Well, 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.

Look at that. This is a first for Smooth Few Films, probably. Two episodes of content, two weeks in a row. So this is what it feels like to be on time for something.

Anywho, the newest addition of Web Zeroes is now up for your enjoyment. In Episode 2, Ray convinces Nate to let him film a documentary about his day job, where he moonlights as a tech support specialist named the Tech Yeti. Yes, there are beards involved. Also, handsome brown men.

To download the episode or see higher res versions, head over to Revision3, or subscribe to Web Zeroes on iTunes. We’ve actually been featured there in the “new and noteworthy” section under the podcasts. Cool stuff.

Much thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to watch this episode and leave a comment. Hit the jump to start watching. Episode 3 will be out next week on October 21st!
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Thanks for all of the feedback on Episode 1 of Web Zeroes. We’re looking forward to the release of Episode 2 on Wednesday. It’s hard to believe that we’ve already shot 7 of those things, and I’m writing the 8th for this upcoming weekend. The whole thing has been a crazy learning process for all of us at SFF, and hopefully you guys stick with us through it.

I was thinking the other day about The Leet World and doing a bit of reflecting on the Counter-Strike machinima that was, and I remembered some cool pieces of commentary that I’ve been wanting to share with you guys. Normally, this kind of stuff would come up in a podcast, but as we haven’t had any time to ourselves lately, I thought it’d be good to go ahead and post it.

Here are some lost TLW factoids for you to nom on.

• Player was originally going to be a girl. Yes, how very Spriggs (and Red vs Blue, come to think of it) of us. I’m not sure when the decision was made. Somewhere in the middle of making the first episode, we felt that if Player ever got a voice, the voice would have to be funnier than what he already was. We decided we could never top him as he has always existed in the show, so he stayed voiceless and male-ish.

• Asher’s original name was Jenkins. As many have surmised, Leeroy, the World of Battlelore player extraordinaire, was named after Leeroy Jenkins. As even more of a nod to the classic video, we were going to name Asher as “Jenkins”. We eventually changed this idea so that people wouldn’t start assuming that Leeroy and Asher were twins, seeing as how they shared the same model. Asher’s actual name is a reference to Ash, the android in Ripley Scott’s Alien.

• Westheimer was going to be Chet’s father. This is one that I’m still kind of sad we ditched. For whatever reason, we chunked it by the end of season 1, but Westheimer was intended to be Chet’s father. This adds even extra humor to Chet’s lamentation in Episode 5 about never knowing his father.

• Ahmad’s original murderer? The Producer. After Asher detonated (inside the warehouse instead of outside), the gang was going to leave the burning building behind, assuming Ahmad’s demise was inevitable. He is eventually found by the Producer and some Noonien soldiers. Ahmad reaches to the Producer for help and is shocked when Prod pulls out a silenced pistol, executing him amidst the rubble of de_nuke. The Producer simply walks away, ordering the soldiers to “Clean up this mess”. As awesome as this would have been, it was just a little bit too brutal and far less heroic for our lovable noob.

There are plenty more where those came from. Feel free to send in your questions about The Leet World, I’d love to give out more information like this. And come back on Wednesday for more Web Zeroes!

We’re excited to announce that Web Zeroes is coming next month to Revision3!

For some of you, the cat has already been out of the bag since the newest episode of Diggnation aired last night, but the rest of you can still be surprised. If you’re unaware, Rev3 is the king of awesome Internet television content like Totally Rad Show, Film Riot, Co-Op and then some. Those of you that already watch their stuff can easily attest to that.

As for our show, this is going to be a slightly rebooted version of Web Zeroes, hence the removal of the episodes from our site. I can’t go into a whole lot of detail about it just yet, but for now, you should go watch the new Web Zeroes trailer over at Revision3! This is a huge opportunity that we’re extremely pumped about. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on.

Go watch the trailer!

Man. Took us long enough, huh?

The Leet World Series Finale, Army of One Part 2, is now available for your viewing pleasure.

I have to admit, it’s a little bittersweet to be presenting this one to you guys. While we’re sad to see the show go, making a series of any kind is like slamming your testicular area in a car door, so we’re happy that it’s past us. It takes lots of grueling labor and a bit of a masochistic streak to make a show like this. Like that dude in the Da Vinci Code who keeps whipping himself. Ah, self flatulation… wait, I think I got those words mixed up.

Anyway, there’s lots of stories we could tell you about these last two months and what all went into getting this episode up for you guys, and also what kept us from finishing it when we wanted to. Be sure to send lots of love to Jace, Nick and Daniel who kind of took one for the team in the last 24 hours to make this release date possible.

So, check out the episode on the TLW premiere page, or just hit the jump for the normal version.
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One thing that we love doing is watching things that dudes from the community have made concerning our ridiculous library of Smooth Few Films work. It’s baffling to us that people like what we do enough to spend their own free time making a tribute to it.

