ikan News Blog

Our short film competition really brought in some class A talent this year, so I’d like to showcase each of our winners and their place in the industry, including what they do and how they worked to win our celebrity judges over by being showered with mad rubric points.

Our Honorable Mention, Caroline Pires, was a killer contender–and with good reason. Her latest work as a compositor has been on Martin Scorcese’s “Hugo” and has really been a pleasure to speak with. It’s been a while since I hosted an informal interview here on the blog; I hope, however, we give you a taste of the caliber of talent in our multi-tiered industry, as well as expose the creativity and life of a compositor and emerging director. Her self-written bio on vimeo is pretty complete, but is she human?

Here’s her submission again, for record:

http://vimeo.com/28595834

Let’s begin.

IKAN: Welcome Caroline! Who are you professionally?

Caroline Pires: I’m a Compositor for feature films and commercials. Hopefully in the near future I’ll be able to alternate between compositing and directing.

IK: What’s the experience of working on a major feature like; what do you take away from working on them?

CP: Working on major blockbusters is always a great learning experience because you get to work with the best people in the industry. Big names attract talent. What you take away from it in the end is some good material for your showreel, a handful of new friends from all over the world, an extra kilo and bags under your eyes from days of not sleeping before the final delivery!

IK: Do you prefer working as an independent or under a company with a team working on something collectively?

CP: That really depends on the company and the project. I really enjoy freelancing and doing commercial work because it’s generally more creative, has a faster turnover and usually I get to do more than just comp. Big companies can have many strict rules about what you can and can’t do.

IK: What work are you most proud of and why?

CP: I guess the work I’m most proud of is:

1. The first cleanup shot I ever did at Framestore where Angelina Jolie was dangling from a train wreck and her hair was tangled in the safety wire. That same wire was also going over her leather jacket while she was moving her arm underneath it. It’s still one of the hardest cleanups I have ever done!
2. Some of the shots I did for “Prince of Persia”. The guys at Nvizible were really supportive and with their help I think I managed to pull off some nice shots for a junior compositor.
3. Definitely some of the work I’ve just done on “Hugo” for Pixomondo. I got some of my first big shots and 3 of them are in the latest trailer. My favorite is a lock off with Hugo behind the station windows, you can see it around  00:53 secs. Unfortunately I’m not allowed to put any of that work on my showreel yet… only when the DVD is released (industry rules).

IK: What aspects of film have your attention most these days? What is your biggest focus right now?

CP: Even though I love visual effects, I’m trying to transition into directing and supervising vfx on smaller shoots. Directing gives you so much more creative freedom. The VFX Supervision is so I can get a break from the long hours in front of a computer! Stop looking like a vampire and maybe get back some of my original skin colour.

IK: Who are you in real life? Do you even have free time? (ah, you may, considering your kinect adventures I found online). Hobbies?

CP: I’m a workaholic in real life, but trust me, there are worst people out there and I’ve met them! For the past 9 months, since I started Hugo, and decided to make 3 short films while I was on that project, I didn’t have much time for myself or any of my old friends. I did meet lots of other crazy people that don’t believe in free time, like Eben Bolter, Franz Brandstaetter and Mark Pinheiro (these people don’t sleep), who joined me in my cinematic adventures. When I do have free time I like going out to dinner with my friends, attending some good house parties and travelling!

IK: So you’re indeed human…which brings up my next q–I was poking around your youtube and found some German alternative music. What’s up with this?

CP: Ha! I love Minimal Tech. I did my Masters degree in Barcelona and a lot of my friends are techno DJ’s there. I guess they gave me that bug but I’ve always liked electronic music. I like anything that’s creative and can be done with computers.

IK: What expectations did you have for yourself entering our short film competition? What challenges arose on set?

CP: Well when we entered the competition we wanted to win some lights and an HD monitor! That’s how I convinced everyone to work for free! I’m planning on doing a low budget feature next year and I could really do with some lights, so the aim was to win them… but I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved in such little time and with a non- existing budget. It was my first writer / director experience and it was fun!

The major challenge we had was Mark not being able to show up for the shoot one evening so we had to change the script last minute. The other one was when I was operating the camera and I didn’t get the focus right on one of the shots… still learning there!

