Alright everyone, back from my appointment and ready to dive in to the new Gemini Division website put up by NBC late this morning!

First and foremost I recommend everyone visit the SIGNUP section and sign up to receive the official communicaitons about the show. I’ll repost them here (of course) but signing up is the only way you’ll get them as soon as they come out…so go, sign up, await emaily and text messagey goodness.

What…you didn’t understand that last part? That’s right folks…Electric Farms Entertainment, NBC, and Sony are walking further down the immersion road combining broadcast, online, and mobile content to provide a truely immersive exerpeince for the viewer. I can’t wait to see the alternate reality websites they have developed for Gemini Division, especially since the ones for Afterworld just rocked.

And on we go..the site is your standard ‘cutting edge’ flashing site, though it appears to be a bit more intuative than the Afterworld website was, with the exception of the interactive Journal.

I strongly recommend that you sign up for the myNBC forums and join the official fan community as well as signing up for the link posted above; If you don’t sign up you won’t receive any of the goodies I was talking about above.

Less than a month away from the first episode folks, so spread the word!

Also, Wired online has some additional photos that weren’t in the magazine article, so I’ve linked them below: Click on a photo to jump to the enlarged Wired version. Daz Crawford’s photo looks especially cool.

The GD Site appears to be live!

Through a bit of happy luck I was checking the Gemini Divison links to the left and was wonderfully suprised to find that NBC has the GD site live.

Click the logo or the link in to the left and go, go, go! Watch the trailer…bask in the goodness that is Gemini Division. This is going to be a fantastic series! I’d fill you in more but I am on my way out the door so expect to see an update post later this afternoon.

RangerSergeant

“Gemini Division” is featured in the August 2008 issue of Wired magazine. Frank Rose’s article “The Hollywood Treatment” outlines the creation of the series as well as providing a look behind the scenes. There are a few brief statements from Rosario about the series, with the bulk of the piece focusing on Electric Farm Entertainment and its variance from traditional production making

We are also given a nice peek at the business workings of Electric Farm as seen through the eyes of Executive Producer Stan Rogow as he quests to secured marketing partners. Based on the article we can be sure that Acura, Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft Search are all on board so expect to see examples of their products in the series. Having had some personal experience with Cisco’s Telepresence I can see how that would fit directly in to the GD world.

Now for the fun stuff: Pictures!

While the article focused on the challenges of traditional property production shifting to the web there were some excellent pictures of GD, as well as some sneak peaks of up to Episode 4. I am not going to repost them all here [DCMA notwithstanding] so I’d recommend you run (don’t walk) to your local news stand and pick up a copy. All the photos below are scanned from the article.

Green Screen sets

As everyone has already seen in our forums the entire project is being shot green screen. Initially I had some trepidation about an all CG back over live action, but based on the additional photos in the article I was stunned. it is impossible to tell what is real and what isnt. Hat’s off to the Electric Farm art department headed by Duane Loose.

The art and digital work on these series is excellent and I am again humbled by Electric Farm exceeding my expectations. If anyone is going to ComicCon 2008, San Diego PLEASE get some cell phone or other video of the NBC Gemini Division Trailer so that I can repost it here.

Rosario Dawson as NYPD Detective Anna Diaz

We already know from multiple interviews and articles as well as the show synopsis that character Anna Diaz spends some time in Paris…and what a great shot to follow that up and bring it home. Looking at this you wouldn’t know it’s green screen. Honestly, she could be in paris, or in Vegas with the Venetian painted out.

Excellent and outstanding work EFE, and another illustration of what webisodes can accomplish with serious hollywood production…this isn’t lonleygirl15 folks.

Justin Hartley as Nick Korda

All right ladies (Especially Crazy Carrie and Azn Chick) here is your first official shot of Justin. Also, in the article it mentions Justin sprawled on a bed in his boxers so you’ll most probably want to tune in early. Also, pictured is Eugene Alper, veteran of the stage and a veteran character actor Alper has appeared in 24, West Wing, and Call of Duty: Finest Hour (voice). We know that Justin’s character Nick Korda is ‘killed’ early in the series…here we possibly see him being resurrected or revived.

Anna’s Smart Phone

Per Frank Rose’s article the series is a broadcast of the recordings on Anna’s smart phone. While no cellular provider has been mentioned officially here we see what must be a screen shot from the phone itself. Note that Microsoft Live Search is featured prominently in this shot which speaks directly to the article’s point of advertising integration in to the series. The graphics here are outstanding and very similar to what you would see in a real world satellite drill down from Live Search or Google Maps.

Based on what we see here Electric Farm’s co-creator Brent Friedman’s vision of fan immersion isn’t too far off the mark. It’s much easier for fans to become invested in a realistic and believable project that uses real world ties to tools fans use every day.

That’s all for this post, feel free to discuss the the forums, and I look forward to Monday, August 18 on NBC.com

RangerSergeant

Gemini Division Series Creator Brent Friedman SCIFI Wire scoop.

