28 Weeks Later (2007)

Hi, this is Juan Carlos, director of 28 Weeks Later. Hi, this is Enrique, producer and writer of 28 Weeks Later.

OK, first, I think when we were thinking about the concept in this beginning, Enrique and I, we discussed a lot about the way that we should shoot that, and the main concept in this sequence was bringing realism to these survivors in this house. That's why we used a handheld camera... shooting the whole time, you know, really close to the actors to convey to the audience that these survivors are isolated in this house.

We always had in mind, uh... we are huge fans of submarine films. You know these films where everybody is locked in a very small, tiny place? And we love the idea to start a film doing something... trying to keep the detail of everything. People is... Watching, it's very interesting watching. Where are these people? This scene wasn't in the original script by Rowan Joffe. It's a very strange sequence about surviving. Critics and audience love these scenes. We also love these scenes. In the process of writing, we always thought that was... We wanted to make the film... all the film about this scene. And, uh... it was really a real challenge to... to make the rest of the film better than this. It was, from the very beginning, a real challenge. Especially because, I think, in this moment, we build the movie from probably, to me, the heart of the story which is the family. And how this family, how this husband and wife, are talking naturally about their children, and then we, as we see, we introduce other characters in this house. The story begins with them talking about their children and then we see how now they are not alone, they are living with more people in the house. And these characters now are introduced step by step. We are adding these elements of weirdness and strangeness. We think, at the very beginning, that this couple is alone, then we are introducing all the characters around the table. It's very... We love, Juan Carlos and l, we love, particularly, Luis Bunuel and his sense of humour and surrealism. Obviously, that wasn't about that, but we tried to bring to the horror movie some kind of weirdness in this moment. For example, in the moment when Shahid is reading the newspaper, it would be very, very easy to put a close shot of the windows locked. We prefer the audience notice this naturally, instead of working with them in this... in the sense of trying to give them the elements directly. Especially in this sequence, we can feel somebody who is not in the cottage - the boyfriend of Karen. And then through this conflict about if he's coming or not to the cottage, we see how now somebody is knocking at the door, it's a kid, and then we realise that there is something, something in the exterior, which is a kind of menace.

And especially in terms of the light, we discover in this moment that in the exterior, it's daylight. And, clearly, we see how these characters are in danger. I think that's a big... the first big surprise in the film, no? The light. Yeah, exactly. This is one of the plot points in this opening sequence.

And as we have seen in this moment, the rhythm of the movie is quiet and calm, trying to feel how these characters are trying to start over.

That's something I love about this sequence. That's a great contrast between this very moody set-up piece and music from John Murphy, with the fantastic music. With this bass guitar, it gives us the idea of a very, very pacey film. Does the same thing for the gore, no? - Yeah.

From this moment, the style is completely different from the beginning because now the infection is... is... IS close. This is something that, with Enrique Chediak, the director of photography, we talked a lot about when the infection is around, the camera is infected, as well. And the editing is so fast... to deliver that the attack and the infected people are really, really dangerous. So this is probably one of the keys in terms of the style of the movie.

This sequence with the old couple was shot by Danny Boyle, who helped during three days in the second unit. And it's so funny because Danny was working very hard and he had an accident, a little accident. He was injured in the shoulder, shooting this mini sequence with the old couple and Jacob in the hatch, in the escape hatch, in this precise moment. I think this was because all the people involved in this movie, we were working so hard and so fast to get that feeling about the infection - that the infection is so dangerous and... Literally, we were running with the actors and the infected to transmit that this is a big danger for these people. We were running, literally, because this sequence was shot in only three days. That's a very tiny schedule. It was very generous from Danny to help us in this part of the sequence.

This infected who is knocking the door which Don has locked is Paul Kasey. Paul Kasey was the choreographer of this group of infected people. I think he made a fantastic job, you know... trying to get this wild and scary movement of the infected. Yes, because one wrong movement and the scene is wrong, you know?

Here, the use of a helicopter... - The flying cam. A mini helicopter. It's a mini helicopter because it wasn't possible to shoot with a normal one, having in mind that the environment doesn't allow that. And we used this mini helicopter to shoot, especially because we wanted to shoot really close to Robert Carlyle and to see how this man is feeling the guilt of abandoning his wife in the cottage. We used this tool previously in Intacto, our first movie, and, uh... I think it's very effective. Even if there is only four or five shots, they are very, very effective. This is another sequence that Danny Boyle helped us to shoot, especially this stuff in the boat when Don is trying to escape and he is surrounded by the infected. And Jacob tries to reach the boat, but it's not possible because the infected are really fast and they attack before he can reach the boat. That was great work from the stunts. This sequence was shot in November in England, so imagine how cold was the water.

The use of the music was very risky, trying to put this music so loud, obviously louder than the screams of the infected and everything. And it was... it was a good idea to break the music here,

to leave Robert Carlyle alone... in his dilemma.

It was very difficult to find the manor, the place, to do that around London because it has to be really, really close to the city. And we realised during the shooting that this manor was also used in Children of Men, the film from Alfonso Cuaron, a great film. An anticipation fantasy, as well, with London in as a character. Here, London is a real character in this introduction, no? Yes, because we clearly see how this city was devastated from infection. And we... we bring this kind of documentary style with the credits, you know, giving information about what happened and how the city is trying to start over again. This information was an idea of Alex. Alex Garland is the executive producer on this film and was also the producer and writer of the previous movie. I think that was a great idea. Thank you, Alex, from here. It was a big help for us.

