Darren Harkin

Faustina Starrett
Unit 11: Film Studies
Pearson BTEC Level 4 HNC Diploma Creative Media Production

Auteur theory is something that holds a directors vision but reflects the directors creative
vision, its mostly known as someone who has total creative control of their work,
without the help of anyone else, being ones own artist. Although some would disagree
with this theory, as some believe that it takes a team to create a product, as there is many
different jobs within filmmaking like cinematography, scripting, camera operator, sound,
editor, and composer. And that is what I want to find out in my assignment if that the
director I have chosen Shane Meadows is he worthy of the title of auteur.
The Term Auteur is also seen as a film director who influences their films so they rank as
their author also means that a directors film reflects the directors persona; creative vision
or to put ones stamp of work on a piece of work.
Francis Truffaut a critic who thought up the phrase 'politque des auteurs, and also he is
known for making films such as The 400 Blows and Jules and Jim 1Which refers to
the aesthetic policy of vagrancy directors. Critics like Truffaut knew that filmmakers
were working within restrictions of the Hollywood system and the types of films and
their scripts were often decided for them, directors were working along with teams of
people to put their work together.

1 Truffauts filmography

But these critics believed that such artists could none the less achieve a personal style in
the way they shot a film. The idea of auteur gained currency in America in the 1960s.
Through Andrew Sarris he evolved, the notion of auteur theory. He used to tell the history
of American filmmaking through the career and works of an individual. Classing them
according to their according to their talents.
One of Andrew Sarris theatres was that over a group of films a director must exhibit
certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serve as his signature.
Hollywood then started to get wary of the idea that art of being over produced as
entertainment. A Biographer Donald Spoto2 said that Hitchcocks book of interviews
with Truffaut was about Hitchcock as the Auteur and were disappointed not to be
acknowledged for their contributions. Just about everybody who had ever worked with
Alfred Hitchcocks for interview including the writers, the designers, and the
photographers the composers and actors and others. So its a very big claim having
Auteur status.
So this essay I will look at the possibility of Shane Meadows fitting in with the great
cinemas auteurs.
Shane Meadows is a British film director who is producing films that explores stories
and England. Shane meadows once knew areas and streets, violence. Bullying, Gang
2 Franois Truffaut http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-waveencyclopedia/francois-truffaut.shtml

culture. But despite from Nottingham where he grew up and was born in. The Visual,
thematic, and autobiographical specificity of Meadows work stems not from the relative
sophistication of Nottingham. But instead the considerably less urbane environs of
Uttoexter. A small town situated agrarian hinterland between Derby and Stoke-on-Trent.
In his hands Shane Meadows has given a singular cinematic voice to the anonymous
spaces in England with the help of his affectionate semi-autobiographical, stories of
intuitive understanding of both character and locale. These might be fictionalized things,
from Shane Meadows boyhood but using these sources of inspiration he has made his
own stamp on film and television with his style of filmmaking.
Biography
Shane Meadows was born on the 26th December 1972 from the midlands in the UK, and
born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. As a child he attended the shows old fields hall middle
school and Thomas Allegres High School but Shane was shunned and bullied at school
because his father found a childs body while out on a job lorry driving, and was then
accused of murder in a case. Meadows left school just before reaching his GCSE's. He
almost turned to a life of crime but things didnt go according to plan. After being caught
buying a stolen set of limited edition John Lowe darts, and later admitting to stealing and
eating an egg-custard tart from the local Sainsbury's. Then the last straw with his his life
of crime when he was pretty much humiliated in court after criminal charges came
against him in court for stealing a breast pump from Boots the chemist. It was then clear
to him he wasnt cut out for the hardened criminal world. So he put this behind him and
put his energy into filmmaking.
But it was his regular visits to the Elite Cinema that gave him a love for film.
In 1994, Shane's first step into the world of filmmaking was to volunteer his services to
the Nottingham based Intermedia Film and Video Ltd. The arrangement was that he
would be allowed to borrow camcorders and use editing equipment in return for him
working there for free. Shane asked friends and family to get involved in his video
experiments, but they were understandably quite wary at first.
After Shane had put together a couple of short videos that he had made entirely on his
own, many of his friends watched them and became sufficiently impressed to want to
become involved in future video shorts. As their enthusiasm grew, they were soon
making nearly one new short fi3lm every month.
At the age of 20 he moved to Nottingham, during his time there he made roughly 30 short
films with his friends he met there.

