Four Eyed monsters: The Poster Film For DIY Filmmakers

Four Eyed monsters is a film about the making of itself (it's almost Charlie Kaufman-esque). Two young artist-filmmakers meet and document their lives, in the process turn it into a feature film and web vlog, which garnered enough audience support to parlay with theaters to show their film. This got them qualified and nominated for two Independent Spirit awards.

Plus it's a totally cool film.

Here's a run down of their process:
* Small, Low Budget (”Amateur” filmmaking) - Arin was a wedding videographer; Susan, a waitress/artist
* Went to SlamDance hoping for distribution – did not happen
* Created blog
* Told that film would be hard to market without any recognizable star power
* Realized iPod might be a good venue
* Created Video podcasts about the film to build their audience
* Worked – blogs, Myspace etc. showcased them, helped publicized
* Got coverage all over which continued through their endeavors.
* Connected with audience threw these podcasts
* Online audience helps with getting feedback, helped shaped their
* Audience got interest in watching film, asked to see it
* They collected zip codes and emails knowing this would help target their screening/distribution
* People are subscribed & watching videos through various venues (e.g. Youtube, Itunes), not a website, so they always put “go to our website” at the end of each video
* Send email to people in related area to invite to IndieWire showcase
* Many people showed up, people were invested in them, asked friends to go – phenomenon
* 1 request from filmmakers = 1 ticket sold
* Created Map with requests = a type of social network around people who were interested in their film – self-fulfilling prophecy
* Then began cold-calling theatres suggested to them, to screen film (didn’t always work… But it did – sometimes!)
* Showed the film in 6 major cities (LA, Chicago, NY, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston) every Thursday at 8pm in the month of September (2007, I believe)
* 1691 were at the screening
* Arin and Susan were able to prove that they had an audience, could make money
* Industry averaged 7 people per screening /”Four Eyed Monsters” averaged 70
* Then they were able to open in the theatre
* They got sponsorship and
* Got nominated for a Spirit Awards (previously inelligible since they didn’t screen in theatre)
* Screened in Second Life
* Began selling DVDs.
* Looked a new tactics to further propel (and pay back the money on their credit card they used to fund the film. Money they got now paid for operations, expenses etc.)
* Uploaded film to YouTube for free. Asked them to join Spout and the filmmakers would get $1 per person who joined (that + ad revenue from Youtube = $50,000) (Note: 10MPH is doing something similar)
* 1 million views, plus boosted DVD sales
* Online attention landed them a $100,000 broadcast & retail release
* Ignited interest foreign markets
* Then posted film to MySpace
* Saw more boost
* (since their film was available online and it resulted in sales) Suggest: why not offer low-quality version online and then then high quality for purchase
* Suggest allowing people to translate (dotsub)
* One Store – they sell stuff off their websites (DVD, t-shirts – used BSide)
* Google can teach you everything (search and you will find) (Takes time, but you can)
* MySpace was first step
* Was struggle, but wanted to justify making another film – now they can do these things while making the next film