OK, we have to talk about the camera rig used in Bad Boys 4 (also known as Bad Boys: Ride or Die). You know the one I’m talking about—you’ve probably seen it all over TikTok and Instagram. Will Smith is wearing a vest with a camera attached to it, and he’s whipping his gun and the camera around. It’s super kinetic and high-energy and unlike anything I’ve seen before.
But why am I talking about camera gear in a blog post about screenwriting? Oh, for this reason alone, you guys: I have never wanted to write an action movie so bad until I saw that viral clip.
The “Sputnik Rig,” as it’s been dubbed, inspired the hell out of me. Actually, the action genre uniquely features a ton of innovative tech that I think screenwriters should pay closer attention to.
What Is the Sputnik Rig in Bad Boys 4?
Just in case I haven’t made it clear how awesome this camera rig is, allow me to do so now.
This thing is so friggin’ cool.
At first glance, it looks like your run-of-the-mill Steadicam but instead of the camera being connected to an iso-elastic arm, it’s connected to Will Smith’s gun. And it spins allowing the camera to capture not only a close-up of Smith but also the POV of the gun. It’s like if a first-person shooter camera and the Snorricam from Requiem for a Dream had a baby. Actually, that’s pretty much exactly what it is.
Just wait until you guys to see this scene in @BadBoys … pic.twitter.com/UrU2csd329
— Will Smith (@WillSmith2real) June 4, 2024
Cool Tech: The Action Screenwriter’s Secret Weapon
Like I said earlier, action movies and innovative camera technology go hand in hand. The Snorricam used in Requiem for a Dream, the LED wall projection in The Mandalorian, the Lightbox Sandra Bullock floated around in in Gravity, even the Deep X 3D camera and underwater lenses James Cameron used in Avatar: The Way of Water—all of these tools allowed filmmakers to create more immersive and dynamic films.
However, they can also inspire screenwriters to dream bigger and access their creativity on a higher level knowing that advanced technology like this exists.
I mean, think about it. What is an action movie’s bread and butter? Action sequences, yes, good job. And believe it or not, action stars don’t just ad-lib these scenes—like, Vin Diesel didn’t improvise driving off a cliff in Montequinto and catching a rope in the axle of his 2020 Dodge Charger Hellcat.
Action sequences are intricately planned and choreographed by directors, cinematographers, and stunt coordinators, but it all starts on the page. These incredible scenes are often first thought up by a screenwriter who sits down at their computer and goes, “I’m going to give the audience a 360-degree view of my character bending almost completely backward to dodge a barrage of bullets in slow motion.” The Wachowskis came up with that scene when they sat down to write The Matrix. On page 103, they write:
His GUN BOOMS as we ENTER the liquid space of —
— BULLET-TIME
It’s possible the Wachowskis were inspired by David Gondry’s music video for The Rolling Stones, or maybe they were inspired by Eadweard Muybridge’s 1878 “Horse in Motion” experiment (which basically laid the foundation for cinema to become a thing). Either way they worked with visual effects supervisor John Gaeta to design a 120-camera rig that allowed the scene to come to life.
And you want to know what happened after millions of people saw that scene? Tons—and I mean tons—of writers and filmmakers came out with “bullet-time” scenes of their own, playing with the concept of cinematic time and frozen frames.
In the case of Bad Boys 4, the Sputnik Rig can inspire you to write sequences that put the audience right in the center of the action in new ways. Can you imagine what a rig like this could do for a war film or a neo-Western? Can you imagine the Mexican standoff scenes you could write knowing this rig has the versatility to capture multiple POVs in the same shot? Or what about bomb defusion scenes? Or safe cracking scenes? Or fatal wound care scenes? Or dangerous drug deal scenes? The possibilities are endless if you consider the camera tech from Bad Boys 4.
Read More: 5 Must-Haves for Writing Action Sequences
Let the Tech Inspire You
We’re in a difficult time in cinematic history and I know it’s hard to find the inspiration to write in a genre that seems to be struggling at the box office right now. Ahem… Furiosa, Hit Man, The Fall Guy. All of these movies were well-made, entertaining, and contained all the hallmarks of a great action flick, but they didn’t perform as well as expected in theaters. Bad Boys 4 was one of the only tentpoles of its kind to find success at the box office.
It’s discouraging. You might feel like sitting on the sidelines and watching things burn (but like in a really cool Jamie Foxx way where you look at it head-on like a true badass). But I encourage you to let the unique tools that make these action movies a possibility inspire you to write action scripts chock full of your most wild and spectacular ideas because, believe it or not, Hollywood needs them and so do action fans.
Read More: 75 Free Action-Adventure Scripts You Can Download Right Now
The post How the Camera Rig in ‘Bad Boys 4’ Can Inspire Action Screenwriters appeared first on ScreenCraft.
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Author: V Renée