IK: Did you use any ikan gear on your set? If so, how? What did you think of it?

CP: We wish we could have used the iKan gear. Unfortunately we don’t own any of it (that’s why we entered the competition)! It would have been great to have an external monitor (for focusing on wider shots and the lights). We did manage to scrounge some lights from a friend.

IK: Your showreel on Vimeo is super cool. However, your Kinect Adventures makes you two look like animals, potentially even cooler. What do you see in the future for yourself in the DSLR film jungle, and where is it going from your perspective in animation and composition technologies?

CP: My next showreel is going to be EPIC! LOL!

IK: No…really.

CP: I really enjoy DSLR filmmaking and plan on doing more of it. The short I’m currently trying to finish, Twisted Roads, was all shot on a canon 60d and on a budget of around £400. Shooting on DSLR has many limitations because of the H264 compression codec and rolling shutter problems. You can’t shoot green screens on it and your image will never be as sharp as one that was shot in RAW format. Compressed footage also means less latitude when it come to grading. These limitations are crippling when it comes to basic visual effects, so unless we get DSLR’s shooting RAW and with faster write speeds, there is no future for dslr cinema in the visual effects industry. Even when using Magic Lantern to up the bit rate and 5D2RGB to “decompress” the footage, I still find the results are slightly disappointing. On the other hand, DSLR filmmaking enables great scripts (with no vfx) to get made on a low budget–and has started an indie revolution.

I have learnt so much about DSLR cinema that I plan on putting up a couple of tutorials online and giving back to the online community that educated me on this subject. The big plan though is to make a low budget feature starting mid-next year.

I have started the pre-production already and hopefully the kickstarter campaign will be up and running by May 2012. A lot of the inspiration for the campaign comes from the way Ryan Koo raised money to make his first feature. Originally we had planned to shoot it on DSLRs but a friend of mine just bought a Scarlet so I believe we’ll be shooting on that now. Exciting times!

Thanks, Caroline! You can find her showreel and blog on her website www.carolinepires.co.uk or follow her updates on twitter via @carolinevfx.

Next week we’ll have our 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place winners, so expect a treat!

As we’re knocking walls down in the office, ushering growth and other positive hoopla here at ikan, I came to realize that our product news has been pretty jumbled in the last couple weeks (between new video releases, products, newsletters, etc.) so I’ve decided to re-cap and serve you an ikan snack of the day.

I’ve been doing some work on the blog, too. At the bottom right of the main page you’ll find our videos are updating from vimeo now, as well as a more functional twitter feed and a likebox to show you who of your friends likes the ikan brand. Sidenote: If you find a broken link, be sure to let me know and it’ll get fixed right away–I think I’ve covered most of those so far but we’ll see.

Shall we dance?

The T-Slate is ikan’s most recent product–designed for the people who use slates for their most used purpose–syncing audio. It’s a great companion to have on set when you run your slate data on an iPad or android slate but want the reliability of a physical clapperboard.

vimeo.com/32277568

It’s worth noting that regardless of future technologies, the form factors of tablets will stay similar, ensuring that whatever you upgrade to, the slate will always be a good companion. Also, there has been some discussion about the flaws of strictly relying on something like an iPad Slate on The Black and Blue blog with Evan Luzi. For example, “what if the battery dies?” Oh…right. Good point. There’s always the idea of having multiple ipads or some off-brand usb charger velcroed to the back of the ipad, but what are you trying to prove? The T-Slate provides a simple solution while having a quality slate to fall back on, with engraved letters and a slit to support nearly any style tablet cover.

ikan’s new Video Starter Kit is ideal for the entry DSLR enthusiast interested in shooting video on more serious terms. Young, old, interested in making the step toward being a professional or just upping the game on your personal work, the VSK offers a variety pack to really bring your camera work to lightspeed.

vimeo.com/32272629

Included in the kit is our new slim VL5 HDMI Monitor w/ battery support out of the box, our rugged and durable ikan Traveler backpack, a RECOIL camera rig, the compact & powerful iLED 120 camera light, and more. at $699 it’s a steal!

