Calvin Sang

Calvin Sang is 19 and lives in Auckland. The short film was filmed in the sleepy suburb of Ellerslie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyY8kqPl5Jc Published on Apr 20, 2012 The full length zombie-comedy-action-drama movie. Made with a budget of around $100, between school and during holidays. Tweet this video! http://clicktotweet.com/2A6Th Subscribe for more http://bit.ly/S3QCuw Check out http://calvinsang.com for more! Directed by Calvin Sang Starring Reuben Bray Jeremy Tant Philippa Stephens Technical stuff for the filmies: Shot on the Canon 60D using 50mm 1.8 and 18-135mm lenses. Edited on Final Cut Express, After Effects. Dir: Calvin Sang Starring: Reuben Bray, Jeremy Tant, Philippa Stevens Available: www.calvinsang.com / YouTube A Kiwi curveball that fuses a rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic with a distinctly dry sense of humour, Holdout’s impressive prosthetics, swift action sequences and budget-belying slayings all make for a satisfying snack of zombiedom. Ultimately though, it’s the sweet tale of companionship around which the carnage is crafted that makes it so commendable. Director Calvin Sang is something of an indie scene grafter: having started making films at the age of nine, even he can’t recall how many he’s produced. With such a prolific resume, he was bound to stumble into the genre sooner or later. “After I had seen Shaun Of The Dead and Zombieland, I thought ‘what the hell’ and just went for it. I have friends that are good at makeup and blood and all that so there was really no excuse not to.” The minimal funding (approximately $100) proved the biggest challenge in getting the film made. “Being the longest – and most ambitious – film that we had done, it wasn’t something we could film over a weekend like we normally did. We had to do it in the school holidays, chunks at a time, over the span of a year. One time we had to delay filming for a few weeks because one of the leads cut his hair really short. That’s the limitation of a zero/low budget film.” The convincing special effects, however, look anything but cash-starved; so just how was such a high quality achieved on such a low budget? Explains Sang: “Computers and software are so powerful nowadays – it’s kind of amazing what you can find people doing online, just in their spare time. I have some films that rely heavily on effects, like some action films on my YouTube channel. And I have character driven films that don’t have any effects at all. Holdout was a marriage of the two I guess. At the heart of it, it’s about friends and isolation. But it’s also a zombie movie, so it needs to have that kinetic, gory aspect to it as well.”