Contact Please!

[filmlocomotive]

Hey,

Im a student from [glow=red,2,300]Wilsthorpe B and E College [/glow]used as a set for 'This is England', and i am carrying out a Media Studies coursework piece on Independant Film Companies and it would be helpful to make contact with Shane Meadows, to ask him a few questions.

Help Much Appreciated... ;D

[PatrickCoyle]

Your best bet might be to ask on here, mate. Or send him a private message.

[filmlocomotive]

Hello,

Private messaged Shane, with no success....

Running out of time on our project and we are depending on some sort of a reply.

Does anyone know who could help, or is there anyone out their who works for Independant Film Comapny who we could question.

Thanks again..Media Studies Students from Wilsthorpe B & E College.

[RichK]

Hi,

Exactly as Mr Coyle says, post your questions directly onto this forum! Lots of independent film people here.. and I bet there's very little you might want to ask that can't be answered by the rest of us! Please do post them, you'll be amazed at the response I'm sure...

Cheers,

Rich

[Lord Thribb of Hubris OBE]

I agree, just post your questions here.

BTW you've actually given me help by mentioning that your school was used as a location.

I'm collecting photos of TIE locations and despite being familiar with Wilsthorpe School ( I work for Derbyshire County Council ) I hadn't recognised it.

Good luck with your project.
Just a thought, if the school was used, there must have been some liaison with Shane's company, maybe your school office has contact details.

Paul

[RichK]

Paul, you only had to ask!! I didn't realise the school was one you hadn't ticked off.. UKZombie's probably had lunch there by now btw...!!!

[filmlocomotive]

Ok here's some questions?

1) What is an Independent Film Company budget for 'This Is England'?
2) How does a director chose a film location?
3) How many staff were used in 'This Is England'?
4) What equipment was used in 'This Is England'?
5) Who originally found the film locations in 'This Is England'?
6) How do you think the location presented the film, in 'This Is England?
7) Do you think the controversial issues (e.g racism) in 'This Is England' are acceptable to portray in entertainment, in modern society?

Apologies that some of the questions are so vague.
Help much appreciated..!

[RichK]

Hi,

I think I might be able to answer a few of these, especially 5.. I'm working at the moment but will try to get to them later on.

[RichK]

Hi,

Most of these questions have been answered at some point or other on these threads.. but to save you time..

1/. The budget was something in the region of £2.2million
2/. The location is chosen usually by a combination of the director, production designer and producer. The level of input from each depends very much on the project. In the case of "This is England" the choice was more down to Shane, because he is writer as well as director and maintains a greater degree of control over the entire "look" of the film. The location is chosen based on its suitability for purpose, specific area (we were never going to film the "school" scenes down in London, for instance), and level of visual interest. Wilsthorpe wins hands down, the story is set in 1983 and there are (were) many original features, the playground among the buildings with the planters was very unusual, very visually interesting, and could pass for the period. One of the classrooms still had an old chalk board, most nowadays have modern white-boards, and, equally as important, Wilsthorpe were prepared to accommodate filming during term time, which was both incredibly nice of them/you and very forward thinking and unusual.

3/. The shooting crew was around 35 people, up to 40 on really busy days. To see how many people were involved in the production from start to finish, watch the credits of the film and count the names! Several hundred I would have thought!

4/. The film was shot on 16mm film. Asking what "equipment" is quite a broad question!! For the night exterior shot of the gang arriving at Smell's party, we used a 56m cherry picker style crane with a 12,000 watt light rigged to it. This involved obtaining a court order to close a road (the crane's stabilisers completely fill a road) and rerouting traffic on a signed diversionary route. On other days, the camera spent the entire time on Danny Cohen's (director of photography) shoulder. Maybe pm me if you do need more specific equipment details!

5/. The locations were found by me, assisted by my regular assistant, Emma Yeomans. We started searching for locations about 8 weeks prior to the shoot. We found Wilsthorpe School at the end of the second week, approached your head teacher and things progressed very positively from there.

6/. I'm not sure I fully understand this question! If you mean "how well did the school fit the requirements of the film?" I would say, very well indeed! The "Harvey " character sitting in the planter being attacked by Shaun, just looks very good and works very well. Having said that though, Wilsthorpe was very interesting but there are other unmodernised schools in the area. This goes back to question 2 though, Shane immediately settled on Wilsthopre as an option because the location fitted the purposes of the film. I have worked with other directors who would not have made a decision to film there until they had seen the playgrounds of every single school in the Nottingham/Long Eaton region. I would literally have to present them with every single available option before they would choose! When this happens I know I'm in trouble! The decision making process can get incredibly detailed, splitting hairs on where might be the best place. The genius of Shane is his clarity of vision, sadly lacking in many other directors. If it can be made to work in a location, then shoot it there. If it can't be made to work, then keep looking for another location that does work. If it doesn't work but the location is amazing, change the story until it fits the location.. this final statement best sums up how Shane works, and it is incredibly refreshing from my point of view.

7/. I don't just think the controversial issues are acceptable things to portray, I think they are essential things to portray. This country has some major issues regarding National and cultural identities, so why hide behind a neo-liberal facade and produce anodyne films that are all warm and wishy-washy. Yes, in their place, no problem, but film, as an art form, really ought to be in the avant-garde, feeling the collective pulse, distilling it, and putting it onto the screen. "This is England" works so well because it is a period piece. Set in 1983, the story is far enough away to be considered historic, yet the topics could not be more current. A clever way of taking things far further than might have been acceptable had the story been set in 2007. I think other regular posters to the forum might wish to take up this argument and pad it out for you, as it really is probably the most involved of your questions.

Good luck with the project!

Rich

[Dave]

Rich is so bloomin' helpful all the time!

I think we should call him 'Special K' from now on. ;D

An interesting read once again, and I'm not even doing a project.

[Lord Thribb of Hubris OBE]

richk said:

Paul, you only had to ask!! I didn't realise the school was one you hadn't ticked off.. UKZombie's probably had lunch there by now btw...!!!

I should have recognised it myself, I've been there often enough, painted it once in the eighties!

My brother lives the other side of the fence but he didn't notice either.

Paul

[anonlytwin]

i've been needing some of that info myself rich, cheers mate