Next on the list, ikan has stepped up to the plate to bring you all the gels you need to tint your LED or flourescent lights.
With our Essentials and Creative packs, you can achieve any color temperature as well as some so-cool-its-sheisty lighting effects you don’t have to perform in post.

Also, we’ve created packs to fit our iLED 312or iLED 144 to boot–offering complete and nearly unlimited lighting options. For a complete listing of our new gel kits, new lesson about gels and lighting diffusion. If you haven’t seen their Video School videos yet, they’re pretty simple yet savvy and spice it up with some occasional wit. Definitely worth checking out.

Other videos have come out on vimeo page lately, including the ID500 3 point kit, the Multi-K XL, ID1000 3 point kit, and the New PT2500–which has an upgrade kit for you previous PT2100 and PT1000 users.

Ikan is proud to announce the winners of the 2011 ikan short film competition “Where’s the Missing Piece?” The 2011 competition marks ikan’s third year of bringing up-and-coming creative groups to the public, to compete for prize packages totaling $17,000 in gear. Judged by acclaimed industry leaders, each entry was scored on its artistic & technical merits, along with the promotion of the ikan brand and adherence to this year’s theme: “Where’s the Missing Piece?”

ikan had 22 participants from all parts of the world enter the competition. Only three, however, walk away with the winnings. After the first round, ten lucky finalists were left and progressed to our celebrity judges panel. This year Jared Abrams (WideOpenCamera); Mitch Aunger (Planet5D); Dave Helmly, Mike Kanfer, Colin Smith and Karl Soule of Adobe systems, Inc;  Steve Roche (Digital Juice); and Tony Reale (NextWaveDV).Mel House and Ryan Koo (No Film School) were all asked to sit on the panel

So, without further ado, I present you the 2011 ikan short film contest winners:

1. 1^st Place (prize of $10,000 worth of ikan products) goes to Private i(kan) by Samuel Z. P. Thomas.
   http://vimeo.com/28627014
   Its imaginative blending of ikan products into a great take of the noir detective genre actually earned it a perfect score from one of the judges.
2. 2^nd place (prize of $5,000 worth of ikan products) goes to Blood, Sweat, Tears and ikan by Greenstorm Film.
   http://vimeo.com/28651106
   The action-packed “Search For the Missing Piece” captured the theme of this year’s competition with style and excitement.
3. 3^rd Place (prize of $2,000 worth of ikan products) goes to ikan, always with you created by Stephan Zammit.
   http://vimeo.com/28636540
   The composition and style of the piece made it stand out among all of the entries with its creative use of a green-screen and rural setting.

Ikan has also decided to present an Honorable Mention Award to Say I Can With ikan by Caroline Lopes Pires a.k.a. @carolinevfx.
http://vimeo.com/28595834
Shot on a “zero pound” budget (and entirely on the team’s free time) this entry reminds us that creativity doesn’t need a budget or time to rest. The difference in scores between Caroline’s and third place was so close, we decided to add an Honorable Mention award this year to bring attention to a deserving entry.

We at ikan applaud the winners and all participants and thank them for their creative efforts and time dedicated to their films. The work they have done is amazing and an inspiration to everyone. Our hats are off!

Well we have screened the entries for the 2011 ikan short film contest and are ready to announce the ten finalist that will move on to the celebrity judging round. All entries were screened by ikan staff members and a few select hardcore ikan fans who did not have entries in this year’s contest. During the screening process the entries were judged for their adherence to the guidelines for this years contest. In this process the entries were scored and the ten highest scores will be the ones to advance on to the final judging. To see all the entries got to the official contest go to the contest’s  vimeo site.

Thank you to all those who entered this year for you hard work and effort. Each year we here at ikan are truly amazed by your creativity and talent. We are very proud that you take the time to participate and sincerely  thank you.

what???

enough of the gushing and chit chat !?!?!

ok …

I present to you the ten finalist of the ikan 2011 short film contest – “Where is the Missing Piece?” (in no particular order)

1)      When Is The Missing Piece?  -  http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28695269

2)      Missing  -  http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28702336

3)      Say I Can With ikan  -  http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28595834

4)      Private i(kan) – http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28627014

5)      i kan Survive – http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28627897

6)      ikan Light Your Life – http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28630071

7)      The Letter – http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28635651

8)      ikan, Always With You – http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28636540

9)      Blood, Sweat, Tears and ikan – http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28651106

10)   Scrabble – http://vimeo.com/groups/ikanseeit2011/videos/28077137

Just for fun we have a Fan Favorite Voting Page.  After the winners are announced lets see how your votes stack up against the judges selections.