Before, we’ve posted some community favorites of ours, so I thought I’d repeat that again with some new links that we found recently.

Check these out:

• Day in the Life of a Turret piano cover. Though sometimes YouTube can be a pit of despair, there are plenty of dudes that make it worth it to be there, such as David Debono, who has an awesome video of him playing Nine to Five, the song from our Portal video. We were hanging out last week during our shoot when Jace found this video and promptly freaked out, he was so excited.




• TLW Season 2 trailer. A pretty impressively put-together trailer for our 2nd season. While it’s not heavy on effects and such, the guy just did a great job of researching through the season and finding some great lines. The clips are organized really well and the trailer kind of pumped me up a little for the finale, even though I know how it ends.




• TLW Typography. This one needs almost no explanation. It kind of made me a lulz bandit.

So yeah, view those guys for some awesome tributes. We have some hearts for them. And if you have anymore things that you want to draw our attention to, send them over.

Oh, and if you’re wanting a TLW Finale update, our target is still this upcoming week. Probably later rather than sooner. Also, everyone dies. Not really. But maybe.

That is us. We are hard working dudes when we are not being geeks. In fact, in the midst of devoting nearly all of our time to the new mystery project, we’ve managed to accidentally finish filming the TLW Finale. Go figure. Does that mean it’s coming out soon?

Soon-ish. We’ve still got lots of post-production stuff to do, not to mention Jace writing the music. But we’re getting closer. I’ll let you know when we’re about a week out. Believe me, nobody wants this thing out worse than us. But as I’ve said, the new project takes precedence, so we’re doing all that we can to make sure we can work on both of those without hurting the new one.

We’ve put an extensive bit of time into the finale so that it offers a satisfying conclusion and doesn’t leave you guys hanging. We’re happy with how it’s going to end. It wraps up the story pretty well, since there’s a chance we might not get to work on the movie for a long time, if at all.

In terms of the new project, Jace is actually flying down to help us with it next weekend, and even JJ, our kindly Web master and TLW co-writer is going to join. It’ll be the second time that all of Smooth Few Films has been together since TLW started, so that is worth a hell yeah or two, if you’re feeling wild. I really can’t wait to do some show and tell with you guys, and I apologize for all of the vague language. Just know that we’re working hard and we appreciate you dudes for hanging out with us.

Also, Batman: Arkham Asylum is awesome. That is important to know, too. Just saying.

Exciting news! Hold on to your butts.

Here’s what I can tell you: we just got a big deal to produce Smooth Few Films content. No, it is not TLW. I can’t tell you who we made the deal with or go into more details about it, but trust me when I say it was a pretty crazy moment for us when we found out they were interested.

This means the “band is staying together” essentially, and that all of us (including Daniel) are rearranging some plans so that we can invest ourselves into this project. As a bonus for you guys, it means lots more Smooth Few Films content after The Leet World is over, which wasn’t going to be the case before.

This is a huge opportunity that deserves all of our time. It’s the kind of thing that we’ve been working towards for the last two years. We’re kind of giving it all we’ve got. So it means there are probably going to be some more changes coming soon, and it is partially responsible for the extended time that Episode 14 is taking us.

We’ll give some more information when we can, but our hands are a little tied. Rest assured, you should stick around for all of this because it’s going to be badass.

Ok, so I lied. It wasn’t this weekend, it was actually sooner. I doubt you’ll hold it against me for very long. Here’s Episode 13 of Season 2 of The Leet World, Army of One, available for your review.

In this episode, we continue to build up to the explosive series finale, which will be a rather exciting conclusion, if I do say so myself. Some guys argue, the Producer spills the beans, there are some cyborgs and perhaps a big surprise by the end. Re: the surprise, allow me to be the first to say it… Served.

To check out the high res version of the episode, mosey over to the TLW premiere page. Or just hit the jump to see the regular version if you’re not feeling up to its awesomeness.
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Nick and I have been hard at work on the series finale, parts 1 and 2 for the last couple of weeks. We’re hoping to release them close together, but we haven’t quite decided on how that will go down yet. We have a limited amount of time to finish all of this, and we’re working our butts off to do so. You’ll get the first screenshots this weekend or early next week.

I know that some of you long timers have seen some of our setup pictures before, but I thought it would be cool to talk about again. For those of you that don’t know, TLW isn’t made inside of a studio, but rather, in my spare bedroom, with a total of 6-7 computers, depending on what’s working at the time. That’s machinima for you.

Ideally, we’d show this in the making of video we’ve been wanting to do, but that’s been put on hold indefinitely while we try to finish this darn show. Anywho, there’s a general overview, with pictures, after the jump.
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