The horror film 28 Years Late, which will premiere on June 19, 2025, was partially shot on 20 iPhones. For this, director Danny Boyle used a special setup, writes The Verge.
The fact that 28 Years Later was shot on an iPhone 15 Pro Max was first reported last year, but now more details have emerged. The filming used a mix of conventional cameras, drones, and iPhones, including three special rigs designed to hold 8, 10, or 20 smartphones at once.
"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. It’s quite graphic but it’s a wonderful shot that uses that technique, and in a startling way that kind of kicks you into a new world rather than thinking you’ve seen it before," Boyle said.
Boyle calls the 20-iPhone setup a "budget version of bullet time." Bullet time is a cinematic effect that creates the illusion that time around a subject is moving very slowly, while the camera can move around the scene at normal speed. According to Boyle, this approach allowed the crew to film some of the most violent scenes in a new way.
"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," the director noted.
In addition, 28 Years Later has other unusual solutions. In particular, the film was shot in an extra-wide 2.76:1 format, which corresponds to 70mm film, so that the audience could not guess where exactly the zombie might appear.
"If you’re on a widescreen format, they could be anywhere… you have to keep scanning, looking around for them," Boyle says.
We remind you that in April, the second trailer for the film appeared, where Aaron Taylor-Johnson will play the main role. The events of the film take place on a small island, which is connected to the mainland only by a causeway, and when the main character goes to the mainland, he discovers a terrible truth - the mutation has affected even those who survived.