The film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008) and Best Director Oscar® brought director Danny Boyle’s name to the forefront of movie making for the general moviegoer.  For us as filmmakers, he’s the example of believing in a project, never giving up, and utilizing the creative tools at his disposal while creating a few more along the way to bringing his projects to big screen!   My favorites of Danny Boyle include ‘Trainspotting’ (1996), ‘28 Days Later...’ (2002) a sci-fi cult classic, ‘Sunshine’ (2007) one of my sci-fi favorites, and the Oscar® winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008)!

For his latest, ‘127 Hours’ he tackles the true story of Aron Ralstonand the shooting of the main enviroment, being trapped in a canyon and making it interesting enough to hold one’s interest visually.  How does one, take a story that’s primarily in one location, in a crevice for the greater majority of screen time, and make it an interesting and compelling story?  Danny Boyle was very gracious in sharing his insight on bringing ‘127 Hours’ to the screen with me!

Stan:  What an awesome undertaking Danny; a true story with virtually one character to carry it, and, a very limited location to make interesting!  What prompted you to tell this story on screen?

Danny:  Well, I had a very strong reaction to the book, which I don’t often have, but I had a very clear image from the book on how to make the film.  It was a structural impetus, the book is written in alternating chapters of real time in the canyon and then, kind of reminiscing about home life, but not from the perspective of the canyon.  And the next chapter is the canyon again.  I felt that wasn’t right, the story I thought that was extraordinary, what was so compelling about is that you stay in the canyon with the guy really, anything that he does experience, are intense visitations’ going through his mind on parts of his life, or, literal visitations’ in the canyon by people in his life. 

I felt that structurally that was the only way that you could ever conquer the problem of what the final choice he has and find it acceptable!  Its unwatchable of what he has to do actually, I was starting to have a horror complex, I thought how can you actually make that possible for an audience to watch it, a regular audience, and the only way to do it is through an actor, and to put them through this narrative first person experience with the audience, so that the two are bound together in a way, so that you are implicated in what he eventually does, in a way that you can almost help him do it.  And you can certainly hear it during screenings and people vocalizing during it.  It’s the feeling that the audience has for him!

Stan:  Each of us realized during our screening the empathy factor for the character…

Danny:  The key dynamic is that yes, in some instances for the audience, the result is some looking away, but they don’t walk out at all, some have been carried out and they wake up almost immediately and they’re like fine, and they go back in and watch the rest of the movie!

Stan:  Speaking of the dynamics, one actor has to gain the empathy, sympathy, and be able to have us relate to his plight.  How did you settle on James Franco for the lead?

Danny:  We started with 6 guys, and when we met, he sort of seemed like he was stoned to me (with a chuckle), and I thought he wasn’t interested!  A lot of people said to me, ah, that’s the kind of persona he has, he’s actually hyperactive.  We saw him again, and he was brilliant when he read it, absolutely brilliant, so we cast him, there was no question that he could do it!  Then it was a question of him meeting Aron, and he (James Franco) felt that it was very important that he lived the experience himself, not through Aron’s experience vicariously.  Although Aron equipped him with everything he needed to know about the experience, and we equipped him (James Franco) with all of the equipment and the canyon that Aron had, then it was up to James, and we just put him through the experience!  Although it is remarkably true and faithful to fact of Aron’s entrapment, it’s actually our interpretation, because other wise I thought we’d be watching it sort of second hand really, and James would be looking over his shoulder too much and checking with Aron the whole time, like what did you do… I wanted James to be tainted in a way that it felt like a fresh experience to him!

Stan: What you did with some of the shots was indeed fascinating, you used the camera and the angles with forced perspective on some shots, and others, the wide shot was like looking down into the pit of oblivion.  And the one shot that is truly remarkable is the close up shot that starts in tight and keeps pulling back to reveal the crevice where he’s trapped, and finally to a wide shot from high above truly set the plight of the thought that no help was coming from the outside.  How did you get that shot!

Danny:  Such a keen observation Stan!  What we did was we shot for a week in a real canyon, which is very inaccessible, and then, we repeated the canyon, exactly, in a furniture warehouse in Salt Lake City!  It’s a precise 3 dimensional copy of the canyon, built in a way that it was inconvenient so it didn’t have any removable parts and we did that deliberately so that for James the restrictions would be the same as for Aron, and more importantly for the cameramen and the there were two of them, so that they would also be operating in the restrictions so one could never cheat, with a convenient flat to pull out, and lighting we brought in of course, and it all made for a very realistic challenge for both James and the crew!

Stan:  That’s an aspect that would make it challenging to shot without the ‘cheating’ aspect coming into play, can’t quite get it, so lets cheat it!

Danny:  Yea I know, and then you cheat a little bit on Thursday, and by the following Friday you’re cheating a lot and I think people will begin to see it, and it looses the feel of an absolute authentic experience but rather the tricks of cinema!  What we tried to do was use one of the great things of cinema!  Its an older technique, the problem with modern life now is we expect cinema to blow things up, like universes, and planets, starships, anything!  And it’s all a scale of the most, the biggest!  Also what cinema does it ignites the fires, in an everyday sense it highlights the insignificants which becomes crucial, so the possessions that he has becomes huge presences in the film, the most significant which is probably his water bottle which he measures constantly!  You make those like personalities really, in lieu of characters.  They’re changing like the water bottle becoming less full, his all-purpose tool becoming duller, and the like, in lieu of characters being in the drama!

Stan:  Danny, that’s what makes you the consummate filmmaker that you are!  I’ve held true to the premise that there should be a learning aspect to each project that I watch that’s over and above the essence of the presentation!   When I sit down to watch a film, I want to be moved, and I can certainly say that I was moved by ‘127 Hours’!  And I’m sure that a host of other viewers who watch your latest film in Phoenix when it opens on Friday November 19th will be certainly moved!  Thank you so much Danny for sharing your insight with me.  Keep me posted on your next project, I’d love to work on it and become a ‘sponge’ as I take in your expertise!  Much continued success, I’ll be watching!

Danny:  Lovely, you’re too kind Stan!

Many thanks to director Danny Boyle for sharing his insight with me.  Be sure add ‘127 Hours’ to your viewing list.  It’s a remarkable film and a poignant story of survival!

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