That's not a typo. A British receptionist with a dream, a camcorder and a two-figure budget is the latest model for aspiring, charmingly broke filmmakers around the world. And although Marc Price isn't gloating (or quitting his day job) yet, his helpful insights into no-budget moviemaking imply a future beyond desk drudgery.
There seem to have been few catches to Price's £45 (roughly $75) zombie-flick breakthrough Colin, which found marketplace traction last spring at Cannes and will make the fall festival rounds before opening in UK theaters and DVD in October. And as he notes for you dreamers out there, all it takes is a video camera, donated tapes destined for the trash, some pretty aggressive social networking, hundreds of man hours of free labor, 18 months to edit and not just a little bit of luck:
"We went on Facebook and MySpace and said, 'Who wants to be a zombie?' We managed to get 50 brilliantly madeup zombies and stuff them into a living room." The actors were told to bring any clothes they did not mind getting covered with blood. "The overall theme was you get out what you put in," says Price. "So to the makeup people we said bring your own equipment and you can do whatever zombie look you want. Luckily, one of our makeup people had just come off doing X-Men 3 so we had the same latex that was put on Wolverine."
I love stories about things like this -- the kind of guerrilla-style, devil-may-care auteurism that helped make the early reputations of guys like Christopher Nolan and Robert Rodriguez. May Price's next film represent a four-figure splurge, and may he never misstep into the quagmire of remaking Barbarella.
[Trailer NSFW]
· My £45 hit film: Marc Price on his zombie movie Colin [Guardian]