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Post by fattaxi on Aug 5, 2005 19:24:54 GMT
Sorry If this has been mentioned before If it has Im sure Dave will tell me and amend anything, i.e - Delete this post if needed! So when did everyone notice Shane, Im sure the majorite will be Dead Mans Shoes. I personally first noticed Shane 4 years ago, when studying Film at college. My friend told me of a director he had learnt about at his old college (hes two years older then me, he prevously studied Film Studies) this director happended to be Shane Meadows. So we went to his old college and tracked down his former lectuerer, he lent us a VHS copy of Small Time and Wheres The Money Ronnie. I've been hooked ever since! So tell me about your "first time"  Si xx |
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Post by PatrickCoyle on Aug 5, 2005 20:03:19 GMT
I remember 24-7 coming out, and seeing a bit of it on video. I was about 13 at the time, and couldn't get past the black and white (except for Night of the Living Dead).
From there, I was unaware of Shane for a while. Romeo Brass interested me, I must've seen a trailer for it somewhere and often deliberated over buying the DVD - but never did.
I was aware of Midlands when it was out, but didn't take interest in it.
So it was only really earlier this year with Dead Man's Shoes that I really got into Shane's films - bought Romeo and 24-7 as well as DMS, rented Midlands from the uni library a few times, rented Smalltime/Ronnie from central library. Funny thing is, I don't even know what it was that got me interested in DMS. It must have been a review or something on the Internet, I can't recall. One day I was just going mad on looking for Shane info, pre-ordering DMS and buying his other films.
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Post by Dave on Aug 6, 2005 1:06:24 GMT
I saw a review of 24-7 on some film review programme or other, and they showed the clip of all the lads sat in the boxing ring (see the CLIPS page to watch the same clip!).
I remember being struck by the natural acting style, and was immediately intrigued. Sadly 24-7 never appeared in a cinema near me, so I had to wait for it's eventual video release. In the mean time, I found out the name of the director and wondered if he had any other films that were already available to buy. I found out about Smalltime and went out and bought a copy without any idea of what to expect from it. The 18 certificate made me a bit apprehensive in some respects, as I thought it could be just some lame shock fest (I am still not too sure about why the film is an 18... is it just for the 'C' word??... I'm sure they would let that slip into a 15 these days).
Also at the time of 24-7's release, I remember seeing the Smalltime video being reviewed on Collins and Maconies Movie Club on late night ITV. They mentioned the name Shane Meadows again and I eventually twigged as to where I had heard the name before. They showed the clip of Jumbo arguing with Ruby about why she isn't coming with him to 'the lad's' (as they wake from their post car-boot sale nap on the sofa!).
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Post by Companero on Aug 8, 2005 11:51:32 GMT
The first time I came across Shane's name in print, was at the time of 24/7's theatrical release back in the Autumn of 1997. The film was championed as the arrival of a new British talent.
Still, I didn't catch the film until I received a time-coded VHS tape from the film's distributor but was totally blown away by it.
To put things in historical context, there had baeen a severe drought in terms of quality British films, that had started during the early 80s, when Thatcher's government screwed our industry. the few films that were made/released, were the sort of crap that would appeal to the US market, where the real money was made (i.e. Merchant/Ivory movies, which I have nothing but contempt for).
The only company that continuously made films that bucked this trend was Palace Pictures, run by Nik Powell and Stephen Woolley. Palace single handedly kept the British end up, so to speak, with marvelous films such as The Company of Wolves, My Beautiful Laundrette and Mona Lisa.
Unfortunately, Palace became a casualty of the "let's compete with the Yanks" school of film production, that had sank the only other prolific UK company, Handmade Films. After a succession of costly flops, Palace went under, but ironically had either made or bought the UK rights to The Crying Game, Howard's End and Reservior Dogs - three films that would have saved the company's bacon, had they been released the year before.
Powell and Woolley continued to make films together, well into the late 90s, under the name of Scala Productions - named after the Cinema they used to own in Kings Cross - 24/7 was made by Scala and is a testinment to the duos ability of embracing new talent.
Luckily, our industry survived the hardship of the 80s and early 90s, and there has been many great films to emerge from the UK in recent years but 24/7 was released right at the begining of this rennaissance, making it a real landmark in the history of UK cinema.
As I've mentioned on other posts - the more films you watch, the more critical you as viewer, become. It's very exciting to recognise a new voice in cinema and it's encouraging, to say the least.
Shane's films have consistantly struck a cord with me - even Once Upon A Time In The Midlands, which fiercely divided critics, stands head and shoulders above most other British films from that year.
I cannot think of another UKh-based filmmaker that's been as consistant as Shane in making decent films -which highlights Shane's ability as a filmmaker but also underlines that our industry is still lacking and has a long way to go before we can compete with American Independent Cinema.
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Post by StrayGoat on Aug 24, 2005 20:20:22 GMT
I stumbled upon Smalltime when I was at uni...I used to blow my grant on booze and a weekly fix of bargain videos from HMV...you know, like 5 for £30 or whatever. I got Smalltime in one of those and liked it. A short while after, TwentyFourSeven came out on video so I got that as well and I've been hooked ever since. I got Romeo Brass on its first day of release (tried to get to a cinema screening, but I wasn't driving then so it was a no-go). Then I used to scour the web at work for info on Shane's next projects etc.
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Post by robinblamires on Aug 26, 2005 7:00:15 GMT
At college someone brought in DMS which he planned to use as a case study for an essay (although he never used it in the end opting for Goodfellas instead due to a lack of research). This inspired one of the lecturers to screen the whole film and although it wasn't the major aim of the film it had me in stitches. The minute I saw Richard approaching Big Al and Gypsy John with the spray paint I thought "surely not" but we saw the end result and Big Al's reaction to "those three twats" was hillarious. This lead me into becoming interested in Shane's other films and shorts and in my opinion is one of the best British directors around.
