Filmmakers Used 20 iPhones at Once to Shoot '28 Years Later'

[MacRumors]

Sony today provided a closer look at the iPhone rigs used to shoot the upcoming post-apocalyptic British horror movie "28 Years Later" (via IGN).

With a budget of $75 million, Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later will become the first major blockbuster movie to be shot on iPhone. 28 Years Later is the sequel to "28 Days Later" (2002) and "28 Weeks Later" (2007), which depict the aftermath of a zombie-style pandemic in the United Kingdom.

The film was shot last summer using the ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max as the principal camera, along with additional equipment such as custom rigs, aluminum cages, and lens attachments. The filmmakers behind 28 Years Later apparently received technical assistance directly from Apple.

Speaking to IGN, Boyle said that even though the film is largely shot on iPhones, the movie is ambitiously still in full 2.76:1 widescreen–which is typically reserved for IMAX or Ultra Panavision 70mm. Some sequences used up to 20 iPhones at a time, similar to "bullet time." Boyle explained:

Wherever, it gives you 180 degrees of vision of an action, and in the editing you can select any choice from it, either a conventional one-camera perspective or make your way instantly around reality, time-slicing the subject, jumping forward or backward for emphasis. As it's a horror movie, we use it for the violent scenes to emphasise their impact.

I also like it for the same reason I love jumping the line. For a moment the audience is inside the scene, the action, rather than classically observing a picture. You feel like you're in the room with Jodie Comer and her son, venting her rage at Aaron Taylor Johnson, like you’re in the abandoned train with the naked alpha and the unzipped spine and head.

The original 28 Days Later movie was largely shot in 480p standard definition with a Canon XL-1 – a consumer-grade camcorder that wrote data to MiniDV tapes. This was partly due to the need to film complex scenes depicting an abandoned central London under very limited time constraints, where bulky traditional film cameras would have taken too long to set up.

The unique shot-on-digital aesthetic subsequently became an iconic part of the movie, so the use of iPhones to shoot the latest addition to the series pays homage to the original film's use of camcorders. The Oscar-winning cinematographer of the original movie, Anthony Dod Mantle, returns alongside Boyle.

I never say this, but there is an incredible shot in the second half [of the film] where we use the 20-rig camera, and you'll know it when you see it. … It's quite graphic but it's a wonderful shot that uses that technique, and in a startling way that kind of kicks you into a new world rather than thinking you've seen it before.

Several smaller-scale movies have already been shot with iPhones, such as Sean Baker's "Tangerine" (2015) and Steven Soderbergh's "Unsane" (2018), but these films were limited-release, low-budget titles compared to the upcoming Boyle movie. 28 Years Later is expected to be the first of a new trilogy of films scripted by Alex Garland. The breakout star of the original movie, Cillian Murphy, is also expected to return. 28 Years Later is set for release on June 20, 2025.

Article Link: Filmmakers Used 20 iPhones at Once to Shoot '28 Years Later'

 

[DHagan4755]

Should've used 28 phones. My OCD is kickin' in.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

$1500 for the phone. $15,000 for the glass in front of it.

 

[miq]

How incredibly gimmicky.

 

[DocMultimedia]

I'm looking forward to this one. First two movies were fun.

 

[TechTexan]

Can’t wait to see it! Should be really good.

 

[baconcat_8964]

I hope it won’t be as obvious as those previous "made by iPhone" films and music videos. I remember watching a music video and thinking why it looked so "phone": colours were pale, a lot of noise in low light, and there was no background depth. Then I read the creator’s note and, as expected, it was shot on iPhone.

 

[Pezimak]

Hmm hardly 'standard' is it? Using the same lenses and rigs you use for pro cameras with the iPhone. And I bet it has a ton of post processing performed on it and all the footage was in RAW.
Also the sensor is the size of a nail head compare to the large sensors on pro cameras. Will be interesting to see what quality it has.

 

[AppleTO]

Wow, I'd hate to be in charge of Apple produced tv/film and be told I have to use iPhones to shoot.

 

[nfl46]

I’m still mad at how grainy the first movie looked…it was intentional.

I love both movies, though. I can’t wait for the new one to be released!

 

[polaris20]

The original 28 Days Later movie was largely shot in 480p standard definition with a Canon XL-1 – a consumer-grade camcorder that wrote data to MiniDV tapes.

Canon XL-1 was NOT a consumer grade camera. More "prosumer" to professional. It's not something you would have normally shot a movie with, but it sure as hell wasn't something Pops filmed Jimmy's baseball game with either.

It was a pretty big staple of wedding/events videographers of the day.

 

[.Joel]

I hope it won’t be as obvious as those previous "made by iPhone" films and music videos. I remember watching a music video and thinking why it looked so "phone": colours were pale, a lot of noise in low light, and there was no background depth. Then I read the creator’s note and, as expected, it was shot on iPhone.

