According to an article in Wired, Director Danny Boyle, with Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, FSC, ASC, acquired major portions of their $75 million feature “28 Years Later” on an iPhone 15 pro max. This team is no stranger to successfully employing unusual and cutting edge gear to make their movies. They shot the multi-award winning “Slumdog Millionaire,” on one of the first RAW cinematography cameras, an SI-2K with a 2/3” sensor recording to a MacBook, which was sometimes carried in the operator’s backpack. They used a mirrorless Canon 1D and 5Ds to shoot “127 Hours,” and portions of their original zombie classic “28 Days Later” were shot on standard def MiniDV tape with a Canon XL-1.
This follow-up to the 2002 “28 Days Later” stars Cillian Murphy, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes and is not due for release until June 2025. Production technical details are still mostly being kept under wraps and there are very few BTS stills showing the camera rigs. (Note: the image in this post is from a technology demo set up by Michael Cioni integrating an iPhone with Panavision lenses and support.) That said, you can be sure that these filmmakers are adapting the necessary motion picture lenses and support to afford the image control necessary to properly tell their story. Boyle and Mantle are not the first to shoot a feature on an iPhone, but their combined talent on a production of this magnitude will definitely be impressive and raise the bar to show what is possible with iPhone filmmaking.
I’m currently working with a producer who wants to use iPhones and iPads for all shooting. We will be using three iPhones and two iPads. To ensure consistent color and image quality, I plan to use a Pixel Perfect Camera Colour Correction Card. If anyone has experience matching the output of multiple iPhones and iPads for shooting, I would greatly appreciate any advice you have to offer.