Start a little romance but rule out conversation. Communicate only through videos, art, emails, written notes. Then share the experience with the world in a narrative film and video podcasts under the banner of “Four Eyed Monsters.”

“Four Eyed Monsters” — a labor of love for Susan Buice and her boyfriend, Arin Crumley — screens Thursdays in September in six cities nationwide, thanks in large part to video podcasts that Buice and Crumley created to help people discover their film. Posted on their website, iTunes, MySpace, and YouTube, the podcasts found a spot on Apple’s daily top 100 podcasts and have generated enough word of mouth to get the film into 18 festivals worldwide and screenings in six cities.

By Word of Net

“When we first played film festivals,” Crumley says, “we hoped someone would take the film and release it to the world. That never happened, so we decided to make a video podcast and build our own audience.”

Buice and Crumley posted a mini podcast the day Apple introduced the video iPod. It triggered heavy online buzz and press attention — enough to build anticipation for the “Four Eyed Monsters” video podcast. Since then, Bruice and Crumley published eight episodes as well as news updates — which, many say, are almost as entertaining as their feature film.

Based on responses to the podcasts — visitors send their email address and zip codes — a Google map the two created charts how many people in an area want to see the film. When responses reach a critical mass — 150 — Buice and Crumley schedule a screening.

The Audience as Marketing Team

The idea for “Four Eyed Monsters” came to Buice and Crumley four months after their romance began. “For the first four months of our relationship, we wrote notes when we would hang out together,” Buice says. “When we were apart, we’d make videos, edit them in Final Cut Pro, and send them back and forth.”

Arin Crumley and Susan Buice on the subway.

“Not long after that,” Crumley adds, “our whole relationship was based on collaborating, so we started to make a film that studies relationships through our own relationship. Then, trying to get the story out, we realized we could make video podcasts. It was a good way for people who don’t normally go to the film festivals to find out about our work.”

Buice and Crumley do all their marketing through the video podcasts. “Besides the podcasts,” Crumley explains, “we’ve got a spot on our site where people can print out their own flyers to give to friends and post around their schools,” Crumley says. “And they can email all the details of the screenings to their friends. It gives all of the audience that we’ve built with our video podcasts the ability to be our marketing team.”

Trading Music for Exposure

The podcasts, each from three to 15 minutes long, resemble the movie with their quick cuts, edgy animation and documentary style. Buice and Crumley scored their film and the podcasts with music from unsigned bands or small labels they found on MySpace.com.

“We use the music in exchange for the exposure,” Buice says, “and people hear the music on our podcasts and go out and buy it on iTunes. Bands tell us, ‘Wow, you used my song in that episode and now I’m getting all these sales.’ It’s giving us a business model that lets us continue making stuff and putting it out there.”

A Million Dollars on a Dime

Buice and Crumley use Macs “for pretty much everything we’re doing,” Crumley says. “We use a Power Mac G5 running Final Cut Pro, of course, to do all of our editing, composite animation and bring it all together.” Buice and Crumley use Final Cut Pro’s default plug-ins and combine different filters and effects, Crumley adds, “to get what you’d pay a bunch for a special filter or other program.”

Buice and Crumley use DVD Studio Pro to get the film to theaters. “We’re showing a different short film each Thursday with ‘Four Eyed Monsters,’” says Crumley, “so each week we burn a new DVD with us introducing the short film.”

“People who saw our film at festivals thought we had spent a million dollars making it,” Crumley says. “I think that’s because, with digital video technology, everything looks really high quality so you don’t need huge budgets. We’re just out there with two or three people shooting with our DVX-100; then we come home and edit in Final Cut Pro. Color correction makes a big difference, but we’re doing stuff in post production here to make it look really good and that strips away all of the cost.”

Building a Community of New Ideas

Crumley and Buice believe that, more and more, people can have a say in what will play in their theaters. “Instead of someone dictating, ‘this is what you can watch in a theater or on your TV’” Crumley says, “people can discover projects online and collectively pull those films to a theater in their community.”

Through their website, video podcasts and screenings, Buice and Crumley are creating a community of people who are “making things because they’re inspired to put something good out there, whether it’s music, short films or feature films,” says Crumley. “At our screenings, we’re showing some trailers of movies that aren’t even playing in the theaters but are at festivals or on DVD or are going to get released, so people know about films that are being independently produced.

“We have a strong feeling that’s where you have the potential to spread the word about other interesting projects. Through all these media, we’re having sort of a conversation with our audience. We’re becoming friends with people we’ve never met.”