Award-winning Hong Kong Cinematographer Henry Chung, HKSC, first gained attention in 2002 for his work on “Peony Pavilion,” which received honors for Best Cinematography by the Golden Bauhinia Awards in Hong Kong and the Deauville Asian Film Awards in France. He recently completed production on “Poor Rich Father,” the latest feature film from award-winning Hong Kong director Alfred Cheung. From production to post, the film was created entirely using a 4K camera-to-editorial workflow that relied heavily on an AJA Ki Pro Quad 4K/UltraHD/2K/HD file-based recorder and the Canon EOS C500. 

During production in the summer of 2014, Chung shot more than 15 hours per day across China and Hong Kong. To capture dramatic details and fully convey the emotional aspects of the film, he shot in 4K using two Canon EOS C500 cameras. Each camera was connected to a Ki Pro Quad file-based recorder that captured ProRes 444 footage in 4K. Utilizing the Ki Pro Quads’ roll over capabilities between two SSD-based 256GB Pak Media Drives in each Ki Pro Quad, the flow of production was uninterrupted.

“Ki Pro Quad was critical to our 4K end-to-end workflow during production,” shared Chung. “It enabled us to shoot at the highest resolution possible with the C500 in a very limited amount of time.”

For outdoor scenes, the Ki Pro Quad proved portable, rugged and stable enough to withstand the varying (and sometimes harsh) weather conditions and demanding shooting situations that Chung and his crew faced. “It gave me peace of mind knowing that Ki Pro Quad was robust enough for fast maneuverability,” said Chung. “And the way it worked seamlessly with the C500 was something I haven’t witnessed before on other productions. I’ll definitely be implementing this workflow again!” 

Using the Ki Pro Quad, Chung was also able to easily mount directly onto the C500 and control it with arm recording. “Not only was I impressed by the quality of the footage from the C500, but also the ease of setup and performance of the Ki Pro Quad,” he added.

Once production wrapped, Chung’s team loaded the ProRes 444 footage from the Pak drives onto MacBook Pros via AJA’s Thunderbolt™- enabled Pak Dock. “The quality of the ProRes 444 files looked identical to the raw Canon footage,” explained Chung. “And by using Ki Pro Quad, we never had to stop shooting to swap out the drives. The roll over feature saved us money while allowing us to shoot more efficiently by seamlessly relaying footage to our Pak drives.” 

After the footage was loaded onto the MacBook Pros, the film was edited in Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC, with AJA’s Io 4K leveraged to facilitate the 4K post production workflow. Impressed by the performance of the AJA gear, he said, “Ki Pro Quad simplified a complex 4K workflow on our production, while still retaining the highest quality footage. I have faith in AJA’s 4K technologies; their products are truly engineered to withstand even the toughest rigors of production.”

In the future, Chung looks forward to using the new AJA CION production camera. He concluded, “I’d love to have two CION cameras for my upcoming 3D projects. Even though there are several 4K cameras on the market, I trust in AJA technology, because I know it will deliver the reliability my projects depend on.”

About AJA Video Systems, Inc.
Since 1993, AJA Video has been a leading manufacturer of video interface technologies, converters, digital video recording solutions and professional cameras, bringing high-quality, cost-effective 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.

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