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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

do we need DITS for every shoot?

DIT does a lot more than back up data.. at least I do..
Im sure there are a lot of guys who call themselves DIT and all they do is sit at their macbook pro backing up data.. but thats not me

PLUS when it comes to hundreds of thousands of dollars a day worth of footage.. the last thing I would want is some auto back up tool.
I would want a person, who knows their stuff.. to make sure everything is correctly backed up and catagorized
 
Charles, what you listed is one tool of many used by DITs. Productions are free to do whatever they want. As long as you truly know the answer to your question going in, and have a solid plan that won't leave the production in an embarrassing situation you can manage your data how you see fit. There's no one size fits all answer to how to do it. But there is one definitive statement which is that you should want every single frame you shoot available to you in post, and anything short of that (errors with data, human error, etc) needs to be examined carefully and steps taken to ensure it doesn't happen again.

To answer your question a bit more directly, I have used the NEXTO to do backups in the field on shoots where it was the only option, and they have performed flawlessly for me. But you really should have a minimum of 2, or at the very least use the syncing function to backup to another hard drive. This approach certainly works for certain types of shoots. However, keep in mind that you can only playback certain codecs. For example, REDCODE does not play from the device. Things like P2, AVCHD, etc will play so you can at least verify you have an image. But it's a tiny screen, so you'll have to keep that in mind if visual verification is part of your workflow.
 
According to American Cinematographer Magazine interview with Fincher:

"Dragon Tattoo [and Social Network] didn't have a digital-imageing Technician" :

"I don't believe in tweaking on set... Why would I want a tent and more people around? That's anathema to me"

Perhaps he was using a narrower definition of "DIT"....
 
Bill Anderson said:
According to American Cinematographer Magazine interview with Fincher:

"Dragon Tattoo [and Social Network] didn't have a digital-imageing Technician" :

"I don't believe in tweaking on set... Why would I want a tent and more people around? That's anathema to me"

Perhaps he was using a narrower definition of "DIT"....
Click to expand...

obviously so. they certainly had data management, he's talking about the old video tents where they would go, basically to make sure they had an image
 
Short answer: No you don't need a DIT on every shoot.

Smart answer: Get a DIT for every shoot.

The answers above are smart ... you need a DIT for more than backing up footage.

On some small projects with little or not budget, it might be worth it to skimp ... especially if you have enough media to cover your entire shoot.

Its a big risk ... I mean not planning for DIT could result in a reshoot, which probably costs more than just hiring a DIT.

Balance your risk with your rewards.
 
Just because some Productions need a DIT doesn't mean they all do. I don't ever see a situation where I would hire one. A digital loader? Absolutely. But I don't need a guy tweaking dailys on set. I know how the camera works. Frankly red is the least DIT needing camera out there. It's like shooting digital negative. If you are not familiar with the red and you have to go shoot a movie hire a DIT. If it was me, I'd take the DIT money for the whole show and do tests for a week with the camera and my first. Then hire an additional grip with the DIT kit rental money.

nick
 
Nick Gardner said:
Just because some Productions need a DIT doesn't mean they all do. I don't ever see a situation where I would hire one. A digital loader? Absolutely. But I don't need a guy tweaking dailys on set. I know how the camera works. Frankly red is the least DIT needing camera out there. It's like shooting digital negative. If you are not familiar with the red and you have to go shoot a movie hire a DIT. If it was me, I'd take the DIT money for the whole show and do tests for a week with the camera and my first. Then hire an additional grip with the DIT kit rental money.

nick
Click to expand...

I kinda agree with Nick. You need a data wrangler that's for sure but I don't see the need for a person to tweak the daylys on every shoot...especially if you are using a editing system that support native R3D. Like Nick said, if you know the RED camera and RED workflow well you can easily get by without the need of transcoding/tweaking daylys.
 
I agree with Nick, if you know the camera and dont need onset grading or transcoding then maybe you dont need a DIT.

What you do need on every job is someone doing the basic job of physically backing up and CHECKING footage is actually being recorded.

A lot of people think by using checksum programs like R3D DM it means you are 100% ok, but all these programs/hardware do is make identical copies. If the footage is flawed in some way and you dont flag it and correct the problem you're just going to end up with three copies of shit.

