Watch the Bad Boys II Shot Story

A Fresh Take on a Tired Standard: Using the Pictorvision XR for Creative New Shots

In Bad Boys II, production wanted to develop characters in the midst of a car chase.

They knew that the standard hostess-tray shot wasn’t going to work - the distorted perspective of a wide-angle lens wouldn’t capture the scene with the look they wanted. Production also felt that the static hostess-tray shot was too familiar and would not properly capture the dynamic action of the scene.

Capturing the shot with ‘traditional’ camera support would have required: following the action with a 500 mm lens on a geared head that was mounted on a dolly equipped with skate wheels. The dolly would then have to travel across 3 miles of painstakingly leveled track.

With traditional equipment this was a nearly impossible task.

The solution, as it turned out, was simple. Production rigged the XR to the back of a Mustang, and with the operator riding shotgun the XR followed the action and captured the scene.

While traveling over railway ties, across gravel roads, dodging oncoming traffic, the XR kept the camera stable. The result was incredible. The XR provided a solution that was both time and cost efficient - for a seemingly impossible-to-film scene.