FilmSkills – Digital Imaging Technician

Description of Digital Imaging Technician

The Digital Imaging Technician replaces the chemical laboratory of the film stock era. Unquestionably the most technical job on set, the DIT skills are focused on one goal… preserve the productions digital assets. This course will take you from knowing little about the digital world of asset management through understanding advanced color spaces, codecs, and how to functionally move assets from Arri, RED, and many more cameras, into post.

This DIT course uses hours of video tutorials, hands-on lessons with real-world assets, and wide-reaching resources, helping you start your career as a professional DIT. And you will learn how to configure your DIT system and which software to arm yourself with, working on commercials, features, and series productions.

What You’ll Learn In Digital Imaging Technician?

Intro To The Digital Imaging Technician Course

• A brief overview of the scope and depth of information covered in this course.

Introduction to the roll of the Digital Imaging Technician

• What does a DIT do…really? Because the transition from film stock to digital imaging is so recent, the management of digital camera assets is just as young. What does it take to be a DIT? How does this new career fit in the production workflow?

It Starts At The Camera

• All workflow pipelines start at and with the camera. Understanding what the camera settings do and their effect on the pipeline is critical. This lesson looks at camera settings that must be in place for the first take of the first shot on the first day.

Workflows- Camera to Editorial

• It is vital that the DIT understand workflows… the path from camera to editorial. They are different for commercials, series or features, and all wrap around what post production requires. This lesson will help with the understanding of workflow basics

The On Set Environment

• This lesson looks into what it’s like to be on-set as a DIT, the working relationships, who’s your boss and considerations for you and your gear. Politics, paperwork, and multi-tasking are the rules of the game.

Where You’ll Hunker Down On-Set

• The DIT attempts to be close to set. But it’s often not possible. This section looks at the challenges you will face getting you and your gear where it’s needed.

Digital Imaging Technician Software

• This lesson looks deeply into the software portion of the DIT job. Which software to consider for a job. The differences and ability to do the task, professionally.

Digital Imaging Technician Workstation Overview

• How do you put together a system that has to handle more data per day than is contained in most small business servers? This lesson takes you deep into the hardware considerations a DIT needs to know before building their system.

Workstation Hardware

• Digital Imaging Technician workstations are typically custom built. They need to be fast in every meaning of the word. This lesson explores the hardware choices for constructing a workstation.

Codecs, Color and Color Spaces – The Magic Sause

• The least understood part of digital media are codecs, color and color spaces. These are the magic sauce that holds everything together…or creates a massive mess. This lesson will clear- up all this under-the-hood magic.

Color Spaces and Management

• This is where things get complicated. Although we have standard color spaces we must adhere to, the color spaces that cameras use favor their image creation Therein is the complication.

LUT Magic & Camera Profiles

• LUTs and camera profile settings are two ways of achieving the same results..or are they? This lesson will start your path on what LUTs are, what they do and how we can use them in-
  camera.

Video Scopes for the DIT

• Within all NLEs there are several signal monitoring assists helping us analyze the image without relying on our eyes alone. Scopes are the keys to fixing the images for post and dailies.

Ingesting Assets – Creating a Mirror Image

• Unquestionably THE most important job the DIT does, is backup data, several times. That backup MUST be identical to what was on the camera card. This lesson takes you through the process, software & routines of backing up camera date and not losing a bit.

Delivering Dailies – The Basics

• “Dailies” is a hold over from the film stock days. Then, it took 3 days to see what you shot today. Today we can see it by wrap or the next morning. This lesson introduces digital dailies, the workflow, and considerations.

Assimilate Scratch Digital Imaging Technician Workflow

• There’s several pieces of software available and commonly used for DIT work. Assimilate’s Scratch program is one of the main players for DIT work. This lesson will take you through several hands-on tutorials with real world assets.

DaVinci Resolve DIT Workflow

• There’s several pieces of software commonly used for DIT work. DaVinci Resolve is a new player in this area. This lesson will take you through several hands-on tutorials, with real world assets, to deliver dailies and files for post production.

REDCINE-X Pro Digital Imaging Technician Workflow

• There’s several pieces of software available and commonly used for DIT work. Red Cinema’s program REDCINE-X Pro is one tailored for RED camera files. This lesson will take you through several hands-on tutorials, with real world assets, to deliver dailies

Indy Workflow

• Independent productions would seem to have a more straightforward workflow due to the lack of production complexity or lack of budget. It’s all still data. Certain criteria to protect the assets don’t change. But you can save some budget if you are smart.

HDR Workflow

• Here we go– into the deeper end of the digital pool. If you have not heard about High Dynamic Range imaging by now, I’m sorry. This beast has migrated to the moving image and done so with some success. What does this mean for the DIT?

‘Naked’ Workflow

• This is the most advanced workflow idea to date for data movement from camera to editorial. It’s proven under the rigors of full-on feature productions.

ACES Workflow

• ACES workflow is the up-and-comming asset pipeline for large and small productions alike. It’s truely one-size-fits-all. And it solves lots of colorspace issues, quickly.

VR Workflow

• VR or Virtual Reality is the emerging ‘shiny object’ in the media world. This is the basic panorama that you can take with your stills camera, on steroids. And the workflow is way more daunting.

Professional Problem Solving – How much, How Long?

• Important tasks for a DIT often do not include working with files, but figuring out how many hard drives will a production need to buy? How long will it take to deliver the camera assets shot before lunch? And, the big one, how much should you charge?

Paperwork, Forms, and CYA Stuff

• The road is littered with great, talented media creatives that could not manage day-to-day business affairs. In so many words, they didn’t manage their money and could not pay the bills. This lesson will help you not fall into that trap.

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