ikan News Blog

Cheers from the NAB show floor!

I wanted to kick this post of with a bang, so here we go. USB & LANC Remote grips are in prototype phase and a blast to work with. They’re compatible with all 1/4″ mounting methods. These videos have no real audio as I was rushed to produce them (meaning they’re innately flawed but have some notable substance)!

As the title of this post suggests, you’ll be able to demo these products at our booth at #nab2012.

USB Remote Grips for Canon DSLRs:

https://vimeo.com/40302607

LANC Remote Grip for Sony and Canon video cameras:

https://vimeo.com/40298963

Now to more goodies. ikan will also be bringing more new support parts and pieces for display and play in our booth. Our software dept. is also demoing new products. Come by our booth to try the items for yourself.

ELITE Remote for ELITE Prompter:

More on the following items in tomorrow’s post (hey, it could happen):

I doubt that I really left you hanging, salivating at the gourd for what lies in wait regarding the AMAZING AND IMPRESSIVE relatively neat and lightweight shoulder-mount rig I ran around with this weekend.

If I did, I apologize. However, I think that it should become a welcome addition to the ELEMENTS EV2 line and is probably the most practical cinema/run-n-gun style rig to date from ikan. We’ve been playing with a few new, simple, manufactured parts lately in CAD and they had finally come in, so I figured it was time to test these puppies elsewhere, in varied contexts.

Here’s the barebone verison, sans peripherals:

You might say, “those are some really mediocre photos! And you know what? You’re right. they have little zazz to them and are designed to give you concept. However, in testing, it’s worth noting a couple of things:

1. the handle bars actually have comfortable grips, with reinforced rubber feet for setting down.
2. they don’t slip and spin anymore around the bar (if you know, you know. rejoice with me!)
3. the cross-bar connectors no longer utilized some wonky 15RDA contraption to change axis.
4. large and small base plates are compatible (ele-lbp and ele-sbp), includes tripod mounting. this means you can use both your dslr and larger form factor camera or camcorder.
5. padded shoulder brace, lightweight and sturdy, designed to place the camera as close to your body’s pivot point as possible (above the shoulder) to reduce rolling shutter on video takes.
6. because of light-weight improvement, less fatigue holding rig up.
7. goes hand-in-hand with your favorite evf or small on camera monitor (I’ve been using the VL5 because of its simplicity and size).
8. room for follow focus and matte box.

This is the part where I’d gush about the real-world application of the rig, event-style. Due to cancellation, however, I didn’t grab my much anticipated video and stills for some wild club event, designed to help pad this post with pictures of pretty people in freaky costumes.

I have another two of these rigs out for evaluation right now. One is being tested with the Scarlet-X in the Big Easy and is due back soon with some footage I’m really curious about seeing. The other is being used to shoot SWAT Team members in training situations, i.e. fast paced and intense. I should be receiving stills and some fancy words from both of these cats in the next week or so before NAB. By that time, I will have a replacement event with my own deets regarding the rig.

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!

November is a funny time for many, as it marks the end of fall with the cooler weather rolling in with many of the first real snows. The impending winter means spending time indoors, seeking refuge from the cold and experiencing that slow-down and stillness to life, where leaving the bed is akin to blasphemy. For us in Houston, though, it’s really the first full month where we won’t see temperatures in the 90’s (finally). For ikan, it means we start looking forward to the spring releases for NAB. It’s a time for industry–scheduling production of new products and putting the final pieces together.

Today, there were several last-minute meetings with the software division where we finalized the features of new products. Last year @NABShow, we demoed a product suite concept designed to aid the production community’s workflow. Since all these apps work together (they talk), it has been a challenge to develop them concurrently; fortunately, we are finally nearing the release of the first of the suite! One key thing changed since then–based on customer feedback, we switched the priority of release from android apps to iOS apps. Over the next few months, you’ll notice several new apps rolling out. Since last week’s concept meeting, they’ve put the finishing touches on them–all i can say is WOW! They have really put some innovative usage and tools in the software –stuff I haven’t seen in any other apps like them in the market. I can’t wait for the other application to mature. We really think you’re going to like the way the pieces fit together (literally and figuratively)!

Ikan works hard about innovating new products and sometimes its easy for us to forget around here some of the things we have innovated in the last few years. We were the first to come out with a high quality 5.6 LCD with HDMI. at NAB 2009 (before the 5D MkII and D90 were released) we introduced the V5600 because we anticipated that HDMI would become an attractive alternative to SDI, that cameras were shrinking, and a HDMI LCD field monitor smaller than 7’  would be a great addition in the market place. Now every LCD company has a 5″ in their lineup. It’s hard to believe this monitor is 4 years old now and still is a favorite for many shooters.

Our ID500 light was the first high powered LED light to have a wireless remote control.  For the Event and ENG users the remote feature and battery power have given them truly mobile solutions. Event videographers can turn a light on an off from their camera position on one side of a ball room as needed. ENG crews can sit and wait for their air time and turn the light on and off without leaving their cameras. A solo shooter who acts as talent and camera operators can now adjust the light intensity while looking into their monitors.

Our EV2 Stealth was the first 15mm rod configuration developed for ENG shooters. We worked with Canon to help their customers as they migrate from traditional shoulder mount cameras ENG to more economical midsized cameras.

The Stealth was designed as a ENG rig–not a stripped down cinema shoulder rig–to better match the needs of news shooters. Its adaptability allows the user to see the eye piece in bright sun light. The adjustable shoulder pads allows for different users to tweak it for their comfort. Its Heavy duty shoulder mount is beefed up to withstand use 24/7. Replaceable pads give it a longer lifespan, while plenty of mounting points (for battery systems and accessories) allow it to conform to any work flow or requirements. We even designed mounting points for a traditional ENG VL14 style quick release to simplify run and gun demands of the ENG environment

One of our first products introduced in our first year of business PT-1000 pioneered the low-cost above the lens Teleprompters.

Once again several other teleprompter companies have a similar solution in their line up. This year we added a single handed adjustment riser to our PT3100 and PT4100 to make it easier to adjust for the different heights of cameras.

Simply turn the knob and adjust the height no tools or disassembly necessary. The next generation of teleprompters and software is under development and will also include several new and innovative features.

This year, ikan acquired the Cinemage monitor line to provide top tier LCD monitors adding additional choices for our customers. This acquisition also put new technologies and contacts in our reach. Soon you should see innovative new features and products as a result.

So this winter, keep your eye on ikan to see what new products are going to come from us here in Houston. I know some of the things we are planning will be new and innovative.  Just wait and see. To make it easier, check back here or follow us on Facebook or twitter to keep up with the latest news.