:: gia's blog :: » Danny Boyle

My 2007

giagia — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:26:31 +0000

On first thought, I’d say that 2007 was fairly uneventful. My past few months have consisted of me being ill and feeling like I’ve done very little other than try and get healthy again… Then, when I properly think about it, I realise that the whole year has been MENTAL!

January

Me and Charlie Brooker

I was doing lots of stuff for Sunshine and Channel4.com, saw Ben Folds in concert, the Sunshine trailer was leaked by resourceful fans and I was interviewed for Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe.

February

/Cat blog

MASSIVE Sunshine stuff, loads of Channel 4 stuff, went to LIFT where Brian spoke and my Screepwipe interview was broadcast.

Watch Video

March

Danny Boyle on the Sunshine set

I know the photo above wasn’t taken in March, but the month was so freakin’ mental I didn’t take any photos. I was doing 7 days a week, 18 hour days mainly for Sunshine- press and bloggers’ screenings, press interviews, cast and crew screening, Manchester screening, messageboards, emails, IMDB, generally mentalness. There was also Channel 4 stuff, a discussion I took part in at the ICA, went to Cambridge with Brian who spoke at their Science Festival… and I’ve also got ‘Milton Keynes’ in my diary on the 16th. I’ve got no memory of what that was about at all.

April

Danny Boyle, Cillian Murphy, Brian

Another insane month. Sunshine was released, screening and Q&A with Danny at the Ritzy cinema, trip to Russia for the premiere, the 28 Weeks Later premiere… and I bought some ‘Sunshine’ props and costumes. :)

May

Tiger in my face

My Sunshine props and costumes were delivered. :) Was starting to get properly frustrated with the Channel 4 stuff, was weaning off Sunshine, I went to the Arthur C. Clarke Awards nominations, did a Social Media Club photo walk with Lloyd, went to Anna and Julian’s wedding and started looking at secondary schools for my son.

June

Brian at the Star Wars exhibition

Trying to get back into life and recover generally from Sunshine insanity. Sunshine was at the IMAX, spoke at Music Tank, Daywatch screening, more secondary school stuff (including an entrance exam… yikes!)

July

Me at the Gormley exhibition

Secondary school interview (yikes!), started on the Sunshine DVD release, bit of Daywatch work, David Hoyle started Magazine again… my son was offered a place at a secondary school (yay!)

August

Brian, Mo, Benny Wong, Cliff Curtis

Sunshine DVD release, 28 Weeks Later DVD release, Daywatch, more David Hoyle at Magazine… QR Codes.

September

QR Codes

QR Codes for 28 Weeks Later, interviewed about QR on various tv and radio programmes, my son started at his new school, I was invited to talk to the Nuclear Industry Association, recorded the Nature podcast sponsor stings, went to more David Hoyle shows, saw Prince’s final aftershow gig, got properly ill.

October

CERN

Still ill. Started working on a project looking at the Ageing Population, went to CERN twice – the first time with Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery, the second time with Quentin Wilson- took part in a Nuclear Industry Association roundtable discussion, met Arvind from Slingshot Studios.

November

David Hoyle

Lots of meetings, dinners and lunches. Ageing Project roundtable meeting and dinner… And, of course, the wonderful David Hoyle.

December

My father came to visit, I attended the Juno bloggers’/Twitterers’ screening, fell in LOVE with ‘Juno’ (you’ll be hearing more about this), started Twittering (finally), went to see the King Tut exhibition, attended the Nuclear Industry Association annual dinner, my son had his birthday, recorded a Digital Planet with Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson, more talks with Slingshot Studios, David Soul…then…

…today.

After all that, I really need to rest over the next few weeks. I feel like I’ve still not recovered from my illness properly and still need to catch up on all of the sleep I lost last spring with Sunshine… My next 10 days will consist of POWER RESTING. I won’t do any work (except for watching the pile of screeners I’ve got), I won’t worry about whether or not I’ll have any work in the new year… I will just relax in the most hardcore way…

Spend Your Days In The Sunshiiiine

giagia — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:17:20 +0000

Well, today Sunshine was released on DVD. I thought I’d take this chance to just share some of my Sunshine memories (well the ones which come with photographs which I can more or less make public) from the past two years…

During filming at 3 Mills Studios, I carried my ‘office’ with me to and from work every single day. I looked like a techy bag lady.

