Friday, October 2, 2009

Level 26


Have you seen this one yet? It's a digi-novel by Anthony Zuiker (of CSI fame) called Level 26.

Level 26 takes the best features of books, film, and interactive digital technologies and rolls them all into a unique storytelling experience and calling it the world’s first “Digi-Novel™.”

Level 26: Dark Origins features Steve Dark, the ultimate crime scene tactician on the tail of a killer so brutal law enforcement has invented a new classification of evil to account for him. Level26.com will take you beyond the pages of the book, first with digital cyber-bridges—three-minute motion picture scenes with A-list actors you might’ve seen in blockbuster films and award winning TV shows. Before your eyes, the characters will spring to life, crime scene details will explode off the screen, and the Web site might even ask for a phone number—where the killer can reach you directly. For an even deeper level of immersion into Level 26, you can create a profile, interact with other users, view exclusive content, write your own blogs and respond to Anthony's.

The main protagonist in the digi-novel, a serial killer named "Sqweegel", wears a head-to-toe white latex suit as a "forensic-proof bodysuit" and not as a fetish. The interesting thing is that Sqweegel (and the actor who portrays him) is a contortionist, which plays an important part in the creation of the Sqweegel character.

Jeffrey Gent is a costume designer who has done some work for CSI: NY and CSI: Miami, as well as movies such as Bruno, Watchmen and Batman Returns. Recalling Michelle Pfeiffer’s uber-sexy Catwoman costume from Batman Returns, you can imagine why Anthony thought Jeffrey was the perfect person to craft Sqweegel’s murder suit. Take a look at the quote below to see what Jeffrey has to say about creating the suit, and check out his website to see more of his work.

THE MAKING OF THE SQWEEGEL SUIT

I’ve been making Latex Costumes for sixteen years now so I’ve had all kinds of crazy requests. When Orlin Dobreff, producer of Level 26, called me and told me that Anthony Zuiker wanted me to make a full latex suit for a serial killer, I thought, well that’s something no one has asked me to do before!

Over the years I’ve done several costumes for the various CSI shows, but Orlin informed me that this was going to be something completely different and new. At our first meeting Orlin brought me four very creepy illustrations of the Sqweegel character wearing a white latex full body suit and hood. All of the illustrations were beautifully rendered, but very disturbing. There was one sketch of Sqweegel looming over a young girl asleep in her bed, which reminded me of the 1922 German Expressionist horror film Nosferatu, one of my favorites.

Orlin and I discussed the technical and aesthetic issues of the costume such as the stretch factor of the latex and how easy it is to stain the white latex. The original design stayed pretty much intact, except that a circular zipper at the crotch had to be switched to a straight zipper. They wanted the suit to be form fitting, but not too tight; in the sketches it’s a little wrinkled and gathered in areas. A fitting with the actor was scheduled for the next day.

The first actor that was hired for Sqweegel was extremely skinny! I tried a standard size small body suit on him that hung off of his frame like a wet dishtowel. He definitely was not short enough to fit an extra small, so the suit had to be custom made. I took over 50 measurements from the actor to be sure that the fit on the completed suit would be perfect. It’s a tedious process, but accuracy is extremely important. Then I drafted a paper pattern based on his measurements, made slightly smaller so that the latex would stretch and fit tightly around his frame. The patterns were then traced on to bolts of white latex sheeting and carefully cut out with rotary cutters. The process for gluing together latex sheeting is a closely guarded secret, so that’s something I won’t be revealing to anyone unless I plan to kill them afterwards!

Working with white latex is not fun. It stains very easily and the glue that is used to bind the seams tends to pick up little bit of dust and dirt, so I had to keep my work area as clean as a hospital operating room. Because latex has a chemical reaction with metals, if someone were to handle loose coins and then touched the suit, small brown spots would appear a few days later in the shape of their fingerprints! I had to wash my hands constantly and keep my nosey coworkers at bay.

A custom hood and booties were the final items that I made for the costume. The gloves had to be special ordered from a small European company that produces molded rubber items for the fetish community. There were at least two more fittings and lots of photographs and emails passed back and forth before the completed suit was ready for pick up.

Then there was a long period of silence. It was several months before I heard another word and so I figured that the project had been put on hold while Anthony worked on his many television series. One day, out of the blue, I got a call from Orlin telling me that Anthony wanted to meet with me to discuss the project. Meetings with famous costume designers and even fitting with famous actors are commonplace in my industry, but I had never had a meeting with a famous screen writer/producer before. Costuming is usually placed very low on the priority list with most directors and producers, so I was surprised and curious that Anthony wanted to meet with me.

A few days later I sat down with Orlin and Anthony in a small dark conference room in Silver Lake. Anthony’s story is the stuff of Hollywood legends and I was a little intimidated to meet him. Anthony’s stylish but casual attire and his friendly demeanor instantly put me at ease. What really stood out about Anthony was how extremely enthusiastic he was about the project. As he explained to me the concept of the digi-novel and how the costume that I had created was going to fit into the scheme of things, his enthusiasm was contagious! I thought it was a brilliant idea and was instantly excited to be a part of a newly evolving form of publishing! Anthony opened up his laptop and asked if I wanted to see some of the footage. Did I want to see it? Of course! I was dying to see what the suit looked like on screen, but also curious to see what the project was going to look like. (I do love some of the perks of my job, like getting to see top-secret projects before anyone else!)

