Much of the story takes place at night and in lighting these sequences, Gewer was inspired by the lights at the various locations.  "We didn't go for straight colour balances, and played with the colours a lot and introduced little subtle colours, for example a little pink here and there as subtle theme," says Gewer. Rather than using stylized lighting to convey emotion, the actors are well lit throughout the film so that even their slightest emotion is visible.  Whether it be terror, joy or sadness, the filmmakers allow the emotion to come from within the characters, through their eyes
Designing Tsotsi
When Gavin Hood first met with Production Designer Emelia Weavind, his idea was that the film would be shot on 16mm and that for reasons of practicality and to avoid the logistics of shooting in the informal settlements, they would build a shantytown on an open lot.  However when the decision was taken to shoot on 235 and a preliminary scout had been done of the informal settlements, it became apparent to the filmmakers that to best be able to capture the colours and textures of squatter camp life, it made sense to shoot all the exteriors in the actual settlements.  Weavind knew from past experience that because of the compact nature of the shacks, it is virtually impossible to shoot inside any of them.  "This effectively meant that irrespective of which exteriors we decided on, all the interior scenes would have to be studio builds," says Weavind.  "The big challenge would be to perfectly match the interiors in the studio with the exteriors on location."
The chief exteriors that needed to be identified were the shacks of Tsotsi and Miriam.  During a scout of the squatter camp at Tshiawelo in Soweto, the filmmakers came across an elevated dwelling that immediately caught everyone's attention.  "We all fell in love with a decrepit little staircase that led to a small, dilapidated room and decided that that had to be Tsotsi's shack," recalls Weavind.  The shack in question was a mere 3m x 2m, originally a little double-storey and although completely unsafe, its elevation above the other shacks suggested a sort of eagle's nest from which Tsotsi could survey his surroundings and lord over his domain.  For filmic reasons Weavind and her team enlarged the exterior of the shack by cladding it with corrugated iron.
When designing the interior of Tsotsi's shack in studio, Weavind drew inspiration form the actual exterior and also from the lifestyle of the character who doesn't care about his surroundings and attaches little importance to the things that surround him.  "The interior of his shack needed to reflect the nihilistic nature of his existence," says Weavind.  All materials used in the construction of this interior, including the corrugated iron, beams and nails, were salvaged from scrap yards.  The end result is a set that is thoroughly authentic and at the same time has the beautifully rich textures of the actual shacks in the squatter camps.  She has furnished the shack sparsely, but all the while keeping a keen eye on detail.   
For Miriam's shack the filmmakers opted for a small brick dwelling in Kliptown, one of the oldest areas of Soweto, a dwelling left over from the days of grand apartheid when Soweto was still in its infancy.  The exterior of the house has a rich patina, but there was also a lightness about it that immediately appealed to Weavind. "Although both Tsotsi and Miriam live in shantytowns, the colour of their inner worlds is very different and the house in Kliptown somehow seemed more appropriate for Miriam's character."
The interior that Weavind created for Miriam's shack differs greatly from that of Tsotsi's shack.  While it also reflects the poverty and decay the overriding feel is that of a welcoming and comfortable space.   "I wanted her shack to be like a cool oasis," says Weavind.  "It is light and airy, reflecting the light in her life and we used turquoise, a much loved colour in the townships, to further enforce the sense of serenity in her life and in her surroundings."  In sharp contrast to Tsotsi's shack, Miriam's dwelling reflects pride and order.
A special feature of Miriam's shack is the inclusion of a number of mobiles that Weavind and her crew made of wire and glass.  The play of light off of the mobiles enhances the theme of light in Miriam's life and lends a magic quality to the interior of her shack.
By far the biggest build in the film was that of Soekie's Tavern, a typical contemporary township shebeen and the scene of the big fight between Tsotsi and Boston.  Since the decision had been taken to build the tavern in the squatter camp, the filmmakers felt that the building should be a solid construction that could later be donated to the community.  "We built with brick and cement, but with a twist," says Weavind.  "Instead of using new materials, used only recycled materials like old corrugated iron, old timber we found in demolition yards and actually went so far as to buy architectural elements from houses in the area including bricks and columns."
Construction of Soekies took about 7 weeks, but Weavind brought in the scenics during the third week of construction to oversee the 'breaking down' of the plastering and to start on the weathering of the building to ensure that it would blend in with its surroundings. "Initially we thought we'd apply a bit of colour to the set, but what we actually did was take all the colour out of it and just left the set with a red stoep.  Even though it had been plastered and painted, we worked it down to a monotone set and provided a neutral backdrop allowing the characters and the patrons to add colour to the set."
In keeping with Gavin Hood's brief, Weavind has employed a very simple colour palette, using mostly natural colours.  "Gavin wanted to avoid using too many colours in frame and to largely restrict the use of colour to enhancing mood.  I drew inspiration from the townships and also from the richness of Africa," says Weavind.

