CELL - Mark Gardner

Posted by Steve on 23 April 2010 | 1 Comments

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

CELL is a drama/thriller about a man that wakes up in a cell. When he realizes he's not in jail and he's not alone, he fights to stay who he is while helping someone else remember who they were. The mystery of where they are and who they are is key to the show and something that drives the show.

Where did the idea/concept for your web series come from?

Annoyance. I kid. I was working for a production company on developing on one-hour drama series for TV when the producer backed out of the show. I learned a lot from that. I also realized that I really didn't want to keep writing stories that were never going to be made. So I decided I was going to start working on my own projects. I decided that new media streams were the way to go, so I decided to write something specifically for the medium. CELL came about from that, with few characters, limited locations and scripts designed specifically for the internet and pretty much no money.

Name some of your sci-fi influences. Any favorite movies, TV shows, novels?

I've noticed a trend the past few years that a lot of writers and producers of sci-fi/fantasy are huge fans of Joss Whedon's work. Yeah... me too. Everyone on the set had a reference of Serenity in particular when we were in production. Aside from the standard Whedonesque influences, I'm also a huge fan of the mystery in J.J. Abrams' work. I could talk for hours about the TV shows that I admire and emulate, but there's not enough room here.

Tell us about the technical production of your show. What camera & equipment did you use? Editing software & hardware? For visual effects, etc?

We shot on a HVX-170a. It was great to be in a digital workflow and I'd be happy to always work in digital.

Can you tell us any interesting facts or trivia about your show? Any funny stories?

We shot in an abandoned Dollar Store in a small rural town outside of Austin. When we were building the set we would have people in town stopping by all the time offering to help in any way they could, from trying to help us find furniture, sinks, paint, wi-fi, you name it.

We practically had a karaoke party every day on the set. We've got plenty of recordings of 30 people on the crew singing Journey songs in between takes

Danny and Jourdan actually wanted to get a better feel for how it would feel to be in that space. So one night after our shoot, we closed up the set and locked them in their cells for the night. They loved it.

You can find CELL the web series online here and on Twitter here.

CELL - SciFinal Page