His shoe-string budget zombie movie Colin proved the hit of the international festival circuit in 2008 and won him such high-profile fans as Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese.<\/p>\n
But it was while shooting a robbery scene for his new film Magpie that director Marc Price discovered that he\u2019d also attracted attention from very different quarters \u2013 South Wales Police\u2019s armed response unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were doing a late night shoot at the corner shop at the end of the street I live on in Swansea,\u201d says the 33-year-old who\u2019s no stranger to filmmaking on the hoof, guerrilla style.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d phoned ahead to arrange it and some of the staff had even stayed on after closing to be extras in the scene, but it looks like the news that we\u2019d be in there filming hadn\u2019t quite reached everyone because a neighbour must have spotted the guns and the hoodies the actors were wearing and called 999,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
As a result Price and his crew \u2013 not to mention the rest of the movie\u2019s cast who happened to be taking a break in a parked car outside \u2013suddenly found themselves staring down the barrels of some very imposing semi-automatic rifles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember my camera man, who\u2019s normally a very calm bloke, having this panicked look on his face and nodding to me, \u2018Er Marc, I think there\u2019s someone here to see you\u2019,\u201d adds Price.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt which point I turned around and there were about seven of them, big guys with big guns whose job it was to shoot other guys carrying guns \u2013 so we just dropped the cameras immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily though, Price says, it didn\u2019t take the officers too long to realise the whole thing had been a false alarm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously couldn\u2019t have been perceived as a serious threat because, despite the fact they had their weapons pointed at us, at no point were their fingers poised on the triggers \u2013 believe me, that was the first thing I made a point of noticing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact the only crime that had been committed was that Alastair Kirton, who played the undead lead in Colin, had been sitting behind the wheel of the getaway car but wasn\u2019t insured to drive it away,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not the first time Price has fallen foul of the long arm of the law either.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, a similar thing happened when I was still studying film at university, only this time we\u2019d hadn\u2019t called ahead to tell anyone what we\u2019d be doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, it was a scene where someone was waving a gun around in public and, again, a car full of armed cops turned up.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, it might have even been the same officers who recently dropped in on us on the set of Magpie,\u201d Price smiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m surprised they didn\u2019t take one look at me and go, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story of an estranged father who returns home to attend his young son\u2019s funeral, only to end up hijacking the coffin and taking it on a road trip, Magpie marks Price\u2019s first return to directing since his much-publicised, micro-budgeted horror caused a stir at prestigious showbiz bashes like Cannes.<\/p>\n
Rumoured to have cost only \u00a345 to make, thanks to the director borrowing all the equipment and shanghaiing his mates to star, Colin was a perfect example at how budding amateur film-making needn\u2019t have to break the band to break it big.<\/p>\n
But Price is quick to cite the real highlight of his career so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, being bigged up by Martin Scorsese was incredible,\u201d he says, recalling the tweet from a friend informing him that the Goodfellas director had singled Colin out for praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in an interview Scorsese had done with GQ in which he\u2019d said that he thought zombie films were dull to watch, except this little movie Colin he\u2019d just seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have died a happy man right then and there,\u201d says Price.<\/p>\n
* Magpie will get a private screening at the British Film Institute in London on November 30 before hitting cinemas in 2013.<\/p>\n
Read More http:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/showbiz-and-lifestyle\/showbiz\/2012\/11\/04\/colin-director-marc-price-reveals-the-perils-of-guerilla-filmmaking-91466-32159840\/#ixzz2BDLd2zBh