One of my very favourite things was wandering around the sets which weren’t being filmed on. Here’s me sitting in the social area of the Icarus II, where Capa sits when he’s told he’s got to make *the* decision.

My Sunshine husbands were/are Damien…

…and Phil

They did the videos, I did the website. We sat next to each other, ate lunch with each other, made each other copious amounts of coffee, hung out together, stalked Danny together… the whole thing.

My actual husband was on-set regularly, too.

In between the moment Danny shouted ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, that is a wrap’ in December 2005 and the start of the post-production phase, there was the wrap party at which Benny Wong DJed.

The post-production phase went on and on and I didn’t see a single frame of the film until September 2006 – it started with a completely different character doing the voice over and was, in my memory, fairly different from the final film. Danny finished post in December 2006 and a couple days later was the first time the trailer was shown. This is Andrew Macdonald, on his Crackberry, in the screening room waiting to watch the trailer shown on a cinema screen for the first time.

Andrew is just the loveliest person in the world. I love him lots and lots and lots. And lots. He very kindly invited me to Moscow to the ‘Sunshine’ premiere. Here’s the two of us in Red Sq.

The Moscow Sunshine Boys…

Andrew, me, Brian and Danny all tarted up for the premiere.

Brian, Danny and Cillian (well, his back) ready to walk on stage.

And on stage…

I, of course, made a point of making sure my son met as many ‘Sunshine’ people as he could. He got Alex’s autograph though Andrew said he’d only sign a cheque… He also had a great time on set with Troy Garity (who was absolutely lovely with him)…

He got to meet Chris Evans…

…Cliff Curtis…

…Benedict Wong…

…and was a honorary Sunshine Boy for a day.

So now I’m finished with Sunshine… there’s not really anything left to do (whether or not LA will hire me for *their* DVD release remains to be seen…), so for the next wee bit I’m working on ’28 Weeks Later’… so you might want to get used to these.

Heh.

Moscow

giagia — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 20:46:58 +0000

Just got back from Moscow last night. Brian and I went over for the red carpet premiere of ‘Sunshine’ or ‘Пекло’ as it is in Russian… I’m still very tired. Here are some pictures for you to look at…

The eternal flame war memorial

Brian in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum

Brian in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square

Andrew Macdonald, me, Brian and Danny Boyle ready to leave for the premiere

Me being a dork

I Found Him In The Sunshine

giagia — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:52:46 +0000

The following is something I wrote for the Guardian. They wanted a piece on what ‘Sunshine’ is about, what it was like working on ‘Sunshine’, how the cast and crew went a bit mad, how astronauts go mad in space, including a quote from a space psychologist … in 1,000 words. Then they didn’t use it. Maybe it’s shit. You tell me.

“Who knows what the Sun does to people and how they react when they get close to it? The word ‘lunacy’ comes from supposedly having mental illness in reaction to the lunar light. One might come up with ‘solacy’ for the Sun.”- Nick Kanas, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco specialising in the psychosocial factors affecting astronauts and cosmonauts in space.

When I started working on the new film written by Alex Garland and directed by Danny Boyle, just over 18 months ago, I had no idea my life and my mind would be consumed by the Sun. Making ‘Sunshine’ has taken its toll. The shoot itself wasn’t overly difficult. I don’t remember one instance of anyone losing their cool. There were no screaming rows. No temper tantrums. It all went fairly smoothly as these things go. In short, it was no ‘Hearts of Darkness’. But it had a profound effect. On everyone.

