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Danny Boyles 15 Golden Rules of Moviemaking

by Danny Boyle Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 at 12:46 pm. Written by Danny Boyle (http://www.moviemaker.com/author/danny/)

Danny Boyle has directed hit films in a wide array of genresfrom the cautionary drug saga Trainspotting to the inspirational, Oscar-winning drama Slumdog Millionaire. In 2010, Danny Boyle enumerated his 15 Golden Rules of filmmaking exclusively for MovieMaker Magazine, just as 127 Hours hit theaters. His latest film, Trance, is still trolling around in theaters.

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1. A DIRECTOR MUST BE A PEOPLE PERSON Ninety-five percent of your job is handling personnel. People whove never done it imagine that its some act, like painting a Picasso from a blank canvas, but its not like that. Directing is mostly about handling peoples egos, vulnerabilities and moods. Its all about trying to bring everybody to a boil at the right moment. Youve got to make sure everyone is in the same film. It sounds stupidly simple, like Of course theyre in the same film! But you see films all the time where people are clearly not in the same film together. 2. HIRE TALENTED PEOPLE Your main job as a director is to hire talented people and get the space right for them to work in. I have a lot of respect for actors when theyre performing, and I expect people to behave. I dont want to see people reading newspapers behind the camera or whispering or anything like that.

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3. LEARN TO TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS Ideally, you make a film up as you go along. I dont mean that youre irresponsible and youve literally got no idea, but the ideal is that youve covered everythingevery angleso that youre free to do it any of those ways. Even on low-budget films, you have financial responsibilities. Should you fuck it up, you can still fall back on one of those ways of doing it. Youve got Plan A to go back to, even though you should always make it with Plan B if you can. That way keeps it fresh for the actors, and for you. 4. FILM HAPPENS IN THE MOMENT Whats extraordinary about film is that you make it on the day, and then its like that forever more. On that day, the actor may have broken up with his wife the night before, so hes inevitably going to read a scene differently. Hes going to be a different person. I come from theater, which is live and changes every night. I thought film was going to be the opposite of that, but its not. It changes every time you watch it: Different audiences, different places, different moods that youre in. The thing is logically fixed, but it still changes all the time. You have to get your head around that. 5. IF YOUR LAST FILM WAS A SMASH HIT, DONT PANIC I had an obsession with the story of 127 Hours, which pre-dated Slumdog Millionaire. But I knowbecause Im not an idiotthat the only reason [the studio] allowed us to make it was because Slumdog made buckets of money for them and they felt an obligation of sorts. Not an obligation to let me do whatever I want, but you kind of get a free go on the merry-go-round. 6. DONT BE AFRAID TO TELL STORIES ABOUT OTHER CULTURES You cant just hijack a culture for your story, but you can benefit from it. If you go into it with the right attitude, you can learn a lot about yourself, as well as about the potential of film in other cultures, which is something we tried to do with Slumdog Millionaire Most films are still made in America, about Americans, and thats fine. But things are changing and I think Slumdog was evidence of that. There will be more evidence as we go on. 7. USE YOUR POWER FOR GOOD You have so much power as director that if youre any good at all, you should be able to use that to the benefit of everyone. You have so much power to shape the movie the way you want it that, if youre on form and youve done your prep right and youre ready, you should be able to make a decent job of it with the other people. 8. DONT HAVE AN EGO Your working processthe way you treat people, your belief in peoplewill ultimately be reflected in the product itself. The means of production are just as important as what you produce. Not everyone believes that, but I do. I wont stand for anyone being treated badly by anyone. I dont like anyone shouting or abusing people or anything like that. You see people sometimes who are waiting for you to be like that, because theyve had an experience like that in the past, but Im not a believer in that. The texture of a film is affected very much by the honor with which you make it. 9. MAKE THE TEST SCREENING PROCESS WORK FOR YOU Test screenings are tough. It makes you nervous, exposing the film, but theyre very important and Ive learned a great deal from using them. Not so much from the whole process of cards and the discussions afterwards, but the live experience of sitting in an auditorium with an audience that doesnt know much about the story youre going to tell themI find that so valuable. Ive learned not so much to like it, but to value how important it is. I think you have to, really. 10. COME TO THE SET WITH A LOOK BOOK I always have a bible of photographs, images by which I illustrate a film. I dont mean strict storyboards, I just mean for inspiration for scenes, for images, for ideas, for characters, for costumes, even for props. These images can come from anywhere. They can come from obvious places like great photographers, or they can come from magazine advertisementsanywhere, really. I compile them into a book and I always have it with me and I show it to the actors, the crew, everybody! (http://www.moviemaker.com/wpcontent/uploads/danny-boylecamera-2.jpg) 11. EVEN PERFECT FORMULAS DONT ALWAYS WORK As a director your job is to find the pulse of the film through the actors, which is partly linked to their talent and partly to their charisma. Charisma is a bit indefinable, thank God, or else it would be prescribed in the way that you chemically make a new painkiller. In the moviesand this leads to a lot of tragedy and heartacheyou can sometimes have the most perfect formula and it still doesnt work. Thats a reality that we are all victims of sometimes and benefit from at other times. But if you follow your own instincts and make a leap of faith, then you can at least be proud of the way you did it. 12. TAKE INSPIRATION WHERE YOU FIND IT When we were promoting Slumdog Millionaire, we were kind of sideby-side with Darren Aronofsky, who was also with Fox Searchlight and was promoting The Wrestler. I watched it and it was really interesting; Darren just decided that he was going to follow this actor around, and it was wonderful. I thought, I want to make a film like that. I want to see if I can make a film like that. Its a film about one actor. Its about the monolithic nature of film sometimes, you know? Its about a dominant performance. 13. PUSH THE PRAM I think you should always try to push things as far as you can, really. I call it pushing the pram. You know, like a stroller that you push a baby around in? I think you should always push the pram to the edge of the cliffthats what people go to the cinema for. This could apply to a romantic comedy; you push anything as far as it will stretch. I think thats one of your duties as a director Youll only ever regret not doing that, not having pushed it. If you do your job well, youll be amazed at how far the audience will go with you. Theyll go a long, long waytheyve already come a long way just to see your movie! 14. ALWAYS GIVE 100 PERCENT You should be working at your absolute maximum, all the time. Whether youre credited with stuff in the end doesnt really matter. Focus on pushing yourself as much as you can. I tend not to write, but I love bouncing off of writing; I love having the writers write and then me bouncing off of it. I bounce off writers the same way I bounce off actors. 15. FIND YOUR OWN ESQUE A lesson I learned from A Life Less Ordinary was about changing a toneIm not sure you can do that. We changed the tone to a kind of Capra-esque tone, and whenever you do anything more esque, youre in trouble. That would be one of my rules: No esques. Dont try to Coen-esque anything or Capraesque anything or Tarkovsky-esque anything, because youll just get yourself in a lot of trouble. You have to find your own esque and then stick to it. For more information about how to subscribe to MovieMaker Magazine, check out the MovieMaker home page (http://www.moviemaker.com).