In this part of the movie, we see London devastated and how now militaries are in control of the city. We introduce the character of Doyle, the sniper. In a way, I think that this beginning with the city, in terms of how we presented the city, we Start from the air with an aerial shot and then we landed on the rooftops with these snipers. And then, later on, we're going to see the city from the ground. This is a kind of trip from the air to the ground to see the effects of the infection, and how now the militaries are trying to rebuild and repopulate the area. This stuff with the militaries talking is inspired from the reality, because we made fantastic research with Alex, Alex Garland, about how soldiers speak in these situations and how the process... how the rebuilding process is absolutely based on real stuff. Yeah. It was really important to imply everything from reality, to move... forward in a situation that never happened, but has something in common with all the situations that happen in wars. In these shots of the airport, I think the work of Sean Mathiesen, the visual effects supervisor, is fantastic because we don't see anything in this airport. Everything is removed from the original shots because, in those shots, the airport was very busy with a lot of planes. And then in these shots, we see how now there is nothing in this airport. In this movie, it is particularly clear that the special effects is something crucial to get this feeling, to get this flavour of the emptiness of London. Yeah, the work of Sean Mathiesen is really notorious in this film. It's probably more difficult to remove than to add, and Sean made a fantastic work in these two ways, in these two senses. Most of the military presence is added visually by Sean and his crew.

Again, in this part of the movie, we linked the family concept with the introduction of the kid arriving to London. And how now they are prepared to... to start a new life in their city which is now... with the presence of the militaries, trying to help these people to live again in this part of the city, which is the Isle of Dogs. This is the main location that we used in the movie as District One, the place that now the Londoners, the newcomers, are trying to live. Probably American audiences are not going to notice, but the T-shirt that Mackintosh Muggleton is wearing is a Real Madrid T-shirt. We are not supporters of Real Madrid, but this is one of our things we add from Spain. Yeah, this is a kind of homage of our country.

Again, the documentary style has come in because I think we talked a lot about that, and I think it was the best way to understand the implications of a big war between the infection and the human being... as something that you can think immediately it's something that could happen.

The idea to choose District One, Isle of Dogs, as the main place for the new life in the city, is because the vertical structure of that place allows to bring a lot of people and at the same time you can control them, which is, in this process, in this new beginning of the city, is crucial for the militaries to have an area that they can control and they can... they can help these people. It's also the idea that we want to improve something new from the first movie, 28 Days Later, which is a film, well, it's a masterpiece. It's a classic now, and it's really difficult to add and to add new things from this first movie. Our idea was to work in the contrast, no? Because this city is very close to other modern cities in the world, but it is very far from the idea we have of the iconic London. What we like to do in the beginning is to... to bring this city as a character in the first half of the movie, and the second half to work with this iconical and gothic London - Danny Boyle's work in the previous film.

Mark Tildesley is the production designer that made the fantastic work, helping us. We are not Londoners. He tried to complete in a very, very fast way our understanding of how London's working now. These new neighbourhoods around what we all know.

The CCTV cameras in this movie is an element that conveys that the city's under control. Everything is under control, which is part of the... it's one of... it's part of the process when somebody's trying to rebuild a city like this. With Rose Byrne, the character of the doctor, we introduce the concerns about the infection. Maybe it's not under control and they need more time. A little conflict in the militaries about if they are doing the right procedure, in terms of they are bringing kids to this world which is something maybe dangerous.

I think what is truly original in this movie is to put the focus on the family, instead of doing it in all the district. It was very important, the casting in this movie. The kids was one of the big things in the beginning, and Shaheen Baig, the casting director, she helped a lot, especially with the trainings that she had with a lot of kids from different schools. I think when you're assisting these trainings, you know, you can see clearly if the kid is going to respond and if it's going to work in the way that you're expecting.

Shooting in London is really, really complicated. You had to have in mind all the terrorist warnings we had in London this summer, this previous summer, not only in the airport, but also in the city. Uh... I have to congratulate Bernie Bellew's crew, which is really amazing, that allows us to do it.

This sequence was one of the ones we loved the most during the writing process. The first moment that the father confesses, in a way, his betrayal. But we see this in two different angles because we know the truth. We assist, in the first sequence, to the truth. In a way, in terms of the story, we put the finger on the big issue for this character, for Don, which is when he abandoned his wife in the cottage. Now he's with their kids and he needs to tell them what happened in the cottage, which is something really hard for him. And this is one of the moments, in terms of visuals, that the style of the movie, again, is changed because it's a confession. And I thought it's good to change from the handheld stuff to something static, which delivers, you know, the importance of the moment.

