Almighty Sqweegel Tarot Card Caption Contest Entry -

The Moon



"Like the luminescent moon, the white shadow crept through the night..."

Almighty Sqweegel Tarot Card Caption Contest Entry -

The Moon



"Like the luminescent moon, the white shadow crept through the night..."

What happens when the creator of the CSI franchise teams up with a thriller and comics writer extraordinaire?  You get Level 26:  Dark Origins, a genre-defining experience that blends the thrills of a fast-paced thriller, the chills of a spine-tingling horror novel, motion picture quality video segments, and an interactive online community found at www.level26.com. 

All of these elements blend to create the first “Digi-Novel.”  For the technophobes out there, you can read the novel from cover to cover and still enjoy a quality story of good and evil.  To get the full experience though, you’ll need (and trust me, as a member of the site, you’ll want to) log onto www.level26.com in order to gain access to the video segments, which Zuiker has coined “cyber-bridges.”  These cyber-bridge interludes pop up every 20 pages or so and help expand on the Level 26 experience.  These scenes are performed by such stars as Michael Ironside, Kevin Weisman, and Bill Duke.  Also, the man who stars as Sqweegel is a world-renowned contortionist.  Watching him in action is worth the price of the book alone in my opinion.

So what is Level 26?  It’s a classification system used by our government to categorization murderers, serial killers, and the like.  They only have 25 levels of evil.  The book’s antagonist, the forensic-proof Sqweegel, has been given the designation of Level 26 because he brings a whole new level to the table.

Plot-wise, Level 26:  Dark Origins, follows Steve Dark, a former Special Circ agent, as he is thrust back into the hunt for Sqweegel by the government he used to serve, as well as Sqweegel himself.  Dark is the only agent who has gotten close enough to Sqweegel in the past, and his experiences with the killer, make him the best candidate to get back on the case.  The catch is, the two have a past, with Sqweegel being responsible for the death of Dark’s family. 

This novel is for fans of a good fast-paced serial killer thriller, CSI, or for those looking for a little more in their reading experience.  Level 26:  Dark Origins is the first in a trilogy, and in my opinion, the experience will only get better.  The “digi-novel” experience helps breath new life into the book business.  Pick up the book, read, log on, watch the cyber-bridges, interact with the folks already participating on level26.com (including Anthony Zuiker himself), and enjoy.   

Review can be found here...

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0525951253

What to Dark Knight, Cloverfield, and Halo have in common?  Aside from a certain cool factor, all three used viral marketing to help create awareness and promote each movie and/or product.

With the multiple experiences Level 26ers will take part in with the book (reading, watching cyber-bridges, interacting in the community, and iPod/iPhone app usage), viral marketing just seems to make the most sense to help increase awareness and gain a new audience.

Most 26ers (and new 26ers) have some amount of tech savvy, so I was thinking about a contest in which we would create viral videos to post on YouTube and link across the Internet.  This tech savvy group of individuals is one of the main targeted demographics for viral marketing campaigns.  If we offer up clever and memorable viral videos, we can expect to convert the casual viewer to a Level 26 user and fan.

One of the main points of a viral video is to present something fun and memorable enough for the viewer to not only check out what the video is promoting, but to also pass it along to friends to check out.  The video has to be something worthy enough to pass along, and I think my idea for an upcoming contest is to create viral Level 26 to post on YouTube and message boards around the ‘Net.  The video that is the most creative, memorable, and encompasses the spirit of the Level 26 community, wins.

For this contest, I want everyone to create “Sweded” videos as their viral video.  For those unfamiliar with “Sweded” videos, it was made popular with Michael Gondry’s film Be Kind Rewind, in which the two main characters record their own versions of classic movies after the original tapes get erased.  I want to take this “Sweded” concept and apply it to scenes in the Level 26 book and/or cyber bridges.  If we created videos like these, we could really increase interest and get more folks to join in on the fun of Level 26.

Below, I’m including three videos to help you get a grasp on the concept. 

The first video is the trailer for the movie Be Kind Rewind, which also shows clips of the movie’s “Sweded” videos.  The second video is an example of a book “Swede” for a Janet Evanovich novel.  The final video is a “Swede” of one of the best movies of all time:  The Dark Knight. 

Good luck to all of you and may the best “Swede” win.

Be Kind Rewind Trailer:

Janet Evanovich “One for the Money Book Swede”

Dark Knight – “Sweded”