Okay, so usually this would be the moment where I would go…”Not literally”…But think about it. If it weren’t literal it would mean Danny Boyle had been talking absolute crap…And let’s face it. If there is one man on the planet who talks less shit than Danny Boyle I have yet to meet him. No, I do mean literally. Let me explain before you click off.
A week or so ago, approximately 400 Ravers had the privilege of attending a talk from the extraordinary man himself. What is Rave do you say?…Well we all love the creative industry, you all watch film, tv…Wear clothes on a daily basis (or I bloody hope you do!)…Well Rave is a design & media university situated approximately a stones throw from the O2 arena. Broadcasters, screenwriters, camerapeople, fashion designers, graphic designers…You name it; all the people behind the scenes on your favourite form of ennertainment went to such an institution. As a film maker; Boyle was invited to speak to the young creatives of the future (and yeah, I gatecrashed…Who wouldn’t?!). Any notable alumni you ask?…Ever heard of a certain someone called David Bowie?…Or Stella McCartney?…Emma Hill?…Jake & Dinos Chapman?…New Chloe creative director Clare Waight Keller?
[Note: If you do not know who Danny Boyle is, or think he is a distant relative of that talent show output I shall not name, then may I direct you to the top left hand corner of your screen; can you see a little red button?…Possibly with a small ‘X’ in it? Good. Click it now.]
Boyle is without a doubt one of the most talented British (and Northern I may add!) filmmakers of our generation. Now i’m not going to BS and say I have seen every single one of his films, because I would be lying. However if you haven’t seen one…I ask; do you get out much?
From the extremes, to the obscure; Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days later, Sunshine and most recently 127 Hours (to name but a handful)…He manages to get inside your head and play with your mind as though he were a telepath. You feel what they feel…You see what they see. Some may ask; but how does He know how the protagonists feel?…How does He come up with such thought provoking and often shocking metaphors?…In my opinion, it’s a mixture of pure insanity and humility. Either that, or he is secretly the reincarnation of that telepathic X-Man.
Let’s get back to the topic of ‘shit’. (As usual, it comes down to this. Wow, I never thought I would talk shit so soon!).
Rave very kindly threw together a little showreel of some of the defining moments of his greatest works. I shall demonstrate. Remember that scene in Slumdog?…You know, the one where the young Jamal is locked in the toilet whilst his hero ‘filmstar’ is jumping out of a helicopter. I need not verbally go any further…This is the scene I mean…:
Post ‘viewing through gritted teeth’ session, he let us in on the secret behind the scene. It was peanut butter! There, breath. Not that we all thought it genuinely was the genuine article, I mean, even in India they must have “health & safety police”? (The kind that put bans on children going down the slide at their local lido…The rules that ruin childhoods, dash dreams…Put fences around sunshine and are deathly allergic to lawsuits).
But who really is; Danny Boyle? Raised as a catholic, he almost took the journey into the priesthood…However somehow he grew up with zombies, blunt instruments and a perchance for hard core drug use (I refer directly to his films, not the man in question). How did he stray so far from his initial calling do you ask? His answer…Pure rebellion! His first job was in theatre, not as director, not even as a backstage hand but as a driver. How did he get to where he is today (a question many of the media students were dying to ask)? By simply working his was up through the levels and not letting any opportunity pass by.
He quoted Orson Wells in that ‘you can learn everything about a film camera in an afternoon’ (bit of paraphrasing there but you get the gist)…However it is what you do with the film camera that makes you great.
One of his first great achievements was ‘Trainspotting’ (you know, that one where Ewan McGregor falls into a toilet…). Sticking with drugs, he consequently managed to work the subject of ecstacy into an episode of Inspector Morse (albeit under a pseudonym). But it isn’t just the blood, gore and pure shock treatment that makes him great. I mean, anyone can cut off someone’s arm, or make a film about Chris Tarrant (note: when first offered the chance to direct Slumdog Millionaire he stated that in ‘no way am I making a film about Chris Tarrant’. Fair play if you ask me, but I’m bloody glad he did. I myself have spent time in India, and I assure you, what you see in Slumdog is what you get, if not more so. It is a beautiful country though, if you ever get the chance to visit go, whilst it still holds it’s original beauty), but only Boyle can put you right inside the minds of the protagonists and evoke such emotion that you never forget the experience of doing so, no matter how harrowing. (Saw ‘Thor’ in 3D last week…Good film, totally forgot I had seen it two days later).
I shall stop waxing lyrical about Danny Boyle soon (not keen on that phrase…’waxing lyrical’…probably because of my first waxing experience; scarred for life. Not literally of course)…However I shall leave you with this one last anecdote. Plus it’s like what, 10 past midnight? I need sleep like the rest of humanity, contrary to popular belief.
Whilst filming ’28 Days Later’ (that one with zombies in London)…Due to budgeting issues they had to be creative in their filming methods. Remember the scene where the protagonist (apologies for over use of word ‘protagonist’…If you had done English A-Level you would understand that it was impossible to get an A grade without it’s use, I think it’s just a word they liked you to use to sound ‘more intelligent’. Oh, and also the word ‘pertinent’, although I do quite like that one) walks through the deserted streets of London? Well, funnily enough, it costs quite a bit to shut down Westminster Bridge, I mean, I think even the queen would have issues…So what did Boyle do? For starters, filmed at 4AM, the quietest time on the usually choca-block bridge full of tourists walking along, looking anywhere but where they’re going…And second, ask taxi drivers politely to wait a few minutes whilst they shot a scene. Of course. Getting a slightly overweight camerahand in a grubby t-shirt and a greasy bacon sarnie in one hand to approach said London cabbies was never going to work; taxi drivers response to said proposition?…Something along the lines of “No, I would rather like to carry on my journey so I can make some money to feed my family”…(Joke, common reply went more like “Eff off”…). So what does Boyle do? Get his daughter to come along with a couple of her friends after a night out in central, in short skirts I may add, to lean into the black cabs and ask politely if they would ‘hold on a few minutes’. Towards the end of shooting, they simply started to hire professional models to do the job. A tad cheaper than hiring a bridge don’t you think? AJF
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