To me, it's the best way to penetrate in the mind of this character, to feel and to notice what a difficulty it is to tell the truth. Robert Carlyle is amazing in this sequence and the whole film. He made something very difficult easy - to believe that the infected is a human being. But, precisely in this sequence, all his character is built from the ambiguity. And this guy is something... You sympathise with him, even if he made his surviving act, which is to escape from the house leaving his wife there. I think you really... It's sympathetic to you. - Yeah. And I think it's funny, but I remember we shot four takes for this moment and the take that we used in this editing is the first one, because from the first moment, I think Robert understood very well the essence of the character, which is a kind of mix between weakness and survivor feeling, as well. In a way, the dilemma of the character, which is in that terrible moment he decided to follow his survivor instinct, I think everybody could do the same. That's why I think we feel this sympathy that we are talking about. It's an immediate identification with the character. I think that's also the reason he decided to do this movie, which is a genre movie. It's not the kind of films he made, but he decided to accept this as a challenge. And this sequence was, in the script, one of the ones he likes the most. On the other hand, this shows one of the concepts we developed, which is from something really microscopic, which is the guilt, we build something bigger later on. And, in a way, it's a kind of metaphor between the infection and then the human feelings in this movie. The infection, as well, is a microscopic thing who can destroy your world, and, in this sequence particularly, we see how the guilt of this character is something destructive and dark that can destroy this family, as well.

The work of the newcomers - Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots, is really amazing in this sequence. Because without saying nothing, we can feel the loss, no? Yeah.

I think it's clear, in terms of the storytelling, the feelings about the loss and the guilt are... are pushing the situation in a difficult way. Because these survivors need to start over again, but the past is something that is heavy. That's why the use of this past is... it's preparing the atmosphere, you know?

This joke with Doyle, Jeremy Renner, and Flynn, Harold Perrineau, was a kind of improvisation with Jeremy, which, as an actor, he loves these kind of things. I think it's perfectly matched in the style of the movie, introducing a little touch of humour in this moment, which is necessary to relax the tension of the movie and introducing these colleagues, these friends.

People watching... I think it's one of the leitmotifs in the story, you know? Everybody needs to watch, to control - through microscopes, through finders in the weapons. And how if you try to control too much maybe, if you lose the control, it's something really terrible.

But these spotters are trying to keep you safe from something we don't exactly know. And at the end, no? At the same time, they're also a menace, no, because they're... you don't have any feeling that you're safe in that place from the very beginning. And in terms of visual, the viewfinder of the weapon of Doyle is a kind of link between the family, the doctor, Scarlet, and Jeremy the sniper.

This is one of the sequences we worked a lot - about to introduce that something is coming, something strange is coming. It's a dream sequence... who breaks the style of the movie. But I think it was the best way to show that this kid has a problem about the... He can't accept his mother's death. Again, I think it's something important in this movie. We build all the actions, and all the horror is built from the characters, from the conflicts of the characters. And in this case with the kids, it's the idea that the mother is dead, but they need to bring back some kind of stuff from the past. It's so difficult to live in this place without any identity, which is District One. That's why these kids need to go back to the house.

In a way, just passing the limits of District One, it's the first announcement that these characters are in danger because they are going to the city, to the part of the city which is not safe.

Personally, I love these images and this silent London. We hesitated a lot about bringing in music here. I think we were right because this is the first moment we really feel we are with them.

And we show this iconic London, these streets that immediately we recognise like the London that everybody knows. And this London now is devastated and full of loneliness. At the same time, that's home. They feel more comfortable in this place they know than in the icy... District One.

And as a kind of reminder with the first movie, I think we see how... places that before the infection they were full of life, and now it's completely death, including, you know, corpses and trash.

It's a place that, in a way, was abandoned in the middle of the infection.

This is the first corpse the kids see.

That's a great trick, we found it in the editing room, to believe that the kid is not there just for a very small, tiny moment.

And this one was the original idea to show the iconic London through the eyes of the kids in this travel. I think it was important to find the right locations to show this abandoned London, but always from the point of view of the kids, which is a more character-driven style, which is something that we love. And, on the other hand, we can see this fantastic city which is London in an unnatural way. I mean without life, without anybody, which is, I think, one of the big images of this movie. Yeah, Tower of London is always dreamy, no? It reminds us of Peter Pan... Charles Dickens. This cemetery here is absolutely amazing.

This was shot the first day. Yeah. It was the first... the first week. And always it's difficult to start, in terms of the shooting, to start with a sequence that demands, you know, a lot of emotional implication. But I think Imogen and Mac, they acted very well. And they delivered, you know, the feeling of: "Mum is not here now, but we need to bring back, you know, our stuff." "We need to see our house again to accept that now everything is different."

This is a sequence that was a kind of improvisation because we discovered this trampoline in the location. I think it was a good idea to start with the tension again because now the movie is about to... to start again in terms of fear, horror and tension.

It was a very, very difficult place to... to light for Quique Chediak because we wanted to bring the realism, but at the same time we have to understand why this place is... the light is off here. And especially the use of natural locations. I think it was so difficult for Enrique to put the lights. But at the same time it's real, which is something that we love. And you can smell this room. You can feel that everything is completely messy because it's real, so real.

The discovery of the mother is great. I think it's... Nobody thinks about that we are going to find the mother here. This was very difficult because in the first screenplay it was different. The way that the mother and the kid was encountered, it was a kind of jump. But we decided to reshoot the sequence because we needed to introduce a more emotional weight in this meeting, in this encounter, which is this kind of strange hug, and how now the mother is losing the control and the kid is scared about that. I think it's a transition who implies, you know, the difficulty of this encounter. And how now the mother is a kind of... - It's also important, the use of the sound, no? To build the tension here. I want to come back to talk about Quique Chediak's work. The film was shot in 16mm, most of them. And these locations are really, really difficult to light and to work with. It's strange because it's a 16mm film, but it's not so grainy. And that was one of the reasons we had Chediak. He's really a master in this. Especially because we dealt with a lot of locations and always it's difficult to maintain a style in the movie with these changes. I think Enrique made a fantastic work in terms of using a specific light in every location to convey this feeling about the survivor process.

