DMS Research - Inspiration

INSPIRATION

I think Dead Man’s Shoes is what Once Upon A Time in the Midlands was meant to be. If you look at the very, very bare-bones of the story, it’s the story of a stranger that comes back to town to confront a situation.

Three Tears For Jimmy Prophet was really the starting point for Midlands, and then over the course of 12 months of chipping away at all the good ideas, it turned into something completely different.. So, in a lot of ways… I don’t like saying it because I respect a lot of the actors…. but I almost push that film (Midlands) out of what I think of the films I’ve made and put Dead Man’s Shoes in place as kind of my third feature.. Which isn’t fair on the actors because I made a lot of friends.. But in terms of what happened, it was the most important thing that ever happened to me.. I never learnt anything from any of the other films until I made one I didn’t want to make, and I learnt everything I needed to know from that.

So I think Dead Man’s Shoes is a kind of reaction to that. I think Dead Man’s Shoes is more a genuine western than Midlands ever was. Midlands was trying to be one and Dead Man’s Shoes IS one.

______________

Some of the murders in Dead Man’s Shoes were inspired by other films. Me and Paddy watched Deliverance again, and it's the simplicity of the violence….. you know the guy that comes out of the canoe, and he’s got his arm dislocated around the back of his head.. As an image, that’s so disturbing because it’s so simplistic, and that inspired the guy in the case.

The mistake I made with Midlands was setting out to make a western. My films have always been like a bastardisation of different genres.. In my other films, I could never put my finger on which part was inspired by which thing.. I can look at Twentyfour Seven and I can be honest and say I got the conviction to make that in black and white from watching Raging Bull.. But in the end with Midlands, because I was trying to be very specific, that’s what lost me.. It’s like I dance around the fire, but I never put my hand in.. With Midlands I put everything in, you know, third degree burns.

So the principal is to take inspiration from things, but not to the point where I think, now I’m going to make a horror.. I think Dead Man’s Shoes has kind of got horror in it, and its got supernatural things in it, it’s got western and there’s also the same social comedy that’s in my other films.. On that level I was more honest with myself and I kept what’s 'me' about it, but I still took inspiration… it’s just not as specific as it was on Midlands.


http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk/briefscript.htm