When your videos regularly rack up hundreds of millions of views, missing a key moment isn't an option.
With over 500 million subscribers, YouTuber MrBeast has built a career on turning outrageous ideas into viral videos. His iconic hand challenges are brilliantly simple: everyone keeps a hand on the prize, and the last person standing wins. Previous contestants have walked away with a Lamborghini, $1,000,000, and even a private jet. This time, the winner gets a house.
Simple rules. Surprisingly complicated to film.
Contestants can spend hours—or even days—keeping their eyes (and hands) firmly on the prize. But this time, with contestants free to move throughout the house, keeping track of every hand at every moment was easier said than done. The production needed a way to film everything happening inside the house while making sure the crew could clearly judge whether someone had let go.
So when MrBeast asked us for a camera that could do this, we had just the thing. Actually, we had three.
Insta360 X5, X4 and X4 Air were mounted throughout the house to eliminate blind spots, while others were strapped directly to contestants' wrists. Lightweight enough to wear comfortably for hours, their 360 capture meant the crew never had to worry about where the camera was pointing. Every reaction stayed in frame, the best angle could be chosen afterwards, and officials could easily verify whether someone had broken contact.
As director of photography Rafael "Raf" Lopez puts it:
"The Insta360 solved the biggest two hurdles we had: judication and also keeping a camera on our contestant the whole time and making it feel natural."
Without these cameras, the story would have looked very different.
"If we didn't have this on at certain points, we wouldn't have the full story... it gave us this really cool reverse shot as they're facing the wall—things that we couldn't have the whole time."
In total, 118 Insta360 cameras were used in the production, ready to catch every moment of drama.
"Having [these cameras] around saved us... They're able to go everywhere because of how small [they are], but [they] gave us big results. That's the amazing part."
Check out the full video and find out who won over on YouTube.
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