Four Eyed Monsters
I have to take issue with
Jenn's post about
Four Eyed Monsters. I saw this film at the Waterfront Film Festival and thought it was brilliant.
Granted, it gets bogged down at times. The story speeds up and halts without any sense of the rhythm they later developed in their
podcasts (don't miss those). But the moments that are brilliant are really brilliant and a great ending can save almost any film. It does with
Four Eyed Monsters and Susan and Arin manage to pull of something I've never experienced. In a film all about intimacy, they somehow manage to bring the audience into intimacy with themselves. I wish I could describe it better but I can't. It's just remarkable.
I once described this film as being four incredible short films squashed together. Any one short film would have made a great calling card for Susan and Arin. But they didn't want a short film. They went for the whole enchilada. They flew really high and got their wings singed a bit, but the heights they reach are glorious to watch.
Incidentally, you can petition Susan and Arin to have a screening of this film in your town.
Click here.
Posted
Monday, September 18, 2006 9:36 AM
Arin, it's great that you're on spout to talk about this, and don't get me wrong, I'm an advocate of your film, even though I've not seen it yet. I'm distributing fliers, hanging posters, telling everyone about this film and the captivating video podcasts.
What's difficult about this much documentation of a relationship is that it will be around forever, it's not like a diary that can be burned in a rage and forgotten about, it's bigger than that now. It's also more beautiful. Those sorts of experiences are what make us who we are and what we do every day. How we see ourselves and the ones we love.
What make this documentation so beautiful is that you've captured things that all of us want to be able to capture in relationships. Drawings, notes, looks, touches, the wrong things said, the mistakes, the embraces, the love, the confusion of being with another person.
You'd be nuts to want to loose that. Even if it's painful, it's you. Sharing it must be difficult, that is courage that most people don't have. Exposing our private lives.
Whatever your relationship ends up being Arin and Susan, it is beautiful, because you both have given it to the world, unscripted and raw. Something that everyone is afraid of, you've done.
Posted
Friday, September 15, 2006 4:41 PM
I gaurentee you we don't make stuff up. Thats just not how we do things. Susan and I's relationship is a struggle so we might not always be in a relationship, but we are really trying to make it work, but I think the only dissapointment would be that we break up and there is all this documentation out there about us being together, that would be unfortunate, but hopefully that won't go down.
But in terms of our marketing and filmmaking, I guess people wondering if our project is a fake is a compliment. We do spend a ton of time trying to spread the word about our film, also we refuse to put out any video that we don't think is awesome in some way, so that usually requires spending a lot of time polishing the videos, and in a world where people really just throw stuff up on the web, I think expecations are a lot lower for editing quality, but we don't want to let peoples low expecations make us put out crap, because we do look at what we are doing as an art project, and there for it has to be made artistically. Anyway, glad discussion is going down on spout about our film, keep it going guys, thanks a bunch,
Arin
Posted
Monday, August 07, 2006 9:49 AM
This weekend I became suspicious that Four Eyed Monsters is a Blair Witch. Produced to look indie and sincere, but is really a high budget execise in marketing to the MySpace scene kids.
I don't know why, but it feels too intimate, too well edited and too well supported, secrertly funded. I really want to see it and meet Susan and Arin to damper my suspicions.
I bought the t-shirt, and watch the podcasts, love to follow the characters and eagerly await the screening in our area. I'm hooked, but I'm TOO hooked if you know what I mean...
I'm not going to lie, I got a hold of a copy of Blair Witch months before anyone knew anything about it. And I fell hard for it, I sat with Victor and Alex in their upstairs bedroom and watched it, with goosebumps, i'm admitting this. I wanted to know everything about it, wanted to know who these characters were, how the film was found, who edited the footage together... hooked.
I like this story, I like that it reminds me of my relationships and that it's being documented and made public through a new medium, I like the music and the rough aesthetic. I just don't want to be dissapointed when I find out it's not real.
I don't want to be taken for another ride. I want it to be real this time dangit.
Posted
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 9:45 AM
I've done it. Wrote in the UICA, but they don't have digital projection capabilities, does Wealthy Street Theater.