There was a chosen colour grading and cinematography for the music videos, not sure what you were looking at. No background depth... ooookkkkkk 😂

 

[mac-imperator]

$1500 for the phone. $15,000 for the glass in front of it.

versus 98k for the titan Arri Alexa LF... you do the math.

 

[spaxxedout]

That 30-day return policy is a heck of a thrill 😏

 

[dguisinger]

Why would you even do this?

I have found my last few iPhone cameras to actually be terrible. I suppose if you got rid of all the software features that constantly tick me off such as multiple second exposures and if they resolved the constant annoying lens flairs on my 12 Pro Max that made me never want to use the camera and regret buying a flagship for its camera, or the fact that my iPhone 15 Pro Max has trouble focussing on macro stuff (I take odometer photos multiple times a day, and man does it hate focussing in on it)... then sure, maybe i'd consider using the camera for something important.

 

[aevan]

How incredibly gimmicky.

You know that…. How?

 

[dandeco]

When I shoot video on an iPhone, it's only for certain YouTube videos, like in this one where showing off and demonstrating my iPhone 14 and its' wide-angle lens...

What I don't really like about the cameras on iOS devices is that they use a 4:3 sensor and just crop the image into 16:9 for video, cutting off the top and bottom. But with the wide-angle lens, this is fine, because the top and bottom of the 4:3 image have noticeable distortion. I know most DSLR and mirrorless cameras also take this "cheat", and many older consumer-grade DV camcorders did so (Canon's earlier MiniDV camcorders and their late 90s-early 2000s analog models would stretch the image for its "16:9" mode, while many consumer-grade Sony MiniDV and Digital8 camcorders simply put black bars over the top and bottom to crop the image.) My old Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phone I used from 2016 to 2020 seemed to have a real 16:9 sensor for video shooting.
It's for this reason that for most of my videos, I shoot them on my Canon VIXIA HF-R600 camcorder. Sure, it's consumer-grade, but it's got a real 16:9 sensor and some nice manual focus and white balance controls, optical image stabilization and a larger optical zoom than what iOS device cameras offer, and external microphone and headphone jacks for better audio control. Eventually I may upgrade to a Canon VIXIA HF G60 or similar and go with a prosumer-level camcorder with the same features and 4K video support (the G60 had Canon's mini hot shoe, while the G70 just has the universal cold accessory shoe).

 

[TechRunner]

While an interesting experiment, the average moviegoer doesn't care or notice what a movie was shot with.

I thought "28 Days Later" was a great movie, but didn't find out until much later how it was shot. I sure wasn't thinking about it while watching the film!

 

[winxmac]

Why would you even do this?

I have found my last few iPhone cameras to actually be terrible. I suppose if you got rid of all the software features that constantly tick me off such as multiple second exposures and if they resolved the constant annoying lens flairs on my 12 Pro Max that made me never want to use the camera and regret buying a flagship for its camera, or the fact that my iPhone 15 Pro Max has trouble focussing on macro stuff (I take odometer photos multiple times a day, and man does it hate focussing in on it)... then sure, maybe i'd consider using the camera for something important.

iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are the best iPhone models for macro photography. iPhone 14 Pro and newer are worse for this purpose.

 

[baryon]

We used iPhone 16 Pros to shoot some scenes of a TV series and the quality is very good when shooting ProRes, much better than a GoPro or similar small cameras. We shot alongside Alexa Minis and if the lighting is not some crazy dark or high contrast scene, the two can be graded to look very similar. You can fit the phone behind a laptop or in tiny spaces, it can be mirrored to a Mac for real time viewing, etc... So it's quite nice to shoot with. The BlackMagic camera app is incredible and totally free, and lets you change all the exposure parameters and shoot in various ProRes codecs.

What sucks is how incredibly painfully slow it is to offload 200 GB of footage (which is not that much) even via a fast USB-C cable. No clue why it's so damn slow but I can't imagine how annoying it must be to offload 20 iPhones multiple times a day.

But there isn't much reason to shoot with an iPhone in most cases. It's just good to have it as an option.

 

[Valve1138]

This is really neat!

 

[jakey rolling]

versus 98k for the titan Arri Alexa LF... you do the math.

Previous Commenter: "$5,000 trailer with a $15,000 pickup truck attached to it"
You: "Compare to a Kenworth"

 

[cicalinarrot]

Come on guys, this is impressive, despite the accessories and being a marketing stunt.
Pros will notice but it'll probably look like a regular movie for most people.
More and more young artists start with a phone nowadays, which is way better than what previous generations used to have. And now we're at this level: the sensor that can shoot a full mainstream movie is in your pockets.
Don't be cynical, for once.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I’m still mad at how grainy the first movie looked…it was intentional.

I love both movies, though. I can’t wait for the new one to be released!

Was the first movie filmed with blackberries?

 

[sportpepper]

Missed opportunity. Movie should've been called 26 years later (shot on iOS 26).