Virtually everyone will tell you that dinosaurs did walk the earth, before humans ever existed.

Everyone that is, except for one very intrepid, skeptical and rather clumsy adventurer: Brian Majestic, the titular star of the upcoming comedy web series BRIAN MAJESTIC: DINOSAUR HUNTER.

The single camera, mockumentary style series was co-created by Majestic and, in his debut as a writer/director, acclaimed composer Rob Gokee (COST OF CAPITAL, PRODUCING JULIET, PAIRINGS, NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIE KING). By the way, did we mention yet that in addition to writing and directing the series, he also composed its original score?

Production of the show’s first season is already underway, with 11 episodes (typically 2-3 minutes each) comprising its first season. Gokee hopes that the series will launch sometime in August, with twice weekly episodes airing every Wednesday and Friday on its official Youtube page and on a separate page via the composer’s Youtube site (links to come).

A teaser for the series has also been shot and will be released within the next few weeks. In addition, Gokee says he hopes to start production on a second season of 10 episodes beginning sometime this Fall.

Described laughingly by Gokee as like a TV nature show, but one that’s “a nature show where we’re (Majestic and Gokee) being chased down by dinosaurs,” BRIAN MAJESTIC: DINOSAUR HUNTER stars Majestic (NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIE KING) as the eponymous paleontologist who travels back in time to lead a daring, and often comical, search for evidence to prove his bold theory that dinosaurs never actually existed; one made possible by a special NASA-built time machine he gains access to thanks to a friend who works at the space agency.

The series also stars Ed Robinson (GOLD: THE SERIES, PAIRINGS) as Brian’s loyal and intrepid cameraman Karl, who always does his best to document his misguided and quixotic search for proof that dinosaurs did not walk among us. Rounding out the cast is Vianessa Castanos as the mysterious socialite Simone, who joins both men during their expedition. However, just how she managed to come along for their journey has yet to be revealed.

The show’s concept, that of the wacky adventures (and misadventures) of a daring yet misguided explorer who isn’t easily convinced that dinosaurs roamed this planet, grew out of Majestic’s real life annoyance with anything even remotely related to the species itself. “Brian, the person, actually doesn’t like dinosaurs. He thinks they’re stupid. He doesn’t understand why people have dinosaurs on T-shirts and study them, and I make fun of him because it’s ridiculous that he doesn’t like dinosaurs,” he says.

“One day, at lunch (over tacos), I said, ‘You should create a show called BRIAN MAJESTIC: DINOSAUR HUNTER, where you go back in time to prove that they didn’t exist.’ He said, ‘That’s great! Go write that!’ I went home, and then an hour later he sent me an email, and he was like, ‘I think my character should wear this, he should be this way,’ and I thought, ‘oh, crap! I’m going to have to write this!”

“I was busy scoring a bunch of things at that time, so I said ‘okay, I’ll do it when I have time.’ He would bug me like once a month. I had a lull about a month and a half ago where I had a break, and I thought, okay, I’m going to plot out a season and then see how this feels. When I started writing, I realized this could be fun. I wrote the script, sent it to Brian and he loved it,” Gokee adds.

Out of all the projects Gokee has worked on, BRIAN MAJESTIC: DINOSAUR HUNTER may truly be the most unique. In addition to composing its epic, expansive original score, the tasks of writing and directing a web series added significant dimension to the project.

While stepping behind the camera was the most difficult part of the job, creating the hilarious world of Majestic, his crew of explorers and the silly situations they find themselves in came naturally for Gokee. “I’ve always written, but even before I ever played an instrument as a kid, I wrote stories. My writing gene is very strong, and I’ve always had that. I just kind of replaced it when I started writing music for a living,” he says.

“Obviously, I didn’t have time to write, so I really didn’t really do it that much aside from writing my book (the acclaimed IN THE BELLY OF THE FAIL WHALE, where Gokee recalls how the popular social media outlet Twitter changed both his professional and personal life) which was more of a non-fiction kind of thing. So that part came very easy, and then creating the characters and what they say was a lot of fun,” adds Gokee.

While Gokee assumed the role of series writer, he soon found himself in a totally unfamiliar position – as its director.

