Episode 7 is nearing the final stages. We feel like we have scaled some kind of beastly machinima mountain. No, this doesn’t mean the episode is coming any minute now, because there’s quite a bit that has to get done to it before it’s ready for your calloused videogamer paws, but it’s close, and I’m excited.

One of the coolest parts of doing The Leet World is getting to hear the awesome stuff that Mr. Jace Ford, aka Damn Dangerous, pumps out for us every new episode. To watch the process go from a script to a final cut with his music put into it for the first time really is something special. The dude works hard to score each episode, and usually only does so in about a week’s time.

Anywho, over the course of the show we’ve seen tons of great comments regarding the music, so I wanted to know- which episode of The Leet World has your favorite music? I couldn’t quite put that in a poll since there would be way too many options, so feel free to respond in the comments.

Episode 7 should be gracing your monitors at some point next week, and we couldn’t be more excited. I’m not trying to get the hype train going overboard or anything, but I’ll admit that I’ve been looking forward to this episode since we started working on the season. When you’re working on a long term project like this, it takes a Herculean effort to not get ahead of yourself when you’ve got cool things down the road. I think we’ve done a decent job of it so far.

Anywho, some surprises are in store for the cast (and you dudes) in Episode 7, to say the least. You might pick up on one or two through the screenshots, or maybe there’s nothing there at all and I just want to make your brains hurt. Both of these things are possible.

Enjoy!

Hi folks. Just a quick post to let you know that we’ve had a loss of data and the downloads are not currently available. The culprit here was a tinkering webmaster (me) and and a crappy Wordpress plugin that decided to delete a folder without telling me what it was doing. It’s possible our hosting company can restore the domain from a backup, but I’m not going to count on it.

We have backups of almost everything, and I’m going to begin the process of getting those re-uploaded onto the site as soon as I can, but the main thing that we don’t have consistent backups of are the HD versions of season 1.

If you or anyone else you know has all of season 1 in the HD format, I’d appreciate it if you could upload them somewhere like FileFront and email me a link to the file(s) at jeff@smoothfewfilms.com. No need to post the links in the comments, but if you want to “claim” which episodes you are uploading, that might help prevent folks from doubling up on the same episodes. Thanks!

UPDATE: Lucky for us, it looks like I actually jumped the gun here. When I started downloading a backup of the remaining folders on the site, it was a much bigger download than I was expecting. I dug around a bit and it turns out that the stupid plugin had just moved the missing folder about three deep inside a few other folders. Needless to say, I’m both relieved and in the process of making a giant backup of the entire site. You can return to previously scheduled programming now.

So I’ve been at South By Southwest all weekend, and it’s been great. No, I’m not here for SFF stuff, I’m actually here on business for my job. I’ve been hanging out at lots of cool panels about social media and the like. Right now I’m sitting at the Dead Space panel that EA is doing about its cross-over media platforms that they marketed Dead Space with.

I haven’t played the game yet, but I really need to. I’m kind of a big little girl when it comes to playing horror games, and I seriously scream like a fool. I have no doubt that this will be any different when I play Dead Space, but brave those dark corridors I must, for the good of my gaming health. Even at the detriment of my psychological health.

Yesterday I experienced an exciting but strange “first”. Walking around downtown Austin towards my hotel room, I came across the line for the Digg party, and was stopped by two awesome dudes that happened to be Smooth Few Films fans. It was wild that they recognized me, and I probably looked like a dork with my laptop and my rain stuff, but it was really cool to get to talk to some fans face to face. It made my day, and Stephan and Casey were two cool dudes to boot. Thanks, guys.

Also, much thanks for the comments on Episode 6. The ground work has finally been laid for Season 2, and things kind of go into face-rocking mode from here on out, officially.

As was indicated at the end of the last episode, the storm is gathering for the folks at The Leet World house. We now present to you dudes Episode 6, Thunderhead, for your viewing enjoyment. In this episode, we see the second challenge, which has a slightly different feel than any of the other challenge episodes have had up to this point.

I’m really thinking you guys are going to dig this episode and the next one, which will be out by the end of March. Some cool stuff is going down, and I think you’ll like where it’s all pointing. Remember, you can check out a higher resolution version on the TLW premiere page.

