6. Shooting in the slums

The director is very specific about why he chose to shoot in Johannesburg and not try to recreate it elsewhere.

“I think it would be incredibly difficult to replicate what we have in Johannesburg anywhere else,” says Blomkamp.  

“There is so much visual detail here, the dirt or barbed wire or weeds, it’s incredibly rich visually.  

“For the film to work, I think you need this level of reality and this level of pollution and realness.”

The production arrived in 2008 and filmed for three months.

Fortunately, they found the perfect location in Tshiawelo, on the outskirts of Soweto, a landfill dotted with shacks.

Weirdly mirroring the film’s plot, local authorities were moving them to state subsidized housing some 20km away and tearing down the shacks.  

The production bought up the shacks that remained, fenced off the area, and created a controlled environment in which to shoot.

“We completely lucked out,” says Blomkamp.  “The location had the exact look that I had in my head.”  

But that was the end of the luck.

“We filmed in winter because I wanted the city in the film to look like a scorched earth, urban wasteland,” comments Blomkamp.

“Filming in the dead of winter, and wherever you looked, there were fires and ash and pollution dotting the horizon, just what I wanted.”



It was a tough time for all involved, not least Copley, who had the most screen time and the most difficult job: “scrounging through real trash to find a prop sandwich strategically placed in the middle of the stuff — it was brutal.”

''They'd have to comb the area before shooting just to pull the nails out.''

Blomkamp also found filming a hassle. ''The shoot was incredibly difficult, gruelling as hell,'' he says.

“Johannesburg is just concrete and dust and burning fires and barbed wires and pollution. Even for the South Africans on the crew, it was seriously eye-opening.''

With the film shot, the production could work with Weta on getting the visual effects complete.

And, thus far, no one had leaked information about the movie.

It was time to tell the world. Slowly…

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