Marc Price of Nowhere Fast Productions sparked a media frenzy with his first feature film: a low-budget a zombie flick titled Colin. And when Marc said low-budget, he meant low-budget. The whole thing was shot for $70, and the zombies came free with the help of Facebook!
Tom Foster wrote the story for CNN:
"When we say it's a low budget film, people presume a couple of hundred thousand [dollars]. People can't figure out how it's possible. What Marc's achieved has left people astonished."
It was by advertising for volunteer zombies on social networking site Facebook, borrowing make-up from Hollywood blockbusters and teaching himself how to produce special effects that thrifty director Price was able to make the film for less than the price of a zombie DVD box set.
"The approach was to say to people, 'OK guys, we don't have any money, so bring your own equipment,'" the the 30 year-old director told CNN.
With help from a makeshift band of friends and volunteers, Price shot and edited the feature -- which ingeniously spins the zombie genre on it's head by telling the story entirely from the zombie's perspective -- over a period of 18 months while working nights part-time as a booker for a taxi company.
Online social networking was an invaluable tool in both generating buzz and cheaply sourcing the undead: "We went on Facebook and MySpace and said 'Who wants to be a zombie?'" Price told CNN. "We managed to get 50 brilliantly made up zombies and stuff them into a living room."