Building a DIT cart...

[Kwan Khan]

I bet when you show up from out-of-town the local DITs are like, "Oh Snap! This K-Wan is crazy! He can build a DIT cart from sticks and empty coffe cups!"

"Yo Dom, take note!"

MacGyver-Style (Almost - lol) Just- Jok'

We all know, it's alway person behind the cart not the Cart (But cart does count - lol)

 

[Dane Brehm]

I'm primarily a Feature DIT over the last 3-4 years....I am part AC, Engineer, Fixer, and Colorist. If I were to give a single piece of advice for a learning DIT I would recommend you learn Color Theory and Sensor design.
starting with the how and why Digital Camera's capture the imagery they do. What I've discovered from working many new DITs ( recommendations I've never worked with) is the lack of understand for ColorSpace, LUTs, Theory, and compression. In the world of Studio and Mini-Major Feature work the DIT is the Dailies Colorist (or the first Colorist) working with the DP to set a look for Editorial that Directors, Producers, Investors, and Studio execs will live with for months if not years in some cases. You can't bullshit your way out of poor work like you can with so many other things so how that look translates to say Avid MXF DNX36 from full quality R3Ds is important especially since you spent the time to do the work.

Your Monitor is your Weapon and you wouldn't go into combat with a poorly tuned weapon.

Learn what these mean

Rec709
Brightness
Contrast
Chroma
Lumience
Bayer Sensor
Optical Low Pass Filter
Compression (how it compresses)

You'll be ahead of the curve. Now I spent the first half of my career as a Uncompressed Data Manager so I think all DITs should understand but starting as a Digital Utility is a important step.

lastly their are alot of very good DITs in New York like Dave Satin, Ben Cain, Ben Shultz, and Eric Camp to name a few.

best of luck,

 

[Tom.Wong]

Dane, haven't talked to you in ages, should hit me up sometime and talk shop

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Sareesh, thanks for the link. Good write-up but some of the page links are broken so I couldn't go to the next page.

Dane, thank you for the response. I am learning more and more of the things you've listed from experience. They are probably only a few of the things a pro would need to know on set, but they are definitely important. I know basic color theory but I am taking an advanced class on it next semester. As being the first colorist on a film I can see how the DIT is extremely important to the production, never thought about it this way - good point.

Great site and work Dane! Keep it going

By the way - if you or anyone in the thread knows of a NYC DIT that needs an extra hand or Digital Utility please let me know! Willing to work hard.

 

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Sareesh, thanks for the link. Good write-up but some of the page links are broken so I couldn't go to the next page.

Sorry about that. The monster rigging guide isn't halfway complete. The best way to access info is to use the main menu. Thanks!

 

[Matthew Love]

I completely agree with you Dane. I have had a few jobs come along that required 2 DITs and would be blown away sometimes when I'd hear them discuss certain things and it took everything I had to not correct them in front of producers/clients/etc.

I started off as a Loader, then went into Camera Assistant/Focus Pulling so the hardware knowledge camera side has always been there for me. I somewhat slid over a bit into digital utility once the RED ONE took more ground, and I've been happy ever since.

I am constantly learning new things but have a great deep bench of local DITs who will will constantly bounce things off of. I feel like the minute you stop learning or feel as if you know everything, you should pack up your stuff then and there. This department is constantly evolving.

I have a long plane ride ahead of me tomorrow, any good color theory/correction books people can recommend? I constantly love to learn haha.

Here's my current setup:

Mac Pro setup with Red Rocket, quadro 4000, ATI GUI card, and ATTO H680 card. I run to an internal 8 TB raid setup that I run to for my own safety. I run this out to an NEC 24" monitor as well as a Sony OLED for color on set. I typically will grade through redcine but find myself in resolve more and more now and am beginning to really like it.

My old TR04 had a 19" rack system on it that I'm having made for my Inovativ Cart (19" rack will inclose a couple of drawers, padded shelf for hard drives, 4 bay mini SAS RAID and battery Backup as well.

 

[Ryan De Franco]

Ansel Adams : The Negative.

No joke, you will love it. His darkroom is your cart. Which looks awesome by the way.

 

[Timur Civan]

This may help;

Not for nothing.... That is the most creativly insane contraption i've ever seen..... In a good way. Wow. Its a video Rube Goldberg...

I imagine this song plays every time you use it.....

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Nice cart! Which length version of the Inovativ cart is that? I'm really liking them. Where are you getting your rack inclosure from?

I've been ACing or Data Managing/Camera Teching along with my Scarlet package so that's been working out and I learn something new after every shoot.

I was also looking at the MiniSAS from Maxx Digital. Is that working out for you?

