Move over, Sean Baker and Steven Soderbergh—Danny Boyle is the latest director to make the bold choice to shoot his latest feature film on an iPhone. Why, you ask? Partly, perhaps, because the team knows it will get them some nice headlines like this one. And partly just because they can.
Whether you love or hate the idea of shooting professional video on iPhones, it’s hard to argue that these latest smartphones aren’t capable of high-end video.
The iPhone 15, which is what Boyle and his team reportedly used for the long-awaited follow-up to the original 28 Days Later in 2002 and its 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, in particular, has proven to be a major step forward for Apple and was very much promoted as a filmmaking-capable camera.
Still, as is always the case with these smartphone-shot feature films, there’s more to the story than just the headline here. So let’s explore how Danny Boyle and his team were able to shoot 28 Years Later on an iPhone.
Looking Back at '27 Days Later'
Starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes, 28 Years Later looks the part of a big (or at least mid) budget Hollywood horror thriller. The film was shot by Anthony Dod Mantle who has worked with Boyle on previous films like Slumdog Millionaire, Trance, 127 Hours, and the original 28 Days Later as well.
In fact, the original film in this series garnered headlines at the time with the team’s choice to shoot 28 Days Later on a Canon Xl-1 digital camera, a mid-range prosumer camcorder that used interchangeable lenses, recorded data to MiniDV digital video tapes, and retailed for around $4,000 at the time.
So, in many ways, this decision to shoot this latest feature on the iPhone is a stylistic and thematic choice, not just a practical one.
What was 28 Years Later Shot on?
So, according to reporting done by Wired, this new 28 Years Later film was shot on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Wired further notes that evidently filming the project took place before the team could get their hands on the iPhone 16 series, which confirms that this was just a necessary choice, not any indictment of the latest iPhone model.
However, as many would suspect, there was a lot of rigging and upgrading involved with this iPhone 15 Pro Max that most smartphone filmmakers and everyday videographers wouldn’t usually have access to. Wired further reports that the 28 Years Later team made use of a full aluminum cage fitted with a lens attachment adapter for a more traditional pro setup.
The team also used lens adapters to allow the attachment of higher-quality lenses to record footage that isn’t usually possible with your normal DIY iPhone filmmaking workflows.
Will More Filmmakers Use iPhones in the Future?
Regardless of how you feel about this setup or the idea of using smartphones for major motion pictures, it’s easy to see that iPhones are indeed getting more powerful and capable with every generation. Smartphones are catching up to prosumer mirrorless cameras, and prosumer mirrorless cameras are catching up to cinema cameras.
The 28 Years Later team will continue to get a mix of fanfare and perhaps ridicule for their decision, but it is one rooted in appreciation of the original film and could certainly help to create a found footage style for this new version.
Will more filmmakers follow suit? It’s most likely. We’ll have to wait and see what Steven Soderbergh busts out next in response to this one.
