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Title: '28 Years Later' used 20 iPhones in tandem for some wild shots

Date: Sat, 31 May 2025 13:00:43 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/28-yea...

It's no secret that 28 Years Later used iPhones to shoot parts of the film.
Now its director, Danny Boyle, has discussed the use of iPhones for the film
in more detail with IGN. The first film in the franchise, 28 Days Later, was
shot on digital video, giving it a homemade feel. Boyle explained that he and
writer Alex Garland got the idea from the fact that home video cameras were
common at the time, and people would've shot videos with them if an
apocalypse had indeed happened. Those cameras, of course, have since been
replaced by smartphones.

The movies used three special rigs for the iPhone sequences: One for eight
cameras that one person can carry, another with 10 and another with 20. "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,"
Boyle told IGN. He described the 20-iPhone rig as "basically a poor manΓÇÖs
bullet time," which is a visual effect that uses multiple cameras to freeze
or slow down time. Think the scene in The Matrix, wherein Neo dodged bullets
in super slow motion.

Doyle said that the 20-camera rig can be attached to cranes or dollies and
give you 180 degrees of vision of an action. In editing, you can choose from
any of the footage each iPhone takes to, say, move between perspectives or
jump forward and backward. For 28 Years Later, the team used the rig for
violent scenes to emphasize their effect. "For a moment the audience is
inside the scene, the action, rather than classically observing a picture,"
Doyle explained.

In addition to the iPhones, the filmmakers also used drones, cameras attached
to actors and even farm animals to achieve an immersive feel for its 2.76:1
widescreen aspect ratio. They decided on the aspect ratio to create a sense
of unease, since you'd have to keep scanning the screen to see potential
threats coming from the sides.

Sony

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/28-yea...
tandem-for-some-wild-shots-130043338.html?src=rss

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