3 http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk/who.htm Shane Meadow- About

Critic and filmmaker Franois Truffaut once expressed his view that distinctive
trademarks of a film could be a way of characterizing, defining a directors, auteurs work.
Shanes films are created to resemble the world today or a world in once knew and grew
up in as a child. The work of Shane Meadows is normally about real people and areas,
and politics in England when he was growing up. One of his Most Notable films is This
is England
.....' Which was about a young boy growing up in a working class community? And it is
the closet thing he has to a political statement. His occurred has from the outset
insistently registered the long-term social costs of thatcherile polices upon peripheral
working class communities. The film brings highlights some of Shane Meadows themes
he presents such as youthful tribalism, sartorial nouse and class-based communities, His
lead characters are normally male with low self-esteem and dysfunctional behaviour to
the symptoms of social fragmentation as seen in his films such as TwentyFoursSeven,
Romeo Brass and Dead Man Shoes the imitated link between social deprivation, mental
illness and self-destructive violence is rarely far from the surface. The film 'This is
England' has similar themes, as the young boy Shaun, like so many of Meadows
characters is a disoriented young of paternal guidance, as his father perished in the
Falklands. It has affected this young man phycology, he does not know where to turn to,
who to look up to, he doesnt understand whats next for him, so he latches on to people
that show him the slightest bit of affection which so happens leads him down a road of
self-destructiveness, violence, and the idea of masculinity
He sees in these, people because he is really reaching out for another father figure,
because its just Shaun and mum living at home, he feels mentally he needs guidance,
because doesnt know what path to go down, unfortunately leads him down a bad one. As
Shaun is hanging out with skinheads he then shaves his head which is kind of like a
baptism to be one of the gang, like a gesturing conferring membership of pro-social
collective built upon a ethos of tolerance and inclusivity4.

4 Wikipedia- This Is England

His inspiration

Shane Meadows was influenced by the likes of Mike Leigh,5 Ken Loach6 and Alan
Clarke,7 whose work focuses heavily on Marxism which is s a worldview and method of
societal analysis that focuses on class relations and societal conflict, which uses a
materialist interpretation of historical development, and a dialectical view of social
transformation. He is a director whose debt to the social realist tradition is self-evident.
But Meadows is a fundamentally a product of 1980s conflicting ideologies. Bolshie and
Independent in spirit, the director is both creative romantic and self-made businessman.
But Shane Meadows is a working class idealist who began making low budget films by
borrowing filming equipment.
Another piece of Shane Meadows notable works is Dead Man's Shoes
Dead mans shoes were a deliberate reaction to the unhappy experience of making 'Once
Upon a time in the midlands'. Filmed in just three weeks. Dead mans shoes marked a
5 Senses of cinema Mike Leigh profile http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/featurearticles/topsy_turvy/
Marxist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_film_theory
Shane Meadow- Website http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk

6Senses of cinema Ken Loach profile

http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/loach/
7Senses of cinema Alan Clarke http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/greatdirectors/clarke/

return to the semi-improvised territory favoured by the director. Both disturbing and
darkly comic. Dead mans shoes carries various genres , e.g. revenge melodrama, britwestern, rural horror film, surreal black comedy, while still keeping Meadows colloquial
idiosyncrasies. This is a transition into another genre, something different away from
Shane Meadows semi-autobiographical dramas.
As well as being a cinematic entrenpruer, Shane Meadows is a collaborator, in which he
works a lot with family and friends, which is a way for him to keep away from the
restrictions of mainstream filmmaking. Eschewing the indivualistic trappings of auterism,
he has a collaborative working method that is founded upon acommuncal ethos. He
creates an environment for his actors, which make makes them feel less uncomfortable,
so his actors can deliver a good performance. As Shane is known for re-using the same
actors for each film and television series he produces for e.g. Thomas Turgoose, Is in
films such as usually the main character. In 'This is England, This is England 86, 88', and
Somer Town'8