(By John Sullivan, SCIFI Wire)

New News about Gemini Division:

Gemini Division creator and executive producer Brent Friendman spoke to John Sullivan of the SCIFI Channel’s SCIFI Wire magazine on July 11 releasing even more details about the upcomming series. The article is posted below. [link to the full article]

SCIFI Wire Article: Gemini Deals With ‘Simulants’

“Brent Friedman of Electric Farm Entertainment told SCI FI Wire that Electric Farm’s new online series Gemini Division is set “two minutes in the future” in a world where biotechnology is starting to get out of control.

Starring Rosario Dawson, Gemini Division consists of 50 three- to four-minute episodes that will begin streaming on NBC.com and SCIFI.COM in August.

Dawson plays New York vice cop Anna Diaz, who witnesses the brutal murder of her fiance, Nick (Justin Hartley), only to discover he wasn’t a human being at all but an artificial life form called a “simulant.” She soon crosses paths with the title Gemini Division, a secret government organization tracking a group of simulants who have gone rogue and are hiding among the human population.

“They’re intrigued by her because she’s the first [human] they’re aware of that actually had a relationship with one of them,” Friedman said. “And so there’s kind of an unholy alliance made where she decides to join them to get answers to what the hell is going on.”

Friedman explained that the simulants were the product of a lengthy research program that was eventually appropriated by the military. The military then made other modifications to turn them into artificial soldiers. They became “a stopgap to get them out of the Iraq crisis,” Friedman said. “But one platoon of them went AWOL. They spread out all over the planet, and, unbeknownst to the general public, who has no idea that this experiment ever took place, they have assimilated with us and are in the process of staging a large terror plot. Or so we’re led to believe.”

One of the military modifications was a device called an experience core, installed in the simulants’ brains, which records everything the simulant experiences. The idea was to download periodically all of the data to get a “complete, full, three-dimensional composite of Iraq,” Friedman. But now that the simulants have gone rogue, the Gemini Division wants very badly to recover their cores intact in order to learn what they’ve been up to.

Anna also goes in search of Nick’s core, hoping to learn once and for all whether their relationship was real or whether, as her superiors keep insisting, Nick was simply manipulating her. “The holy grail of her quest is to find his core and see what was inside his mind,” Friedman said. “What he was thinking and feeling and seeing vis-a-vis her?”

Gemini Division is set to begin its online run daily beginning Aug. 18. –John Sullivan”

GDF Review:

While we have seen confirmation of NBC’s distribution of the show this article is the first we’ve heard of a release by the Sci-Fi Channel. Sci-Fi was a major distributor of Afterworld so the news isn’t surprising.

Looking at the information provided by Friendman I found some elements surprising: The “simulant” factor is intriguing, especially with the pending marriage of Nick [Justin Hartley] and Anna [Rosario Dawson]. One assumes that ’simulants’ are anatomically correct as picturing Rosario engaged to a Ken doll is disappointing. Using that postulate (the anatomical correctness, not the ken-doll-ishness) and the descriptions above one would assume that these simulants are devoid of emotion as, per BF’s information, “They’re intrigued by her because she’s the first [human] they’re aware of that actually had a relationship with one of them”

One wonders how the ‘unholy alliance’ to join the simulants and get answers is going to play out. Based on the description Gemini Division refers to ‘The Gemini Division’, something akin to ‘The Delta Force’ if I am reading the article correctly. This would make some sense with the military directive stated in the article. One of the items from the article that has me scratching my head a bit is the statement “But one platoon of them went AWOL. They spread out all over the planet, and, unbeknownst to the general public, who has no idea that this experiment ever took place, they have assimilated with us and are in the process of staging a large terror plot. Or so we’re led to believe.”

Assuming these simulants…ok, from this point forward I am typing SIMs because simulants is just getting repetaive…sorry for the digression; Assuming this SIM platoon follows a normal US ARMY organizational structure it’s either a rifle platoon or a mechanized infantry platoon: One lieutenant, one platoon sgt (SFC e-6), and either three squads or two vehicle sections with four squads. The squad leaders would be e-4 or 5’s, and be 8-10 count. Since we can assume that the Army isn’t going to use a SIM for the cadre we can count out the lieut and the platoon sgt when it comes to the mutiny. That leaves the squads…so the estimated total number of SIMS involved in the mutiny would be approx. 40, with at least four in a leadership role (the squad leaders).

Following that line of reasoning the approx. 40 spread all over the planet really intrigues me: That’s not a lot of men, especially since they don’t have the network of contacts that a normal born human would: no family, no childhood friends, ect. How 40 simulated men could strike terror in to the heart of the US Government is interesting. Maybe this “experience core” is powered by a minuscule nuclear device which the SIM could trigger as a self destruct effectively acting as a low-yield tactical nuke.

That would make sense when you look at the “terror plot” vs. the limited number of SIMS. Forty tac-nukes could do a whole lot of damage world-wide. That’s one SIM per major city…if they self destructed it’s good bye London, Rome, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. I can understand why the Gemini Division would want to get them back so fast, especially since the general public is unaware of the danger. That doesn’t explain why Rosario’s character would do the unholy-alliance bit with the SIMS, even with the emotional driver to find out what happened to her finance.

At least we have a release day. Look for Gemini Division on NBC.com and SCIFI.com beginning daily on Monday, August 18, per the SCIFI wire article. Whoo Hoo, that’s only a month away!

We look forward to hearing your comments in our forums!

RangerSergeant