THE CHANGING ROLE
OF THE DIT - PART ONE

The role of the Digital Imaging Technician has continually evolved since the late 1990s, when cinematography began to adopt digital capture in earnest. CODEX has been supporting DITs from almost the beginning, with dependable tools that streamline and standardise the process, allowing for fewer glitches, improved efficiency and enhanced creativity.

From the wild wild west...

For many decades, advancements in cinema imaging technology came in the form of film emulsion and chemistry. Eastman Kodak and the other film manufacturers would find ways to make film and its related processes more light-sensitive, sharper and more colour-accurate, and the cameras, while improving in small ways, worked in essentially the same way for a century. 

As is often the case with new technologies, the digital toolset was always changing – sometimes from project to project. The DIT often adapted or even redesigned the workflow for each project to make it work dependably and to give the director of photography what he or she needed to create and control the images. 

In 2005, CODEX introduced its first product, the CODEX Studio Recorder, which worked with early entrants in the digital camera race like the Dalsa Origin, the Thompson Viper, Panavision Genesis and the Sony F23 and F24. Soon CODEX technology was integrated into ARRI cameras, making high resolution capture dependable. CODEX was always listening carefully to the end user and tailoring their tools to their needs. In fact, some of the company’s key players worked as on-set DITs. 

...to law and order

Today, DITs count on CODEX’s workflow solutions for flawless, headache-free workflows. A trend towards standardisation of the DIT’s tools and procedures has allowed those in the position to contribute in more creative ways, bringing look creation, colour science, data management and even dailies generation closer to the camera and to the moment of capture. Meanwhile, by making large format practical for more productions, CODEX innovations like High Density Encoding (HDE) have played a crucial supporting role in cinematography trends over the past several years.  

The way a DIT supports a director of photography as a creative collaborator can now be as important as running a consistently smooth rig. Here, some of today’s most sought-after DITs reflect on how the job has changed. 

"I LOVE STAYING ON TOP OF TECH AND GETTING EXCITED BY ADVANCEMENTS"

Sam Winzar

Sam Winzar is a top digital imaging technician whose credits go back a decade and include Mortal Kombat, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Elvis – the latter of which earned an Oscar nomination for director of photography Mandy Walker. Another recent credit is Foe, the dystopian thriller shot by Mátyás Erdély on large format ALEXA 65 cameras, which produce an exponentially greater amount of data. Fortunately, advancements driven by CODEX have made that less of a concern than a few years ago, when the choice of large format could boost budgets prohibitively. 

“What I love about the DIT role is that it is always changing,” says Winzar. “I love staying on top of tech and getting excited by advancements, and the DIT is often at the forefront of that on set. The range of what we can offer to productions, DPs, and post is always expanding. Luckily, technology is also optimising our workflows so that we can increase our scope.”

On Foe, Winzar’s only concern with the higher data amounts was having enough media for the camera. His rig included the CODEX Vault platform running on a Mac Pro. 

"HDE IS A GAME-CHANGER"

“Due to HDE, everything past that really wasn't an issue in my eyes,” he says. “I recently had a small production ask about shooting the ALEXA 35 at a lower resolution to save on the data budget. Instead, I pointed out the benefits of HDE, and now there's no pressure from the production for the DP to compromise on their desired imaging format.”

HDE recently earned CODEX a Scientific and Technical Oscar from AMPAS. HDE losslessly slims down the files, saving time, processing and storage space without diminishing image quality. 

“HDE is a game-changer, especially on a smaller-scale film like this one,” says Winzar. “The ALEXA 65 and CODEX recording tools all worked solidly for us, which is important when you're away from any support centres. I love what CODEX has done with Device Manager, which makes using CODEX a breeze. I love how they continue to innovate and streamline their workflow.”

"...HE KNOWS EVERYTHING – BUT HIS GREATEST ATTRIBUTE IS HIS CREATIVITY"

Ian Marrs

Over the past 12 years, Ian Marrs has served as DIT on two dozen projects including Game of Thrones as well as House of the Dragon. Among the directors of photography who depend on him is Fabian Wagner, who says that Marr’s contributions go far beyond the technical.

