Why RW2 Utilizes Bolt
While you may not know of the Bolt Cinebot, you’re most likely familiar with its work.
The Bolt Cinebot is a high-speed robotic camera arm created by Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), a Nikon Group Company. This company has won numerous awards for making groundbreaking camera equipment including several over the past year. Unbelievably precise and meticulously engineered, its robotics were adapted from automotive and biomedical manufacturing. MRMC has been used in hundreds of feature films, television shows, commercials, and high-end tabletop work. This is industry-leading motion control camera technology and RW2 has it, the only Bolt camera located within 500 miles of Kansas City.
How the Bolt Camera Works
You can recognize the Bolt as a seriously fast 12-foot tall robotic arm designed to move a camera or subject around at mind-bending speeds with incredible accuracy and ease. The Bolt isn’t just for speed, it can also do a slow camera pass around a subject with unhuman stability and precision. Plus, Bolt is compact and completely portable. It can be set up and studio ready in under an hour. During Covid-19, this equipment has helped ensure safe social-distancing methods by using remote operation.
Bolt is unparalleled when combined with other accessories and technologies. MRMC made Bolt, but they also made the industry-standard software, Flair, which can control up to 500 axes of motion, as well as triggering things to happen in a scene, from controlling lighting to firing a pneumatic piston to catapult a liquid across frame. It’s all controllable from the same software making it infinitely adjustable, controllable, and repeatable.
Additionally, the accuracy is so precise and repeatable allowing perfect multi-pass shots for composting in post-production. This can be perfect for many uses including tabletop work and even timelapse. Flair also pairs seamlessly with other technologies such as CGI integration with Maya. A previs of each motion control shot can be created in Maya, tweaked and approved before ever stepping foot on set. This can be exported to Flair, allowing the bolt to perfectly match the already approved camera moves, greatly increasing productivity, efficiency, and the amount of content that can be captured in a day.
All of this is impossible without robotics, equipping us with total coordination and control over a shoot. Complex camerawork is no longer an issue.
The Art of Motion Control with Bolt
As the world's most advanced state-of-the-art cinema robot, Bolt has proved time and time again to grant endless new possibilities and perspectives for a project. It played an integral part in Kendrick Lamar’s Humble music video as well as CGI-filled Marvel movies like the Avengers and Ant-Man. With its speed and accuracy, we can perfectly track liquids falling or food flying through the air.
From witnessing cars being destroyed in Fast & Furious, to watching a bulldog slide down a funfair slide, the versatility of Bolt is unrivaled. It makes any shot fascinating and extraordinary. The best way to learn more about Bolt is to rent it for your next project.
Renting Bolt
While owning the Bolt is not an opportunity for most people at its price point, RW2 provides the option to rent Bolt. The Bolt motion control camera robot may be perfect for your project if you're looking for shots that are:
- Crisp, clear, and focused
- Steady
- Ultra-fast and precise
