Gemini Division and the New Frontier – Part 2

Posted by Samuel Walters

Featuring an exclusive interview with Brent Friedman who is credited as Creator, Executive Producer and Lead Writer of Gemini Division.

The world is changing. You can see it on television, in home theater systems, and on the internet. Much of what we once knew about entertainment is becoming irrelevant. But who among us can foretell what the future will hold? In truth, the new frontier is wide open, and the possibilities are seemingly endless. We are at a turning point in how the online medium influences, and is influenced by, the entertainment industry. The integration of multimedia – traditional shows, websites, video games, and music – has been a growing trend. But it has been only recently that such a crossover has become mainstream. As a point of fact, I saw the entire series of Lost via abc.com’s online library of full episodes. And they’ve only been available since the beginning of this year.

In Part 1 of our series, we explored the beginnings of the next phase of entertainment: an online-only “webseries” called Gemini Division. Series creator, producer and lead writer Brent Friedman explained, in great detail, the development of this new show. And if you read it closely, you’ll see that much of the creative process was not dissimilar to other “traditional” shows. But the format, and more importantly the delivery of the show, provided for a number of unique challenges and opportunities. In this installment, we will explore the release and reception of Gemini Division, as well where it fits into the evolution of online media. Once again, we will rely heavily on the input and insights of Mr. Friedman who shares his unique perspective on this burgeoning form of entertainment.

Perhaps the biggest benefit to the internet is the relatively cheap costs of distribution and advertising – particularly if you’re able to devise a kind of “viral” promotional and distribution campaign. This has worked wonders for many of the grassroots artists who have used youtube, newgrounds, and deviantart – not to mention various message boards and torrent sites – as a means of promoting their work. But for online creations to really reach the masses in a coordinated manner, it takes a good deal of time, work, and, yes, money. There’s a difference between having money and getting money. And that’s where advertising comes into play.

When asked to comment on the commercial pressures of a project such as Gemini Division, Mr. Friedman explains, “We [try] to create content that appeals to a broad audience and, at the same time, also fits into our production parameters (budget and schedule.)” So despite the relatively cheaper aspects of producing and distributing online entertainment, there is still a need for producers to have help in funding their products.

Mr. Friedman says, “In the world of online content, there is virtually no precedent whatsoever. Everyone in this medium is basically experimenting, searching for a reliable paradigm.” The solution? To include the “product placement” as an integral part of the show. I must admit that I was initially turned off by the prominent display of commercial items in Gemini Division. But when considering the realities of producing a such a show, especially one whose production levels have been steadily increasing as the series has unfolded, there’s really only one logical conclusion: advertisements must, necessarily, be part of the equation. If you’re familiar with the movie, The Truman Show, it’s a bit like the fictional in-show advertising – except Gemini Division is less blatant.

Mr. Friedman refers to this new approach as, “’sponsorship integration’ because we didn’t place products so much as weave our partners’ brands, products and services into the storyline.” There aren’t too many shows out there that have the level of “integration” that Gemini Division has. But as Mr. Friedman explains, “The benefits for Electric Farm [Gemini Division’s production company] are a direct revenue stream, as opposed to a “filtered” revenue stream through ad dollars. The benefits for our partners are a more integrated approach to advertising, wherein the virtues of the brand are featured in way that either advances the story or enhances the world of the characters. The benefits to the viewer are no pre-roll or post-roll ads.”

While there have been a few instances of viewers having to wait for an ad before an episode is streamed (I sat through an Intel commercial before Episode 27), the episodes themselves run uninterrupted – which is a difference from viewing episodes online like Lost, Fringe, or Knight Rider. The result is an experience that is user-friendly, despite the sometimes blatant display of an Intel or Microsoft logo. Perhaps there is a better balance to be found. But no one can fault Gemini Division’s decision to explore this new direction and take a few risks in doing so.

And in point of fact, the “sponsorship integration” doesn’t seem to be an overall hindrance to the enjoyment of the show. When talking about how Gemini Division has been received, Mr. Fridman says, “the show is definitely catching on. Although we have yet to be exposed on a major portal (ie: YouTube or MySpace), we still are seeing an increase in visitors to the NBC site each week, which means the audience is growing largely on word of mouth. There has been tons of press about the show and hundreds of reviews; although some reviews are negative, the large majority of them are positive.” On a personal level, I can attest to the overall positive reception of the series. While the “sponsorship integration” does seem to stick out quite a bit at first, it soon fades into a kind of “background noise” as the series unfolds. It’s still there, of course, but you get used to it.

More importantly, the “sponsorship integration” is part of the growing integration of the web as a whole – particularly in terms of how audiences consume entertainment. In talking about the increased connections between shows and audiences, Mr. Friedman had this rather extensive, and insightful comment:

“It used to be that there was an invisible wall between content creators and consumers – a wall built by the middlemen in marketing and distribution. But those days are over. The online community is now the audience, the media and the distribution system. We know that every move we make is being monitored and dissected by the online community, a fact that can be exhilarating or terrifying depending on your appetite for feedback. Our attitude is that online video is still a very fluid field and there is still so much to learn. Towards that end, we are actually dependent on the online community to help us shape our content and, to a larger extent, the direction of our business. I guess you’d call it a symbiotic relationship…”

Picking this comment apart a little reveals a growing Truth: entertainment is becoming much, much more interactive. It’s based on a principle that educators use in their classrooms: the more someone takes ownership over an activity, the more of an impact it has. In teaching, this means that the more control that students have over their education, the more they learn. Likewise, the more audiences have a chance to interact and influence a series, the more they enjoy the experience.