Or, just check the episode out after the jump!
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Thanks for all the responses on Know About It from this weekend, we’re glad that you guys enjoyed it. Our goal this season is to try and get a few more TLW shorts out than we did last year, so it was nice to get something like that released. Besides, only Chet can give that kind of a life lesson.

In other news, Episode 6 will be coming later this week. Nick is currently doing some sound design while Daniel and I are working ahead on Episode 7. The last few weeks have been particularly brutal, thanks to this monster called machinima. We’re definitely looking forward to the short time we’ll take off after Episode 7 so we can recharge and get ready for the second half of the season.

Anywho, the other day I mentioned that I’d bring the Know About It theme for your desktop. So, have it.

Also, we’ve got a cool new feature up at GamerSushi about the myth of the “killer” game. Check it out.

Enjoy!

We’d like to introduce the first edition of Know About It, the PSA series where Chet teaches you valuable life lessons. In this installment, our party animal discusses the many finer points of Spring Break, and how to survive it like a true bro-fessional.

Hopefully we get to do a few more PSA’s just like this one in the near future. The idea of Chet being an expert on anything at all is kind of funny to us. And maybe just a little bit scary.

See the video after the jump!
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So it looks like the next few weeks of my life will be absorbed by either Hammer or Faceposer. No, I can’t tell you why. But here’s a hint: it’s for TLW. In case you missed the update, Episodes 6 and 7 are going to mark the halfway point for Season 2. Stuff is about to go down. For real.

Anywho, we’ve got a new TLW based short coming out this weekend, and Episode 6 will be dropping sometime next week. Get excited. There are a lot of fun elements in every aspect of production for the next two episodes, ranging from sound design to color correcting and Hammer work. I’m just pumped about how the end products are going to turn out.

There’s a chance many of you have already seen Cortez’s cameo in Source Wars, made by Xanatos and crew, but if you haven’t, you should give it a watch. Xanatos did this with our permission, and he’s a bud of ours, so I was happy to lend my voice. It’s pretty goofy, but definitely good for some laughs.

I started reading The Watchmen this week in preparation for the movie’s release, and also because I’ve been putting it off forever. I understand that it is a notch in the contemporary geek’s bedpost to say he’s read Watchmen, but I really have just never gotten around to it.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up about the movie too much. For one, I’m not sure how they are going to pull off the story, which in the graphic novel meanders on a slowly unraveling thread all around a generational mystery. Beyond that, there’s no way they could possibly cram everything into even a 161 minute outing.

And while the Watchmen trailers are actually shirt rippingly awesome, I do worry that it’s one of those trailers that will end up being better than the movie. Because yes, sometimes this happens. And I have quite a few examples where this has happened in recent years, Sin City being the most notable of the bunch, whose trailer pulled off something much more interesting than the end product:

Hit the other examples after the jump.
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We here at Smooth Few Films are huge television fans, if you haven’t been able to gather that from podcasts, comments, or even bits and pieces of content you’ve seen in our videos. Personally, I gobble up TV shows like nobody’s business, and I’m following way too many to keep track of at the moment. My DVR is swollen and burning with righteous indignation at the suffering I’ve put it through recording Lost, House, 24 and Battlestar Galactica, to name a few.

Anywho, I say all of that because our love for TV no doubt reflects in The Leet World. Apparently, some very observant viewer thought enough of the show to put up a Leet World page on TV Tropes. Listed in the article are several recurring themes from the wide terrain of television that have made their way into our goofy Counter-Strike:Source machinima. They range from the “Big No” to the “Handicapped Badass” themes that we use.

The funny thing is, most of these are intentional on our parts, but some of them actually aren’t, which just means that they’ve been ingrained into our psyche as creative TV watchers. Anywho, it’s a really cool analysis of The Leet World, and if you click on each of the tropes, you can find more specific examples and analysis given about the show more in-depth.

This is probably one of the coolest things a fan has written about what we make, and it really made our day to see it. It’s cool to see someone recognize all the layers that are actually going on with the characters. We really do put a lot of effort into that. So to whoever did it, lots of thanks.

In other news, we’ve got a TLW short coming next week that I think you guys will dig. Stay tuned! By the way, what are your favorite TV shows?