CO-PRODUCER PAUL RALEIGH TALKS ABOUT TSOTSI
About the genesis of the project
It started about 15 months ago when Peter Fudakowski and Gavin Hood came to visit me and told me that they were developing this project.  Peter was going to acquire the rights to Tsotsi - he's seen A Reasonable Man in Cannes and thought Gavin was a very talented director and he wanted Gavin to direct the film.  Obviously Gavin and I have quite a long history together, we did the Storekeeper and we did A Reasonable Man together.  It was a pleasure for me to get involved and we started the process which meant doing budgets and then preparing to raise the money and the 14 months later, we started the film, which in the life of a film is actually quite quick.

Strengths of the story
The strength of a film like Tsotsi is that it is organic, it is made here, the local languages are used, we are not pretending we are somewhere else and the people making the film understand what they are doing.  It's always very difficult when you are trying to second guess and audience about trying to imagine where you are with the story and what characters are like because they might be from somewhere else.  In a case like this it was quite easy and when you start the casting, and you start putting the crew together, you know exactly what you are looking for.

Riskiness of making this film
This is an extremely risky venture.  It is not a genre film and it doesn't have those obvious attachments that end up making the film easy to sell, but it's a brave choice and the only thing that will sell the film, is the film itself.  So we knew it was an extremely tough call.  It's the dilemma you have with these types of films, people tell you that art films don't make money, so don't spend money on them, but if you don't spend money on them, they'll not be good films so in a way, by not resourcing the film properly, you shoot yourself in the foot before you start because it is impossible at this level to take $1 million and make some kind of magic and that was the hard part - convincing ourselves and then convincing our investors that we needed to make something exceptional and that takes money.

Special appeal of Tsotsi
I think, firstly, it's not a political film and that's important.  I think there's a feeling out there that we've been there and done it and that we should really be moving on and dealing with other kinds of issues. I think that, but for the roll of the dice, any one of us could have been one of the characters in Tsotsi.  Especially in SA where we have the differences between the haves and the have nots and it is much more of a social statement than a political or colour statement.  But it will be difficult because, traditionally, South African audiences have been fed the pulp, if I can call it that, of the big American films.  The price of a ticket is the same irrespective of what the film costs and if someone is going to spend their R30, then nine times out of ten, they are going to go for the big picture and we're aware of this.  But, whoever you are, I think when you come out of this film, you will have a better understanding of the country we live in and that poverty and crime are just not a colour issue.

The universality of the story
Well at some point, Peter Fudakowski and I were talking about this film and wondering if we'd be able to raise the right amount of money to do it correctly and he said to me that an alternative location for this film could be South America, Brazil for example.  There is something very true about that because Brazil has similar economic realities to where we are.  There is a level of first world and third world, there's rich and poor, and where you get poverty, these are universal problems.  So for people living in Europe it may be difficult to identify with these characters because it's not something they live with every day, like we do in this part of the world, but I think there is enough savvy in the way Gavin has directed this film that people will understand completely

The biggest challenges of mounting this production
There were several challenges.  One was five weeks of night shoots in the middle of winter.  Night shots on their own bring their own problems, you're probably working at 25 per cent of the capacity of the day.   The other thing was the baby.  You write a three month old baby into a script and you realise that no matter what you thought when you read the script, you are never prepared for the reality of a three month old something on the set, that is not interested in what you are doing, does not take direction - it will do what it does - you can never anticipate that.  It was tough for the parents, it was tough for everyone. When you have sixty people around, it does bring other pressures.

