Motion Control @ RW2

The BOLT High-Speed Camera Robot



What is it?

Let us try to describe the BOLT.
First, imagine your typical camera operator.
Now imagine if that person were an 8’ tall robotic arm, meticulously engineered to achieve impossible shots, perfectly, every single time.


Our BOLT motion control rig offers total coordination and command over your shoot. Adapted from the same robotics used in cutting edge biomedical manufacturing, and featuring the fastest motors on the market, this piece of equipment is unbelievably precise, lightning-fast, and highly mobile.
The BOLT makes tricky camerawork and troublesome plates a thing of the past. Dial in exactly the shot you want and this rig will capture it flawlessly. 
Ultimately, the BOLT is designed to achieve a picture-perfect image in every frame. That’s true whether you’re pushing and pulling into a dancer’s moves, smoothly tracking a pour of liquor or pivoting quickly through a crowded room.
With precision timing, target tracking, and CGI integration through Maya, the BOLT is robot-hands-down the best operator you’ve ever seen.

Panera - Crave, directed by Stephen McGehee

But that’s just the basics. This rig is capable of doing things you’ve never even thought of.
The BOLT has played a role in productions ranging from Kendrick Lamar music videos and CGI-filled product films to slow-motion reactive sport shots, live emotes in explosive lifestyle moments, perfectly tuned tabletop shots and more. The sky is the limit.

So, what is the BOLT?
It's a high-speed camera-operating robot...
it's a dream come true.



What are its features?


+ It's fast. The Bolt is able to very quickly ratchet from 0 to speed and can keep up with a tracking speed of 3.5m/s

+ It's precise. It employs synchronized motion with external triggers & model movers for precision timing.

+ It's got perfect memory. Meaning it's able to exactly replicate a shot or move from one take to the next.

+ It allows for total control. With the ability to dial in zoom, iris & lens, and to automate that control as preferred.

+ It's portable. The rig is lightweight at ~5ft packed and can be set up and ready to shoot in under an hour.

+ It's seamless. The Flair software used to program the BOLT interfaces seamlessly with industry CGI packages.


+ It's all that and more. Full specifications available here.


• Target tracking: keep a product, person, or other subject center-frame as it moves (e.g. a falling ball) or while performing camera moves.

• Multipass: an amazing and efficient production capability that allows us to achieve perfect plating without relying on a locked down camera (e.g. we can shoot a crowd in multiple batches, feature a talent multiple times in a single 'shot', combine different lighting/speed settings, and capture clean plates for anything we might want to comp later)

• Miniature/macro capability: extraordinarily simplify and improve the tasks of maintaining focus, fine tuning settings, achieving minute camera moves, and scaling layers when working with macro and high-detail shots

• Time lapse: whereas time lapse usually requires a stationary camera, the BOLT allows dynamic camera movement coordinated perfectly with your timelapse


• Model moving: mount a product on the BOLT rig, rather than a camera, to achieve precise movements (e.g. a perfect pour)

• Stop motion: program frame-by-frame camera moves to achieve smooth playback, letting you focus on the stop motion elements without having to fuss over the camera

• CGI import/export & scaling/rotation shots: we can precisely engineer our camera motions in coordination with CG concepts to achieve any effect you can dream up. By generating pre-visualizations, clients can sign-off on complicated scenes/sequences before any crew takes their places on the day of the shoot

• SFX timing: We can construct shots to work in harmony across multiple takes to generate effects that would otherwise have to rely on CG—creating momentous, beat-matched sequences



Stephen McGehee [Portfolio]

Colin Arndt [Portfolio]

Please reach out for details.