Spout Furthers Reality of Online Filmmaking With Support of Four Eyed Monsters Full Length Launch on YouTube

Spout Furthers Reality of Online Filmmaking With Support of Four Eyed Monsters Full Length Launch on YouTube

Spout.com Gives Back to Filmmakers With Donation For Every New Spout Member Funding Independent's Next Film

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the landscape of independent filmmaking changed when Four Eyed Monsters (www.foureyedmonsters.com) became the first ever full length feature film to be featured on YouTube. And Spout (www.spout.com) a gathering place for movie- lovers spreading word about great films, was right there to support this ground breaking initiative. With exclusive advertising and a financial commitment to Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, creators of Four Eyed Monsters, Spout is helping Susan and Arin make their next movie.

Since its launch in 2005, Spout has been dedicated to creating and continuing conversation around great movies both online and through independent channels nationwide. Now, with YouTube's online premiere of Four Eyed Monsters, which can be found at youtube.com/foureyedmonsters, the conversation about online film has made a dramatic shift. To celebrate this online launch, Spout has committed to exclusive advertising of the online feature, as well as offering a $1 donation to the filmmakers' next independent project for every new Spout member to sign up at spout.com/foureyedmonsters.

"Reaching audiences has never been easy for the independent in Hollywood," says Rick DeVos, CEO of Spout. "When we launched Spout we envisioned first filling a need for people to connect with films and the people who are passionate about them -- helping audiences find their films and helping filmmakers connect with their audiences. And today, the launch of Four Eyed Monsters on YouTube heralds a step towards Spout's ultimate goal of creating a grassroots alternative to Hollywood's promotion and distribution model and allowing the work of more filmmakers to reach their audiences."

Through film festival sponsorships, industry partnerships, filmmaker podcasts, and active online dialogue, Spout has remained committed to growing its online film community. Spout.com uses real people -- experts or mavens -- to help consumers sort through the thousands of films they could choose whether independent and emerging like Four Eyed Monsters or blockbusters familiar to everyone.

Four Eyed Monsters, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and most recently won the Undiscovered Gems Showcase Sundance Channel Audience, has been causing offline and online buzz with its creative approach and unique filmmaking collaboration. The film, which blurs the lines between the audience and creator, speaks directly to Spout's vision of taking the experience beyond the film itself, making the two perfect partners in this next step of film distribution.

"I first met Spout at a film festival before their site was live and the vision that was talked about was awesome. Lately checking out what's going on at Spout.com is giving me confidence that we are getting closer to seeing the full potential of online social discovery of films," says Arin Crumley, co-creator of Four Eyed Monsters. "The goal is to bring it back to being all about the movie and the audience. I see Spout as providing a hyper word of mouth environment that is exciting as an independent filmmaker because it enforces the idea that good word of mouth can be enough and you don't need Hollywood marketing budgets."

For more details about Spout and Four Eyed Monsters go to spout.com/foureyedmonsters.

About Spout:

Spout, which was founded in 2005 by four filmmakers and film fans in Grand Rapids, MI, is an online community where users can find films, meet people and have a much richer Internet community experience. A blend of technology, personalization and passion ignites and differentiates the Spout.com community and gives consumers a unique place to buy, discuss and organize their favorite films. Spout's mission is to close the large time and marketing gaps that exist between film festivals, multiplexes and living rooms. In addition, Spout draws people from throughout the film value chain to build a robust online community, with the goal of building an alternative, grassroots promotion and distribution channel for filmmakers.

About Four Eyed Monsters:

In September of 2002 Arin Crumley & Susan Buice met on the Internet and decided to make a rule to not speak when they met in person as they built their romance. This lasted for four months while their relationship solidified communication through drawings, notes, videos, instant messaging, and having sex but never speaking. In November of 2003 they began creating a film based on their non-verbal life experiment and a year later it was accepted into the Slamdance Film Festival where it premiered to sold out audiences and went on to tour over 20 film festivals winning audience and jury awards along the way. October 12th, 2005 they launched their video podcast on the same day Apple Computer released the video iPod which launched them into the spotlight as filmmakers embracing a new medium and their subscriber base flourished. In January 2006, in collaboration with the Withoutabox Distribution Lab, they launched a "quest for requests" asking the subscriber base of the video podcast to provide their zip code if they were interested in seeing the feature film. In September of 2006 the film played in the six cities with the most requests every Thursday evening and each week pulled in a stronger crowd than the last proving a new model for theatrical exhibition. Now, with over one million total views to their ongoing video podcast, they will soon be posting Episode 9 to their video podcast. Most recently they won the Undiscovered Gems Showcase winning the Sundance Channel Audience award which entitles them $50,000 cash they are putting towards their credit card debt as well as $50,000 dollars to further distribution of the film.

Source: Spout.com

CONTACT: Maggie O'Neill of Peppercom, +1-212-931-6181,
moneill@peppercom.com, for Spout.com

Web site:

http://www.spout.com/
http://spout.com/foureyedmonsters
http://www.foureyedmonsters.com/
http://youtube.com/foureyedmonsters

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