’ll be talking about that more in a future post, but I’ll go ahead and say that it does not mean the return of Leet World. In fact, this experience has convinced us more than ever that we have to go about things differently in the future. But as I said, we’ll be talking about that more later.

For now, enjoy the episode, because I think it’s a good one. And if you live in Texas, you should go read up about our Web Zeroes Wrap Party, and come hang out with us.

Watch, spread the word, and enjoy, dudes. Also, thanks for watching. We really appreciate it.

In other news, one of my favorite Halo 3 machinimas, Forecast: The Series has resumed with the premiere of Season 2. Check it out!

Even though almost a year has gone by since the show’s end, we still receive plenty of inquiries about these features, so I thought I’d bring it back with even more tidbits that you guys never knew.

So let’s get started. Details are after the jump!

• The chip in Ahmad’s head.

In S2E10, Asher hints to Ahmad (and us) that our lovable noob had a chip in his head that the Producer used to communicate with him. This is probably the biggest dangling plot thread (along with the Comrades) that got left over from the storyline, and one of my bigger regrets. There was actually an explanation scene for this in the first Season 2, Ep 13 script, but we ultimately cut it because Ahmad’s return made this thread less important.

Here’s what the deal was: when Ahmad auditioned, he had a chip put into his head so that the Producer could communicate with him, since he was particularly impressionable. When he started taking hacks, the Producer spoke to him as Adam Sizzler, a figure he trusted, to get him to move the drama to new heights. Remember, it was Sizzler who told Ahmad where to go in S1E12. When Asher jammed the communications to the house in S2E9, the Producer had his “ace in the hole” that he could talk to — Ahmad. Basically, the Producer was responsible for his death.

Like I said, we ultimately cut this. Once we changed things around and decided to bring Ahmad back, the information was less pertinent. Oh, I’m sorry. That leads us into the next bullet point.

• Ahmad was supposed to stay dead.

Yup. All that stuff on the site that I posted about saying goodbye and putting characters into danger immediately following S2E10 wasn’t just me jerking you around the way Valve does to everyone about Half Life 2 Episode 3. It was the honest to goodness truth at the time, because Ahmad was supposed to be dead dead. We made the decision back in Season 1 to kill off a main character, and we designed Ahmad’s arc to see if we could make people loathe him and then love him.

So why did he come back? Simply put, fan service. Our Revision3 deal came up right in the middle of Episode 12/13 production. Once we committed to them, we knew that left a huge possibility for never being able to revisit the story in the movie, as we had wanted to do. Rather than risk leaving everyone on a humongous cliffhanger (seriously, the Season 2 ending was just mean), we went with what had always been our backup plan in case something crazy happened like Daniel moving or having Valve shut us down or any number of other things. That’s the ending you saw, and we figured, since everything was going to have a nice bow on it, let’s just tweak it and bring Ahmad back.

Does it cheapen what we wanted for the show overall? Yes and no. The original plan was going to be pretty cool, but I think we still delivered an ending we were proud of. Ending the season on that cliffhanger would have left people hating us forever. About that…

• The Season 2 ending.

  Along with Ahmad’s death, we had the Season 2 cliffhanger planned out since around S1E4, Dust 2 Dust. We even hinted at it a few times throughout the series. Remember the “Island of possibilities” line that the Producer dropped at the end of Season 1? Or Montrose saying he needed to find a nice beach to retire to after the show was over? All hints towards the end of Season 2.

  Let me set the stage: instead of blowing up in the Death Room, Player was going to detonate in the house, eradicating all of the bots and himself to save his friends. As his countdown is nearing zero, Leeroy rushes to his lair to copy his core, while the other characters run away in hopes of avoiding the explosion. Unfortunately for them, they don’t quite escape and get knocked out in the ensuing blast. The Producer’s soldiers would arrive to a destroyed TLW house. The cast is knocked out. Player is destroyed. Leeroy is missing. The Producer instructs his men to collect the cast.

  Cut to: a blue sky, the sound of waves crashing. Ellis wakes up, and looks around to see the other cast members, lying on a beach. Season 2 was going to end with our characters waking up on a stranded island.

You guys would have hated us for it. And we would have laughed silly, I think.

Anyway, there are a few more where those came from, such as what were the plans for Season 3, but I’ll save that for another time. As I said before, it would have been cool to make, but none of us regret that we couldn’t do it. We love Leet World (well, some of us), but we’re glad this is all behind us. Still, a part of me sometimes wonders how crazy everyone would have gone with that Season 2 cliffhanger.

So, got any more questions?

In other news, we just released another episode of our GamerSushi podcast, the E3 edition. Lots of fun, check it out!

However, in the absence of a good and proper new Web Zeroes episode, I’ll be releasing another post concerning some more Lost TLW Factoids, including the whole deal with Ahmad’s chip as well as some other lesser known gems. I think any Leet World fans out there will want to come take a look at it for sure.

Last week, I posted a cool fan video that re-created The Office intro with Web Zeroes clips. This week, I bring another similar treat in the form of the Law and Order intro re-made with Web Zeroes. This was a big hit with us during filming over the weekend, and we stopped shooting just to watch it once we saw that it was out. Much thanks. Stuff like this that you fans do is such a treat for us. The idea that anyone would spend time paying tribute to something I work on still baffles me.

In other news, this is E3 week, and we are covering it over on GamerSushi, so you should check it out. Nick has been tweeting the press conferences from the GamerSushi account, and it’s an absolute riot. In addition, we’ve recapped the Microsoft press conference, as well as the Sony and Nintendo conferences. The Sony one includes some Portal 2 information. Head on over to the site and join the community, it’s a great place.

What are you guys looking forward to from E3? Left4Dead 3? Lol j/k.