It was difficult for Catherine McCormack to do this film because she was in a play in London at the same time - 39 Steps. Especially as her acting in this sequence is quite difficult in terms of she's trapped in that bed and she needs to... without any word, to convey that she was alone and she is a survivor.

Catherine was the first person that Juan Carlos chose in the casting of the film. I think I felt a connection immediately with her because she... You know, this character needs to show two things, which is she is a mother and she is a survivor, as well. So this strength, it's noticeable with her, but at the same time she's so tender and you understand why she's asking for the kids.

The work with the eye, with, um... was really difficult. We believe that this is real. The haemorrhage was an idea from Danny, as well. Yeah, to improve this haemorrhage in the eyes, clarify the connection with the blood and the very unique blood that this woman has.

Here, there's brilliant work from Imogen Poots.

In a way, again, rage, which is the main concept in this movie, not only the rage from the infected, but the rage from human beings, is important in these moments. And you can see how everybody is... In a way, everybody has a rage side inside.

The dull reflection of the face of the girl in the mirror is a kind of ghost image, you know, from this man. Now he's in trouble because a ghost from the past is here. And he needs to check, he needs to talk, he needs to keep in touch, to connect with her, because he thought that she was dead. The truth is going to be discovered by everybody, any of the characters in the film now.

And you know he's going to be trapped between these two worlds.

You're suffering for Carlyle. You know something's going to happen. This moment of tension is very, very complex.

Again, the work of Chris Gill, the editor, is really, really amazing. We found together all these great ideas, because that wasn't exactly in the structure of the original script. Yeah. The parallel editing is improving a lot the tension of this sequence. And... This sequence was really difficult to shoot. It was made in one day. That was the first day of the premiere of Catherine's play.

These kind of sequences are always on the verge of the ridiculous because this is going to be the transformation of Robert Carlyle into something else. Especially because according to the reality that we would like to introduce, we shot in this quarantine cubicle, which was a tiny place. And, you know, the pact with Robert was: "OK, let... you know, let your feelings out with all the power of the rage," which is so difficult in this space. But I think Robert understood that... that this reaction should be in this extreme way. And, in seconds, we see how this man is passing through... through the sad and love... to the... to the violence. The kiss is... this is one of the highlights in the script, was one of the highlights, and II think it's still one of the highlights in the film. When we see this through a normal projection screening in the Chinese Theatre, Juan Carlos and I bought a ticket the first day of the release of the film in the USA, and we assist... We were very happy to see how the audience Is reacting to this sequence. It's a very, very extreme moment of the movie. Especially because in terms of... in an emotional way, the infection is here again for the characters, as I mentioned before. And... and in a way, we see how this family is cursed, and they are bringing the hell to this place again.

The performance with the contact lenses is, for all the people who worked with this, was very difficult, especially for Robert because he, in this moment, he is showing us, you know, that he's infected, but at the same time he's connected with something from the past, which is this woman, and attacking this woman who has given him a lot of suffering. The connection between the rage and the suffering, it's one of the... one of the big concepts in this moment. I think that the eyes, the idea of the eyes, is not only because of the gore. It's not gratuitous. It's the idea of the guilt, no? He doesn't want to see her eyes because he feels guilty. That was the real... the real reason. We know that's really extreme and... Yeah, and how the guilt is putting you in a difficult situation. And, you know, this guilt becomes a kind of rage and you destroy everything around.

In terms of the editing, this was one of the difficult moments because we pass from the family concept to the... towards normal procedure, in terms of military. And it was really helpful, this kind of parallel montage again.

In order to achieve that this little thing, this small thing between the family, is affecting the whole city. The killing of the mother is the trigger of this part of the movie, which is the extermination of everything, everything alive. And how now all the characters are involved in this trigger and everybody's trying to take decisions in a difficult moment.

I think John Murphy, the composer, understood very well the use of the intensity and the silence, which I think is one of the... It was the concept with the music, you know? The silence is quite important in the story to deliver the idea of the emptiness. And the intensity of the music, as well, to convey that feeling about the... that the infection is so dangerous and... The combination between the music and the silence builds - moments like this one, for example - moments of pure horror. That was one of the most difficult sequences to work with, what with extras, what with... you know, a very small place. 300... sometimes 400 extras in a garage. Especially because... I say the same, you know? To see the panic and how people are losing control is always difficult because, in a way, you're forcing the extras and the actors to feel something disgusting, which is this kind of panic moment. In these tiny places, we were with two units, because it was really difficult to accomplish... to achieve everything in four days. So in one part, Juan Carlos was shooting these massive sequences, and I was in a very tiny room working on the gory sequences. It was really funny.

Here, again, the challenge was to bring the realism of these extreme moments. The use of the handheld camera and documentary style in the editing is very important to feel the panic, and to see how everything is about to start again.

