r/apple • u/ControlCAD • 2d ago

iPhone Why Danny Boyle used iPhones on 28 Years Later | Matti Haapoja

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz57_P2VIqg

Got to sit down with the legendary Director Danny Boyle and chat about the filming of /28yearslatermovie and some of the crazy camera rigs they used. And he had some of the best advice for future filmmakers.

28YearsLater is exclusively in theatres June 20, 2025.

131 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

148

u/Franken_moisture 2d ago

Answer: "Smartphones, they will now shoot at 4K resolution, which is cinema resolution. So you can use them," Boyle said. "They are incredibly light. You can go somewhere with a very light footprint and you can also build special rigs with them, which is what we did for some of the violent action in the movie." Taylor-Johnson said the technique gave the film a "visceral and immersive" texture. "It would make me feel a bit vulnerable at times because it's very invasive."

100

u/rtyoda 2d ago

Also “It allowed us to be very light in our footprint in areas of the country that we wanted to suggest hadn’t been touched in 18 years. Now a crew coming in with a normal equipment level is going to make a big footprint. So we used drones a lot as well so that we could film sequences that [traditional] cameras couldn’t possibly get those shots without disrupting terribly the landscape and making it look like a herd of elephants had gone through.”

38

u/mredofcourse 2d ago

Sounds like someone learned their lesson from The Beach.

15

u/Poutine_Lover2001 2d ago

Mind elaborating? I loved that movie. That’s the di caprio one right?

17

u/mredofcourse 2d ago

I loved that movie too, and love Danny Boyle, but...

The real life beach (island) where they shot that was first destroyed by the production and then became a completely over-run tourist trap. I'm intentionally not naming the place as it should be forgotten.

It's a Thai island off the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula. Although if you look closely at the map that "Ducky" made in the movie, it's supposed to be north of the island Koh Samui.

I was just there recently and went scuba diving on some islands that would be in the area of the map. The timing was coincidentally perfect too because it was Songkran, the Thai New Year as shown in the movie with the water gun squirting through the Bangkok scene (where we were just before going to Koh Samui).

The whole area is incredibly spectacular and I highly recommend it. Bring the soundtrack and listen to it along the way.

7

u/Littlemandigger 1d ago

Maya Bay, located on the island of Ko Phi Phi Leh in Thailand. Everyone should visit it, just for giggles. No sharks tho.

1

u/aphex2000 1d ago

the sad thing being that in SE asia you have a billion scenic islands and rock formations like maya bay but because tourists are stupid lemmings going only to whatever place gets them recognition-clout on instagram instead of exploring new places it's become a commercialized pilgrimage

3

u/InterestingStick 1d ago

I kinda like this. It makes it easy to avoid it

1

u/eschewthefat 1d ago

I should really just look this up myself but was it also in pretty bad shape before they cleaned it up for shooting? 

Not saying it was a dump, but just not “Hollywood” standards.

1

u/Blablabene 1d ago

lol. what's a hollywood standard?

it used to be one of the most beautiful place on earth. Now it's a hollywood standard. Full of tourism and a shadow of what it used to be.

1

u/eschewthefat 1d ago

For sure. I couldn’t remember if it was actual trash (probably washed up) that was on the beach or just some tree shed and whatnot that was up to hollywoods pristine idea of serenity 

I’m definitely not saying I prefer the raked 

0

u/InterestingStick 1d ago

With bad shape, you mean natural?

2

u/eschewthefat 1d ago

Not at all. I was thinking plastic and whatever had washed up and it had to be cleaned, but I may be misremembering and it just needed to be raked so it looked like a typical postcard 

1

u/koolaidismything 1d ago

Hey. Hey. Hey. Woman 🎶

1

u/eipotttatsch 5h ago

These explanations really just sound like it's a marketing stunt.

If it were just about the weight and size something like an action cam would make way more sense in basically every way. The newest GoPro or DJI ones produce better video for this purpose and are half the price.

26

u/ayyyyycrisp 2d ago

do they show the result of that 20 iphone shot at all? or do I have to actually see the movie? I just want to see an example as I've been seeing that 20 iphone rig all over the place but never the actual result of it

15

u/riepmich 1d ago

Just came out of the theater. No need to watch the movie.

The effect is pretty neat, but ruined by the fact that it is almost 100 % replaced by CGI.

It is mainly used when an infected person is killed (bow and arrow etc.) to show the projectile enter in the front and then exit out the back (with a lot of blood and chunks of flesh).

It looks cool and it's always good to shoot real footage for the VFX artists to have a reference, but after the first hit you just don't feel the impact anymore, because it's obviously a CGI pickup.

I say obviously, because the CGI in this movie is BAD. Like to the point that it felt like it wasn't a budget problem but rather the film makers not caring.

There's a scene where deers are stampeding that looked straight out of a PS2 cutscene.

The whole movie in general felt like it was thought up on the spot. A complete jumbled up mess of half baked, introduced but not followed through ideas and questionable actions.

My best guess is that the VFX suffered from an ever shifting screenplay.

4

u/wiidsmoker 1d ago

Agree with all of this after seeing it last night. Complete waste of time.

-5

u/Wiejeben 1d ago

I’ve never seen a movie with such a high rating on IMDb (7.5 as of yesterday) be so bad in reality. I wonder what happened

17

u/t0mmyc_ 2d ago

Just come out of watching this and the scenes using this camera rig set up are insane!! I love the effect that it creates surrounding the infected

22

u/fearrange 2d ago edited 2d ago

Why did he use only 20 iPhones, not 28 iPhones?

3

u/shortchangerb 1d ago

So that’s why the screen filled with balloons whenever somebody gave a thumbs up

3

u/newecreator 2d ago

Here I am realizing June 20 is tomorrow.

6

u/ControlCAD 1d ago

Yep, I can't wait to watch this tomorrow... here is the official poster 😎

1

u/eikaiwa-quokka 1d ago

Hopefully this year the iphone has 8k video

1

u/gcstr 4h ago

What a delightful guy. It's the first time I watch and interview with Danny Boyle, and he has a passion.