Expected reaction of audiences
I think the first ten minutes of this film are going to be crucial.  People who didn't understand the script and those very specific story beats that Gavin wrote, felt that this was not a likeable person and that the audience would not stay with him.  I think that now that people have seen what he's done, people are going to be genuinely moved and I think that, at the end of the movie, people are going to say how is it possible that I fell in love with someone who, in the first ten minutes of the film, came across as such a bad person.  By the end of the movie, people will be in tears, understanding Tsotsi's journey and understanding his redemption.  This has been challenging because there are no stunts or SFX or action sequences.  This is lovely, engrossing and people will have to read at the same time because it will be subtitled.

WRITER-DIRECTOR GAVIN HOOD TALKS ABOUT TSOTSI
On the genesis of Tsotsi
Tsotsi is a project that has been around for a long time.  It's of course based on a wonderful novel by Fugard.  It remained relatively unknown for many years until he was a famous playwright and it's the only novel that Athol Fugard ever wrote.  I read it probably 15 years ago and thought it had the most beautiful character studies that I had seen in a South African work.   I think people have been trying to make this film for about 15 years.  Various scripts had been written and I was just lucky because a script, apparently, was floating around for a number of years and it landed on Peter Fudakowski, our producer's, desk and he read it and he had also read the novel and, for whatever reason, he felt that he would like to give me a call because he had seen one of, two of my films, A Reasonable Man and In Desert and Wilderness in Cannes. I got a call from Peter, out of the blue to say that he had just read a book that he would commission me to write a first draft of a script, even without having the rights.  He really wanted to see if the novel really could work on a film. So having got the commission to write the script for Peter, I then spent many months just thinking this is a mountain I'm not going to be able to climb.

On Fugard's Novel
The novel is quite episodic - beautifully so - this is not in any way a criticism, it is the nature of a novel that you can read a chapter, put it down and think about that chapter and then the next day, pick it up and read another chapter.  Film isn't like that.  Film is generally something where you go in, sit down for as long as your bladder can hold out, which is generally one and a half hours and the artists should give you that journey in one piece.  In the film medium, generally you want to meet all the characters within the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie and then get on with their story.  So it is quite difficult to bring new characters in an hour into the movie, whereas in a book, chapter wise you can do that quite eloquently.
Another point is that the novel has generally less of a need for a driving through plot than a film does.  Generally, films work best when they carry you on a journey that comes to a specific climax and readers allow the story of a novel top meander more, precisely because the voice of the author, if he is really talented and the insights that he expresses are wonderful to read and digest, whereas when a film meanders you wonder where it is going, so the two mediums are really difficult to bring together.

The decision to shoot in the vernacular
I really felt that this story needed to be told.  I don't want to be pretentious and say authentically, but maybe that is the right word.  I wanted it to have its blood and guts and wanted it to come out of the streets where it belongs and in the language in which it is most powerfully resonant and, frankly, for many years I have been feeling that many films made in our country, set in our country, made in the English language, well intentioned using some big names, many of whom are wonderful actors, have somehow lacked the smell of truth and I'm very scared to go too far down this road. 
I think that using the language of the street gives the story a rhythm that it wouldn't have if it were being told in a language that is not the language of the people from the areas we are talking about.  Mavis, my wonderful casting director, said to me when I was asking her about this, I said Mavis, I'm really thinking of doing this movie in Tsotsitaal, my Tsotsitaal is so-so, but I will get it well translated and, I'll work on it, but it seems to me when I hear - I've directed in different languages before, I've directed a Zulu series and I've directed in Polish, where I didn't understand a word, I said to Mavis, what do you think, she said to me, Gavin, these are wonderful actors, but when they perform in English, their performance goes a little bit down, and that was all she said and she's absolutely right. Somehow that raw energy becomes a little stated.

The relationship between Tsotsi and the baby
I think we faced an interesting challenge in this film having the instrument of Tsotsi's transformation be a three month old baby, who absolutely does not communicate with you on any level other than feed me, burp me, change my nappy and a lot of people said to me that this is just not going to work because you really need the two characters to be able to interact.  But what appealed to me about it was, here you have a character who is unable to have any kind of relationship with anybody.  So in a sense what he needs is something that makes no judgment of him.  Something that does not know to fear him, which is one of the things that I love about this relationship with this baby.  Tsotsi's one of those characters who, if he looks at you, you look away.  If you don't, you are going to get shot or punched, but you don't look at him.  This baby doesn't know that. 
  
