The role of a DIT (Digital Imaging Technician):
When you rent a RED One camera, you will need to hire a DIT through 4K London. 4K London are London’s foremost RED experts, and we supply this service so your shoot will run smoothly and you get the most out of your RED One camera hire. Our on-set DIT will supervise the safe storage and multiple backing up of your rushes and can also advise on monitoring and playback, camera menu settings, recording options and exposure.
Please note that a DIT is not a substitute for a second camera assistant in most shooting scenarios, but an additional role. You will still need a full shooting crew including a Focus-Puller and Second AC in all but the simplest situations.
Camera set up
The DIT will organise and implement all camera settings to correspond with DP’s specified instructions. This includes project settings, sensor settings, metadata, colour and ‘look’ files, audio menus, timecode sync, frame guides etc. He will then develop the appropriate monitoring configurations and conditions for all necessary crew members (i.e. DP, Director, Client, Focus Puller, Sound recordist etc.) to have access to the necessary information.
The DIT is on hand to assist the camera crew with all camera settings and relevant changes to the Red One configuration as and when they become necessary. DIT will also oversee any problems or misuse of the camera that may lead to loss of data, incorrect capturing of images, problems in post-production, acting as a fail safe against these issues.
DIT station set up
The DIT will then organise and operate a DIT station to manage and back up all data (rushes) from shoot. This station is equivalent to a ‘loading station’ for a film shoot. The station will require power supply to Laptops, RAID arrays, battery chargers, monitors etc. However it is possible to run a low key, battery powered station for ‘in the field’ shooting for short periods of time.
Data management
This is the core of the DIT’s role. Each new digital magazine to be used on the camera must be correctly formatted and prepared for use on the camera, with complete metadata information for use in post-production. The time taken to change a mag is equivalent to that of changing a film magazine, about 30seconds.
The captured footage that is removed from the camera is backed up immediately onto the DIT RAID- protected drive array into a pre-organised file structure that details shoot, date, roll and mag ID info for easy later access, both on set and in post-production. The digital negative is then checked against the original roll both through a digital checksum and by manual checking against the camera notes. This is copied and checked again to a second backup drive, and then the digital magazine is then re-formatted for use. All the mags should work into a shooting cycle allowing constant availability to the camera to shoot new data. This process allows for the DIT to avoid a data backlog.
NOTE: If you are not using 4K London’s dedicated RED post workflow after shooting, then you must bring a hard drive of sufficient capacity to take the rushes home with you.
Camera notes
The taking of camera notes is a two-handed operation. The second AC will record all the details of each specific shot, and then pass those details to the DIT with the exposed digital magazine. The DIT will check the shot settings against against the actual recorded files, and compile a final set of sheets for the editor.
The exact details of this process will depend on the information required by the editor, and the type of shoot (music videos often need to be far less well documented than dramas, for example)
RedCine operation
RedCine is the software that comes with the RED One camera and allows the DIT to display the recorded RAW images to the DP / Director. The software allows for sophisticated display and control over the images. They can be viewed here at a 1:1 pixel level, allowing for close scruting of the images being recorded. It is also possible to simulate a ‘look’ or ‘first light grade’ adjusting exposure, colour balance and gamma curves to display the potential for grading and manipulation in post-production. This process is of course completely non-destructive to the recorded data.
Final Cut Pro operation
If required, the DIT can load offline proxy versions of the footage into Final Cut Pro to demonstrate how shots migh look together as part of a cut or sequence.
Post preparation
The DIT’s job is purely on-set. If no further workflow or post-production work has been organised with 4K London, the DIT will hand over a disk drive (to be provided by production at the beginning of the shooting day) to the production. This will contain all the footage shot throughout the day, catalogued and organised, together with completed camera notes. 4K London will retain a security copy of the rushes for 48 hours and delete thereafter, unless further backup and storage is arranged.
If further workflow or post-production work has been organised through 4K London then the DIT will deliver the rushes to wherever they are required. 4K London can provide rushes transcoding, edit suite set-up services, fully set-up dry- or wet-hire edit suites. Please see www.4KLondon.com/workflow for further details.
