Interviews
Thursday, 28 May 2009 Written by Chris Barraclough
Film-making on a micro budget: An interview with Marc Price, director of Colin
When Welsh director Marc Price presented his debut film, Colin, to the critics at Cannes, he readily admitted that the clothes he sported cost more than the entire 18-month production. Colin - a fresh take on the overcrowded zombie genre, told from the perspective of a man who is bitten - was made for a wallet-friendly £45. Most of that was spent on tape, and miscellaneous items like a new crowbar.
With all the doom and gloom of the economic downturn, it's refreshing to see a new talent find success on such a limited budget. We spoke with Marc to discover how much of a challenge it was to produce Colin.
What was your motivation for spending so little on Colin? Was it a total lack of funds, or simply seeing if it could be done?
We didn't want to find ourselves in the position of submitting our film for others to decide whether it was worthy of going into production. We just figured, "let's work out how to tell the story the best way we can, making use of what we have available to us." This included some fantastic actors, including Alastair Kirton, Daisy Aitkens, Kate Alderman and Tat Whalley.
So the idea to focus on character and story was a result of the tiny budget?
Absolutely. We didn't really have the means to make a more traditional zombie movie. The idea was always to try to find something new to do with the genre in the same vein as Romero, without trying too hard to imitate what had been done before.
How did you go about recruiting zombies to work for free? Didn't they demand any on-set catering, or other perks?
Luckily when I first moved to London I hung out with an actor friend who had a lot of other actor friends, so that paid off when it came to finding enough people to play zombies. We explained to everyone before shooting that we didn't have a budget and all zombies/humans for the day should bring a packed lunch. We provided the cheap tea and biscuits!
Were any of the special effects tricky to shoot with no cash?
We had an idea of how to do most of the effects. Luckily we had guys like Leigh Crocombe [Marc's flatmate, who plays the first zombie in the movie], who were able to help make things look cool. Leigh hadn't really done anything film-related before, but is definitely one of the most creative guys I've ever met. He's kind of like McGuyver - he can take an everyday object and turn it into whatever you need it to be!
Michelle Webb came off X-Men 3 and brought some leftover liquid latex and all kinds of other make-up equipment - some of it her own, others inherited from other productions! She was the genius who showed us how to make zombies ourselves, and left stuff behind for us to shoot scenes without her. The editing and sound effects did the rest. Most of the sound effects I had to do by squelching my lips against a microphone. There were times where I felt like a low-rent Michael Winslow from Police Academy!
So if you had the chance to remake Colin with an unlimited budget, would you have done it any differently?
There are moments and scenes that changed as we were shooting, but I see that as a good thing. I like experimenting with performances and scenes. There are maybe a few moments here and there where I wish we could have done things slightly differently, but I think that's what it's like for any film. I'm lucky in that making Colin was a great experience, where everyone came together and thrived. It was very much the film we set out to make, done the way we wanted to make it.
And there's no famous actors or actresses you'd cast if you had the chance to remake it? Perhaps Jessica Alba in a miniskirt, running away from a slavering, undead Vinnie Jones?
Ha ha, any excuse to watch Jessica Alba running around in a miniskirt! As for the cast, I'm absolutely happy with every single one of them and would use them all over again, and maybe pay them next time round. What Alastair Kirton has brought to the role is so valuable, I shudder at the thought of anyone else playing the part. Alastair was my only choice, and luckily he said yes!
You've cited Romero's trilogy as an influence, but how about other low-budget debuts, such as Peter Jackson's Bad Taste?
Funnily enough, it was the Costa Botes documentary on Bad Taste that made me realise it was possible to just grab a camera and make your own film. Reading about Peter Jackson, Robert Rodriguez and Sam Raimi, and how they made their first films, was encouraging and pretty damn inspiring. Rebel Without a Crew [Rodriguez's personal account of his experiences making El Mariachi] should be required reading for anyone wanting to make a film off their own backs.
Mike Figgis did a small book called "Digital Film Making" which was also a pretty inspiring read. He says that technology moves forward at such a rapid pace that people forget it's about story, so you should grab an older, cheaper camera and shoot something on one of those. It's great stuff to hear from an accomplished, established director and definitely made me feel better for shooting a cheap zombie movie on a shoddy camcorder!
You said you spent just as much on looking presentable at Cannes as you did on the film. Did you find much snobbery or bemusement at the festival when you were promoting Colin?
Not really. That was a surprise. There were plenty of assholes, but I was lucky enough not to run into any of them. I did get to meet other film makers who have made much more accomplished films than we did, and it makes me wonder why we have had so much attention.
Finally, how goes plans for your next picture?
The next film is written and ready to go but we will need some funding. I think of Colin as the movie we made to prove we could responsibly see a movie through to completion. For the next film, I'd like to pay people what they're worth and treat it more like a job.
Colin has yet to find a distributor, but the trailer on the website www.colinmovie.com shows what a £45 zombie film looks like
Interview by Chris Barraclough