American critics sometimes talk about these sequences, about the allegory of... September 11, all the big disasters in the recent years. I think everybody has printed on their minds, you know... events that happened in these last few years, and, in a way, if you shoot with this real concept, I think the movie becomes a kind of mirror, that you can see, you know, these events. And it's a kind of reminder of, you know, big disasters, in terms of war and in terms of catastrophes.

Here, again, the improvement of Chediak to this sequence is important. That was difficult, and it's absolutely different from the idea we... we sold to the producers, to Andrew MacDonald and Allon Reich. We thought about a wave of light and we imply something absolutely different with the use of torches. Here, most of the extras had torches in their hands, and that's their... that's the only... tool of light in this sequence. In a way, it's very good because you see and not see, that was the idea. You know, as a kind of strobe effect, as a kind of flashlight effect, which is very horrific. And you are locked, you are trapped in this car park and the infection is so close to you but you can't see. That's why I think, in terms of the panic of the people, it's so... it's so powerful. And, literally, we shot in these conditions, which is... which is a big help, you know, to... to get this panic situation. It was really uncomfortable to shoot this in this place because, as we mentioned before, the place was tiny. But it was... Having in mind that, I think that the result is very impressive because, you know, in a way, the car park is a character as well, and it brings this realism that we were looking for.

Again, the tension is built by the bass guitar of John Murphy's. This bass guitar we used in the beginning of the movie when the... when that boy was knocking the door, to deliver the idea that everything is starting again. I love these images, when you retain these images on the conscience.

Sometimes, not to see is better than to see, no? I think it's very good to combine these kind of surreal images with the blood with this realistic approach, in terms of the control of the militaries. Because, in a way, you are dealing with two worlds. The infected people, a point of view of the infected people, and now the people who are trying to control the situation, which its the snipers. In this sequence, I think, literally, we see how everybody is losing the control, including the snipers. Everybody is playing on the same ground.

And we see two levels - the ground is the hell and the rooftop is the only place that you can survive in this moment.

It's driving them crazy, because, you know, it's so difficult to see who is infected and who is not infected. And, again, a character taking a difficult decision, which is one of the leitmotifs in the movies... in the movie. A right decision or a wrong decision? But always it's a decision that implies destruction. Yeah, and all these decisions have been taken from the fear. The fear is... Everything is around the fear here. Everybody takes a decision in this... in the presence of the fear, which is moving everything forward. When you're watching the movie you understand why people take these decisions, because I think when we feel this fear in the real life, you're in trouble. It's not a cold decision, it's not a decision taken from a quiet moment. It's... when you're surrounded by something really powerful as the infection. This tune, this theme, was taken - musically - was taken from the first movie. This is a tune we always loved from the first movie, from John Murphy's soundtrack. And we had no time for John's... He had only two weeks to compose the music of the film. This is absolutely amazing to say that, but it's the truth. And we decided to bring this theme again back here in this sequel, and to work it in different ways. For me, it's hypnotical. I... I like the way we use it here. I like the way that John orchestrated and arranged absolutely in a different... It's different from the first one. We are going to hear this tune four times in the movie, in key moments. This is one of them. And that... this sound, this music, reminds that the infection is a building process. The infection is spreading. That's why the music is building up and, you know, getting this kind of big, intense moment with the guitars, which is the best combination with the infection around. On the other hand, the music has a kind of heart, emotional heart, which is telling that this movie is about character, it's about people... who try to survive. Now there's the moment of Doyle's dilemma. Another decision to take, another difficult decision to take, which is to put out of his misery his colleague.

In fact, Jeremy Renner was a loner in this movie, because most of his work he had to do it alone on these rooftops.

This is a sequence, in the screenplay it was a kind of relief. But we discovered when we were shooting this moment that it was good to build a kind of strange tension in the beginning, to... to see the darkness in this place, and, using this style, maybe you can think that the infected could be around. And a kind of menace for the kid. And then, turning into a kind of human concept, which is people hiding, scared, and trying to survive again. This is very Fresnadillo style. When you think you're safe, he brings... beats that are really weird. This is one of them. At the same time, to combine this with emotions.

Now we're going to have the explanation of what is Code Red. And we're going to understand from now till the end of the film what is the film going to be about. Mainly about escaping, no? From everything - the infected, the militaries. And how these kids are trying to escape from... Metaphorically, they're trying to escape from their blood, which is something very difficult. From their curse. - Yeah.

You see through Rose Byrne's eyes that this is going to be very, very difficult, and you start to think who is going to be alive at the end of the movie now, no? Your bets are on. - Yeah. And especially, in terms of the storytelling, I think sacrifice is... is a new step in this story. They are, these soldiers, are sacrificing themselves for the kids.

This bunch of survivors are going to need to escape and to run, every time from now until the end. And it was the same thing for the crew, no? We had to run... In a way, the movie, it starts again. This is a new chapter in the story, which is now: "We need to run, we need to escape." "District One is doomed, so that's why we should find a better place to escape." Now we have two menaces, which is infected people and... and the militaries, because they don't want to... They need to kill everybody, as we see. The main reason is they don't want to... to spread this infection out of the British Islands.

