Award-winning British filmmaker Danny Boyle is making headlines for filming his upcoming zombie movie, 28 Years Later, using an iPhone 15. This is not the first time Boyle has eschewed traditional filmmaking equipment in favor of conforming to a narrative.
2002’s 28 Days Later, which spawned a sequel, 28 Weeks Later that Boyle did not direct, made headlines more than two decades ago for having been shot on a Canon XL-1, a $4,000 “prosumer” camcorder. At the time, a camcorder was something that regular people might have, and thus, could conceivably be used to record an ongoing zombie apocalypse. Regular people were not going to be recording humankind’s cataclysm on six-figure professional cameras, after all.
Now, in 2024 (or 2025, when Boyle’s new movie hits theaters), a smartphone makes way more sense than a camcorder. While Boyle himself and the cast, which includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), and 28 Days Later‘s Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), have been tight-lipped about the use of iPhones to film 28 Years later.
However, as WIRED reports, a paparazzi photo from the set of the movie shows an iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphone in use on set. WIRED has confirmed the information with several people involved in the production.
However, while the Canon XL-1 was used in 2002 essentially “as is,” the iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphone is equipped with a healthy amount of accessories, including a large support rig, a big monitor, audio equipment, and, perhaps most interestingly, a professional-grade Panavision cinema lens.
While it has been demonstrated time and again that the iPhone is fully capable of capturing professional-grade video, especially when used by talented filmmakers with creative vision and a big budget, part of the appeal of the feel of 28 Days Later is that it looked like it was shot on a standard-definition camcorder.
It’s not clear that a sequel filmed on an iPhone with all that extra equipment will channel that same spirit of typical, contemporary camera technology.
“The controversy around 28 Years Later being filmed on an iPhone is so surprising to me because it ignores a large reason the original film 28 Days Later was so impactful over two decades ago. That groundbreaking Danny Boyle film was shot on Mini DV standard definition video, which certainly looked far worse than the 35mm film most major motion pictures were shot on, but it offered two distinct advantages. First, the crews could be incredibly discreet and nimble, allowing them to capture the illusion of an empty London in quick snippets. Secondly, by making the film look like the most popular video capture format at the time (standard definition DV), it had an immediacy of looking like unscripted, amateur video capture of a disaster,” explains PetaPixel‘s YouTube director, Jordan Drake.
Drake adds that shooting 28 Years Later on an iPhone is thematically and technologically consistent with the original film. “By shooting on the most common current format for video capture, the effect will undoubtedly be less like watching a ‘movie’ and more like seeing footage of a major news event.”
However, given that what has leaked from set shows the iPhone paired with professional cinema lenses, Drake wonders: “Why not just use a proper cinema camera for those shots? That’s something I hope the filmmakers can provide a compelling answer to when 28 Years Later reaches theaters.”
‘By shooting on the most common current format for video capture, the effect will undoubtedly be less like watching a ‘movie’ and more like seeing footage of a major news event.’
The movie only finished principal photography last month, and there is no trailer yet, so only time will tell what 28 Years Later will ultimately look like. However, the fact that a major motion picture with a $75 million budget is reportedly being shot, at least in part, using an iPhone 15 Pro Max is remarkable.
Image credits: Featured image created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.