Powered By Ikan – Behind The Scenes With Red Feather

What do you get when you combine Jeeps, horses, bandits, a plane, and explosions…an action movie? No, actually you would get the scenes of a promo video that we at Ikan got to experience.

A couple of weeks ago, we got a chance to go behind the scenes with Red Feather while they were shooting a promo video in Texas. Red Feather is a full service creative and production house that describes themselves as a close knit family of makers, thinkers, and doers. We were fortunate to have Red Feather invite us out to join them on their promo video shoot. The video was going to be showcased at the 2016 SEMA Show, the premier automotive specialty products trade event, which is held in Las Vegas every year. Starwood Motors and Sprintex Superchargers would be promoted in the video. The video shoot was powered by Ikan where we supplied all the video equipment except for the camera.

Here’s what happened during those couple of days while filming under the hot Texas sun:

Day 1 – Katemcy Rocks

Our team drove up to the small town of Fredericksburg, TX on Sunday, and started the first official day of shooting on Monday. On the first day of shooting, we all met at the first location. Initially, we actually got lost and went to the wrong location and ended up accidentally discovering a huge gravel pit. This little detour actually turned out to be fortuitous because we told Red Feather about the huge gravel pit and they ended up including it in their video shoot. After that little detour, we finally arrived at the right location – Katemcy Rocks, an area with over 800 acres of granite rock that provides an off road experience like no other in the state. At Katemcy Rocks, there are multiple trails with numerous obstacles where four wheelers can traverse. That first day, we went around to explore the location and met the Red Feather crew as well as the owners of Katemcy Rocks. The crew did pre-production work and prepared everything for the shoot. The guys that would be driving the Jeeps on these rocks went around to run and learn the course. The first day was great for scoping out the place and getting a feel for the area. To add another viewpoint to the shoot, Daniel from Up in the Air Films got different shots from the air with a drone.

At the end of the day, we went back to the hotel and took over the lobby to prep all the gear for the next day. We outfitted the RED Dragon camera with a Tilta Matte box and put it on a Tilta Gravity gimbal stabilizer for cinema cameras. After all the gear prep, we were ready to go for Day 2.

Day 2 – Jeeps, Rocks, and Car Chases

On the second day, we went back out to Katemcy Rocks to shoot some scenes. AJ of Red Feather did a lot of shooting with the Tilta Armor-Man 2 and got shots of the Jeep climbing up rocks.

“I’ve incorporated the Armor-Man 2 into my shooting style now. The suit has become an extension of me and I almost don’t remember how to use a camera gimbal without it at this point. No longer are there limits to the length or distance of the shot, or the time I need to be away from the gimbal stand, which is great, because we sometimes don’t have time for a rest on the shoots we do.” – AJ, Red Feather

Daniel got some more drone shots to get different angles. Since scenes aren’t normally shot in order, everyone was just trying to get a variety of shots and different angles.

Red Feather did film a couple of car chases at the rock quarry with the sheriff chasing some bandits and two girls – Whitney Miller and Torrie Blake. The promo video’s story was a chase sequence where two girls were riding horses and then end up stealing something. They end up getting off the horses and getting into Jeeps with some bandits. Then, a sheriff comes after them in a Camaro and ends up chasing them to an airplane hangar. We were excited to see this story take shape.

At the end of day 2, we headed to Austin to prepare for another day of shooting.

Day 3 – Rally Ready Driving School

We woke up early on day 3 in Austin, TX and drove to the Rally Ready Driving School in Dale, TX. To get to Rally Ready, we had to drive through a bunch of rocky little roads while passing by animals. The strangest thing that we saw were all these goats standing next to mailboxes at various houses. While filming at Rally Ready, we had to face the elements…there was dirt everywhere. Since the dirt was very dry, it would get picked up by the Jeep everywhere it drove. We had to make sure that every camera lens was cleaned off each time footage was shot. At Rally Ready, Red Feather filmed more chase scenes, the girls riding horses, and to top off the day – explosions. This day was particularly tough because we had to carry a ton of gear and had to move from spot to spot quickly to get the right shots. After a couple more shots, Red Feather finished up shooting for the day.

Day 4 – Chase Scenes and Wrap-Up

We’ve finally reached day 4 – the last day of shooting. For the last day of shooting, Red Feather filmed the car chases on several backroads and we all went back to the Rally Ranch to get some more chase scenes filmed. The crew used the Blitz wireless zero delay HD video system, various Ikan monitors such as the VXF7 and DH7, NiSi V5 with a full graduated neutral density filters set, the Remote Air 2 dual channel wireless lens control system, and also used the Armor-Man again.

“We’re so used to having wireless video tap issues even with the most expensive rigs out there that we just considered it a part of the technology that we had to deal with. Out there in the hot desert sun, on those rocks, between vehicles, and at high speeds, we never had one real glitch with the Blitz. It kept our shoot flowing without the interruptions we’re used to with other setups.” – AJ, Red Feather

With the equipment, we were able to get different viewpoints of the shots. After the shoot was finished, we packed up the equipment and headed home to Houston. Overall, it was a great experience to go behind the scenes of a promo video shoot. Thank you to Red Feather, Starwood Motors, Sprintex Superchargers, Up In the Air Films, Katemcy Rocks, Rally Ready Driving School, and everyone that helped make this video shoot possible….and that’s a wrap!

 

Want to see more behind-the-scenes content and learn more about our latest video products? Subscribe to the free Ikan newsletter