Level 26 is the brand new crime novel and interactive experience from CSI creator Anthony Zuiker. Level 26 is a digi-novel with a tie-in website that hosts exclusive online content such as videos, blogs, and an online community as part of the reading experience. Zuiker has partnered with EQAL, creators of YouTube sensation lonelygirl15 and UK spin-off Kate Modern. At the cutting edge of internet technology, EQAL create interactive internet spaces that serve as movie tie-ins and online fan communities. I spoke with Miles Beckett, CEO of EQAL, about the Level 26 project. Tell us a bit about Level 26 and how you got together with Anthony.
MB: We met Anthony through CBS. We did a deal with CBS about a year ago to take some of their television shows and create online extensions. We worked on a show called Harpers Island where we had a website called Harpers Globe, with a community and online webseries tied to the TV show. In the course of meeting with people at CBS, we met with Anthony. We became friends, and he told us about this project (that was separate from CBS), and it sounded like a really cool project.
How different is working on a book extension, versus a television extension?
MB: It is different. From a purely creative standpoint, there are a lot of similarities. For EQAL, were focused on the community and interactive experience, and how that ties into the creative property. So a lot of those principals stay the same. Its like taking that and plugging it into a narrative, whether it may be a book narrative or a television narrative. From a logistical standpoint, it has been very different. Working with CBS, a big corporation, there are lots of different people and departments so it can be very challenging. Working with Anthony, its a lot easier. We worked with Dutton a little bit on the project, but it was primarily us working directly with Anthony on the project. That was nice, because it was very creative.
For how long have you been working with this type of technology?
MB: EQAL has been around for about 3 years now. We created lonelygirl15 and then Kate Modern in the UK. When we started, we came from the creative side. One of the reasons why I think we hit it off well with Anthony and that were working with a lot of creators like him, and I come from the creative side; writing, directing and producing. As a company we have moved towards being a technology company that is enabling the creation of these sites. That happened last year when we raised money and hired lots of programmers and began building up the software platform.
How long did it take for your first project, lonelygirl15, to take off?
MB: We had very good timing. Lonely Girl happened right as YouTube had started to become popular. We put up the first video, and within 2 or 3 weeks we had a video get half a million views. It became popular very rapidly. There was a small community of video bloggers on YouTube at the time, and Lonely Girl was the perfect video blogger because we were behind the scenes writing, we had hired an actress, and so on. It was pretty rapid. The one thing that most people dont know is that we actually spent a month or so behind the scenes building up the account, where Lonely Girl existed on YouTube as a text character. That, frankly, is where we discovered the power of social media, and that is the core of where our DNA comes from.
How is the book tie-in going to work?
MB: Anthony really, really, really understands platform-style storytelling. When he came to us, he didnt say, I have a book and somebody told me to make it digital, so Im bringing it to you. He came to us and said, I have this digi-novel; its a book and it has these cyber-bridges with videos in between. Its all going to connect, and I want to have an internet community online that ties in. He was already thinking about how to construct it. The good thing is that its totally seamless. If you want you can just read the book, you dont have to watch the videos and it will flow. The next level is, every few chapters there will be a called action to go to the website www.level26.com, log in, watch a video, and interact with the community. The final level is that, as a member of the community on Level26, you can actually contribute your own ideas for characters and storylines. Anthony has a profile page on the website (he has already written 5 blogs with photographs), so it is his community that you will be joining.
Is there an element of mystery, any riddles to solve?
MB: The book itself has lots of cliffhangers and plot twists, typical narrative devices. There isnt anything like that built into the experience right now that is an Alternate Reality Game with puzzle solving. That being said, we have a couple of people who are running the online experience, and essentially taking things that Anthony posts, or that people on the forums post, and bringing them to the homepage. We probably will start to incorporate things like that. There is a true crime section on the website where we will have a true crime blogger who - if there are any real serial killers - will be following them in the news. There will be profiles of famous serial killers and so on. In that section we will probably have some interactive games for solving crimes and things like that.
What is the target audience?
MB: First and foremost, Anthony has a huge audience from CSI. Its very broad. There are probably CSI viewers who wont get the whole online thing, but there will be a huge portion of people who are younger, tech-savvy readers, who will gravitate towards that. Beyond that, anyone who is interested in a good thriller will be interested in the book and, in turn, become interested in the community. For us at EQAL, we have an audience in the tens of thousands across our sites Harpers Globe, Lonely Girl 15, Kate Modern, who are into the Joss Whedon type stuff, and there are definitely enough elements to excite them also.
How is the book being distributed?
MB: A variety of formats. Hardcover version of the book, the Kindle version, there is an iPhone app that is the book text plus the cyber-bridges all-in-one. All of those are available at www.level26.com. You can already pre-order the book on the website. Over the next 6 weeks we will be doing a big push to get people onto the website in order for us to really grow the community.