Shane Meadows - "Somers Town" "This is England"

I have recently baught "Somers Town" by Shane Meadows it is about a 16 year old from Nottingham moving down to London, where he has no money and his only bag of belongings gets robbed from him on his first night there. He then becomes freinds with a young Polish boy and starts going and staying at his house and gets a feel for the hard work orientated Polish way of life. The whole film is in black and white to show the depression and unhappyness felt by the two boys, untill the very end where they go to france to see a girl that they both fancied and is then in colour as you see shots of the boys having great fun and obviously happy.
I feel that his style of film has been quite an inspiration for "leaving Home", This first came to me when i was thinking of film ideas that wouldn't be too studenty but would be interesting for me, for some reason "This is England" another film by Shane Meadows kept coming into my head, and then after watching "Somers Town" I thought that i would like my film to be filmed in a similar style to these. The main thing I like about them is the slighlty gritty camera style and with not too many bright colours, it makes it feel a bit more realistic and seems more like everyday life than the standard bright Hollywood movies, which means i find the viewer can relate more with it rather than just thinking its a film. I also get a sence of slightly amateur actors in it which again just makes if seem more realistic.