Even though he had plenty of experience having worked with directors on various projects as a composer, taking the helm of a production was a role he was initially reluctant to assume. “It’s not an easy job. I work with more directors than any other position as a composer, because that’s the person I’m closest to when I’m scoring a film,” he says.

“As I wrote this script, I knew (and a lot of this is from eight years of experience scoring things and writing music for film, for web series and for TV), that you get a sense of how things are shot and how things are framed, and how you want the characters to act. I’m pulling from all of that experience with those people (the directors he’s worked with), (and that’s) what’s giving me the strength to feel like I can direct this. It was scary initially, but the further we get in, the more exciting it is and the more I feel like I made the right choice in deciding I wanted to direct.”

With that experience came a valuable lesson Gokee learned, one that applies not only to getting great performances out of actors but also the process of creating great music for movies, TV shows and web series.

“The most important thing is to not over-direct the actors. You don’t want to tell the actors what to do in every move. You’re taking away their acting, and this works with composing too. If the director wants me to score his sci-fi web series, as a composer you don’t want the director to tell you exactly what to write all the way through. That pretty much takes all the creativity out of your own job,” Gokee says.

Gokee’s experience with composing music for film, TV and web series as a collaborator with many top directors (including Tina Cesa Ward for PRODUCING JULIET and GOOD PEOPLE IN LOVE) also provided him with the knowledge he needed to navigate the often rough waters of working with talent in front of the camera.

“The perfect marriage between a director and composer is where the director says, ‘I want it to sound like this, and then go add your own touch to it.’ So, the composer adds their vision with the director’s vision. He comes up with something that’s in between that enhances the project. It’s the same with directing actors. You don’t want to tell them what to do every move. You want them to create their own persona for the character, and to bring something to the table that you may not realize that they were going to do,” he adds.

After a successful IndieGoGo campaign that surpassed its goal of $2,000 in its first four days, pre-production of the six episodes began in earnest. However, just finding the right place to document Brian’s adventures in dinosaur hunting would be a challenge all its own.

“We (Majestic and Gokee) looked at four different locations, and all four locations with a crew of 10 people said, you can come shoot here but you have to stay on the trail, which is ridiculous because there’s no trails in 76 million B.C.”

As a result, the show’s production scale would change drastically as Majestic, Robinson and Gokee would team up to film each episode minus the larger crew they had originally planned on using. Given the problems they had with their other alternatives for shooting locations, the show’s more simplified production style worked to their advantage.

“I sat down with Brian and said, let’s do these and we’ll go out and shoot these with just you and I. I will be the cameraman and play that role and direct you, and it’s just the two of us. If it’s just two of us, we can go anywhere,” Gokee remembers.

Gokee and Majestic eventually settled on filming in California’s historic Angeles Crest Forest and at Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, which just so happened to be the location of the famous Batcave in the classic 1960’s BATMAN TV series.

However, while both sites would serve as the perfect backdrop for Majestic’s paleontological misadventures, the clash between the prehistoric era of the series itself and the modern day reality of 2014 was obvious as filming approached.

“We can’t be shooting and have a guy with an iPod run by in prehistoric times. So I kinda went back and retooled it and looked at trying to minimize the amount of people,” recalls Gokee.

The advantages of a three man crew would soon become apparent as Majestic, Robinson and Gokee went to work on filming the show’s first episodes. ”He’s (Brian’s) miked for sound but it’s basically if someone walked up on us, it would just look like we were taking pictures of the forest, or that we were shooting video ourselves. By doing that, I just said, let’s just go and find a location in the mountains that works and we don’t have to worry about all the other crap that comes with it,” says Gokee, who adds that using a smaller film crew also discouraged unwanted attention from onlookers during the shoot.

No matter what you may believe about dinosaurs, BRIAN MAJESTIC: DINOSAUR HUNTER is sure to appeal not only to those who enjoy great comedy, but also great action. It’s a series that follows the seemingly hopeless pursuits of a brave explorer who sticks to his beliefs no matter what anyone else thinks, with characters that perfectly comprise the conflict and theme of the show itself: never compromise what you believe and who you are.

Says Gokee: “Don’t give up on what you believe in. Don’t let other people tell you what you believe is wrong. Stick to your convictions.”

TWITTER: @BMDinoHunter