It started subtly. It crept up on you. Like all madness does. A photo of the Sun as a computer desktop. An iTunes playlist of tracks containing the word ‘Sun’. A scale model of the Solar System running down the hallway at 3 Mills Studios. A book about the science of the Sun. Another on the mythology of the Sun. Taking photos of the Sun. Studying the Solar wind. Paying attention to Sunspot activity. Acknowledging the solstices and equinoxes. Talking about the Sun. Thinking about the Sun. Dreaming about the Sun. Choosing to always capitalise the word ‘Sun’ from now on. Just like It’s a deity. Believing that the Sun is yours and yours alone. You own the Sun now.

It’s not your Sun… It’s mine.

“If I ever go back into space, it’ll only be my ashes that are going. I’ll never do another film there again.”- director, Danny Boyle.

When the film starts, you join the crew 16 months into their mission to deliver a payload into the failing Sun. They are our heroes, the world’s top scientists and astronauts, off to save mankind (and so on). In the movies, they’d be strong, healthy, cocky and never have a hair out of place. In reality, our crew are dishevelled, bored, irritable, tired and depressed. They are suffering deeply from what the Russian Space Agency recognises as an inevitable side effect of long-term space travel, ‘asthenisia’, which exhibits itself from 6 weeks into a mission as emotional instability, impatience, fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbances, negative emotional reactions, apathy. Cassie reads the same book over and over. Corazon spends all her time with her plants instead of people. Kaneda obsessively watches video reports from the previous, failed, mission. Harvey constantly listens for patterns in the Solar wind. Mace, Capa and Trey have let themselves go. Searle can’t pull himself away from looking at, staring at, the Sun.

His Sun, not mine.

“All the necessary conditions to perpetrate a murder are met by locking two men in a cabin of 18 by 20 feet . . . for two months.”- Russian cosmonaut, Valery Ryumin.

There’s something about Danny Boyle that compels you to give your whole life up to him. When talking to you, he makes you feel like you’re the most important person in the world to him… and, to be honest, if he’s talking to you, you are. He looks you straight in the eye, stares at you sometimes, so that you feel he’s seeing something inside you don’t want him to see. He expects you to give it to him. And, for some reason, you do. You want to give everything to him. He’d make a great cult leader.

Alex Garland elicits a difference response altogether. Fifteen minutes talking with him takes you to the end of the Universe. Thirty minutes guarantees you will never come back. Forty-five minutes and your fear has disappeared. An hour and you don’t miss that silly thing you used to have. You know, that ridiculous, useless, little thing? I’ve forgotten its name. What was it called again? Oh yeah.

Hope.

This combination of apocalyptic reverie and enticing charm is evident in every frame of the film. You can see Alex’s end of the Universe reflected in the actors’ eyes. You can see the souls of the entire crew given- sacrificed- willingly for Danny. Like the Norse god Odin, the father of the gods, who sacrificed one of his eyes to acquire knowledge, his remaining eye becoming the Sun, the whole cast and crew of ‘Sunshine’ gave away an important part of themselves and in return not only saw the light, but created it.

The Sun is the source of all life in our solar system. Without it, we die. It is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. The creator and the destroyer. It embodies all of our dreams; its absence is the stuff of nightmares. “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” In the film, the Sun is failing. It doesn’t take a genius to see the metaphor: God is failing. We are His only hope. What hubris.

“Our problem is that, in an entirely meaningless universe, our lives are entirely meaningful.” – writer, Alex Garland.

‘Sunshine’ is a meditation on the eventual, inevitable end. Of you. Of me. Of us all. We know our parents will one day die. We know that we will one day die. We know our children will one day die. This knowledge is what makes the comfort of religion and resurrection in Heaven such an appealing notion to some. ‘Sunshine’ takes ‘the end’ a step further. The eventual death of Mankind. One day there will be only one man left, alone with God. When he is gone, we are gone. All our hopes, all our dreams, will once again become stardust. There will be no record of our existence at all. There will be no one left to listen to our music, to watch our films, to read our books and our musings about music, films and books in Saturday supplements. When the last man is gone, God is gone.

Not your God, mine.

Danny Boyle Interview

giagia — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:18:20 +0000

We’ve put our first video up on Sunshine and it’s very good. Danny Boyle introduces ‘Sunshine’. Edited by Damien Wasylkiw of The Media Lounge, music by Digitonal.