Better late than never

Thought I would ease myself back into using this blog with something short and simple, then get myself back into the routine of using it properly.

This is England '86

With the premiere of Shane Meadows new follow on series "This is England '86" based on the characters from his BAFTA award winning film "This is England," this video interviews Shane Meadows about the new mini-series and his debut on TV.

At 6:40 in the video he brings up an interesting topic of how there is a snobbery between film directors about TV and how they think going to TV is a step down from the big screen. He mentions how directors such as Mike Leigh and Stephen Frears made their films for TV, and so while there are some directors who feel that TV is a lower grade medium for their work, others utilise it well.

I personally feel that if a director can create a mini-series that looks just as epic and incredible on TV than it would in the cinema then it is not a step-down, it can be a step-up. What ever story you have to contain in two to two and half hours of film, you can spread out and develop further in a 4 hour mini series. If done correctly, TV can allow a director to broaden his story, delve into the characters and develop everything a lot more than they can in a constrained time limit for film, and at the end of the day this allows for much bigger and better projects being made for TV.