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4 COMMENTS ON DAN N Y BO Y LE S 15 GOLDEN RULES OF MOVIEMAKING

by Danny Boyle

Roger Harding on June 3, 2013 at 12:34 pm (http://www.moviemaker.com/articles-directing/danny-boyle-15golden-rules-filmmaking/comment-page-1/#comment-24405) said:

Spot on re: egos. There should be a test to w eed out egos. Anyone got any ideas ?

Waldemar Kalinowski on May 31, 2013 at 11:16 pm (http://www.moviemaker.com/articles-directing/danny-boyle-15golden-rules-filmmaking/comment-page-1/#comment-24402) said:

Bibles have taken millennia to w rite and evolve into useful ideas for life, and this a is a very lovely and accelerated start for a useful and thoughtful w ay of the filmmaker. That Mr. Boyle can back up his perceptions and observations w ith excellent films, proves that he is in possession of truths others ought to discover for themselves and his 15 part outline is a perfect place to start. Personally, I like 1,2,3,7,8 and 13. Other points stem from that core. Cheers. Waldemar

Wilbur on May 31, 2013 at 11:35 am (http://www.moviemaker.com/articles-directing/danny-boyle-15golden-rules-filmmaking/comment-page-1/#comment-24399) said:

Bravo! Its great to see respect and honor side by side w ith excellence. The petulant creative executive and the monstrous production manager need to go the w ay of the dinosaur!

Lindsay on May 25, 2013 at 5:07 pm (http://www.moviemaker.com/articles-directing/danny-boyle-15golden-rules-filmmaking/comment-page-1/#comment-24390) said:

Can you please post this on every production companies homepage? Nicely said and great common sense.

L AT EST ST O R I ES

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