Andrew McDonald, born in Glasgow back in 1966, has produced a number of high profile British features from Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, through to The Beach, The Parole Officer and most recently 28 Days Later, from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. To celebrate the release of the latter, we caught up with him to discuss the making of the film, the content for the DVD, and what is next for both him and the director Danny Boyle.

DVD Reviewer: Where are you based?

Andrew McDonald: I'm based in London at the moment.

DVD Reviewer: What other movies have you worked on?

Andrew McDonald: I've produced Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, Twin Town, The Beach, The Parole Officer, 28 Days Later and a couple of other dodgy things!

DVD Reviewer: How easy was it to get funding for Shallow Grave and Trainspotting and were you surprised by their success?

Andrew McDonald: Getting funding for Shallow Grave was obviously the most difficult, we were very fortunate that Channel Four just liked the script and saw the same movie that we did - so everybody agreed that we could make the film. We had a very limited budget - under £1 million and we were incredibly surprised by the success. We made Trainspotting for under £2 million and it was very easy to finance because we had a very good script. We wanted it be original and make it cheaply so we were even more surprised that it was a success. The next film I made was A Life Less Ordinary with Cameron Diaz and Ewan McGregor, and that was the film that I thought would be successful and wasn't - that probably teaches you everything that you need to know about the movie business!

DVD Reviewer: Tell us a little about "28 Days Later"

Andrew McDonald: 28 Days Later is a film that was released in the UK last November, it is a movie that I made with Danny Boyle - the sixth film that we've made together. It is a post-apocalyptic horror film - a story of what would happen in Britain if a deadly virus spread throughout the human population. The virus causes rage and turns individuals into killing machines. In the movie, the survivors have to survive in London initially amid all the destruction before heading north. The film starts 28 days after the apocalyptic event (hence 28 Days Later) and the film was number one at the box office for two weeks - a rare small British film success.

DVD Reviewer: The film cuts from the opening sequence showing the laboratory raid to Jim waking in hospital after the infection has occurred. Was it ever planned to show how the infection spread?

Andrew McDonald: At one time we did think that we would show it - in fact it was written but we decided for two reasons not to include it in the film - firstly the final cut is fantastic - the audience don't know the actor and follow him as he heads out into the world after the virus learning what has happened as he does. The second reason was that we simply had too much to do - the project would have been too big.

DVD Reviewer: How did you manage to film the empty streets in London?

Andrew McDonald: It was a big challenge, but one that we knew that we had to get right. We filmed it four or five weeks before the rest of the film and the authorities in London are famously a bit difficult with this sort of thing. However, because we were shooting the film on domestic Mini-DV cameras and because the shots are just of an actor walking down the street, there were no big action sequences so it was possible to close the streets for minutes at a time at first light. Over six days we filmed the different sections and we would have lots of cameras for plenty of angles. We held traffic back and were always finished by 0830 in the morning. The sequence is one of the stars of the film - it is very memorable to see a British city deserted like that.

DVD Reviewer: And similarly later in the film, the empty motorways?

Andrew McDonald: We met two very helpful traffic policeman who operated a rolling roadblock on the M1 twice for us. The started 10 miles apart on opposite carriageways and drove very slowly holding back the traffic, again at first light. Again we had lots of cameras and a crane over the motorway. It was fantastic to do - to see the road empty and hear the silence was great. We were very lucky that we got some cooperation.

DVD Reviewer: How easy was it to cast the movie?

Andrew McDonald: It wasn't impossible, it was great casting the three young leads - we told the casting director what we were looking for asked her to find everyone who matched the criteria so we met loads of people and chose who we thought were the best. For some characters we just offered actors that we knew the parts. We decided that the story and the action were the stars of the film, not the actors, which took some pressure off us.

DVD Reviewer: The film has a distinctive visual style - with a quite grainy picture - was this deliberate, or because of the relatively low budget?

Andrew McDonald: A bit of both really, all these decisions always are. It wasn't just the budget, the flexibility of these cameras let us do things in London and the M1 that we wouldn't have been able to do with big cameras. This also gave us a "super-reality" aesthetic that looked a little bit like the TV images at the start of a film. I think that when audiences watch the film, they are watching the story and the picture quality isn't so important. It's far less noticeable on DVD and VHS.

DVD Reviewer: Did you have fun with the special effects?

Andrew McDonald: The most obvious special effect wasn't much fun - the rain - constantly going all the time! It is really hard work filming in the rain. Making Manchester burn was quite fun and we worked with a great bunch of guys in London - it was the first film that they had done - they normally do advertisements. The rats were fun as well - we weren't allowed to release the rats in the tunnel in case they escaped so they created rats in CGI - they were amazing.

DVD Reviewer: Did you have any involvement in the DVD?

Andrew McDonald: I had a lot of involvement - it has become such an important process in filmmaking, the chance to put over your side, to add details, to add scenes that you didn't want to cut. It has become a great friend of the filmmaker and a fantastic friend of the studio because the public like them so much - the market share has gone up and up. What will be interesting in the next few years is the closing of the gap between the theatrical release, the DVD and the video - in some circumstances it will become much closer - I don't think that DVD's stop people going to the cinema as much as some people think.

DVD Reviewer: Who decides what goes onto the disc?

Andrew McDonald: Providing that there isn't a massive cost implication, Danny Boyle decides, just as he decides what is recorded on the film. He worked with Alex Garland on an alternative ending which we never shot but was storyboarded and we discussed lots of ideas for the DVD. There was a time a year or so when it was just quantity, but people are beginning to see through that. It is possible to give a film a whole new lease of life on DVD - even a film that you may not have liked at the cinema can be very satisfying on DVD in terms of the extras.

DVD Reviewer: Is there anything you would like to have included on the DVD but couldn't?

Andrew McDonald: I don't think so. Sometimes there is - I remember in Trainspotting there was a scene of Ewan McGregor dancing with his mother to Karma Chameleon from Culture Club - I always wanted to put that on the DVD but nobody would play for the clearance of the song. There is a scene like that on 28 Days later actually. In the taxi when they were on their way north they were singing a White Stripes song, but we couldn't put that on because it would have cost £10,000 for the rights. There is a "secret place" containing it on the soundtrack album though if you pop the disc in your PC...

DVD Reviewer: What does a producer do, and how does his work relate to that of the director?

Andrew McDonald: Danny and I work very closely together - I make all the final financial decisions and he makes all the final creative decisions. But, one doesn't work without the other so everything needs to be discussed, often with the writer and others as well. Movie making is always about ascertaining the value of the film - what you think that you can raise the finance on compared to what you think the audience will be. There are other types of producers as well, Joel Silver or Jerry Bruckheimer for example, who are the absolute force behind their films. They often take a less established director and have far more overall control. Most European producers work for the director - the director says "here is a film I want to make, go and raise the money".

DVD Reviewer: Do you think the British film industry is healthy?

Andrew McDonald: It goes up and down like a yo-yo. The one thing that is a bit of a myth is the supposed lack of finance. There is always money to make a film if you have the right project. In reality there are probably too many films made in Britain, there are probably 100 films made in Britain a year, which is far more than anybody watches.

DVD Reviewer: What projects do you have lined up for the future?

Andrew McDonald: Danny is doing a film called Millions which is shooting in Manchester in a few months which I'm not involved. It's about two boys who find a bag of money on the eve of the introduction of the Euro and have to spend all the money. I'm currently working with John Hodge on adapting Porno, the sequel to Trainspotting.

28 Days Later is available to buy now courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, from all good retailers, priced at £19.99.