'28 Years Later' to Be First Blockbuster Movie Shot on iPhone

[MacRumors]

With a budget of $75 million, Danny Boyle's "28 Years Later" will become the first major blockbuster movie to be shot on iPhone, WIRED reports.

Jodie Comer on the set of "28 Years Later" with an iPhone 15 Pro Max camera rig (right).​

The upcoming post-apocalyptic British horror movie was shot over the summer using the iPhone 15 Pro Max as the principal camera, along with additional equipment such as aluminum cages and lens attachments. The filmmakers behind 28 Years Later apparently received technical assistance directly from Apple. 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 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 seems to pay homage to the original film's use of camcorders. The Oscar-winning cinematographer of the original movie, Anthony Dod Mantle, is also returning alongside Boyle.

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: '28 Years Later' to Be First Blockbuster Movie Shot on iPhone

 

[Schnegg]

Hollywood productions shot on iPhone don't make a lot of sense to me, but it's interesting nonetheless. If we look at the huge lens rigged up on the right side of the image, they might as well have attached a camera with a bigger sensor.

 

[page3]

Hollywood productions shot on iPhone don't make a lot of sense to me, but it's interesting nonetheless. If we look at the huge lens rigged up on the right side of the image, they might as well have attached a camera with a bigger sensor.

It’s not Hollywood.

 

[AlexStudios]

…finally took them long enough.

 

[koil]

Hollywood productions shot on iPhone don't make a lot of sense to me, but it's interesting nonetheless. If we look at the huge lens rigged up on the right side of the image, they might as well have attached a camera with a bigger sensor.

Yeah that's what I'm not understanding here. There's so much expensive equipment involved that I literally can't fathom why you'd want to then force that into a comparatively tiny sensor compared to what's available in dedicated equipment...

I'm guessing that Apple wants to be able to say "Oh you know that blockbuster? Filmed using the same device you can have in your pocket plus about $100,000 of lenses and other **** attached to it so that it no longer fits in even your largest backpack!", and have paid handsomely for the opportunity here.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

‘Shot on iPhone’ - with $2 million worth of rig.

 

[JosephAW]

I’m sure the 5X optical zoom was wanting

 

[Michael Scrip]

"Your cinematographer was so preoccupied with whether or not he could, he didn't stop to think if he should."

🤣

 

[oldwatery]

Marketing taken to stupid extremes. I wonder how much Apple are paying for this pointless exercise?

 

[Skyscraperfan]

That is just a PR stand.
Tony Northrup recently broke down how bad an iPhone camera is compared to a professional camera. From a professional filmmaker's or photographer's standpoint with a big budget it does not make sense to use an iPhone, if you could afford a real camera.

Here is the video:

 

[Evangelion]

“28 days Later”, the first movie, was shot with a prosumer digital camcorder. So they have done something similar before.

 

[mdatwood]

“28 days Later”, the first movie, was shot with a prosumer digital camcorder. So they have done something similar before.

Yep. And as mentioned in the summary the feel of that movie was a big part of its appeal. I'll be interested to see how this turns out, but it'll likely be hard to tell what camera was used in the final edit.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

that 128gb storage is is going to be a killer

 

[mozumder]

28 Days Later is also completely unavailable online. You can only watch it if you get the DVD or BluRay.

 

[coffeemilktea]

It's wild how cat videos on twitter and now a $75 million dollar film starring Cillian Murphy are going to be shot on the same cameras. 🫢

 

[Sasparilla]

Very cool, looking forward to it.

It's wild how cat videos on twitter and now a $75 million dollar film starring Cillian Murphy are going to be shot on the same cameras. 🫢

Indeed, the same one you might just have in your pocket - its amazing the effect of these "3 devices" as Job's introduced it as, has had.

 

[timber]

I hope it's as fun and refreshing as 28 days later was when I saw it knowing nothing about it.
And that fellow in it, Cillian Murphy, seemed like someone worth following.

 

[shadowboi]

You can shoot a movie with top grade camera with large sensor and the movie won't be good, and you can use iPhone and get what people would like. Marvel puts superstars in their movies and wastes 75% of budget on some fancy special effects and all we get is a cheezy movie that people watch once and forget about.

After all, back in the days there were numerous movies filmed with nothing but a super 8mm camcorders and the movies turned out to become classics

 

[anthogag]

Shot on iPhone, edited on iPad Pro, viewed in Vision Pro

 

[Kay_Ess]

Of course it’s a marketing stunt but I’m still very curious to see what’s possible.

It’s perfectly possible to make cool rigs yourself with a very low budget. Of course a professional dolly system is easiest to use but you can for example use some LEGO tracks and an elastic band, just to name something. And the cheaper and lighter the camera is, the less robust your rigs have to be. If this project shows in addition to low budget stuff like that you also don’t require a BlackMagic camera anymore, that’s just really exciting stuff to all amateur cinematographers out there.

And come on, complaining about lenses? With a grand you can get multiple second hand L lenses. If it’s your hobby you can take a few years to really get to know your stuff and in the meantime save up for that.

This project will show (or disprove, haha) what a team of professionals can do with a smartphone camera sensor and that’s just cool, whether you like it or not. I think all amateur cinematographers here have brighter eyes after reading this and are excited to see the results and the people exaggerating rig costs in the comments here are probably people who’ve never done a professional video project and won’t even know what to look for when watching the end result.

This is cool to me and I hope they’ll make an elaborate behind the scenes video to explain and show more!

 

[klasma]

Yeah that's what I'm not understanding here. There's so much expensive equipment involved that I literally can't fathom why you'd want to then force that into a comparatively tiny sensor compared to what's available in dedicated equipment...

Did you read the article?

“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 seems to pay homage to the original film's use of camcorders.”

 

[Hank001]

Seems to me over half the posters here seem to have missed this piece from the article:

<quote>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 seems to pay homage to the original film's use of camcorders.</quote>

 

[klasma]

28 Days Later is also completely unavailable online. You can only watch it if you get the DVD or BluRay.

This is the case for many movies. Streaming only provides a (changing) subset of what is physically available. And conversely, a certain subset of newer productions are only available by streaming (until they are pulled).

 

[Hank001]

Ah well, @klasma beat me to it. Props to you sir/madam/x

 

[Hopefully Smarter]

you can shoot a movie on almost anything.

A movie is made of a good script, fine acting and talented direction.