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High Concept COLIN
In case you haven’t heard… There’s a movie kicking ass at CANNES called COLIN. Here’s the trailer:
Why does this matter to screenwriters? Because of the high concept. Colin is supposedly told from the point of view of Colin, the zombie. Never been done before as far as I know.
Shot for $70 and will definitely make MILLIONS.
Links:
- Official Web site
- $70 Zombie Movie Becoming the Talk of Cannes Film Festival
- Facebook Zombies Wow Cannes Film Festival
- Cannes 2009: How To Make A Film For £45
- Hollywood eyes $70 zombie movie wowing Cannes
- Zombie movie with a budget of $70 is making a killing at Cannes
Unk
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34 Responses to “High Concept COLIN”
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I’ll be interested to view the trailer..but, as an initial comment..I was reminded of say The Blair Witch Project and how, when it first hit the festivals it wound up being touted as SUCH a thing. I raised this at a course last year and, without exception, everyone including the teacher put their nose up at it. Fads??
Is it, in this case, that a NEW perspective has been grabbed?
Ok..watched trailer..hmmmm… ummm..
Firstly, as some people may know here I feel sick in the stomach really quickly from snappy, staccato chopping scenes so aspects of this trailer had me blinking. But that’s an idiosyncratic thing.
I actually found the use of the slingshot funny – almost laugh out loud funny. I watched it again and that just stood out oddly.
Looks to me (without looking at the website) like a bunch of students and friends got together. The stake through the chest was done very well – as was the arm ‘peel’. There was a realism about most of it and what I saw of the acting was sound.
All this said, for $70 its great but what I saw didn’t ’sing’ in my head as such. I hope the film is being see as worthy because of its content, not because it is content made on such a low budget. I think there’s a difference there.
If anyone believes even this TRAILER was made for $70, you’re a fool. It’s b*llsh*t campaigns like this that crush young filmmaker’s dreams. Giving them unrealistic, fairy tale ideas of what it takes financially to make a film. Like El Mariachi. Like Blair Witch. These films cost far more than their purported budgets. It’s a marketing scheme. Don’t fall for it.
This sounds interesting, and I’d love to see this at some point.
Anything high concept and I’m game…
Could it be similar to INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE?
Btw..why is it necessarily ‘high concept’? Because it’s extrapolated to become ultra popular and to make a lot of money?
I must say, I do wonder about the “marketing” as per Ted’s post. This is why I asked WHY it was getting critical acclaim – was it content OR contest based on purported cost? If the latter, then the potential exists for content shortfalls being excused. Pluses and minuses to that.
How do others feel about Ted’s critique re the cost? I’m not a filmmaker so have no idea.
What do they mean by 70.00? You can’t even rent a camera for that
you c You can’t evev
Sorry for the blurb. On my blackberry.
no matter what the case may be, someone made a film they wanted to and are now going to possibly sell it for big bucks. crap film or not. low budget or not. they are living the bliss, more or less. congrats to them!
Sounds like I, Zombie which came out a decade ago. The only way they could make the $70 number is if they already had the equipment, everyone worked for free, and they went without permits or already had them. Seems more marketing hype than reality to me. Anyway, I zombie on wikipedia and IMDB.
Yeah, that makeup and effects costs more that $70, doesn’t it? I mean, unless everything was donated, but still, it cost somebody, right?
Like Unk said, the zombie-as-protag thing has never been done before — that makes it High Concept. I’ve been watching every zombie movie I could find to rent for the past year and a half, and I’ve yet to find one like this.
And as far as the budget just being a marketing scheme, I’d I agree if the movie had already been purchased by a studio. El Mariachi cost $7,000 before Columbia bought it and poured tens of thousands of dollars into fixing the sound and re-editing the entire thing (read Rodriguez’s book “Rebel Without a Crew”).The Blair Witch Project was shot for an approximate budget $30,000, but that budget figure soared after it was purchased.
Studios will throw out the original shooting budget as a marketing gimmick even when they spent so much more on it after buying it. But this film has not been purchased by a studio.
Did this film cost $70? I highly doubt it. Read the articles, they borrowed props and make up from previous films. I’m sure they didn’t include the camera cost or tape cost because they already had those items. They didn’t have to pay an editor cause they edited on their home PC or Mac. If you added up the cost for everything that went into making this film, it’d probably total more than a thousand or two thousand dollars.
But why quibble? It’s obvious, just by watching the trailer, that they made this film on the super cheap and now they’re finding success. All because they took time to develop the concept.
