Social Media made hit movie low budget
Posted by Frances van den Berg on 02 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Social Media
I always thought that an aspiring movie maker with a badly-paid day job could only dream. I mean, with £50 you couldn’t even produce an episode of Little Britain, let alone a full-length horror movie. When we think of how a movie can make it into the public eye, we think of Hollywood fat cats throwing millions at it and using all the special effects known to man. Yet, Marc Price, a Brit taxi dispatcher, has achieved just this at a measly £45.
How did he do it? He simply gathered a group of actors, make-up artists and extras through the medium of facebook and other social media sites. The largest expenditure on the zombie movie called “Colin” was on a crowbar and some tea and coffee (the cheap stuff from Tesco). In fact, the film was so inexpensive to make that it has been called a no-budget movie.
When the marketers of facebook were first promoting their site, they probably didn’t think it would eventually be used for recruiting zombies. What Price did was very clever; he handpicked the entire cast from social media sites, and by doing that he also created a social media fan base for the movie which featured at the Cannes film festival this year.
Not only did the 30-year filmmaker ask people to invest their time in the project, he asked them to make contributions too, and the participants happily consented. Price told the CNN that “The approach was to say to people, ‘OK guys, we don’t have any money, so bring your own equipment’”. Make-up artists reportedly brought make-up kits from other movie sets to add blood and gore to the zombie creations.
Critics suggest it may be the next ‘Blair Witch Project’. What stands out for me is that the movie’s popularity is based on the fact that it is a product of social media. If people watch it, it won’t be for the love of no-brainers. It will be because ‘this is the movie that cost £45 and was cast through My Space and Facebook’. Social media has become that popular; millions are not only using it, they are trying to apply it to many different markets and talking about it constantly. “Colin” could be the first of many movies born from social media.
