14 DAY TRIAL // Welsh director Marc Price is a newcomer to the industry of the cinema, yet he seems to have already managed to do what no one has – take the Cannes Film Festival by storm with a film that cost just £45 (under 70 bucks) to make. “Colin” is a classic horror zombie movie in many respects, but what it stands out of the crowd for is the perspective of the story, as well as the fact that it cost so little.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, Price says that he never really dreamed this could ever happen. A fan of horror movies ever since he was young, the newbie admits that he took on the project more as a personal challenge than anything else. Having no big budget to work with, though, he realized he had to come up with something new, and decided that would be in terms of perspective. So, instead of presenting the classic story from the point of view of the humans, he shot the entire film from that of the zombie – in this case, Colin.
The cast was made up of Price’s friends and young actors who agreed to do the film for free. Makeup artists were “hired” via postings on the Internet, to which they replied quickly, hearing they would be given the permission to use the images for their portfolio in exchange of a salary. All “actors” were free to bring their own weapons on the set, the most expensive of which was, according to the 30-year-old director, a crowbar. In between takes, the entire crew would get treats such as “Tesco Value tea and coffee.”
“The main actor, Alastair Kirton, is a friend of mine. We’d made a short together before and then we worked on Colin. I then got friends to come along and play both zombies and humans. A lot of them doubled up and end up getting killed as both zombies and humans. We ended up with over 100 people in the film.” Price says for the Mail. Once production was over (after 18 months of shooting with a camcorder in Swansea and London), sales agent Helen Grace from Left Films approached Price and suggested he should send the film to Cannes.
“Colin” opened the other day at the film festival, and critics are already warmly singing its praise. As a matter of fact, the film fared so well that two Japanese distributors have already started a bid for distribution rights, a perspective that pleases Price to the extreme. Should everything go well, then perhaps the director’s next project would be much more expensive, somewhere in the range of a hundred pounds, as he jokes for the British publication.
“We seem to have sorted something out for Japan, which means we’ll get to do a Japanese dubbed version. I’d love to have a UK or US distribution deal. I just want people to see it. […] It’s not really about money. We didn’t set out to try and make our fortune with our first film. I don’t think that really happens too often. We just wanted to make a film that we hoped people would want to see, and we hope it will get into a position where we can make another film with more of a budget.” Price explains.