*FILM* Colin Can't Be Killed

[Dave]

First up... this short isn't mine in anyway, shape or form. I am putting a link to it on here on behalf of someone called Michael Keogh who I have had contact with via email a few times. Why he hasn't signe dup to this site is anyones guess! haha. Anyway, I thought this short film was worth a look.

This was the message Mike included in his emai to me:

Have a butchers at this 10 minute short film its very funny I wrote and shot it on Monday go to www.bringitgiveitfilms.com/watch+hear.htm all you do is click the play icon when you see me with a dodgy tache and glasses!! Enjoy

I CAN'T GET THIS POST TO RECOGNISE THAT ENTIRE LINK, so you can also see the film here:

[RydCook]

not bad at all. obviously very shane meadows inspired. a wonderful character, a great idea, and he isw acted very very well indeed. i kinda felt sorry for the guy because i felt sure that he just Believed that he couldnt die, if you get me? where in actual fact he can. like he said he could run fast.. he couldn't so i'm thinking the character like makes it all up in his head because he's lonely, but i could be wrong. this is what makes the film great, because theres alot for the audience to think about.

i know its a comedy, but i never really laughed, this is because i think the funny bits were a little too obvious. you knew he wouldnt make that jump, and you know really he wont be able to run fast, it was just a little.. "i know whats gonna happen now"

even though i didnt find the film funny, i still loved it. great acting, great editing, great script/dialogue, all make this film wonderful. I do also feel it could have been that little bit shorter, i know its scary to cut stuff down, but sometimes it changes a film for the better.

anyway excellent effort, its brill!

hope you can send this feedback to Michael, thats if he doesn't come on these forums. i'll leave the same thing as a you tube comment.

[flashpointharry]

That was very good, I thought. Colin reminded me of Kip Dynamite!

[Dave]

The chap playing Colin is Mike, the same person that wrote and made it.

I didn't mention my thoughts on the film did I!

Well, I thought it was good stuff. Pretty astounding acting from Mike, especially as alot of the film is just a close up of his face and it still holds your attention. In fact, I felt more engaged on the talking-head bits than the outdoor scenes.

I didn't see any Meadows connection myself... although I guess it is similar to the Shane's World short, Macca's Men in that it focuses on one character telling his own story. This was different though I thought, because it presented a bizarre subject as a deadpan documentary, whereas Macca's Men never really contained anything particularly bizarre (except perhaps for the teeth!).
I commented to Mike that it reminded me of the style of sketch sometimes used in Chris Morris' Jam. In Jam, there is often a completely nonsensical subject being talked about, but always with the most serious of acting style.

The whole thing being written. shot and edited in one day is pretty phenomenal too.

[wiggy]

i thought that was fantastic! i didn't find it at all funny but instead quite sad and moving by the way it was done. dropped on his head as a baby and wishing he wasn't special then wishing he was dead so he would know what it was like! very well done indeed, my only criticism would be that if he had spent more time on it and made better use of the out door scenes then it would have been much better but that is only a very minor one and it really was very good. over all a very "nice" film.

[Dazza]

Wow have just watched the film and absolutely loved it. I thought it was one of the best short films I have seen in a while and that the acting was brilliant. The tone of the actors voice and small things such as the tash, the buttoned up shirt and broken glasses worked a treat. You could see the emotion in the actors face and the music that played as he spoke was fantastic it fitted so well.

It was such a good film based around such a subtle idea of immortality.

The style of this film was a cross between early Shane meadows and early Peter Kay stuff; it was a dry subtle kind of humour that I like.

I genuinely felt for the character of Colin and my own perception was that colin was the kind of guy who had been picked on throughout his life and had created this vision of immortality. Where he says how he would trade it all in to be normal and sometimes he would like to die it kind of gives me the bullied theory and how he just wants to fit in and be like everybody else.

My only criticism could be that the camera shots could have been a bit stiller, did you not use a tripod? Also maybe make it a bit shorter as ten minutes is a fair bit of time to get someone to sit down for.

On the whole well done it was a great film.

