Colin

It seems that one film that has had huge impact at Cannes this year is a zombie film. That is remarkable enough, but even more remarkable is that this zombie film boasts one of the most astonishing budgets ever, especially for a zombie film that has provoked something of a bidding war among distributors. The film is called Colin and it had a budget of $70.

Yes, you read that right. $70 (US, presumably).

Colin (UK-2008; dir. Marc Price) is an indie film, made to an 18-month production schedule by a cast and crew that director Price found via social networking sites on the internet. The British filmmaker told everyone who expressed interest that as there was no budget, they had to bring their own gear. Obviously they did, and effectively supplied a budget far in excess of the stated $70. A SFX make-up artist who had worked on X-Men 3 volunteered his services and brought along discarded latex fresh from the set of Wolverine. Apparently the film boasts “big budget” gore effects and lots of them.

Of course this $70 budget thing is a bit of a furphy. What it represents is the amount Price spent on the day — and probably doesn’t include everything anyway… all those hidden costs, like electricity and petrol. It’s not what the film really cost. Reportedly Price used the $70 budget on “a crowbar and a couple of tapes, and I think we got some tea and coffee as well “. He may not have paid for such things as labour, film/digital storage, lighting, food, post-production (including copies for festival viewing), make-up, gaffer tape, paper etc. but somebody did, even if they donated it to the production. Even the professional-looking poster art costs somebody something. This doesn’t diminish Price’s achievement, however, especially if the film is as good and as excitingly new as initial reports, and the trailer below, suggest.

One hopes that all involved will receieve a proper share of the profits if the film achieves the sort of distribution that current Hollywood interest seems to suggest it will. At the very least there will be DVD sales…

The film is “unique” in the world of cinematic zombies in seeing the Romeroesque zombie apocalypse from the point-of-view of one of the zombies. It is, Price has stated, “a zombie movie with heart”.

Price says he came up with the idea to make a no-budget film because he realized that he and his friends would never be able to scrape together enough money to make even a low-budget film.

“A couple of friends were round a few years ago watching Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead,'” recalls Price. “And we were lamenting the fact that we could never make a zombie film — we wouldn’t be able to acquire a budget.”

“Then I just woke up before everyone else — I was probably a bit hungover — and I wondered if a zombie movie from a zombie’s perspective had been done before.” (CNN)

It has, of course. For a start there’s I, Zombie: A Chronicle of Pain (US-1998; dir. Andrew Parkinson). And only two weekends ago Undead Backbrain’s Weekend Fright Flick was a short film, Bitten (UK-2009; short [15 min.]; dir. Mark Fieldhouse and Andrew Cairns), which takes the same perspective. But both these largely take place in a single indoor setting; Colin appears to embrace the whole mass chaos of it all. Which makes the meagre budget even more remarkable.

And the future? Commented Price: “Hopefully we’ll be able to generate some interest and maybe try to get some kind of a budget for our next film — maybe a bigger budget, £100, I don’t know.” (CNN)

• Sources: CNN; Bloody-Disgusting News; Official website; Quiet Earth; Avery