This is one of the, to me, is one of the more... It's an amazing sequence in terms of the light, because we shot this sequence in daylight. And Enrique Chediak used this technique, day-for-night, to... Especially because we needed to see the city absolutely switched off, which is completely impossible when you're dealing with a big city like London. So the only way that we can shoot this... - We also had a problem. A major problem was... you can't work with kids at night-time. That's true. So... But at the end, Enrique made an amazing job with the sequence using this technique, and... And we can do it, we can do this, especially, you know, because we needed, as I told before, to see this city absolutely with the lights off.

And the atmosphere that this day-for-night has given to the movie is quite... scary. That was the main reason we hired Quique Chediak, one of the reasons. We also wanted, Juan Carlos and I, to do a film with day-for-night style. I don't know why, but DPs hate these things about day-for-night. Because in that case, it brings something very ghostly to the city, no? It's very weird, very strange, it's never the same thing as a real night, but in this film you're going to assist to something, that the city, the iconic city, is going to... to come alive, in a way, in a sense. It's like you have a big, big moon over you. There's some kind of fantasy about... A kind of twilight feeling, which is the perfect time to... And Quique said, "Yes, I can do it." He is really daring. He's a very daring person. And until the very, very last moment, we thought that we were wrong, Juan Carlos and I.

Jane Petrie was the designer... and that was really difficult for her to work in day-for-night. You have to think about the colours, about the luminosity, the brightness of these... of these shots, no? When you shoot in day-for- night, you need to pay attention to costumes, because the technique implies that you need to reduce the light later on, so that's why you can't use, you know, specific colours, and you need to... you need to control these things. And makeup is very important. - Makeup is very important. Here, for example, we don't see Robert Carlyle's eyes, which is really nice. This first appearance of Carlyle, I think is really cool. It... This movie, in this sense, is a kind of chase. These kids are chased by their father now. And, you know, the run away, in terms of the structure, is clear now, because apart from the fact that the soldiers, the militaries, are trying to kill everybody, the infection and the infected are chasing them. Clearly, with the figure of this father infected, now the moment's more difficult in terms of emotion as well.

Again, Sean Mathiesen's work is really cool. The jets, obviously, are CG. We are not bombing anything, for sure. All the fire in this sequence, it's a CGI element shot in real with real fire, but, you know, they played around with these shots. The special effects in this sequence are very important, and I think the work of all these companies in the movie, they worked very well. And very hard, because that was made in record time. Yeah. 400 shots in more or less two months. The fire. The fire here is the only way for these people to clean the city, which is something terrible, and introduces the idea that the destruction of the powerful, the destruction of the human being is probably sometimes stronger and more destructive than the infection is instead. The connection between the blood and all the characters are... very important. It's a sequence we worked a lot in the editing, because it was difficult to deal with several layers in this story, which is the family, the militaries, the infected. So, we tested a lot of times, and I think we found at the end this perfect balance between the characters in the tunnel, the militaries in the bunker, and everybody out of these places are completely in danger. This music is exactly the opposite of what music in a spectacular movie deals with. I mean, this is an arrangement of the principal tune and this is arranged in a very sad way. This is exactly what we wanted.

This sequence... is the conclusion for this character, for General Stone, who tried to maintain the city alive, but when the infection came, he decided to destroy everything, which is a difficult decision, and it's... something that is a big... Brilliantly, Idris Elba... with no elements, apparently creating a character. And now the infection is taking over London. And the second half of the movie is starting.

This is the iconic London we talked about. We were inspired by the Charles Dickens movies, by the photography of the Second World War, the bombing of London. Most of these scenes were shot in... at sunrise. That means six o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the morning. It was the only way to get control in these places, because, as everybody knows, London is a very busy place and the only way to, you know, to deal with a city that... That was the Millennium Bridge. ...there is no life there. This is the theatre, the district of theatres. In a way, we are making a trip through the city, through this iconic city, which is London, and... discovering every place through the eyes of the survivors, or through the eyes, in a way, of the infected people taking over the place.

Most of the scenes were reshooting, because we tried to find a logic to the trip. I want to thank the work of Peter Rice, executive producer at Fox, for bringing us this approach... to this logic because, it's true, sometimes when we shoot the film, we try to find... we are most interested in bringing images than to find a real logic in the trip, no? Mm-hm.

Again, another location that it's very important to feel, you know, a little moment of quietness in the story, but at the same time, the tension is around, because we know that the infected are... Again, it's a great CG reworking, because this scene was shot in Knebworth Park, where... they used to make concerts - Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones played there. And it's supposed to be Regent's Park, which is in the north part of London, the north of London. And we can see some of the iconic towers on the skyline, like the BT Tower.

This is probably the only moment of calm in the second half of the movie. It's the only moment because the pace of the movie is so intense. I think it was... it was the right rhythm to deliver this crazy moment. And this is, as well, it's very important to understand why these people, why this doctor is helping the kids.

In the script, this sequence was meant to be during night, night-time. It was so complicated to do it, we decided to choose, on the run, to make it in daytime. It was a critical choice, because, you know, some of this stuff at night-time brings another... another flavour. But we had to make a lot of work with the helicopter and we hadn't had permission to do it at night-time. We had to spend a lot of money in trying to light this place - absolutely impossible. And... We decided to do it at sunrise. I think it brings something absolutely different. It's really dreamy. And again, Chediak's photography is absolutely gorgeous. This sequence is important. In terms of storytelling, we are assisting in the beginning, in a way, of a new family. You know, these kids with these soldiers. They are connected and they are trying to escape and... Now we know the real task of these soldiers, which is to take these kids out because they represent a kind of faith in the new vaccine, or in a new way to... The blood of the kids is the key now to save the world, in a way. So there's a mission now.