Perhaps others might find an older example, but perhaps the earliest, most prominent attempt to draw in an audience (using the Internet) was the Publius Enigma, an expansive “treasure hunt” which was promoted alongside Pink Floyd’s final studio album, The Division Bell in 1994. At the time, newsgroups were fairly prominent, and in the summer of 1994, an anonymous poster to alt.music.pink-floyd revealed the “Enigma” to a bewildered and skeptical fanbase. To convince fans of the authenticity of this mystery, Publius engineered a “message” that was displayed at a concert in East Rutherford, NJ, on July 18, 1994. After that, fans scrutinized lyrics, music, sound clips and conducted all manner of research – all with Publius’ enigmatic assistance – in order to solve the mystery.

As someone who went to that concert and subsequently was part of the investigations, I can personally attest to how much fun the whole enterprise was. Whether or not the whole thing was a hoax turned out to be irrelevant. What really mattered was the process of uncovering possible clues, of digging deep into the music and lyrics and symbolism of the album and discussing these revelations with a community of likeminded individuals. Even back then, long before the internet truly exploded, there was a power to not only connect fans, but to connect fans to the product.

Whether or not the modern Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are directly linked to the Publius Enigma, one thing is clear: the internet can build a bridge between the artist and the consumer in ways that were almost unimaginable before.

Go back to Mr. Friedman’s statement, he clearly states that the days of having, “an invisible wall between content creators and consumers … are over.” And one such method of demolishing that wall is the interactive features which now accompany many shows. When speaking about the benefits of this kind of interactivity, Mr. Friedman explains, “Much development was done on the mythology and science behind the show, but there was only so many details we could squeeze into 50 four-minute episodes. Offering an “enhanced experience” allows us to accommodate the hardcore fans who want to dig deeper into the characters and the universe.” In that sense, a creator is free to create a streamlined narrative and not have to ignore all of the details which, if included, could really bog down a series. Of course, as Mr. Friedman says, “you don’t have to explore the additional interactive features to understand and enjoy the 50 episode ride. But if you do take the extra time, you will be amply rewarded. “

And really, that’s part of what makes this kind of interactivity so enjoyable – it’s part of why the Publius Enigma became so consuming for those who chose to explore it. Being able to look under the hood, or dig beneath the surface, reveals the real though and craft put into a show that isn’t often revealed in the minutiae of each episode. Of course, the next step for audience integration is to go beyond simply exploring the depths of a show and, in fact, begin to influence the chain of events.

When referring to how viewers might impact Gemini Division, Mr. Friedman states, “there is not as much lagtime between the launch of the show and the end of post-production, so the amount of change the audience can have is more limited … That said, viewer interaction has already shaped the look of the show and, in some cases, created slight modifications to the enhanced experience.” So even without an explicit component to allow for audience input, there have already been changes made, based on feedback Mr. Friedman and the Gemini Division creators have received. (Incidentally, this concept of feedback was critical to the Publius Enigma and will be a major focus of the eventual Part 3 of this series of articles.)

So what does the future hold for Gemini Division and shows like it? Where do we go from here? Mr. Friedman offers some tantalizing ideas, “My personal vision is a convergence of TV and videogames, wherein serialized content becomes increasingly interactive. With the proliferation of 3G handheld devices, I believe more and more users will want to consume daily content and interact with communities built around deep fictional universes.” What might such a convergence look like? Mr. Friedman offers this tidbit about an upcoming series from Electric Farm Entertainment, “On our next series, we already have plans to employ a simple branching narrative (used in many videogames) to allow UserGen content to influence the narrative path, but not necessarily the outcome, of the show.” In other words, the beginnings of a true symbiotic relationship between the show and the audience. You can either sit back and enjoy the ride, or grab hold and try and steer the narrative into an even more enjoyable direction.

This mutually beneficial feedback loop brings us to the brink of kind of explicit simulation – a true alternate reality in which the audience is able to exert a measure of control over the outcome of a story. And it’s not all that outrageous to envision a time when shows are able to integrate not only audience input, but audience members, as well. In this sense, the next step in entertainment is not all that dissimilar to The Matrix (with the obvious exception that we can voluntarily plug in and unplug from the simulations).

To conclude, I leave you with this final statement in which Brent Friedman sums up the mutually beneficial symbiosis between artists and consumers: “the benefit (and the fun!) of online media [is] interacting with and engaging your peers.” Indeed, these articles are, themselves, an example of this kind of process. A show’s creator, lead writer and executive producer contacts an amateur blogger and the result is an exploration of both Gemini Division and the future of entertainment. In my next article, I will delve into why this kind of communication is not only a lot of fun, but critical to ourselves as individuals, as an online community, and as a society at large.

Until then, I encourage all of you to check out Gemini Division and to get involved with communities – online and otherwise – because it is through the mutual feedback we receive and provide through our interactions with others that we evolve.

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2

Unabridged Interview With Mr. Friedman (PDF)

Special thanks goes to Brent Friedman for his time, consideration and input!

Topics: Interview
Filed under: Gemini Division, Modern Myth