Arin Crumley

and Susan B~lce 3 discover lov and movlemakin success In Fi ur Eyed Monste s .

Susan Buice and Arin Crumley document their romance-and make indie film history-with Four Eyed Monsters BY JENNIFER STRAUS

HEN SUSAN BUICE AND ARIN CRUMLEY

met online in 2002, they decided to diverge from the typical dating routine. They agreed never to speak directly to one another, and to instead write notes and e-mails and create drawings and videos, using their budding romance as an artistic outlet. One year later, Buice and

Crumley decided to turn their experiment into a feature film called Four Eyed Monsters, which Crumley describes as "a blog post on steroids." Combining actual and re-created footage from the first few months of their relationship, the pair used their own story to explore the complexities of modern love and modern communication.

Fast forward to 2006: Four Eyed Monsters had run the festival circuit, picking up accolades along the way, including two Independent Spirit Award nominations. But despite this success, the film was still without a distributor. Buice and Crumley found themselves disillusioned by the festival scene, a route they had pre,iously believed was the key to gaining a widespread audience for their film. "It took a bunch of film festivals for us to realize what was going on," recalls Buice. "We got sold the line of 'Well, if you go to a few more festivals, you prove that you have an audience because you keep getting into festivals and you keep doing really well and people keep watching your film and saying good things about it. Then, eventually, you can get a distribution deal:"

Not content to let their film fade into obscurity, the couple hit upon an innovative way to build interest in their work: They created a series of pod casts that chronicled the making of Four Eyed Monsters. These podcasts gained a widespread following online, leading to theatrical screenings of the film in six major markets across the country and, ultimately, a revolutionary arrangement that has the

32 MovieMaker FALL 2007

online film world buzzing with excitement. On June 8, 2007, Four Eyed Monsters appeared as the first feature

film ever posted on You Tube. "Our community has responded to this film in an amazing way and it is this opinion that we listen to," says Jennifer Nielsen, YouTube's communications spokeswoman. Buice and Crumley credit the audience they gained through their podcasts, which were posted on YouTube as well as through iTunes and other Websites, as the main factor in their success. "People are looking for [online] content with depth;' Crumley explains. "Online short videos are going to continue to do well ... but I'm not really surprised that people are actually interested in watching something that long and are interested in things that have more depth:'

Beyond the film's impressive status as YouTube's first feature, of even more interest to independent moviemakers is the arrangement between Buice, Crumley and Spout.com, an online film community. For every person who signed up for a free membership to Spout.com after viewing FoU1· Eyed Monsters on YouTube, the moviemakers received one dollar toward their $100,000 credit card debt. Within a matter of days, Buice and Crumley had raised over $20,000 and the positive response from viewers led You Tube to extend the "screening" of Four Eyed Monsters through August 15.

Spout.com founder Paul Moore met Buice and Crumley at a festival in 2005 and "was blown away by their vision and how creative they had gotten on basically a shoestring budget:' Moore and his co-founders (who are all independent moviemakers themselves) were only in the planning stages of their Website, which aims to provide a space for cinephiles to interact. Buice and Crumley maintained a relationship with Spout.com and approached them about getting involved in Four Eyed Monsters'YouTube premiere.

Seeing an opportunity to demonstrate just how much the Internet was changing the face of independent moviemaking, Moore offered

to help the moviemakers financially as a way "to create something as historical as we felt Four Eyed Monsters, a feature film being available for free on You Tube, was:'

The story of Four Eyed Monsters suggests that the Internet film scene has finally come of age-that it's finally possible to totally circumvent the traditional routes of distribution and financing that

traditional paths toward distribution, like the fest circuit, eventually become obsolete? Buice suggests that fests be used as a space for promotion only, as what she calls the "Cinderella Story" of a festival­gained distribution deal is a rarely obtainable outcome. Rather, the answer seems to lie in capitalizing on grassroots marketing, which through this new generation of Internet communities has become

have long frustrated moviemakers. That an experimental film can be available for free and make $20,000 in one week was previously unheard of; that the money was provided by a small, online company known mainly to film buffs shows that the indie community is capable of sustaining itself, provided it capitalizes on the most valuable tool the Internet provides: Instantaneous and

THE INDIE COMMUNITY IS CAPABLE OF sustaining itself, provided it capitalizes on the Internet's most valuable tool: Instantaneous and widespread communication!'

widespread communication. "The movie is trying to talk about communication;' notes Crumley,

"to talk about how media is starting to affect our lives. We're starting to have tons of options ... Whether you're on MySpace looking at everyone's photos that they post of themselves or their blogs, seeing what's going on in their thoughts, [it's] a dialogue about life." Moore credits Four Eyed Monsters' popularity with Internet audiences to the moviemakers' willingness to give viewers an honest, personal account of their lives. "If this works, it's because there are filmmakers like Arin and Susan ... who are breaking down any distance between themselves and the audience;' he explains. "I mean, you post a bulletin to your MySpace page saying, 'If I sell 10 DVDs, then I can pay for my gas to get back to Chicago: It's not the sort of thing you're going to find on Mission: Impossible IIfs MySpace page:'

What does it all mean for the future of indie moviemaking? Will

both a relatively affordable game plan and an optimal way to reach a larger audience.

YouTube's Nielsen is cautious in her predictions, noting that "filmmakers now have a second chance on YouTube to raise awareness for their films and drive DVD and other ancillary sales. This is something completely new. The experience is never going to rival that of the cinema or home theater, but it is a complement to those viewing options:' Spout.com's chief operating officer, Bill Holsinger-Robinson, believes that the Internet will continue to be an invaluable resource for indie moviemakers: "If you're tapped into the right social networks and you've made as valiant an attempt as possible with any of the social networks, I think the promise is that a film will get an 'as-large-as-possible' audience." As the Internet-savvy generation of moviemakers comes of age, it seems the possible uses for the ever-evolving online film scene are endless. MM

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FALL 2001 MovleMaker 33