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Post by sinbad1971 on Aug 30, 2005 10:15:24 GMT
Bit of a latecomer I'm afraid, but Simon Pegg cited 'Dead Man's Shoes' as one last years best films on Film 2005 with Johnathon Ross. Which gave me the inkling to seek it out, still haven't seen 24-7 and OUATITM but plan to do so as soon as possible.
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Post by RydCook on Sept 19, 2005 19:14:30 GMT
^ wow i didnt know simon pegg said that! he's a legend, and he like's another legend's films awesomeness. anyway back to the topic, i first realised about meadow's work last year just before the release of dead man's shoes in the cinema. shane meadows was coming into my sixth for college to talk about his new release (DMS) and about his short films because we had our 4 min film coursework coming up. so our film teacher showed us the start of 24/7 and after seeing that i loved it, so i went and brought it, and watched it before he came to my college. i loved it and was very excited to be able to see the guy who directed it talk about his experiances. so when he did come in for the talk it gave me an insight into his work and i loved the way he worked. he also showed some of his shorts which interested me hugely. i was gonna go see dead mans shoes in the cinema after that, but it didnt happen, but i still saw it before release out on dvd, because my media teacher worked in the picture house (cambridge) and got hold of a vhs version of the film with the timecode at the top and showed it to our class because we were to study it for the "british cinema" part of our media course. i also did my "critical research" part of my media course on shane meadows with particular focus on dead mans shoes. to date i've only seen 24/7 and DMS and the majority of shane's shorts and loved them all. i plan to buy room for romeo brass soon (which i have only seen clips of) and maybe watch OUATITM if it comes up.. but least need to see it mainly cos shane hates it. but yeah thats how i got into shane meadows, fun! i always go through uttoxeter as well (where shane was born?/raised?) cos its on the weay to my bro's uni in stafford, and thats where im goin to uni too.. so yeah interesting fact. laters people
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Post by PatrickCoyle on Sept 19, 2005 21:44:54 GMT
Simon Pegg isn't a legend. Neither is Shane. The Minotaur is a legend. Jason and the Argonauts are legends. The midget suicide in the background of the Wizard of Oz is a legend.
From dictionary.com...
An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.
A body or collection of such stories.
A romanticized or popularized myth of modern times.
One that inspires legends or achieves legendary fame. (Again, this may apply to filmmakers like Frank Capra or Hitchcock or even George Romero - but neither Shane nor Simon have achieved legendary status beyond the generic studenty "Legend!" war cry... Which in fairness has taken away any credibility or meaning of the word when they use it)
An inscription or a title on an object, such as a coin.
An explanatory caption accompanying an illustration.
An explanatory table or list of the symbols appearing on a map or chart.
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Post by Dave on Sept 19, 2005 23:16:05 GMT
Simon Pegg isn't a legend. Neither is Shane. The Minotaur is a legend. Jason and the Argonauts are legends. The midget suicide in the background of the Wizard of Oz is a legend. From dictionary.com... An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical. A body or collection of such stories. A romanticized or popularized myth of modern times. One that inspires legends or achieves legendary fame. (Again, this may apply to filmmakers like Frank Capra or Hitchcock or even George Romero - but neither Shane nor Simon have achieved legendary status beyond the generic studenty "Legend!" war cry... Which in fairness has taken away any credibility or meaning of the word when they use it) An inscription or a title on an object, such as a coin. An explanatory caption accompanying an illustration. An explanatory table or list of the symbols appearing on a map or chart. What a weirdly pedantic post! Bored?  Although have you ever met Shane Meadows or Simon Pegg... do they actually exist? Ahhhhhh! ;D |
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Post by PatrickCoyle on Sept 20, 2005 3:15:32 GMT
I've become very pedantic about the word "legend" over the last year or so, yeah. Especially if people wear sandals when they say it!
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Post by jtrodreigez on Sept 20, 2005 9:03:08 GMT
how about the word jumped up cock sniffer with dolphin teeth.
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Post by RydCook on Sept 20, 2005 11:44:47 GMT
to patrickcoyle:
wow, chill winston. i call loads of people legends, it just means i like them very much. so i have changed the meaning slightly.. meeh who cares? gay used to mean people who were very happy, now it means homosexuals, do you write an essay about what gay means everytime someone says it?
in my view they are legends, thats my opinion, i dont care if no one else thinks they are, or if they dont come under the strict definition of a legend, what if i don't want to abide by the rules of the dictionary? what if i wanted to call my friend a moose? would you write an essay about that?: "your friend clearly isn't a moose because first of all he does not have antlers, nor does he have hooves etc etc...."
now shut it, you gay moose legend!
oh and talking about getting things right firstly its george A romero, and i am not a student now, i have a full time job. get it right son!
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Post by jtrodreigez on Sept 20, 2005 16:09:25 GMT
hahahahaha i love you big paddy coyle but you just got owned by the main man RyD22.
hahahahahahahahahahaha
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Post by PatrickCoyle on Sept 20, 2005 22:40:18 GMT
Yeah, that dictionary doesn't know what it's on about. It makes out we have a language! I'm sure David Dickinson from Bargain Hunt is right up there with Cleopatra.
Cleopatra the Egyptian queen as opposed to that girl group from a few years back. Dickinson's probably higher than them in the totem pole that leads to actual legendary status. Even if he is a smarmy orange bastard.
And I hear that the studenty, meaningless "legend" has been dropped in favour of "leg end". How droll. But if even I've heard of that, everyone else must have?
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