Other actor Shane Meadows has used variously is Paddy Considene, Vicky McClure,
Andrew Shim, Joe Gilgun, Stephen Graham, Bob Hoskins and Michael Socha. These
actors help him create formula, which he continues to have throughout his films, for e.g.
it maybe the same actor used in the films again and again, but they are different
characters, with different personalities and ideas in life.
We see this in other top cinema top cinema directors, who tend to recycle their actors
again and again, For instance, of the nine films Wes Anderson has directed, Bill Murray
and Owen Wilson have each appeared in six.
Martin Scorsese made eight films with Robert De Niro. Perhaps you've heard of some of
them: "Raging Bull," "Taxi Driver," "Mean Streets" and "Goodfellas," to name a few.
Scorsese has also directed five films with Leonardo DiCaprio, including "Gangs of New
York," "The Departed" and "The Wolf of Wall Street."
8 Shane Meadow fifty contemporary film
directorshttp://www.academia.edu/365611/SHANE_MEADOWS_Fifty_Contemporary_Fil
m_Directors_Profiles of Actors http://www.imdb.com
Profiles of Actors https://www.google.co.uk/#q=wikipedia

Johnny Depp has appeared in eight Tim Burton movies, including "Edward
Scissorhands," "Alice in Wonderland" and "Dark Shadows."

Leonardo Dicaprio in Shutter Island one of Martin Scorsese films. Leo starred in
many of Scorsese films including Shutter Island, The Departed, The Aviator and the
Wolf of Wall Street.9

9 Google images10 Director/Actor collaborations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_director_and_actor_collaborations

Johnny Depp, as Edward Scissor hands one of Tim Burtons many creations, Johnny
Depp has portrayed.10

10 Google images Same actors/Director http://mentalfloss.com/article/33665/13directors-who-work-same-stars-again-and-again

Bill Murray appeared in many films of Wes Andersons, for e.g. the grand Budapest
hotel, moonrise kingdom and the life aquatic of Steve Zissou and Rushmore.
Like the emphasis on community and mutuality in his films at the heart of Meadows
creative is a fundamentally humanist belief in the benefits of reciprocity.
A staunch autodidact, Meadows advocates an unpretentious DIY approach. 11
Which continues to manifest itself in his films such as the stairwell, a 15 second short
filmed on a mobile phone. He believes you don't have to stop yourself from filming
something, even if you don't have a 16mm to shoot your film on, which means if there is
a passion for something you have like filmmaking, the price of a camera should not hold
you, back if you have other devices that record, or if you have some sort of plan to create
some sort of short film to do it anyway, even the smallest and cheapest things like a
mobile phone to record on can develop into something bigger.

11 Fifty Contemporary
Directorshttp://www.academia.edu/365611/SHANE_MEADOWS_Fifty_Contemporary_Fil
m_Directors_

Shane Meadows receiving Empire Award in 2008.

Conclusion
So what I wanted to find out in this assignment is Shane Meadows an auteur?
Does he follow the trademarks of Franois Truffaut?12
Shane Meadows, he is a director whose plot and and stories that are sculpted together
with the power of his thoughts, his past, life, and the influence of Marxist directors. With
all these things as inspiration Shane meadows has created communities, areas and people
and scenarios from his time and area, not in the building sense but he has crafted and
incorporated these these things into his films and work over time, and all these things are
from the era and times he grew up in.
What Shane Meadows also does is re-use actors to create a formula of characters not to
create same character but to create a pattern of actors to portray each new character; the
actors are like a kind of signature in his films. Shanes way of filmmaking is way for him
to escape the label of auteur, by letting the actors act on their own time, to improvise and
having the belief that you could film on anything that records, which is a less unprentious
method than most directors, because most are keen to film on professional cameras, he
sees the idea that people waiting to film on something professional as an excuse, he feels
you should get filmmaking straight away if you have detail and plan for what you want.
Is Shane Meadows an auteur? Difficult question but he has showed signs of greatness
with his films representing working class communities, an interesting view on
filmmaking, giving easier ways for young filmmakers to create films without feeling
pressure of professional filmmaking.
I think he is an auteur, a unique one but one who wouldnt be happy with the label of
auteur. I feel he is a director who is trying to get across you have to work from the
bottom to get to the top in the film industry and you need a great team with you to do so.

12 Hitchcock Auteur?

Bibliography
Here is some sources I have used my assignment
http://www.film4.com/special-features/interviews/shane-meadows-on-screenwriting
http://alexwinter.com/media/pdfs/andrewsarrisnotesthe-auteurtheoryin1962.pdf
http://www.academia.edu/365611/SHANE_MEADOWS_Fifty_Contemporary_Film_Dir
ector_
http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Meadows

Other Sources used

This is England- DVD