Jay P. Morgan and the guys over at The Slanted Lens have put together another one of their informative series of videos.  In addition to their coverage of how to light things with simplicity and elegance, they discuss using camera cranes. I’m a big fan of having cranes around for several reasons. In fact, I own two of them personally and at each of production companies I’ve owned or worked for, it was usually one of the first pieces of support gear I had brought in. Even at the college where I teach–as soon as we got the budget, guess what we bought. I don’t recommend owning a jib over 4 feet. Anything over that the size, expense transportation and storage hassles make it best to rent to meet the shooting needs for that production. I guess many people would call the long versions “cranes” and the short ones “jibs,” but so often I see the terms interchanged it doesn’t seem to matter much anymore.  To me a 4 foot jib is priced affordably enough to own and long enough to accomplish most of the things you would want to do with a crane. What are those things you might ask?

You can accomplish several things with a jib. As Jay P. Morgan mentions in the video, a jib can add production value.  The sweeping moves with swings and dips have a different look than a simple pan or tilt you get with a tripod. Since the camera moves in space the lines of convergence in the frames shifts and changes as the camera moves in a manner that is much different than a simple head pan or tilt from a head on a tripod.  This adds a depth of movement that adds value to the production.  The second thing he mentions is what I call a two-for-one shot. You can create two separate “thoughts” or messages with one shot without an edit.  In their sample video you have an establishing shot of the morgue then the “surprise” shot of the dead guy waking up. Traditionally with static shots you would show the establishing shot then cut to the shot of the John Doe toe tag, linger long enough for the audience to get bored and then surprise them with the sudden waking up of the dead John Doe. Doing the same shot with a moderately slow jib move adds to the floaty mystery feeling and slows down the audience’s tempo and pace connection with the scene, setting up a contrast for when the dead guy suddenly sits up. Couple that with the silence of the morgue and his loudly gasping for breath as he sits up and your guaranteed to make more than a few viewers jump.   A third reason I love jibs is the speed of camera positioning. If I’m in a location and know I will be moving the camera around for lots of little shots moving , rising and lowering the tripod over and over can slow things down. A jib allows me to quickly reposition and fine tune the camera’s placement in an infinite number of static shots very quickly. I frequently used a jib this way if I was shooting training video where parts had to be assembled or some time s shooting commercials in a shop where I had to shoot a lot of displays.

The one thing that every jib guy needs no matter the length is a good monitor. On the original cranes mentioned by Jay, the operator looked through the eyepiece or viewfinder as if it was on a tripod and traveled with the camera. On a small jib or crane with the range of movement looking through the viewfinder is not possible and an external monitor is necessary. I used a few different type of monitors in these situations. A small monitor mounted to the jib positioned near the where I was placing my hands allowed me to watch the frame as the jib moved.  In the video Jay uses a VX 7E  mounted near the tilt controls.  For this use the operator is looking at framing and not really concerned as much about exposure and color, so a simpler monitor like our V5600 or the newer VL7 or VH7 are pretty cost-effective solutions.  I also like to use larger monitors like our V17 in a field configuration in situations where I have to pay more attention to focus or wide sweeping moves. I can mount the V17 on a C-stand on one side if the jib and I stand on the other near the pivot point. I can move a wide swing and watch in the large monitor. If I did this with a small monitor I would have to move my body to follow the monitor increasing the likely hood of the unwanted jiggles and jostles showing up in the frame. If you guys want, let me know and We here at ikan might just make our video on using jib with monitors …

Anyway, go check out Jay’s most recent video at The Slanted Lens or visit their youtube channel. Make sure you tell them the guys at ikan sent you when you thank them for their cool work.

youtube.com/watch?v=y0FkGH2c

Thanks to Maurice and everyone at Camera Dojo for reviewing the Multi-K.  You can read the entire review here on their website: http://cameradojo.com/ikan-multi-k-led-light-variable-color