Britain's best film directors

In class we read an article about some of Britain's best film directors who are all different in good ways. The ones we learnt about are famous for directing short films which I will be doing for coursework.

Ridley Scott -
                             Short Film - Boy and Bicycle (1965)

• His brother acted the boy in Ridley's first film 'Boy and bicycle'.
• Has 25 films in development.
• Worked on Allen (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Thelma and Louise (1991), Black Hawk Down (2001) and Gladiator (2000).
• Made the film 'Boy and bicycle' with only £65
• Didn't plan who to target film and had no one to advice him as he didn't go film school.

Ken Russell
                   
                        Short Film - Amelia and the Angel (1957)

• First film called 'Amelia and the Angel' made in 1958.
• Directed Oscar winning 'Women in Love'(1969) and Tommy (1975)
• Argentinean Mercedes Quadros played actress Amelia.
• £100 was enough to make film.

Shane Meadows
                               Short Film - Where's the money, Ronnie? (1995)

• Directed film 'This is England' and the drama on Channel 4.
• Shot films like Room for Romeo Brass (1999), Once upon a Time in the Midlands (2002) and Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
• Was chucked out from college for financial reason and was supposed to be doing a job to pay debts but actually ended up doing volunteer work at a film centre.
• Made mistakes when shooting film 'Where's the Money, Ronnie?', but was comfortable with them.

Gurinder Chadha
                         
                             Short Film - I'm British but... (1989)

• Her films mostly focus on Asian people living in Britain.
• Her films are Bhaji on the beach (1993), Bride and Prejudice (2004), Bend it like Beckham (2002) and upcoming film it's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010).
• Was originally a journalist.
• Saw how the media was when it came to defining Indians after the riots in the 80's
• Her producer of 'I'm British but' said "We're supposed to be making a film about music not racism"
• Her work was all about challenging images of Indians in the media and that's what she did.

Stephen Frears

Short Film - The Burning (1967)

• After the success of his film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) he worked on Dangerous Llaisons (1988), High Fldelty (2000) and Oscar winning The Queen (2006)
• Didn't have a clue what he was doing when making his first film.
• The story is set in South Africa, but we filmed in Tangier.