Danny Boyle
Academy Award winning English film director, producer and screenwriter . Some of his famous
films include the Slumdog Millionaire, Shallow Grave,28 Days later, 127 Hours and Trainspotting
His first film inspiration was ‘Apocalypse now’ which is quire a realistic and gritty film; that often translates to Danny Boyles films.
CAREERFilms Elephant Shallow Grave Trainspotting Twin Town A life less ordianry The Beach Vacuuming Completely Nude
In Paradise Strumpet 28 Days Later Millions Sunshine 28 Weeks Later Alien Love Triangle Slumdog Millionaire( His
most rewarded film) 127 Hours Trance
TRAINSPOTTING
My favourite film directed by Danny Boyle is Trainspotting which follows the life of Ewan McGregor’s character Mark, who is living a meaningless life in Scotland and is facing various issues relating to lower-working class young people in Britain at the time; such as Drugs, Sexuality and life purpose. The film follows Mark and his friends and their day to day lives and highlights the gritty things that adolescent brings to them. Mark and his friend Spud are heroin addicts,; with their friends Tommy and Begbie(sociopath) they live life and attempt to create something for themselves.Produced by Andrew MacDonald based the film on Irvine Welsh’s book of the same name. The film shot in 1995 and has a budget of just $2.5 and brought in $72 million internationally. The critical reception of the film was positive as the film garnered almost universal praise from critics, due to how the film taps into youth subculture as well as acting with freedom and expression.
STYLE OF DIRECTING
I have found that Danny Boyle rarely directs Action based films which feature a lot of violence; most of his films include gritty meaningful story lines. For example 127 hours later portrays a man facing a life altering issue; this is similar to Trainspotting and 28 Days later. All of his films are directed very well with meaningful dialogue and editing being used to add to the story line and meaning of the film.
“A lesson I learned from A Life Less Ordinary was about changing a tone—I’m not sure you can do that. We changed the tone to a kind of Capra-esque tone, and whenever you do anything more “esque,” you’re in trouble. That would be one of my rules: No “esques.” Don’t try to Coen-esque anything or Capra-esque anything or Tarkovsky-esque anything, because you’ll just get yourself in a lot of trouble. You have to find your own “esque” and then stick to it.”- Danny Boyle. From this quotation you can tell a lot about Danny’s style of directing as he explains that tone is one of the most important things that a director has to follow.
