Shane Meadows

• Shane Meadows is a self taught British filmmaker from the Midlands
• He was born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire on 26th December 1972
• He dropped out of school before reaching his O levels and intended to be a criminal mastermind
• He was caught buying a stolen set of John Lowe darts and admitted to stealing an egg custard tart from Sainsbury's, it was clear the criminal underworld wasn't for him
• When his criminal charges were read out in court, laughter could be heard from the gallery and judges bench after it was revealed he had stolen a breast pump from Boots, this was when he decided to embark on a career in filmmaking
• In 1994 Shane volunteered his services to the Nottingham based Intermedia Film and Video Ltd, he was allowed to borrow camcorders and editing equipment in exchange for working there for free
• He asked his friends and family to get involved in his films at first
• After he had made a couple of short films, his friends watched them and were impressed, they decided they wanted to get involved in the future
• After making a short film every month, Shane and his friends were frustrated there were no festivals or venues to screen their films
• They set up their own event called 'six of the best' which was held every couple of months in an old local cinema
• The event grew in popularity and eventually became an international video festival called 'flip side'
• The first of Shane's films to grab attention was ''Where's the money, Ronnie?"
• He then made a documentary for Channel 4's 'battered Britain' season called 'King of the Gypsies'
• Shane then made a film called 'smalltime' which was an example of Shane's philosophy for aspiring filmmakers, stick to what you know and you won't go far wrong
• Shane then made his first feature film Twentyfour seven which led to This is England
• As Shane looks to future feature length projects, he still likes to create short films as much as he can