That was one of the most difficult sequences in all the film. Yeah. I think this sequence, we took a lot of work in this sequence because it's a very, very intense action moment. In terms, also, of tone, because we also wanted to keep the realism always, but now we are assisting to a very genre-orientated sequence that is dealing with the helicopter in a very spectacular way, the infected, and it's mainly a chase. In a way, this moment is a kind of explosion in terms of tone and in terms... To deliver that these people are in danger and... and the war between the infection and the human beings is so tough, that's why the sequence that we are about to see, it's a clear... It's a war sequence, but with the introduction of the blood and the... and the, kind of, killing, which is, you know... Obviously, Harold Perrineau is not the real pilot in these scenes. We had a fantastic pilot... Yeah, called Marc Wolff. Marc was one of the pilots in the Vietnam War. And... - He's a legend. As we see here, he managed very well this crazy moment with the helicopter spinning around. This is a real helicopter. This is something that we need to say, because we only used special effects in the moment that the infected are killed by the helicopter, but these shots are real. And it was a very, very intense shooting, because we were shooting with two helicopters at the same time. Well, one other thing we have to say is Juan Carlos and I got sick in the helicopter. We vomited over London... many times. This shocking and very gory scene is one of the most polemic sequences in the film because it's breaking the tone of the movie. Now we are not in the realism, we are in something different. It's more surrealism than realism. Absolutely. I think that, in a way, we discovered that... As I mentioned before, the war, the terrible war between the infection and the people, and it's a moment of craziness which is necessary to understand this war. That was an idea we had on the run during the shooting, the idea of the collision between the infected and the helicopter. So, we had to imply and to experiment a lot. It was really difficult with the tightness of the schedule, so we had to work Saturdays and Sundays on this. Amazing work, from not only the CGs, but also the... special effects department.

In a way, we see in this movie, it's running. There is no stop. And when you stop, you know the infected are here again so... I think it's real and powerful, this idea that you can't escape from them.

Aerials are really, really nice. It's the way to see how they escape. And in this moment I think, clearly, we see how these people are attacked by not only the infected - militaries are another menace in this movie. So now they are in the middle between two menaces. Now, the running away, it's so difficult. Two weeks after the final shooting, the editor, Chris Gill, showed us this sequence, basically by him. And it was very close to this thing, and we were, "Wow". "We probably can have a movie here." He was also the editor in the first one, Danny Boyle's film. We mainly worked with most of the crew of the first movie.

These sequences where the infected are attacking, always it's a matter of length... because the best way to feel this infection is with this fast cutting and... and the handheld stuff. But you need to pay attention to the editing, because sometimes you can trespass the line and it's so... it's so dizzy and confusing.

This sequence was difficult to shoot, because that was made in the studio with a tent and some kind of white gas. The gas they use in the discos. So it was very difficult to shoot that, because sometimes we shot one take and we needed to get out of this place because it was very, very... The fog was very heavy and intense. And to match with the exteriors that we shot before, we needed a level of fog, so these kind of technical problems always are complicating the situation... especially because you are dealing with fire as well in this moment. That was also a critical choice because that wasn't planned in the script. In the script, that was the moment when Rose Byrne, the character of Rose Byrne is being killed instead of Doyle. But we thought it will be weaker and a bigger problem from the kids to be led by this woman instead of this very strong soldier. And in terms of the sacrifice, which is an idea attached to the... to Doyle's sniper, it's interesting that he died in this moment, because now, you know, his sacrifice is clear, and the kids and the doctor are more fragile. Yeah. - And it was quite surprising, I think. In terms of the genre, we loved the idea about the hero's death. And now it seems like it's so difficult to stay alive in this city, so now the tension is stronger.

This Apache helicopter is a fake. The helicopter is CG, another miracle of Sean's crew.

Especially in order to... to finalise, to finish this trip, which is the movie, I think we start from the air with those shots in the beginning, showing the city from the air, and now we are about to enter in the darkness, in the darkness of the underground, which is the trip towards the underground. And now you realise, most of the infected - it was a very brief shot - we saw the infected going underground. So, we realise, "OK, they're really in trouble now." With this injured doctor and these two kids. In a way, we are bringing with this concept, the flavour of the... of the old horror movies, the darkness, the pitch-black. Now it's the main conflict - to stay alive.

Once again, difficult to shoot this in the underground in London. Yeah, we spent almost two weeks in the underground of London, which is a very claustrophobic shooting. But it was the only way to see and to show, you know, a real location and a real tension moment. Really annoying to try to find something different from the flavour that - with the night vision, I mean - things like Most Haunted, this was a very successful series in England. Or the Paris Hilton video! -

I think that the kids here are fantastic because in the shoot they can see, but the performance is very good because you can notice that maybe they don't see anything.

I think this sequence was another one that we spent a lot of time in the editing to get this eerie feeling, and to combine the performances of the actors and these scary moments. Sometimes if you stretch too much, it becomes silly, no? Yeah. It's so difficult to keep the length.

