Making of Email 100

Under Construction

Making of Email 100 is a time-lapse video showing the making of the Strong Bad Email flashback.

Cast (in order of appearance): Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman, Ryan Sterritt, Homestar Runner, Missy Palmer, Strong Bad, Uncle Jim and Aunt Rosie, Don and Harriet Chapman, Tiny-Handed Strong Bad, Coach Z, The Homestar Runner (storybook), The Prince Of Town, Strong Mad, Pom Pom, Bubs, Strong Sad, Marzipan, Mr. Bland, Señor, The Cheat, Limozeen, Senor Cardgage, Old-Timey Strong Bad

Runnning Time: 3:07

DVD Exclusive: strongbad_email.exe Disc Three

Transcript

{Chiptune music plays as a time-lapse of the Brothers Chaps' office is shown. The following events occur:}

• Day 1 (Sunday):
  • Mike and Matt Chapman work at a desk with three computers on it. Matt is on one of them while Mike writes on paper and a calendar. Matt is briefly dressed as a member of Limozeen while at his computer.
  • Green screen footage of the Limozeen Easter egg is shown, with each member recorded separately and shown in a 2-by-2 grid.
  • The brothers continue working. Ryan Sterritt edits the Limozeen footage on the far right computer.
  • Mike begins using the far left computer. He briefly looks at a page from the Original Book, then edits modern-day Homestar to have a green duckie shirt and socks with sandals, then works on the cover of the storybook, then the Limozeen logo.
  • The screen is split in half, with the right half now showing Matt in the sound room recording into a microphone and listening back to his lines. Meanwhile, Mike animates Sbemail 100 Fakeout.
  • The lights turn off. The far right computer remains on, and is used to work on the Limozeen Easter egg.
• Day 2 (Monday):
  • The Brothers Chaps write for a while, then Mike opens his laptop and starts tracing over illustrations from the Original Book and Museum Sketchbook.
  • The screen splits in half again as Matt records more lines in the sound room. Matt and Mike take turns recording guitar. Missy Palmer records a few lines as well, then briefly uses the computer Matt was using.
  • Mike animates the storybook section of the email. Graphics from Marshmallow's Last Stand are briefly shown on his computer screen.
  • The Brothers Chaps' parents visit, along with their aunt and uncle.
  • The lights turn off again. The far right computer is seen accessing the index page followed by Main Page 1, among other things.
• Day 3 (Tuesday):
  • The screen splits again. Mike is in the sound room recording himself playing a keyboard.
  • The Brothers Chaps are both in the sound room. They take turns playing the keyboard and editing audio. Mike briefly plays guitar.
  • Mike animates Marzipan's Easter egg, then Old-Timey Strong Bad's, then Senor Cardgage's, then returning to the Old-Timey one, then the Prince of Town's, then Homestar's.
  • Mike edits the Strong Bad Email menu and Main Page Messages, then draws a pixelated glass of water and watches the email within the site interface.
  • At the end, Mike looks into the camera, and the computers are moved off the desk.

Easter Eggs

• This video features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman)

MATT: Okay, here's us making the hundredth email. We started with the easiest part, and funnest part, which is doing the Limozeen Easter egg.

MIKE: Yes, you can see Ryan editing that on the far right of the screen, he's editing the uh, Easter egg and layering them, and keying out the green.

MATT: Right, and Mike, what're you doing right now?

MIKE: I am making sandals and socks for Homestar, that never appeared. And a green duck shirt... uh—

MATT: Instead of a yellow duck shirt.

MIKE: Instead of a yellow duck shirt.

MATT: Uh, now I'm recording... this might be recording the Limozeen egg sounds, we were recording that actually. Or, I may be recording an early email... Oh no, that's what it is. It's recording the uh, if you went to sbemail100.html, that's what you're doing right now, isn't it.

MIKE: Oh yeah, that's right. We did that on Sunday night. So this is Sunday night. And, here is Monday morning.

MATT: So, day two. We actually changed clothes—

MIKE: {simultaneously} I think we're—

MATT: —probably the only three days in a row that we actually changed clothes, and we happened to get it all on film.

MIKE: Um, I think we're re-writing the email here, for the most part.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: That's what you're doing, anyway.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: We pretty much started from scratch.

MATT: So now re-recording the email, and recording new sounds for it. And some music for it!

MIKE: Yeah... perhaps the, um...

MATT and MIKE: Email is awesome!

MIKE: Email is weird song.

MATT: Yeah, that's a good one. Um, ah that's— Melissa came by to record her one line—

MIKE: "Ready and set and go now!"

MATT: Yeah. And then, the thing, her Easter egg.

MIKE: Oh yeah, that's right.

MATT: That was it. That was Melissa's involvement. So this music, Mike, tell 'em about the music.

MIKE: Oh, the music was made using Synthcart, a home-brewed Atari cartridge by our friend Paul Slocum. Um, it's awesome.

MATT: {simultaneously} He's making—

MIKE: Oh, there goes our parents and Aunt Jim.

MATT: {cracking up} Aunt— Aunt Jim and Uncle Rosie!

MIKE: {correcting himself, laughing} Uncle Jim! Sorry, Aunt Jim!

MATT: Uncle Jim and Aunt Rosie.

MIKE: Um, see— you can see I'm working on the children's book graphics and stuff there, the egg just popped open, um, with The Cheat inside of it.

MATT: Right. I'm over there doing all the, like, widescreen, beginning and end, all the Easter eggs and stuff. I swear I'm doing stuff over there.

{Mike laughs.}

MIKE: So this is Monday night.

MATT: Day three!

MIKE: Tuesday morning. Um... making some music over there... just the music for the children's book part.

MATT: Yeah. We defin— Yeah that's exactly what it was. I touch my face a lot. I'm drinking a lot of water and I'm touching my face a lot. So this is, this is when we're totally jamming out. Together. This might have been the "Email is Awesome", actually.

MIKE: Yeah, I don't know what that other part was.

MATT: 'Cause it had bass in it.

MIKE: Oh, maybe it was the Limozeen... No... I don't know what it was. {pause} Oh, there's the Old-Timey Strong Bad Easter egg I was doing, and the Homestar one where he's wearing that duck shirt.

MATT: You just did the Strong Bad Email Menu. Looks like we're getting close, Mike. You seem to be waiting for me to finish.

MIKE: {simultaneously} Ooh, I made the glass, yup. {Now speaking alone} Here I come up at the front of the screen, I stood there for, like, three minutes, right there, that was like three minutes.

MATT: And that's the end.

Fun Facts

• Near the beginning of the video, Mike can be seen working on graphics that never made it into the email, which feature normal-style Homestar Runner wearing socks, sandals, and a green duckie shirt. This is because story elements originally included Strong Bad wearing a star shirt, and Marzipan attempting to do something about Homestar's awful fashion sense (his duckie shirt and a pair of sandals). She gets him a star shirt, and Strong Bad rips his own shirt off in protest, which is why nowadays, Strong Bad almost never wears a shirt.
• Mike mentions that they use a Synthcart, made by Paul Slocum.
• Matt pronounces "Sbemail" as "S-B-email", despite the official pronunciation being "Sbe-mail".

See Also

• strongbad_email.exe
• flashback