PRESLEY CHWENEYAGAE TALKS ABOUT PLAYING TSOTSI
First impressions when reading Tsotsi script
I was shocked to know that here were stories like this happening.  Not many people write scripts like this.  The script was something extraordinary and I wanted to do it.  I was so excited that I thought that I would die if I didn't get the part.

On playing Tsotsi
I didn't really know if I was the right person for the role, but he was an interesting character to play.   I liked the way Tsotsi was written as a character and I was in love with him.  Although I auditioned both for Butcher and for Tsotsi, I was thrilled when my agent called to say that I had been cast as Tsotsi.

Preparing for the role
I prepared both physically and metaphysically.  When we started shooting I didn't know any of the crew and just wanted to keep my distance and not to relate to anyone except the director.  This made it easier for me to relate to the character.  I told the director that I am not being mean or anything, but that I was going to need some time alone sometimes, he understood me. 

On the character
Tsotsi is a young criminal.  He grew up in difficult circumstances because he lost his parents to HIV Aids and ended up on the streets and turned to crime in order to survive.  When he comes into contact with a tiny baby, he re-evaluates his life and that is where our story begins. He forms a very close bond with the baby and this changes his life.

About his fellow actors who make up the gang
All of us have great fun working together.  Kenny (Nkosi),who goes on all the time, laughing and joking, he talks a lot and then there's my friend Zenzo.  Zenzo and I have been friends since we were youngsters and now we're in this movie together which is great.  The third person in our little gang is Mothusi who is very quiet.  We're four very different people and we related to one another in a great way

Dynamics of the gang
I'm he leader, but Butcher wants to question my authority and I don't like that and that's why I end up killing him.  Boston is intelligent because he went to school and he bothers me because he is always talking about these big words that I don't understand, words like Decency.  I get pissed off with him when he starts these things, but I know that I like him as my friend because I know that he is intelligent.  Tsotsi is also intelligent, but he never went to school.
Die Aap and I have been together ever since all our lives.  We were street kids together and have a great relationship, but he follows me all the time.  When I tell him to do something, he agrees without questioning.  He's just a toy to Tsotsi. 

On Tsotsi's relationship with Boston
Boston actually makes Tsotsi wish that he could have had like a good education.  He tells Tsotsi the honest truth about himself and wants Tsotsi to talk, he wants Tsotsi to say what is in his mind, not to just shove people down, to be so cruel.  He just wants Tsotsi to be human.
Boston is one of the catalysts that change Tsotsi's life because Tsotsi is this sort of character who wants to be strong, be a man because he has learnt that from surviving on his own.  Boston is the first person Tsotsi says sorry to and it was hard for Tsotsi to actually do that because he is not used to warm relationships.  He's not used to compassion.

The fight sequence between Tsotsi and Boston
Boston, like I said, wants to know the real Tsotsi.  He wants Tsotsi to be himself, not to be this serious person all the time.  He keeps on pushing Tsotsi to open up and this gets too much for Tsotsi so he beats him up.
He feels really terrible afterwards because he has tried by all means not to resort to violence, but violence and Tsotsi, in this movie, are like good friends.  After beating Boston up, he is depressed because he knows that Boston is right.

On his feelings about killing Butcher
The scene at the Dube house, when Tsotsi kills Butcher, was really tough for me. It really, really hit me because you know, as an actor, you have to lie to yourself.  Zenzo is a friend in real life and when I saw him lying down there, to tell you the honest truth, I really thought I killed my friend.  Gavin always says to me 'get into the zone, boy' and you must stay in the zone.  So for a moment I actually thought I had killed Zenzo, not Zenzo the character, but the Zenzo that I know.  Continued … read more

 ZENZO TALKS ABOUT PLAYING BUTCHER ;MOTHUSI MOGANO TALKS ABOUT PLAYING BOSTON ;KENNETH NKOSI TALKS ABOUT PLAYING DIE AAP