On the mean streets of Nottingham, an inept bunch of crooks rob from the rich and sell to the poor at half price. Ready to steal anything, Jumbo (Shane Meadows) and his friends drink, dance and plan their biggest heist yet. Against Snienton's hippies. As 'the lads' gear up for the big heist, Malc and Kate are trying to break free from this world of petty theft and dodgy deals. Kate is keen to make a fresh start away from Sneinton, but can she get Malc to leave his long term friends behind?
STILLS
BACKGROUND
After making about 20 short films on the same few streets of Nottingham,
Shane came to realise that most of the people he worked with were
all about to start moving away pretty soon. The idea behind Smalltime
was to make a longer piece to celebrate their time working together
on short films before everyone went their seperate ways.
Shane wrote the original script (originally
titled 'Left') during his lunch breaks whilst he was working as
a volunteer at Intermedia Film and Video in Nottingham. This was
the first time Shane had written a script, and although he enjoyed
the writing process, he found it got difficult and complicated
as he approached the end. It was at this point that he decided
to use improvisation, and what's more, he decided to pretend that
he had always intended to improvise from this point.
Shane approached the BFI Production Board looking for funds to
complete the film. After seeing just ten minutes of footage, they
snapped up the rights to both Smalltime and Where's the Money,
Ronnie?
TRIVIA
The film was originally titled 'Left'. An
earlier, alternate cut of the film exists with this name, and
may be included on a future DVD release.
Approximately 13 hours of footage was shot during the filming
of Small Time. The final cut of the film is just over an hour
in length.
The budget for the film was approximately
£5000. Funding came from the BFI Production Board who also
got the film shown at the London Film Festival in 1996 (complete
with the short film 'Where's the Money, Ronnie?').
Unfortunately, Small Time is not currently available on DVD.
The VHS edition however also features the Shane Meadows short, "Where's The Money, Ronnie?"
