Up to 20 Insta360 X5 cameras ran at once on 'How to Rob a Bank' heist footage, with the production able to reframe 360-degree action shots in post to change perspectives.
The Insta360 X5 makes its Hollywood film debut today with the release of How to Rob a Bank, an action film directed by David Leitch (Bullet Train, The Fall Guy). The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, Christian Slater, Pete Davidson, and John C. Reilly, and follows a crew of social media-savvy bank robbers who broadcast their heists on socials. Think Robin Hood retooled for Gen Z.
The X5 is the camera the crew uses in the story to document their exploits, and while normal 35mm cinematography captures much of the movie, the heist videos within the film use the X5 footage itself.
Jimmy Johenning, producer of digital sequences, demonstrated reframing to director Leitch and Jonathan Sela, director of photography for the main unit, on an iPad in pre-production. And for Leitch, the ability to create new shots from existing 360 footage proved particularly valuable during the heist sequences. Essentially it gave the team more flexibility to connect the action and keep the story moving. As he explains, “When we needed a shot and we had a 360 running, we could literally create a shot.”
Post production supervisor Jacob Donohue gives an example: a shot that looks down the barrel of a gun could be reframed later to show the person holding it. The team typically ran seven or eight X5 cameras per shooting day, with 12 to 20 during individual heist sequences. On motorcycles and moving vehicles, filmmakers shaped camera movements in post that would have been difficult or effectively impossible to execute physically at those speeds.
FlowState Stabilization and 360° Horizon Lock were used on moving vehicles and actors for car scenes, motorcycles, and fight sequences.
Another shot looks through a stack of banknotes as the robbers flip through the money, and is a favorite of Donohue. David Myrick, director of photography, of the film’s YouTube unit (yes, it has one of those), says that the cameras opened up possibilities beyond the familiar tools of dollies, Steadicams and cranes. “This was just kind of like there were no rules,” he says.
Film sets are not the safest places on earth, and the production went through approximately 20 to 30 lenses but only around two camera bodies, which is a decent casualty rate considering their use in action sequences.
As for post, the team first processed and reframed footage in Insta360 Studio, then transcoded to ProRes for DaVinci Resolve and Avid before cutting it in with the 35mm footage.
How to Rob a Bank is now playing in theaters and, while the reviews are lukewarm, the way that it uses 360 video seems fairly hot.