This moment again, I think it's showing one of the important things in this movie, which is, as I mentioned before, the rage, and how this rage reminds real stuff like, you know, abusive husbands, or, you know, people killing in the war. So, these connections with the reality, it was very important in this movie, especially, as I mentioned, when Don is killing his wife and now he's killing the doctor. It reminds, you know, this domestic violence between husband and wife, which is a big issue in our time, in our world. I think that's one of the reasons it's really uncomfortable to assist these moments because they're really wild and, at the same time, they're very realistic. They bring something nasty instead of... Nasty and real. That's why I think sometimes that the movie is almost unwatchable.

Here, the same thing. We wanted to make the opposite of an epic moment, because Carlyle is not a monster, he's not only a monster, he's something else, you know. He's the father. He's a character. For a very brief moment, he's the father.

It's seems like death is the only redemption for this character. I think, in a way, we assist now to the... to the redemption of this... of this man who was cursed from the beginning with that decision, you know, when he abandoned his wife, and now, you know, funny, his daughter has killed him. In the original screenplay, there's a sequence we've had to remove from the last cut of this film... takes place in the train with the kid, assisting to a dreamy moment in contact with her mother. And... we made the choice not to cut this... this intensity between the kid, or her daughter, Imogen Poots. I think there are two important reasons in this moment, which is, we know that the infection takes your body in a really fast time and, on the other hand, it's true - the point of view of Imogen, Tammy, in this moment, it's more important than anything. And, you know, we don't know if the kid is infected or not. So, that's a menace. That probably could be a menace, and we need to follow this menace through the eyes of Tammy. Tammy becomes the mother. She is going to protect him from the exterior because you see, clearly, he is one of them. But he's a carrier. He's a carrier, like his mother. He turns into... into the new race of these infected people, which is, you have the virus inside but you don't show any symptoms. so that's... that's a real curse in this story.

Wembley. "How did we shoot Wembley?" This is a big question. So... We shot the exterior because they were working in the interior of the stadium when we shot, but they... they gave us the opportunity to shoot in the exterior. And this stadium is not Wembley, it's the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which is so similar with Wembley. And we worked with the special effects on the arc, on the exterior arc. And the seats. - Yeah. The seats are red. And I think the special effects crew made fantastic work here because... With the grass, too. ...because we shot this in different layers and the composition, the final composition at the end, it's great.

Again, another dilemma, another decision to take. And, in a way, this is the... the end of these kind of decisions. With every character in the story, this is the ending of the cycle. And mercy in this story is... it's quite risky, as we can see now.

Probably the best visuals in the movie are now. Yeah. The final trip through London... from the air. Because, you know, the special effects crew removed every sign of life. And, you know, it's amazing how special effects now, this is kind of an apocalyptic vision with this place burned. This is one of the big shots in the movie. Originally, it was the end of the movie. But two days before the date of the final cut, Juan Carlos and I, we decide to... to turn this into something else. And we took the Eurostar with Bernie Bellew, producer of the film. And... with minimum crew and the TV camera, we decide to add a cue, no? A coda. The famous coda that we are about to see now. It was shot with Enrique, Bernie and I, and 12 extras. At 5am in Paris. And we shot with a small camera, an HD camera, to... to deliver, you know, this kind of new step in the story. And it was very funny, because we... we shot the movie, we shot that moment as a kind of point of view of the infected, so we ran behind infected and we discover the big image, one of the big images in the story, which is the final image, which means the infection... is out of control and takes over another... another city... which its Paris.

Well... - And cut. That's the end. We hope you enjoyed it. Our Spanish crew was really small. One was obviously Jesus Olmo, he's a co-writer with us. He's one of the infected which are... In the car park when the infection is triggered, you see a lot of people getting infected, and Jesus was one of them. I think it was a kind of homage to his work in this movie. The other one is Kote Camacho. Kote Camacho was the storyboard artist. Absolutely amazing work. This is work... Normally, you don't see the images but it's underlying every time in any moment of the film. We worked with him shot by shot, and his work was really amazing, and I really want to thank him. This film would be impossible without Fred Chandler. Fred Chandler is a Fox executive in postproduction. And he really not only helped us to bring to the film all his knowledge and all his... his... great approach to the genre. I think his experience is pretty important, you know, if you want to... Specifically, when you are dealing with a lot of elements in terms of visuals, effects and audio, music. So I think Fred was very precise, you know, and he helped a lot in this postproduction. And, for me, the most, and for Juan Carlos I think it's the same thing, the most important help was from DNA and Fox. From DNA, from Andrew MacDonald, Allon Reich and their crew. A fantastic crew. They were very supportive, and Andrew and Allon, not only extraordinary people but also very creative at the same time, very supportive to all our crazy ideas. and always trying to bring the logic to these crazy ideas, so I think we made a fantastic team together. We'd love to make more movies with them. And also, obviously, the people from Fox were very supportive, having in mind we had to do all this postproduction in barely two months. Thank you for everybody, because I think we had an amazing crew, and, you know, having in mind the difficulty of the postproduction... So they... they did an amazing job, so thank you to everybody. Thank you for listening to us. And I think our movie is a good example of all the things that we wanted to make, and I hope you enjoyed it.