SCI FI PI

Brent Friedman, the Executive Producer and Creator of Gemini Division, took time out of an increasingly hectic Hollywood Schedule to talk to Sci Fi Pi about SCI FI's latest show, Gemini Division. Made for the web, mobile phones and for TV, it is a cross-media phenomenon, breaking new ground in the way that entertainment is made, with digital and live action combined to serve a compelling story. Brent tells us how it all came together, and some of the secrets of the webisodic world.





Tell us about the creation of Gemini Division. Has this been mulling in Electric Farm for a while? Or was it brought in? Tell us the story of 'the page to the stage'!


GEMINI DIVISION was something I created a few years ago. The original incarnation, somewhat different than the current, was meant to be a TV series, but the company I developed it for got out of the series business and let me buy back the property rights. It was a project that my partner, Stan Rogow, was always interested in. And when we were looking for our next endeavor after our first multi-platform series, AFTERWORLD, Stan suggested Gemini. From there, we brought on another writer, Joshua Stern, to help re-develop the property as a web series.





Rosario Dawson is a huge, bona fide Hollywood Star. How do you get her to star in Gemini Division and come on as Executive Producer?


Rosario is a certified geek; she’s into comic books, games, sci-fi. And while voicing a character in Afterworld, she expressed interest in developing a web series with us. So we modified our existing approach to Gemini – it was originally a male lead – and developed the project with her. Additionally, we felt that Rosario could uniquely deliver the emotionality the part required, along with the street toughness and physicality.





The story of Gemini Division is 'told through' The World's Best ever PDA. How did you finalise this storytelling vehicle?
On Afterworld we used a “first person” narrative to tell an epic story through one character’s eyes, naturally rendering the narrative subjective and elliptical – two qualities that suit this short format. On Gemini we decided to employ the same first person device through a PDA circa five minutes in the future – a very smart phone, if you will. This gave us the framework for every episode, which became a recounting (to an mystery character) by Anna Diaz of events that transpired minutes or hours prior (unlike Afterworld, which was a recollection from three years in the future.)

Obviously, other web series – most notably Lonelygirl15 – have used this device. But we decided to add two unique wrinkles to update the form. Interwoven with Anna’s transmissions are subjective flashbacks or “memories” of the prior events. This device allows us to compress time and space, making our episodes concise and dense, while the graphic phone interface allows us to convey secondary and tertiary information that would otherwise burden the narrative. It’s a conceit that clearly has its limitations but it also offers some dynamic story opportunities, such as including incoming calls from other characters, pre-recorded messages, live web and map searches, etc.






Afterworld was told with animation, Gemini Division is humans shot on digital backgrounds. Is this a natural progression, or does each Electric Farm project have it's own 'feel'?

Both, actually. One one hand, this was a natural creative progression from Afterworld. We wanted to raise the bar with Gemini and being able to center the show around Rosario’s lovely face, not just her voiceover, emboldened us to incorporate live action into the show. Because the series take place all over the world – Paris, New York, Shanhai and several other exotic locales – we had to use digital backgrounds to create the illusion Anna Diaz was actually in all those places. On the other hand, the show really lent itself to our phone device – the whole story is a cop chronicling her investigation for purposes of security and posterity. Our next two shows will be similar in approach to Gemini, combining live action with digital backgrounds, but the “mix” of elements will be unique to each series, dictated in each case by the way we are telling the stories.





Whilst the digital backgrounds look cool, there must have been a few moments when the actors had to have had problems 'interacting' with their 'environment' or lack thereof! Can you tell us about it?
Yes, there were a few very, er, interesting moments. I don’t want to name names but… let’s just say, some actors had experience with green screen and others most definitely did not. One thing I observed was that the less experienced actors usually fared better than the older, more seasoned veterans. I think this is because the younger actors came in without preconceptions of how things are supposed to work, and this allowed them to just act. Whereas the veterans often became preoccupied with hitting their marks, the placement of their eyelines – the technical aspects of acting. A generalization to be sure, but a trend I definitely observed.





What sort of ballpark budget figures are we talking about to produce something like Gemini Division?


