Steve Jobs featurette: Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle on man behind the movie

In making Steve Jobs, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle borrowed an idea from the Apple co-founder’s famous marketing campaign: Think different.

Eschewing the traditional cradle-to-the-grave biopic format, Steve Jobs illuminates its subject’s accomplishments and shortfalls, both personal and professional, through the lens of three key moments in his life, each on the eve of a major product launch.

In a new featurette for the film, Boyle, Sorkin, and several cast members — including Michael Fassbender, who plays Jobs — talk about how they tried to craft a portrait of Jobs that’s truthful, even if it’s not strictly factual.

“In those scenes, all these conflicts that [Jobs] has in his life get played out,” Sorkin says. Later, he continues, “The difference between characters and people is the difference between a photograph and a painting. This movie is a painting.”

“What you’re after is the truth of a scene,” Boyle adds. “There’s ideas that come out of real life, but they’re embellished as drama.”

Steve Jobs is currently playing in limited release and opens wide Friday. Watch the new featurette above.