I think I get hired just for my charming personality. :)
 
Alexander Ibrahim said:
Its a big risk ... I mean not planning for DIT could result in a reshoot, which probably costs more than just hiring a DIT.

Balance your risk with your rewards.
Click to expand...

This is very true.

Ive had instances of people professing to be experts refusing to pay a DIT rate (fair enough) but then not even looking at the footage as they shoot and coming back with unusable footage.

Then they phone me and say our cameras are shit.

I have a special laugh for those phonecalls.
 
How many of you guys do real time exposure checking as well ? (off a waveform, histogram)
 
you can go without a DIT but that ONE day everything goes wrong you'll learn why.

We've all gotten calls and heard horror stories from producers. Believe me you don't want to be one of them, it's pretty embarrassing some of the mistakes productions have made.

"So we ran out of harddrive space and we deleted the .R3D files and kept the QucickTime files(Proxy). Can you convert my footage?"

hahahahaha....No
 
I remember shooting for 35mm for the last 15 years... no DIT... just a roll of unexposed film... no copies.., you dont have a clue if its exposed correctly, scratched, light leaked... then goes to a lab in the back of some couriers van, then the LAB pulls it through chemicals and your praying they dont stuff it up.. then it goes up onto a Telecine chain and you pray theres an image worth using....

The risk of shooting Digital is far less risky...

Quick onset multiple duplications is all you need... by anyone with some sort of nouse and a mac book and a couple of spare drives, one to the Edit house, one to the producer. your then way better off than shooting film.

Big shoots, multiple cameras, big risk setups... then hire an more competent DIT. Always a good insurance policy. :)
 
I've seen productions save $500 by getting a cheap RAID 5, than a proven more expensive one. (Seen it fail too, thankfully recovered by Data rescue and 48 hours of crunching) If you are spending $XX,XXX amount of dollars shooting Digital, why would you skimp on the hard drives used for the shoot? Same goes for having a DIT (or someone experienced in data management) to make sure the data is there. As long as you trust the person and they have proven themselves competent, than you are good to go. just make sure.
 
Its totally up to the producer/director/dp to decide. I imagine it only takes one job going wrong to form an opinion on whether a DIT is required or not.

If we are producing a job and I am not available, then I am happy to send out a Junior guy who is just in charge of verifying and backing up data.

On a job where there is noone on set from Post prod, or when the crew and/or production house is not down with RED or whatever camera format, then I would expect to get a call.

Im not a big fan of sitting around on jobs where im not needed, or used to full effect. It doesnt do much for people asking this very question to see a DIT who has nothing to do.

Having said that, even on busy jobs, I try to split my time between my cart and the camera.

I like to be present for the setting up of the shot at the very least to answer any questions the camera team may have.
 
I am overwhelmed by the replies, thanks for your inputs. I am all for DITS when I am in sort of production (most of time!) were I need checks and feedback.

However there are some situations, conflict zone, or places with restrictions, where it's just not fesible.


Just emailed nexto DI and got this reply with with a suggestion.
Looks like a work around solution. Anybody tried this?

Hello Charles

Not at this moment.
But I can see there are RED Station.

I have a question. If the RED station can connect to computer to offload data using USB or eSATA, NVS can do the same without computer through its eSATA & USB host port.

Every NVS has USB 2.0 host, and NVS2525 has eSATA host.

Regards,
Larry
 
You Da' Man Mark! Voice of reason as always.

Mark Toia said:
I remember shooting for 35mm for the last 15 years... no DIT... just a roll of unexposed film... no copies.., you dont have a clue if its exposed correctly, scratched, light leaked... then goes to a lab in the back of some couriers van, then the LAB pulls it through chemicals and your praying they dont stuff it up.. then it goes up onto a Telecine chain and you pray theres an image worth using....

The risk of shooting Digital is far less risky...

Quick onset multiple duplications is all you need... by anyone with some sort of nouse and a mac book and a couple of spare drives, one to the Edit house, one to the producer. your then way better off than shooting film.

Big shoots, multiple cameras, big risk setups... then hire an more competent DIT. Always a good insurance policy. :)
Click to expand...
 
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