DIT stands for Digital Imaging Technician. It's a camera department role, and in simple terms the DIT looks after the image from the moment it's recorded until it's in the hands of editorial.
That covers a lot more than just copying cards. Depending on the show, it can include managing camera settings, the look, monitoring, colour, and keeping on top of data security. And because camera technology keeps changing, the job keeps changing with it. No two productions define it in quite the same way.
On a smaller shoot, one person might do all of it. On a bigger production, the work gets divided up: a data manager handles the backups and the dailies, while the DIT sits closest to the DP, looking after the image and maintaining the workflow.
It starts in prep
Most of the important decisions happen before anyone's on set. In prep, the DIT sits down with the DOP, ideally the colourist, and post-production, and works through the pipeline:
- What camera are we using?
- Which format, what resolution, what codec?
- How is the show's look built?
- How much storage will we need?
- How will we get the footage from set to post at the end of each shoot day?
A lot of DPs will bring references, like frames from films, stills or a mood board, and part of the DIT's job is turning that into something technical that holds up from set right through to the final grade. Getting it all right in pre-production heads off problems that would otherwise turn up in post.
On set: the DP's second pair of eyes
Once shooting starts, the DIT becomes the DP's second pair of eyes. While the DP is lighting and running their teams, the DIT is watching waveforms, vectorscopes and false colour, and keeping an eye on accuracy and consistency.
How much the DIT gets involved creatively is up to the DP. For some, that means grading live so everyone on set sees the intended look. For others, it means suggesting ND or exposure changes, and keeping the intended look consistent across multiple days, even if the same scene is shot weeks later.
The data workflow
Workflows vary, but the basics are as follows:
- The card comes off the camera.
- The footage is copied and verified with checksums, so you know the copy is bit-for-bit identical.
- It's backed up to multiple drives.
- It's organised, logged and reported.
- Someone watches it back to make sure it plays and looks correct.
- Once everyone is happy, the DIT formats the card and returns it to the camera team.
When it's done well, nobody notices
When a DIT does their job well, no one really notices. The DP is happy with their image, post gets their footage, and everything is correctly logged and reported for the rest of production.
And now you know.