I WILL quibble, if you like. My point is, I get perturbed by films boasting their tiny budgets, which in turn, inspires young filmmakers with the “you can do it, too!” pipe dream. I’ve seen too many first timers crushed and disheartened to the point of giving up their dreams entirely. I just want to put a dose of reality out there. Filmmaking is hard, difficult work. It is NOT glamorous. But it IS the greatest, most rewarding job ever. imho.
If the only, THE ONLY, reason you want to make a film or become a film director is to make big bucks… GET THE F*** OUT OF THE INDUSTRY I LOVE SO DEARLY!!
I know, I know… Not gonna happen.
Every year there will be more and more pipe dream, get rich quick wannabes making films and mucking up the DVD shelves and multiplex screens with dreck. ugh…
The way I look at it, someone who goes into any venture with the mindset that it’ll be easy then quits when it gets hard deserves their fate.
I was hooked by the relative ease at which Rodriguez broke in. I was naive when I first started writing and shooting. I discovered it was gonna be a hell of a lot harder than anyone ever said it’d be. But I never quit.
I too have met those who’ve given up after they realized how hard it’d be. And every time I meat a new one, I think, “One less to beat.”
I think we both agree on the problem, just not the culprit. I don’t think it’s the media’s, studio’s, or filmmaker’s fault. It’s our fault for not having louder voices.
I think it’s awesome that this film is getting such great exposure. Kudos to the filmmaker.
However, I find it crazy that no one has done a little research in regards to the concept. Colin is NOT the first script to tell a zombie story from the POV of a zombie.
Fango released a movie called I, Zombie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210740/) a number of years ago with this exact premise. It was way ahead of its time, but far too nihilist and depressing to ever get the kind of buzz Colin is getting. It was one of the most jarring movies I had ever seen at the time. lol.
Got to say,
1. High Concept (or high idea?) is quite possibly the dumbest fucking euphemism I’ve ever heard.
2. Judging from the Trailer it looks like another viral home made film, it will get a lot of hype, possibly make money and then you’ll never hear from the people who made it ever again. Because it was tripe of the moment.
3. Hollywood flies fly around shit and honey with the same amount of enthusiasm.
If all that Canne does now is create hype for flicks like this, I got to tell ya, my hope for the future of cinema and it’s immortality is drawing closer to it’s end.
Why do research when you can spout out statements as if you know what you’re talking about?
That’s my motto.
What Jonny said … while I’m always happy when a great genre film done with excellence breaks out, I don’t see that this is necessarily a high concept … it doesn’t play that way for me from the trailer … the trailer makes it look like another zombie flick … and the zombie as a protag doesn’t strike me as unique at all …
But again, I’m not crapping on the film, it could be great (I thought 28 Days Later was a pretty good movie, more unique than most, and I liked the sequel as well) … just that I’m missing the high concept part of this idea … or maybe I’ve read too many zombie scripts (there are zombie westerns, zombie space movies, zombie love stories, there are a lotta zombie scripts, ain’t there) … I dunno.
I, too, am skeptical of the budget claims. Every movie costs $2184.
lol. Very true, Nick and Joshua.
Just to clarify, I wasn’t suggesting Unk was the one at fault here. All the press (including THR and Variety) have been crediting the film as “the first of its kind” or something thereof.
I think what would make Colin high concept would be the other half of the story. It’s a zombie movie, and the titular character turns into a zombie, but what’s the rest of the story? I, Zombie was the same basic premise and it was anything but high concept. Original, sure, but not high concept. It’s the “and then what” that separates a concept like this.
Of course, I have no idea what the rest of the story is, so from where I’m sitting I agree with Joshua. From the trailer it doesn’t seem too high concept to me.
Thanks for the laugh MaryAn.
LOL.
The idea of COLIN is high concept because we’ve all seen enough zombie flicks to be able to visualize the rest of the movie (more or less) when someone says to you, “COLIN is told from the point of view of the zombie.”
Plain and simple.
Do we know what we’re gonna see? Nope. But that doesn’t matter… Additionally, only hardcore zombie film aficionados have seen or heard of I ZOMBIE. The fact that COLIN played at CANNES doesn’t hurt either.
Was it made for $70? Who cares? Of course that’s a certain amount of HYPE to get everyone back on the “I’m gonna make a movie!” bandwagon as well as to go see this movie if and when it comes to a theater or DVD player near you.