All in the show will cost less than $2,000,000 (U.S.) That’s on the high end for web series, but the truth is we did not do what many web producers do to lower costs, which is to pull favors, offer salary deferments, etc. We paid everyone full wages, worked with most of the Hollywood unions and, in the end, produced more than 3 hours of content.





Gemini Division Episodes are 3 and a half minutes long - why, exactly?

Creatively, we feel that we can compact a compelling amount of story into that time frame. Too much shorter and an audience may be left unsatisfied that the story has not progressed enough. Too much more and you begin to limit your distribution possibilities. So far our multi-platform approach has been to offer episodes on broadcast, broadband and mobile. This means that the episodes, ideally, can be stand alone (for mobile and broadband) and, at the same time, be compiled into longer episodes (for broadcast.) Of course, every release territory has a different approach, but being able to offer presentation options is a big plus.






Artificially created humans, SIMS, are the 'bad guys' in the story. Did your writing team do any research on the frontline of human manipulation? If so, did they find anything out that was both cool, but rather creepy?


Yes, we did a ton of research! The coolest takeaway from it all was also the creepiest, and that has to be how little regulation there is in the field of biotechnology. There simply are not DNA Police out there, and when you read about the rapid advancements being made all over the world, you begin to wish there was some governing body – one with real teeth – monitoring every development. One of the keywords for Gemini was always “mutations.” We wanted to explore how the world was changing, how humans are changing, in the face of rapidly accelerating biotechnology. Anna’s journey will find her grappling with tough questions like: “At what price do we achieve control over nature?” And, “Will the quest for biological perfection be our salvation… or our damnation?” The rapid biotech advancements happening all around us are really the truth behind the fiction.





Why do the SIMS melt when they die?

What is the Gemini Division 'laser blast' weapon meant to be?

That weapon is called a GenFluxer, which gives you a pretty good idea how it works. The SIMs have a synthetic genetic matrix that, when destabilized, has a propensity to, er… puddle.

The noise of your PDA seems eerily reminiscent of the computer noises on Babylon 5. Is this a coincidence?

In the world of conspiracies – the world in which we set our shows – there is no such thing as coincidence. That said, I believe the similarity of sounds is a total coincidence.





What shows and movies influenced the creation of Gemini Division?

There were two primary influences on Gemini. First is, obviously, Blade Runner. Second is La Femme Nikita. By combining aspects of these stories we were able to explore new themes. For instance, BladeRunner is a story about what makes us human (dreams, memories.) But Gemini is about what makes us inhuman (fear, prejudice). By telling our story like La Femme Nikita, from the POV of a woman forced to work for an amoral agency, it allowed us to examine issues of love and death in much different ways than you get in Blade Runner.

Even if you're shooting primarily for the web with green screens in small studios, do stars still get trailers, assistants and Evian for washing their hair?
Evian?! Stars wash their cars with Evian these days! But seriously, the stars we’re working with are more interested in the projects than the perks. They are taking reduced salaries and fringe benefits, like the writers and producers, to be involved in something fresh and innovative. There is definitely a “film school” spirit on our web series.





Can any Sci Fi Geek with a good idea submit it to Electric Farm? If not, what's next for Electric Farm? Ten minute episodes?!

Electric Farm Entertainment is, unfortunately, just like any Hollywood entity – for legal reasons ideas must be submitted to us through agents, managers or lawyers. That said, we are open to working with anyone, especially undiscovered talent. As for what’s next from EFE, we are moving into pre-production on our third series, WOKE UP DEAD, a comedy thriller starring Jon Heder. Beyond that we have several genre projects in development but, so far, we are sticking closely to our 3-4 minute format and looking to add increasingly more interactivity to each show.





Go to our Spectrum video player right now for behind the scenes videos: Gemini Division.

Click www.scifitv.com.au/GeminiDivision/ to enter the world of Gemini Division, with all the latest info (and the latest episodes).


Gemini Division screens on SCI FI every night at 7.30pm, and on the website at 8pm, from Nov 3 to Dec 22.