The Web series "Team S.A.M." was largely inspired by real life. While at film school, I was put into a group for my field production class doing an atmospheric project with Amelia and Monica. We called ourselves "Team S.A.M." in real life.
Many of the Team S.A.M. dialogues were based on real life conversations. This is why Amelia DeWane and Monica Breyne are credited as co-writers.
I originally wrote the Team S.A.M. scripts because I was bored, and I had no intention to film them until one day Monica suggested that I animate them as comics. The scripts were then reworked to include more comic-themed ideas, including Lakeville University and Jolt Energy Drink.
Team S.A.M. was originally planned as six episodes, but then the scripts for episodes 4 and 5 were combined. The original episode 4 plot was almost dropped completely because it fit the comic character Sarah's personality more than Sam's, but since Sarah is not a character in the web series it was trimmed into a show opener with the original episode 5 plot being used as the main episode. Sarah briefly appears in the school cafeteria.
Episode 1 originally featured the comic character Sara instead of Robin. However, when the episode was originally put into production to be released, Sara Anderson had not yet been introduced to the comics (not to be confused with Sarah Kruz), so she was removed. There are two continuity errors still in episode 1, including that Sara is actually shown in one shot and on the board, the teacher has written the names Morgan and Sara instead of Morgan and Robin.
Although it had no connection to "Team S.A.M.", there was what is considered to be a "spiritual predecessor" to the series. In our first semester at Tribecca Flashpoint Academy, Amelia, Monica, and I did a short animated video with another classmate called "How do we get out?". This video was what later inspired "Sam's Comics: The Christmas Special", which in turn would inspire "Team S.A.M.".
Earlier versions of the scripts had more supporting characters, but in the end it was narrowed down to just Zach and Joey.
Amelia's character in the original comics differs slightly in "Team S.A.M.". In the comics, she is more business-like and professional, whereas in "Team S.A.M." she is more mischievous and easy-going.
Even though it is never confirmed where in the USA the town of Lakeville is located in this series or in the comics, Amelia and Sam make references to places in Chicago in episode 2.
My personal favorite exchange comes from episode 3, when Sam and Amelia have the "I'll miss you" conversation. This is one of many exchanges that were based on real life conversations.
Episode 5 was the only episode not based in some way on an actual conversation had by Amelia, Monica, and myself. However, tacos are a recurring topic in our group.
Monica has the three letters of their group name hidden on her via the way she is animated. The swoop in her hair creates an "S", her shirt color creates an upside-down "A", and the shading on her hair creates an "M" shape. The "S" is only visible when she is facing left (her right), the "A" is only visible in episodes she isn't wearing her bandana, and a good portion of episode 1 does not follow the "M" rule as most of it was animated prior to this idea being implemented.
As was the case in Sam's Comics: The Christmas Special, I was not present when Zach Jarom recorded his voice-overs.
This web series was only referenced once in the original comic series. Amelia and Sam mention the atmospheric project they did with Monica. Once Team SAM was put into pre-production, several comics putting the three together were drawn to subtly lead into this series.
Production for episode 1 was rushed out so it could be used in a school broadcast project. Monica, Zach, and myself were on this project. In this rushed version, Robin Lee was the voice of the teacher.
All five episodes were released on the Chronicler's Company Pictures YouTube channel, but were also planned to be released on the Misconduct Films channel, run by fellow cast member Zach Jarom. This was going to be done to help them promote the new approach to their channel, but they dropped the show before the series had finished production.
All the laptops the characters are using are called CherryBooks. They resemble MacBooks, but the apple logo is backwards.
The series was meant to be released in June 2014, with it being the first of two planned mini-serieses uploaded to Chronicler's Company Pictures during the summer months. However, due to scheduling conflicts, it was pushed back to the fall months and the second mini-series (Misadventures in Minecraft) was released first.
All five episodes were edited first to a temporary audio recording of the dialogue. The first one only had myself and Monica doing the voices and the second through fifth episodes I did by myself. It felt really weird recording the "I'll miss you" dialogue with myself.
The ending of episode 1 was changed last second. It was decided that the episode was too much exposition and not enough plot.
Episode 1 was briefly released ahead of the others on the Chronicler's Company Pictures YouTube channel under the title "Pilot", but it was later taken down for two reasons: 1) so all the episodes could be released on a set schedule and 2) so that episode 1 could be redone to accommodate script changes.
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