It’s high concept because we can FILL IN THE BLANKS without having someone explain it to us.
Unk
I’ve not heard high concept described in that way before.
“High Concept” is just another term for “hook”. For those of you crapping on the term, it doesn’t necessarily denote the intelligence or superiority of the script (or even the idea). It can be a stupid movie still, but it’ll probably make lots of money because high concept movies draw audiences. They draw audiences because the idea is different enough to grab you and make you want to see it.
I love zombie movies, but they are done to hell. But I’ve never seen a movie (regardless of whether there was one made 10 years ago or not) where the fucking MAIN CHARACTER is a zombie. That’s DIFFERENT, and I want to see this movie now. And therefore, it’s High Concept.
Who’s “crapped” on the concept? News to me.
Unk suggested HC meant ‘visualizing’ outcome. I’ve always seen HC as having a couple of elements:
1. A clear and easily understood logline. In other words the concept is clear and easy to express, and,
2. Mass appeal.
Do zombie movies have mass appeal? I’m not convinced that they have that draw and if there is any outcome beyond a whole lot of death to the zombie ‘fighters’ and ultimate annihilation to the zombie(s), I have no idea what the outcome is – or what to visualise actually. I mean, despite it’s ‘twist’ does it essentially have the same outcome or path most zombie movies have?
Lastly, I’ve always been told high concept meant a lot of box office profit.
It’s been suggested Colin will reap that. Will it? *shrug*
Questioning something does not mean, by default, “crapping” on it.
Susan,
“Got to say,
1. High Concept (or high idea?) is quite possibly the dumbest fucking euphemism I’ve ever heard.”
That’s what i was referring to, specifically. Of course, other people (such as yourself) also questioned why the film is considered High Concept, and I was also discussing that in the same breath.
As for High Concept films creating lots of box office profit, I’d say that it doesn’t necessarily. You can have High Concept movies that bomb (Waterworld?). It’s the “concept” that’s high, not the execution, or the success. Those kinds of movies often turn a profit however, and that’s why studios love them, and why someone might say they create mounds of money. But it’s not a way to classify, because that would mean any film that makes a lot of money is High Concept. And regardless how much Sense and Sensibility makes, it aint High Concept. Unless you somehow fit zombies into it.
Trevor said people were crapping on the term “High Concept”.
The problem with that term is that is has so many different interpretations and, quite frankly, negative connotations. In my mind, High Concept means great concept or amazing concept or even box office winning concept. High Concept films don’t have to be well made or poorly made, they just have to have a High Concept.
Maybe we just need to come up with a new term for it so people won’t go ape-shit every time they hear a movie is High Concept.
Oh, and you can never have too many zombie movies.
Nick.. I knew what he said – sorry if saying “concept” implied a huge difference to “term” but, fair enough. I was simply pointing out that discussion and difference of opinion on what a ‘term’ means is cool. To me even saying “ape-shit” is something I don’t quite understand.
Power to you re enjoyment. I’m too much of a scared rabbit to enjoy zombie films. I don’t watch them and wouldn’t watch a full on horror either.
Susan,
Sorry, when you asked who crapped on the concept, I thought you were referring to the concept of COLIN, not the concept of High Concept.
That to me constitutes, both crapping on High Concept and going ape-shit about it. And I can’t speak from Trevor, but I was generally speaking about this and past discussions that’ve been had on this blog about High Concept.
By the way, I haven’t found any of your comments to be either crapping on High Concept or going primate-feces on it.
So many people hate the phrase HIGH CONCEPT (I don’t) that now THE BIG IDEA is coming into vogue — see the video in this post:
http://www.unknownscreenwriter.com/while-work-my-way-up-to-an-actual-post/screenwriting/2009/06/01/
The transition to THE BIG IDEA has been coming for a couple of years now and something tells me that it’s really popular right now because of the economy… LOL.
High Concept sounds too ’spensive…
Plus, ANYONE should be able to come up with a BIG IDEA, right?
The Big Idea is the AFFIRMATIVE ACTION of HIGH CONCEPT.
Jump on it.
Unk
:) Excellent.. I tend to confine primate-feces to the bathroom.
Is it a good sign for a movie to show more talent in creative accounting than any other department?
I don’t see this making millions at all. I don’t see it making thousands to be honest with you, i see the idea being heard and then ripped off by hollywood.
It’s a good concept but obviously far too low budget to make it mainstream.
Whoa. Alright… Millions, no, but heck – everyone loves a good zombie movie.