Thanks for the reply!

I completely agree with you Dane. I have had a few jobs come along that required 2 DITs and would be blown away sometimes when I'd hear them discuss certain things and it took everything I had to not correct them in front of producers/clients/etc.

I started off as a Loader, then went into Camera Assistant/Focus Pulling so the hardware knowledge camera side has always been there for me. I somewhat slid over a bit into digital utility once the RED ONE took more ground, and I've been happy ever since.

I am constantly learning new things but have a great deep bench of local DITs who will will constantly bounce things off of. I feel like the minute you stop learning or feel as if you know everything, you should pack up your stuff then and there. This department is constantly evolving.

I have a long plane ride ahead of me tomorrow, any good color theory/correction books people can recommend? I constantly love to learn haha.

Here's my current setup:

Mac Pro setup with Red Rocket, quadro 4000, ATI GUI card, and ATTO H680 card. I run to an internal 8 TB raid setup that I run to for my own safety. I run this out to an NEC 24" monitor as well as a Sony OLED for color on set. I typically will grade through redcine but find myself in resolve more and more now and am beginning to really like it.

My old TR04 had a 19" rack system on it that I'm having made for my Inovativ Cart (19" rack will inclose a couple of drawers, padded shelf for hard drives, 4 bay mini SAS RAID and battery Backup as well.

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Some more questions...

So when you're in RedCine, you'd pull all the clips from a roll and put em in the project folder, right? Then you'd do a light grade and apply that to the matching shots and sync audio.

Now when you export these (with h.264 dailies in mind) can you choose 422 proxy so they can use this footage to edit with? Or do you need to do one prores 422 proxy and one prores 422 which you would then transcode to h.264?

 

[Matthew Love]

Dominick,

I typically stay away from syncing audio. That's an assistant editor's job, not mine.

I put the clips into a bin and work from there, keep in mind last i checked if you delete a clip from the viewer in redcine you delete it from the folder as well.

You can export out to h264 from R3D or 422 from R3D.

Also, my inovativ cart is the 36" length, it's perfect for getting around tight places that's for sure.

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Do you not need to sync audio for dailies though? It seems like something that a lot of cart systems advertise (lightiron).

I've got a CompressHD card so I was hoping I could use Compressor for speedy conversions. I think I can just use the proxies I'm creating (if I am) and compress those to h.264.

Yes that's the version I was looking at. I'm thinking of putting a rack system on it, but at that point I might as well look at a BigFoot cart. Hm. Yet another positive aspect of the Inovativ is that I can use it as a camera cart when I need to. Have you installed the rack system on your Inovativ yet?

Dominick,

I typically stay away from syncing audio. That's an assistant editor's job, not mine.

I put the clips into a bin and work from there, keep in mind last i checked if you delete a clip from the viewer in redcine you delete it from the folder as well.

You can export out to h264 from R3D or 422 from R3D.

Also, my inovativ cart is the 36" length, it's perfect for getting around tight places that's for sure.

 

[Tom.Wong]

typically they run audio and tc to the camera so they have a scratch track, and syncing audio with air tight TC is just one click of a button. to render dailies with production audio, you'd have to trade out cards with the sound person as often as you do with the camera. though I've done it, it's kind of a pain, depending on the sound person's system. but syncing sound either way, isn't technically a DIT's job. we deal with the picture, syncing sound isn't a priority in the least.

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Thanks Tom. Didn't know this. I was under the impression that DITs were expected to sync audio and have it ready for editorial. Are there times when a DIT is asked to do this? I mean it's not very hard, considering the production is running TC. No way I would sit there syncing audio by hand, haha.

I also thought it was a good idea to dump sound every time you are dumping footage, to keep it organized. Is this not the case? Can it just be dumped at the end of the day into a "Sound" folder for the day? It does seem like a hassle but I would also think it makes it easier for post.

If the production is not running TC, and let's say just recording audio into the camera via a scratch mic, would you create dailies using just that audio?

typically they run audio and tc to the camera so they have a scratch track, and syncing audio with air tight TC is just one click of a button. to render dailies with production audio, you'd have to trade out cards with the sound person as often as you do with the camera. though I've done it, it's kind of a pain, depending on the sound person's system. but syncing sound either way, isn't technically a DIT's job. we deal with the picture, syncing sound isn't a priority in the least.

 

[Florian Stadler]

Here is what I expect from a DIT:

-competent Data Managment with personal Raid backup for 2 weeks
-Beautiful Color Corrected Dailies with secondaries and windows according to DP's wishes, matched shot to shot as good as possible
-check live feed for flicker, softness, technical aberrations and keep camera crew informed in a low key manner. Use color grade large monitor in as good environment (tent) as possible.
-I personally don't need camera tech support from DIT but I suppose that's also part of the job description.

