Indie filmmakers accustomed to boasting about their movies' tiny budgets can pretty much surrender all bragging rights for the foreseeable future. British director Marc Price spent a grand total of $70 on Colin, his dirt-cheap zombie flick that became a word-of-mouth sensation earlier this month at the Cannes International Film Festival.
The movie doesn't look particularly cheap, judging from the blurry but stylish Colin trailer (embedded above). So how'd Price pull it off? Favors, lots of favors.
X-Men: The Last Stand make-up artist Michelle Webb, for example, volunteered to supervise effects for the bloody zombie attacks. As Price told CNN: "We were having the same latex that was put on Wolverine.”
Using Facebook, Price found actors who were happy to work for free. He had cast and crew members bring their own lights, equipment and makeup to further cut costs.
Price described the film's first day of microbudget production to Fangoria.com.
"We had 40 zombies, packed into a house, attacking the survivors of a documentary film crew," he said. "The idea was to throw ourselves in at the deep end, and start with a complex sequence involving a lot of ghouls and weapons. Shooting at the height of summer with nearly 50 people and raw meat strewn all over the floor would normally be a strain on a low-budget production, but the energy and enthusiasm for what we were trying to do was so high that we got through it without any problems."
Price spent 18 months making Colin. His company, Nowhere Fast Productions, is currently negotiating a theatrical release for the movie.
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