Susan Buice and Arin Crumley are the people behind Four Eyed Monsters, a feature film that has inadvertently found a unique way of funding itself. But first the movie. Setting aside the fact that this is first feature length movie ever to be released exclusively on YouTube - not a promising way to début I think you'd agree - it is by any standards a remarkable achievement. Beautifully filmed and immediately engrossing it tells the tale of very modern and somewhat sad love affair. Arin, an internet geek, meets Susan, a waitress and artist, and given the way people communicate right now - chat rooms, texts, instant messaging - their love is purely text based. I found the movie both entrancing and highly disturbing in its implications.
Susan and Arin paid for this extraordinary production by maxing out all their credit cards and are now in a state of utter penury. However the excellent film site Spout has stepped in to promote the film and to rescue Susan and Arin from the bailiffs. If you register with them, a dollar goes to the movie's makers and stars. It doesn't cost you a penny but by the simple act of typing in you email address you become, to all intents and purposes, producer of a pretty decent film.
