For husband-and-wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine was the realisation of a dream to one day make a movie. After 20 years directing music videos, you might expect their debut film to be packed with flashy, visual effects. In fact their emphasis is very much on fleshing out believable characters, which they talk about in an insightful commentary to accompany the main feature. Budding filmmakers should take notes...

Shiny, Happy People

They worked very closely with writer Michael Arndt to "reduce the elements to their essential bits" as Dayton puts it. Meanwhile Faris admits she was "a little tense" about the references to suicide (given that this is a comedy). But both agreed that getting the tone right would ultimately depend on getting the characters to act honestly. "We felt if it was honest, it would be funny," says Faris.

Apart from developing the story, the duo also reflect on the technical challenges of making a road movie on a low budget. Thankfully they could afford a good stunt co-ordinator (who worked on The Fast And The Furious), but most of the time, filming inside the camper van in fast-moving traffic was a "harrowing" business. Apparently it involved a tow truck, walkie-talkies, a single highway patrolman and a lot of contortionism. Dayton admits that if there had been an accident, it would have been "very ugly". >

After The Sun Goes Down

Dayton and Faris also provide commentary for four alternative endings. The first finds Richard (Kinnear) and co. toasting a dearly departed family member at a lay-by. Faris calls the footage "very embarrassing...too sappy", but it's also a neat illustration of how they developed the script to mine out the honesty of the situation. This lay-by scene was scrapped in favour of another that sees the brood in handcuffs at a police station, which was then subsequently ditched for a knockabout skit where they steal the Little Miss Sunshine trophy. Of course in the end, simplicity is the key and Faris realised that the story had to end with the van - "an important character".

It's a bit disappointing that this DVD doesn't offer more behind-the-scenes access, but Dayton lets slip in the film commentary that there is more deleted footage yet to come to light. (Surely this hints at a Special Edition in the pipeline.) Still, this disc offers a very thoughtful, engaging and unusually candid look at how this modest little film evolved from script to screen. In a word: enlightening.

EXTRA FEATURES

Little Miss Sunshine DVD is released on Monday 22nd January 2007.