I realise this is very old news but while I was away in Tasmania for the Summer, I missed out on a ton of amazing events in Second Life. One of them was the screening of Four Eyed Monsters on Sundance Island in Second Life.

Here is a synopsis of the movie:

They have four eyes, two mouths, eight limbs that wrap around themselves. It’s disgusting!” Arin says, as we see images of couples throughout New York City. “But I can’t help but envy them.”

Arin is a wannabe filmmaker and highly inexperienced with love, despite the fact that he spends most of his time editing wedding videos. In one of the most populous cities in the world, he is alone and tormented by the beautiful women he sees everywhere. He turns to the Internet.

Susan is an art school graduate working as a waitress and suffering from a lack of inspiration. She receives a message from Arin, but since she’s tired of dating, especially online, she suggests that he should just stop by her work.

Arin is too shy to introduce himself. So instead, he follows her home without her knowing and emails her pictures of her mundane daily trudge. She is intrigued.

They decide to meet up, but in an attempt to keep their interaction interesting, they make a pact to not speak to one another. As their romance develops, they only write, draw, email, text, have sex, instant message, and make videos for each other. No talking.

Susan’s creative clouds begin to lift, and Arin’s dry spell has ended. Unfortunately, a new world of more complicated problems is discovered, and they are forced to deal with intimacy as they meld together and create a monster.

And here is the trailer:

Some of my friends in SL went to the screening of the film. Here are two machinimas made about the event:

What is really interesting is the way the film makers have developed a video blog and used myspace, youtube and other media to market their film. The series of videos tracks the news and progress of their film, the awards they have won, and the people they have met, places they’ve been along the way.

In today’s news update video podcast, the film makers share the details of the forthcoming DVD release, which will include as extras all of their video blog videos.

I can’t wait to see the movie myself – and the whole series of events surrounding the film is fascinating, covering so many of the issues about new media literacies and youth culture that I research and write about.