Use Davinci Resolve btw...

www.buntefarben.com

 

[Adrian Jebef]

Here is what I expect from a DIT:

-competent Data Managment with personal Raid backup for 2 weeks
-Beautiful Color Corrected Dailies with secondaries and windows according to DP's wishes, matched shot to shot as good as possible
-check live feed for flicker, softness, technical aberrations and keep camera crew informed in a low key manner. Use color grade large monitor in as good environment (tent) as possible.
-I personally don't need camera tech support from DIT but I suppose that's also part of the job description.

Use Davinci Resolve btw...

www.buntefarben.com

Florian! Dailies WITH secondaries AND power windows! Damn! I bet your dailies look better than most DP's final pass...

 

[Tom.Wong]

Thanks Tom. Didn't know this. I was under the impression that DITs were expected to sync audio and have it ready for editorial. Are there times when a DIT is asked to do this? I mean it's not very hard, considering the production is running TC. No way I would sit there syncing audio by hand, haha.

I also thought it was a good idea to dump sound every time you are dumping footage, to keep it organized. Is this not the case? Can it just be dumped at the end of the day into a "Sound" folder for the day? It does seem like a hassle but I would also think it makes it easier for post.

If the production is not running TC, and let's say just recording audio into the camera via a scratch mic, would you create dailies using just that audio?

i've been asked, but only would be half wiling to it with tc ran to the camera, and the sound guy was on board with it as well. but i generally just say that's post's job and i'm really never pressed about it again. again if tc is ran correctly, you just run auto sync in their NLE and it's a done deal. when i mention that to the producer, i really don't hear about it again. if there's no tc running, the assistant editor or editor will have to do it manually either via clapper, or we use a TC slate and they can match by eye in that fashion if there is no scratch track. if my job is to evaluate the picture and provide one light color, syncing sound manually all day will take me away from those duties. so generally i politely say I won't be able to do my job, if the issue is pressed that hard.

 

[Adrian Jebef]

Ansel Adams : The Negative.

No joke, you will love it. His darkroom is your cart. Which looks awesome by the way.

RDF is so on target here. This is one of the BEST bibles on the art and technology of photography. Hands down a MUST read. Everything Adams' discusses is practical, philosophical, and aplicable to what we do now, in the past, and in the future. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Thanks Florian.

Are you expecting just one RAID backup or multiple? Do you like to hold one backup yourself or do you like the DIT to hold all of it till the end of the shoot?

How deep into color correcting do you want your DIT to get? It seems like a light grade with basic primaries and secondaries would do the trick.

How do you go about getting a live feed from the camera? This is one part I haven't heard too much about, but I assumed must be part of the process. Would you use a TeraDeck Cube to feed the video to your monitor?

DaVinci Resolve I've heard a lot of good things about. Will definitely look into getting into it. What kind of workflow would I be looking at if I were to create proxies and dailies for the production while color grading in DaVinci?

A ton of questions I know, haha. I appreciate all the help!

Here is what I expect from a DIT:

-competent Data Managment with personal Raid backup for 2 weeks
-Beautiful Color Corrected Dailies with secondaries and windows according to DP's wishes, matched shot to shot as good as possible
-check live feed for flicker, softness, technical aberrations and keep camera crew informed in a low key manner. Use color grade large monitor in as good environment (tent) as possible.
-I personally don't need camera tech support from DIT but I suppose that's also part of the job description.

Use Davinci Resolve btw...

www.buntefarben.com

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Haha kind of what I was thinking but what do I know! Seems like a light grade is what's expected from a DIT, but I guess this might vary from one to another.

Florian! Dailies WITH secondaries AND power windows! Damn! I bet your dailies look better than most DP's final pass...

Okay I see. Yes if TC was properly ran then it shouldn't be a problem, but again if it's not part of the job it shouldn't be demanded. Cool, good to know!

Oh, beautiful reel by the way! Wow, so stunning! You are a master.

i've been asked, but only would be half wiling to it with tc ran to the camera, and the sound guy was on board with it as well. but i generally just say that's post's job and i'm really never pressed about it again. again if tc is ran correctly, you just run auto sync in their NLE and it's a done deal. when i mention that to the producer, i really don't hear about it again. if there's no tc running, the assistant editor or editor will have to do it manually either via clapper, or we use a TC slate and they can match by eye in that fashion if there is no scratch track. if my job is to evaluate the picture and provide one light color, syncing sound manually all day will take me away from those duties. so generally i politely say I won't be able to do my job, if the issue is pressed that hard.