[Tom]

Hello all. There seems to be a little confusion over the film - it was actually written by myself, Tom Wilton and Mike Keogh, and we shot it in Derby at the start of last week.

Shane Meadows is one of many influences of mine, as is early Chris Morris stuff - Brass Eye was stand out stuff (for my sins, never seen Jam).

This was my first short (I've been doing lo-fi features for the past few years) and it was just a little idea that I wanted to do. Mike was in my most recent feature - Icharus Broken, and whilst crashing at my place, I proposed we make Colin. It was all adlibbed stuff - sharing a few ideas - hence the co-written credit, and we nipped out and shot it just over a week ago. It was online that same night.

Massive fan of indie film makers, and I know there are a few of you guys here, so if anyone wants to link up or chew the fat, you can find me through www.bringitgiveitfilms.com

Thanks for all the great reviews guys - nice to find a forum where it's not people all lamenting the state of the UK film industry, blah blah blah. One of the reasons I'm making films is Romeo Brass, and so to have been told that this site exists. Wow.

If you wanna butchers at anything else on my site, go peek. I'll add a link to this site as well now that I know it exists!

Cheers guys.

Tom.

[Dave]

Whoops! Sorry I didn't give you any credit!

[keo]

Hey Dude's
Thanks so much for all the amazing comments about "Colin" I'm bowled over by them. I'm Michael Keogh i played "Colin". Tom and myself have had loads of really great feedback about it. We did "colin" to promote Tom's new feature film called "Icharus Broken" and it seems to be doing well, fingers crossed more people will watch "Colin". Please pass it on to friends, the more people watch it the better. Thankyou so much for being positive about it!!

All the Best

Mike

[Tom]

Ha ha. No drama dude. It's all good. I will get the DVD of Icharus to you - think I have one with Colin on it as well.

Cheers. Tom.

[Dazza]

Guys as your film inspired me after I watched it last night and as I was super bored I decided to try something new out so I made a short 4 minute film which stars purely me playing a football fan called Neville that works at Mcdonalds but his passion in life is football and as its the world cup I thought why not make something a little silly. Its ok but no award winning piece, when I get home later I'll upload it to one of my sites I use and post a link for you to see.

[GADGE!]

I REALLY REALLY ENJOYED THE SHORT I THOURGT IT WAS BOTH FUNNY AND SAD.I FEEL SYMPATHY FOR COLIN POOR GUY

GADGE!

[GADGE!]

I JUST WATCHED THE TRAILER FR ICHARUS BROKEN AM I RIGHT IN THINKING THE TITLE IS SOMEHOW LINKED TO THE ACIENT GREEK MYTHOLOGIC STORY OF ICHARUS WHO FLEW TO CLOSE TO THE SUN??
GAGDE!

[Tom]

Hey Gadget. Yes - there is refence to Icarus (I deliberately mis-spelt it for my title). It refers to the concept of being single-minded in the pursuit of your goals, and how sometimes that can be at a great cost. in Icharus Broken, we see Bobby, fresh out of prison, pursue the guy that he feels is responsible for him going down. It's the effect that ripples from the consequences of his actions that inform the film.

If you would like to see the film, let me know. Here's an idea - anyone on this forum who wants a DVD of Colin and Icharus Broken, let me know. If you're all Meadows fans, I think this film will appeal to you. One of my other influences is the work of Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Amores Perros). Email me your address details, and I'll post you a DVD with both Colin and Icharus on it. Not doing this for anyone else or through any other sites, so let me know. Icharus was written, shot and cut within six months (Nov '05 - May '06), and wass done for £1,600. Proper lo-fi stuff.

This film was shot almost entriely in Derby and Derbyshire, so it'a a Midlands thing. If you do want a DVD (and you promise not to stick it on bloody Limewire!) email me: [e-mail]

Would love to know what some real film fans think.

Cheers guys. Tom.

[Tom]

Dazz - that's ace that you just got out and did a short. Nice one. Lemme know when I can check it out. Cheers mate. Look forward to having a butchers.

Tom.