I mean, they are all very, very,verydifferent.
And thats not just becauseIwant to be different, its because the subject matterasksfor it to be like that.
Its all about subject matter, and then making work that can enhance what I want to talk about.
Steve McQueen at the world premier of ‘Blitz.‘Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for BFI
WithBlitz, I wanted to look through a childs perspective.
Because Im putting you in a situation where youre experiencing things for the first time.
Its a landscape were all familiar with, but its at the same time its unrecognizable.
Director Steve McQueen on theBlitzset with actorElliott Heffernan.Parisa Taghizadeh/Apple TV/Everett Collection
Youve never seen women in a factory making bombs.
Youve never seen firemen working the way they did to put out the fires.
Every single image is revolutionary, just because people chose not to put it into pictures before.
So, every single image is something youve never seen before, in the history of British cinema.
3 Be true to the story
It wasnt about ticking boxes.
I wanted to know who he was.
I felt so protective of him when I saw that photograph.
He was just a sweet little boy.
But the contrast is, hes in the environment of war.
So how did he come to be in this situation?
Who were his parents?
Where did he live?
Most people didnt really leave their neighborhoods in those days, their four or five streets.
So, the fact that he goes out into a broader, wider environment would have been very unusual.
And half of the war effort was women keeping the country together.
They were holding the fabric of the country together.
Thats what women were doing.
It was half of the war effort.
But theyve never been given a platform on the screen, ever.
If they were, theyd have been a girlfriend or a wife, handing someone a cup of tea.
5 Music is the great leveler
I love radio.
I found out about a 1940s BBC talent show calledWorks Wonders.
I love the fact that Rita is not just a mother of a child.
The hug of a coat, the texture of that.
I thought that could really communicate, and Saoirse did an amazing job.
It was the oil in the engine.
We wrote it in Studio Three in Abbey Road where The Beatles recorded myself and Nicholas.
It then went on to another writer, Taura Stinson, who polished it off.
Me and Nick, we worked very quickly together.
We had the same dynamic duo from12 Years A Slave.
If it aint broke, dont fix it:Hans Zimmerdoes the score; Nick does the onscreen music.
But it was just one of those things I really wanted to communicate.
I think everybody has a keepsake of someone who has passed.
6 Chemistry is key
I thought [musician] Paul Weller [who plays Georges grandfather] looked incredible.
But, at the time, Paul was having none of that.
He was like, No, Im not too sure.
It took a bit of convincing.
But then I got him with an acting coach, and he was incredible, absolutely incredible.
I mean,beautiful.
I cannot tell you how beautiful he was as an artist.
They loved being with each other.
So, what you see on screen is real.
I mean, there was no hierarchy.
It was like a family.
7 Build a solid foundation
I loved working on a picture this size.
All of a sudden, Im working in a studio.
With a desk and phones that actually work!
Were not used to that.
So, I was a fish in water, mate.
The thing I had anxiety about was the core of the picture.
Everything else, I loved doing.
All the set pieces, I live and breathe for stuff like that.
But getting that foundation of love, that was the thing.
Because if the foundations not right, it will all crumble.
8 Trust your composer
The score came directly from the heart.
Hans Zimmers mother was in London, in Mayfair, during the Blitz.
She met his father there.
Five years after Hans was born, his father unfortunately died, and then Hans went to boarding school.
When I showed him the film, he immediately understood it.
He said, I know what to do.
Because he understands that situation.
The feeling of being taken away by war.
I was sitting with him, shoulder to shoulder literally when he wrote the score.
It was pouring out.
I think his mother and his relationship was at the core of this.
His mother was huge in his life.
They were trying to deal with what just occurred.
Theres a short movie by Man Ray that I discovered.
In the beginning, you see this sort of abstract image… You dont know exactly what it is.
At the end of the picture, you find out.
Then we cut to some daisies.
The daisies really symbolize, somehow, a nostalgia of how things were, or how things could be.
Think of Imagine by John Lennon.
You have to believe that, otherwise wed have no hope.
10 Keep on moving
Ive been working for 18 years straight.
I think Ive got two more chapters left.
For 18 years Ive been boom, boom, boom, not stopping.
And its been great because… Look, Im a Black man.
Ive got to get it out there.
Ive got to move.
But also, its exciting.
Working with great people and collaborating.
Im very fortunate to do what I do.
I dont take it for granted.
Therefore, Ihaveto work.
Its W-O-R-K in capitals.
Its exciting and thrilling and dangerous and necessary.