A week or two later Anthony, Orlin, E. Dee Biddlecome, the costumer, and Andy Grant, the prop guy, showed up with a surprise. The original actor had been replaced, and so we needed to have a fitting with the new actor, Danny the Amazing Rubberboy! Daniel Browning Smith was very close in size to the original actor so he was able to fit into the suit. Danny was a little concerned that he wouldn’t be able to do all of his amazing contortions while wearing the suit so we had him do a few moves for us in it. Wow! It was pretty cool getting to see what he could do with his body even when wrapped in a skintight rubber suit! I instantly understood why Anthony would want him to play Sqweegel; he looked so damn creepy. There were concerns about how well Danny would be able to fit into this tiny Plexiglas box that was part of the plot. Luckily Anthony had the box in the truck of his Maybach so we were able to see Danny climb into this amazingly small box like a human pretzel! The only other concern was getting rid of all of the sharp edges on the box and masking the metal hardware so that it wouldn’t stain the suit.

We ended up making a new custom pattern for Danny after he ripped the original suit on set one day. I received a call from a very panicked E. Dee wondering how quickly they could have a replacement. I was able to make a custom pattern and a new suit in time for their next day of shooting, so the problem was solved with no drama at all. I’ve lost track of how many suits I ended up making.

In the next call I received from Orlin, he had an even more bizarre request: could I make a scaled down copy of the Sqweegel suit for a newborn baby?! I had to ask: “you aren’t really going to put that on a baby are you?” You just never know until you ask in this town. Once I was assured that it would be on a life-like baby doll, I said that I could I do it. I’ve made latex for movie stars, midgets, drag queens, hunchback… you name it, but never for a baby! The big issue that came up with the baby was that the doll that they wanted to use was cast silicone. Unfortunately, cast silicone causes a strange chemical reaction with latex and the makes the latex swell and ripple so we had to find a cast rubber doll that was just as realistic.

You can only imagine how tricky it is to scale down a rubber body suit and hood patterns to fit something so tiny and still have it fit skintight. There was no way to make the baby gloves out of the latex sheeting; the hands were just too tiny! Luckily I knew of a company that made a liquid form of latex in white. When it arrived, the liquid latex was too thin and watery to use to coat the hands. I had to cut the hands off of the doll, which I found very unsettling to do. Then I went to a paint store and had them cut match a quart of latex paint to match a swatch of the white latex sheeting. I carefully dipped each dismembered baby hand into the white paint and let it dry before dipping it in the white liquid latex several times to give the hands a thick enough coat of latex to resemble gloves. It turned out great, but took forever. I think it took longer to make the baby suit than the suit for Danny!

When my other customers came in for fittings I had to hide the Baby Sqweegel so it wouldn’t scare them away. Everyone found it deeply disturbing. I’m so glad that I took photos of it while it was still in my workshop. I hear that Anthony is planning to have it displayed in a glass case in his office. It was a great experience working with everyone on this project. Just the little bits that I have seen of the project have me very excited. I think Anthony Zuiker has taken a bold leap in creating a new form of publishing and with his talent and Midas touch it’s sure to be a huge hit!


There is some comment on the Rubberzone discussion boards about the cyber-bridge clips questioning how once again the media generally portray anything fetish-related and male-oriented as deranged. When women put on latex, it's done as sexual objectification, but when men put on latex, it's done as creepy perversion. Some think it is better to have no exposure than the kind of exposure we do get. It's about time there were positive, reaffirming, revealing, sexy portrayals of men in latex and that Level 26 is the wrong image for our scene. There are calls that Zuicker could have done some research into his characters. He describes the killer repairing the suit wrong. He uses a sewing machine. And to make it worse, he uses butter as a lube. But at least he shaves before getting into the suit (yes, he describes it in detail for those that like that).

Summary:
female + latex = sex object
male + latex = deranged/evil creep

Others re-affirm that it's just a movie done in Hollywood-style (that is, once again, inaccurately for the sake of being tantalizing) and that removing " + latex" from the equation above holds true as much as latex being in the equation does.

What do you think? Personally, I am of the 'horror + fetish = cool' camp; it is just a project of an author; anyone who knows of Zuiker's CSI roots knows the inaccuracies of that show are the rule not the exception, and shouldn't be put out by the fact the protagonist in the movie is portrayed inaccurately as well. Chill out, it's only a movie...and not a good one at that. On top of that, really, what murderer/fetishist would wear white latex as a 'forensic-proof suit'? If he did, it wouldn't be for long. I mean, the blood spatter stains would never come out of the latex, and wouldn't black be better to skulk around in anyways? ;D
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