Friday, December 11, 2009
Local Radio Stories by L-M.Gorman
'Colin' The-Luckiest Zombie Alive
Despite having been written as an assessment piece for my course at university, this holds a lot of relevancy on here. This is my review of new zombie film written by the new indie director Marc Price, of Nowhere Fast Productions, 'Colin'.
Dare a director to create a film with a unique idea, or at the very least a unique spin on a common idea, and it’s a fair wager that only one out of a million will live up to the challenge. Marc Price is that one in a million. The zombie film has been done to death and back (excuse the pun), but to create a film from the perspective of the zombie?! Now that is something new.
Modern Hollywood blockbusters have budgets of millions of dollars to go on all sorts of sound and visual effects to really make the film convincing, but Price has proved that all you need is fifty pounds, a little elbow grease and the determination to get the job done. Although ‘Colin’ may not be as visually stunning as many recent zombie films, such as the 2004 remake of the classic ‘Dawn of the Dead’, the cinematography, editing and originality certainly give Price’s film the extra kick that is missing in many of today’s high budget smashes. Price questioned many of the things that take up large proportions of a film’s budget, and came up with some very clever alternatives; since the film is set in a world where zombies have started to take over, why spend money on a set when the actual world is already out there for free? When bonfire night is around the same time as the film is being shot, why spend money on the sound of fake gunfire when a self-made recording of the fireworks sounds exactly the same? ‘Colin’ was shot in and around the area of London where Price and the people helping him lived, so they knew exactly when and where it would be quiet enough to shoot, and the film never shows any direct gunfire (it is only ever hinted at in the background) so using Adobe Premier software he was able to edit firework sounds into the background, leaving the audience none the wiser. “The main thing we had to splash out on” Price explains, “was tea and biscuits for the crew. But we ended up buying the really cheap value biscuits, which were absolutely horrible and hardly anyone ate, so they lasted for quite a while. We also had to buy things like food colouring and syrup for blood.”
A major perk to having an extraordinarily low budget is that most people will not hold high expectations of what they are about to see, so it is much easier for them to walk away surprised and liking the film. I did exactly the same; walking into the cinema at a special screening in Farnham, I was dubious about watching ‘Colin’, but with a little patience it didn’t take long for me to really start to enjoy the film. There is literally only about two dozen words spoken throughout the entire thing, and any emotional link felt towards the protagonist is developed through the way he moves and the camera work. Contrary to the popular style of zombie films, the humans are actually portrayed as being the ‘baddies’ and I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Colin at certain points, even though he is actually shown killing someone. The whole film is very cleverly shot with subtle hints being dropped throughout as to what Colin was like as a human, and the audience is made to think and wonder from start to finish about what is really happening.
The common attitude that the first of a new genre should be below par certainly does not apply here – as the first ever film based entirely from the zombie’s perspective I think it works extremely well. Despite the low budget, limited cast and resources and near-outdated equipment ‘Colin’ is definitely on the list of “Recommend to a Friend” ‘and is available on DVD nationwide now.
Colin truely is a film, fantastic.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Remembrance Day by L-M.Gorman
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
"Does Oscar Ever Get It Wrong?" - An Alex Wagner article that caught my eye.
Even the most intelligent people in the world make mistakes. The brightest minds once thought the world was flat. Over the years I think there have been great injustices at the Academy Awards. Films that were not so deserving have walked off with the Best Picture Oscar. Actors & Directors have picked up that coveted statue even though someone better should have received it. Let’s take a look at some of those moments and of course as always, if you don’t agree or can think of a different time I haven’t covered feel free to let us know via the comments section...
Read the full story here
In my opinion, Alex Wagner is definately someone to follow for anyone interested in film and all that is motion picture based.
