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DVD - Dead Man's Shoes ABOUT THE PRODUCTION The character of Richard—part devil, part avenging angel, but mostly tortured individual—and Anthony, his innocent younger brother, came out of a conversation between actor Paddy Considine and director Shane Meadows. Both Shane and Paddy were appalled by the everyday atrocities that go unheeded in Britain’s small towns. In particular, at the age of 17, a close friend of Shane’s who had been bullied and was taking drugs, committed suicide. On returning 10 years later to the place where he had then lived, Shane discovered that his friend’s death had been forgotten. “There are a lot of small towns where these things go on, and although no one is directly responsible, crimes are forgotten,” says Shane. As Paddy puts it, “These terrible acts are buried and ingrained into the community but never addressed.” They both started to wonder what would happen if someone was to confront these crimes. From this idea, they originally developed the comic story of a social worker avenging by night, dressed as a superhero. But something wasn’t working. “All of Shane’s films have been comedies,” says Paddy, “but the humor comes from situations, not wacky characters. We didn’t want to just construct a generic comedy or a generic thriller, we wanted to go where the idea took us.” The more the character of the avenging angel developed, the darker and more brutal the story became. To some extent, Shane felt he’d run into a wall with the comedy genre. He explains, “We got half way through the original story [of DEAD MAN’S SHOES] and thought, firstly, it was really important to make a story about Richard and his brother Anthony, and secondly it would be much better to cover ground we’ve never covered. I’ve never had one murder in my films, let alone 10!” Bypassing Development Both Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine had experienced the way film projects can become stuck in pre-development and creative vision diluted. Both believed that, with a great idea, it was possible to make a film with a supremely quick turnaround. DEAD MAN’S SHOES is the result of a five-year working relationship and long-term friendship between Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine, who met at college. Although A Room for Romeo Brass marked their first film venture together, the majority of their time has been spent creating their own low budget short films outside what Shane describes as “the rigmarole that is feature film development.” The shorts form a sketchbook of ideas, and Shane’s previous film, Once Upon A Time in the Midlands had originally grown from one of their skits. Producer Mark Herbert of Warp films had worked with Paddy Considine
on the Chris Morris BAFTA-winning short film My Wrongs 8245-8249
and 117, and Paddy introduced Mark to Shane. Mark is one of the
few people to have seen their short film collaborations. Impressed
by the cinematic potential of the work and Paddy’s stunning range
of performance, Mark believed that with the basis of an idea, Shane
directing and Paddy starring, a fresh, more vital approach to filmmaking
could be achieved. The immediacy of their method jibed well with
Warp’s ethos to make films that are essentially about individual
creativity.
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