Salon Films is a production and equipment rental services company with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Macau and Kuala Lumpur. Having supported international filmmakers for more than 1300 feature films to date, the company has built an extensive technological infrastructure over the years that includes a vast collection of AJA Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini portable digital video recorders, as well as AJA Mini-Converters.

When Salon Films began production on its latest 3D films, “Out of Inferno,” starring Ching Wan Lau and Louis Koo, and “Iceman,” starring Donnie Yen, the company was using a variety of cameras, and needed to record directly to digital files in native non-linear editing formats. Having successfully used AJA gear in the past, Salon Films’ team employed AJA Ki Pro and Ki Pro Minis to record directly to Apple ProRes for immediate edit access to the files from each film.  

“AJA’s Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini are smart choices for us; they allow us to bridge acquisition and post,” said Tony Ngai, general manager, Salon Films. “As perfect image capture solutions that mount easily onto any SDI/HDMI digital camera for on-set acquisition of high-quality 10-bit 4:2:2 Apple ProRes files, they streamline post production. Our files are immediately available for editing, so we can quickly cut in the highest quality format possible.”

Salon Films’ team also used AJA Hi5-3D Mini-Converters to convert left and right SDI signals into a muxed 3D HDMI output for the films. “AJA’s Hi5-3D Mini-Converters allowed our production crew to quickly review 3D footage in real time; the optimized image capturing and real time monitoring workflow that the Ki Pro Mini and Hi5-3D provided on these films really simplified our workflow.”  

Ngai has also come to rely on AJA GEN10, Hi5 and audio embedding Mini-Converters to enable real time monitoring for other HD, 3D and even 4K projects. He added, “AJA’s whole range of Mini-Converters are reliable, affordable and also provide a ton of functionality.”

Impressed with the versatility of the studio’s AJA equipment, Ngai concluded, “We believe in AJA technology, and it works for our projects. From acquisition through to post, the AJA Ki Pro recorders and Mini-Converters deliver incredible stability, outstanding quality and efficient performance – all in a cost-effective package.”

About AJA Video Systems, Inc.

Since 1993, AJA Video has been a leading manufacturer of video interface and conversion solutions, bringing high-quality, cost-effective digital video products to the professional, broadcast and post-production markets. AJA products are designed and manufactured at our facilities in Grass Valley, California, and sold through an extensive sales channel of resellers and systems integrators around the world. For further information, please see our website at www.aja.com.