AJA Cion achieves a unique cinematic look in the indie film 'The Great American Movie Hustle'

Produced by Wonder Lab Films, the film is a satirical tribute to epic films.

Director Michael Anton and actor Michael Monsour wanted to make an epic film about how an epic film is produced in their new production The Great American Movie Hustle. Starting from this curious approach, this parody, produced by Wonder Lab Films, presents in a mockumentary format scenes of great cinematographic significance but at the same time very fresh and agile. To achieve a different cinematic aesthetic for the film, Anton entrusted Doug Michaels with the photography direction, shooting with a AJA Offense.

Michaels admits that he accepted the challenge because "I wanted to see in the field how far the AJA Cion can go and I have to say that our experience was great, as it is easy to control and operate. Cion is one of the most intuitive and easy to use cameras I have ever worked with. It also offers all the functionality you need without the clutter of having a million buttons. It is not just a great film camera, it is much more."

For certain scenes such as chases and as support in action scenes, the production team used the Canon C300. All footage was captured in ProRes 444 at 4K at 24fps, with ProRes 422 at 60fps 4K for action scenes that required a slow motion effect. The Cions were configured for handheld and shoulder use with a Zacuto Z-Finder viewfinder and Zeiss Nikon MTF lenses (14, 24, 35 and 50 mm.).

Michaels commented on the quality of the images, that "the resulting material has been magnificent, especially the high contrast and chiaroscuro scenes. By taking some clips to Final Cut we barely had to touch any color to discover what we could get out of the blacks."

The camera can also be easily configured for Steadicam work in action scenes, a natural fit given the Cion's lightweight build. The material was recorded in this case directly to an AJA Pak SSD unit, switching to RAID hard drives after each day of filming.

Despite the challenges of transitioning between film and documentary footage, Michaels and his team found Cion to be a totally versatile camera in everything.
Anton highlights that “Cion has allowed us to give a unique look to each scene by capturing a unique sharp and clean image.”

Shot in western Pennsylvania, The Great American Movie Hustle It has just entered the post-production phase now.