Slumdog Millionaire

The idea for this film first came from a book called Q & A by Vikas Swarup. The screen writer for this film was Simon Beaufoy. Simon is a huge screenwriter and as done other popular film such as, Hunger Games, 127 Hours and Everest. He was a big part of the success of this film. Simon took the book Q&A and adapted it and made varies changes. He managed to reduce 12 stories into one narrative. To help Simon write the screen play he lived in Mumbai for months at a time so he could soak up the atmosphere and lifestyle of Mumbai and interpret that into the film to make it as real as possible as he wanted to make the audience seem like they are in the city of Mumbai.

The production company that help fund the film were Film 4. Film 4 is a movie channel that shows a range of different movies that have different genres. Film 4 often show very niche films that have a specific audience that are away from the mainstream. They often show human dramas which are based more on characters and relationships than big action and special effects. The films on Film 4 tend to be very artistic and low budget. The budget for Slumdog Millionaire was 15 Million USD, which is very little compared to other films. Having Film 4 has the production company has many constraints such as Film 4 is seen as one little film channels so not many people will go there to watch a film, which doesn’t make the film a mainstream film.

The equipment that was initially going to be used to shoot this film was a 35MM film camera. However this gave the film a static feel to it as it involved a lot of movement so they decided to use digital cameras instead as they are a lot more maneuverable because a lot of the shots involve a lot of movement. 

The whole film is set in Mumbai. There was no sets used to film on the streets, it was all done by shooting on location. Mumbai is very active and busy so shooting on location would have came with many difficulties, One difficulty is when a film crew start using these massive cameras and film equipment to film the locals think its a celebrity around so they stand there and watch the cast film, this can course trouble for the crew as thousands of people can be attracted so if they film they have to make sure there is no one in the background getting in the way. Another problem the crew faced was if one day they went to film a scene on location and then the next day they want to film at the same location it became a problem because walls and roads would get built over night causing the shot to be different and then the film crew have to re film the whole scene.

The director of this film is Danny Boyle. Boyle is know for many other low budget films such as Trainspotting and 28 days later. Danny is a very passionate about is job and is used to filming on low budgets which made him the perfect director. During filming Danny was very committed to created realism and authenticity and getting the audience to feel like they are on the streets of Mumbai. Danny brought his passion to the film by filming day and night until he got the right shot. He was very interactive with the cast, he was very involved with them, He was also very organised and adaptable, he held rehearsals for the film and used the footage from the rehearsals into the film. He made the film.