Innovation at its best: How parts of 28 Years Later were filmed using an iPhone

The infected return to haunt Great Britain in Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later. Boyle's film shows the rage virus survivors isolated on an island, afraid of what lies beyond the borders. This seemingly serves as an allegory of the nation's relationship with the EU, as it depicts two visions of what the nation should be. So, since its release, that has been a major point of discussion, besides those jarring final moments that show Jack O'Connell's flamboyant gang beating the infected while looking like a cross between Teletubbies and Power Rangers.

Apart from these details, Boyle's latest directorial is being discussed for using an iPhone to shoot a majority of his film. He is certainly not the first Hollywood filmmaker to embrace this consumer device. The Oscar-winning filmmaker of Anora, Sean Baker, also used an iPhone to shoot his 2015 film Tangerine, and the final scene in his 2017 film, The Florida Project. The Black Bag director, Steven Soderbergh, has also shot Unsane (2018) and High Flying Bird (2019) on iPhones.

Boyle becomes the latest addition to this list to shoot a majority of his feature film on Apple's device, which comes with its share of perks and challenges.

How was 28 Years Later filmed on an iPhone?

If you've been following up with the updates about 28 Years Later, you may have already seen the extensive rig with multiple iPhones used to shoot an infected running in the woods. It allowed Boyle to have plenty of coverage options to choose from during post-production. During a recent conversation with IGN, he revealed the intention behind this rig:

"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."

It also helped him work with the actors and emphasize the horror element.

"[The actors] get to know where the cameras are and they get to know lenses and they get to know what they're doing. But [the multi-camera rig] throws them."

In addition to these rigs, the crew also used some non-consumer lenses, whether prime, zoom, anamorphic, or spherical, to step beyond the limitations of the device. While speaking with Indiewire on their Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shed light on how these lenses helped the production.

“There are certain aspects to [Boyle’s] storytelling that require a certain specific lens, be it a long lens, a zoom, a changing focal length, or control of focus to a degree that’s not necessarily all that easy on an iPhone.”

The 28 Years Later crew also faced challenges while shooting in the dark since an iPhone automatically changes its settings, whether shutter speed, aperture, or ISO, to adapt to the changes. Ideally, the crew hopes to be in full command of these settings to adjust them and to achieve the desired quality of the motion or visuals, or depth of field. That's why Mantle worked with folks at Apple to work their way around the Apple iOS and its AI. Apart from the phone, the film was briefly shot on drones.

While that is well and good, a tool is not the end-all and be-all. Even if you have the finest equipment in the world or the highest budget, what matters are the brains and the hands behind the camera. During the interview, the 28 Years Later said something along these lines.

“You need a skilled cinematographer to manipulate [the iPhone] because there are restrictions to do with the algorithm that operates them, that you need to override at certain times for necessities of drama.”

Why was 28 Years Later filmed on an iPhone? The creative vision explored

Back in 2002, Danny Boyle shocked the world with the horrors of 28 Days Later, which was produced on only an $8 million budget. Despite the budget constraints, Boyle used a DV camera to shoot Cillian Murphy and Naomi Harris across the empty streets of London. What might have been a frugal choice ended up being one of the stylistically unique experiences in Hollywood, capturing the eeriness and dread in London.

More than twenty years later, Boyle decided to use an iPhone to film 28 Years Later for a similar reason. They are commonly available shooting devices, much like DV cameras were back in the early 2000s. That's why the former film feels like an up-close, documented look at its post-apocalyptic world, emphasized by its graininess. iPhone helped him for a similar reason.

“There were certain aspects to the first film that not just pleased him, but he also equated with what he wanted technically and narrative-wise, everything that kind of gelled on ’28 Days Later. He wanted to rediscover, not the same, but something equally relevant and appropriate for this film," Mantle said during his conversation with Indiewire.