The Daily Reel
Article from The Daily Reel
By Anthony Kaufman November 29, 2006
Podcasted Film “Four-Eyed Monsters” Gets Spirit Noms
“Are you kidding me?” That was “Four-Eyed Monsters” filmmaker/podcaster Arin Crumley’s reaction to receiving a nomination for Best Cinematography from the Independent Spirit Awards, the long-running awards show honoring indie films that takes place the day before the Oscars.
“Our film didn’t really have a ‘cinematographer,’” Crumley told us yesterday by email, referring to the number of people — Susan Buice, Bry Thomas Sanders, Andrew Peterson, Jon Fordam and other sundry camera operators — who helped shoot the no-budget story of dating in the digital era.
“When I’m walking around NYC holding a DVX-100 up to my spastic eyeball and talking endlessly into a grainy web cam these are hardly things that constitute best cinematography,” he said. “On the other hand, maybe this is the cinematography of the future.”
Co-produced, written and directed with Susan Buice and podcasted in ongoing installments on the web after premiering at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival, “Four Eyed Monsters” was also nominated for the Spirit’s best feature film made under $500,000 prize (”in our case, of course, considerably less,” notes a post on the “Four Eyed” blog).
Meanwhile, the intrepid “Four Eyed” crew recently finished a September DIY distributor tour in theaters around the country, and their video podcast reached 1 million views in October. Episode 9 is imminent, according to Crumley.
The news of the nominations also comes on the heels of the film’s New York City theatrical opening this Friday, which helped qualify the film for the Spirit Awards.
Looking ahead to the future of distribution, Crumley recalls a recent discussion at Digimart, the international digital camera market, where he talked about a new model “where people really can collectively curate what’s playing in their local theater,” “where digital delivery gives a jukebox-like approach to movie theaters.”
If podcasting and YouTube works to give people what they want when they want it, why not?