“Because I operate quite often myself, I leave Ian in the tent and he’ll keep an eye on everything,” says Wagner. “He’s technically very good – he knows everything – but his greatest attribute is his creativity. Working with him to create the LUT, and talking through what we wanted to do differently, is probably the aspect I enjoyed the most about the project.”

Marrs remembers working with the original ALEXA Classic and the various iterations along the way. He says that the greater data amounts generated by the ALEXA 65 in OpenGate is not a drag whatsoever on the workflow – and that the benefits are obvious. 

"GOING ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE ALEXA XT, I’VE LITERALLY NEVER LOST ANY FOOTAGE!"

“Everything seems like a breeze,” Marrs says. “On House of the Dragon, we used the CODEX Vault XL system, which dealt with the ALEXA 65 and Mini LF footage pretty fast. I love the simplicity of the CODEX system. You want reliability. You don’t want stress. Let it be safe. Going all the way back to the ALEXA XT, I’ve literally never lost any footage!”

On House of the Dragon, one day’s worth of data is easily more than they used to produce in a week, he says. “Our procedures are no different. It just gives us more colour information for the visual effects people and the final colourist. In the old days, you handed off the physical mag or card. On HOTD, it was a Vault Transfer Drive – after a backup copy was made on site, and always in secure Pelican cases. The lab people have an operating team and their own Vault XL. When Fabian first proposed the large format, there wasn’t as much pushback as we expected, in part because there was a general sense that they wanted this show to look different. And we have the CODEX Data Manager on site, which is quicker and easier.”

"...LITTLE BY LITTLE, WE HAVE BECOME MORE A PART OF THEIR CREATION ON THE SET"

Rodrigo “Yiyo” Stambuk

Yiyo Stambuk was a key member of Ed Lachman’s camera crew on El Conde, Pablo Larraín’s black and white take on the tragic history of Chile and Augusto Pinochet. The film was extraordinary in many ways, not least in that it was shot with monochromatic ALEXA cameras that record light in a fundamentally different way. El Conde took the Silver Frog at Camerimage and earned an Oscar nomination for cinematography. 

Stambuk agrees that the DIT role is always evolving. “The more directors of photography understand the capabilities, the more they request,” he says. “At first, we worked under the idea of ​​processing images after their creation and capture. Then, little by little, we have become more a part of their creation on the set. Directors of photography rely more and more on our work and on the management of the tools, which we eventually use to implement their decisions both on set and in image pre-production. It was gratifying to be able to contribute creatively and technically to this beautiful filming process, and to work with a giant like Edward Lachman.”

Stambuk says that working with the monochromatic ALEXA allowed the camera team to move quickly. CODEX technology streamlined the process at every turn, while industry standard ARRIRAW files and HDE encoding brought all the subtlety and texture of Lachman’s imagery into the post workflow.

“THE STABILITY OF THE CODEX SYSTEM IS SUPERIOR”

“Since our work was mostly concerned with framing and the control and use of luminance, and not with hue or saturation, we felt we could accomplish scenes faster,” says Stambuk. “That gave us more opportunities to capture the director’s vision, and to satisfy Edward’s high photographic demands.”

Stambuk’s gear included an independently powered, car-mounted mobile station. He made daily use of colour correction and CDL control software to review and adjust the previous day’s work based on Lachman’s detailed input. Corrections in the form of LUTs then went to the processing station, where dailies and editorial copies were made. 

“Ed asked me to always be with him on set with the monitors and measurement tools,” says Stambuk. “We relentlessly controlled each shot and exhaustively measured each of the frames. Therefore my station had to be mobile, completely wireless, and self-powered to reach any place on the set quickly.

“The stability of the CODEX system is superior,” says Stambuk. “I have never had problems with its readers, and it is completely compatible with all the hardware and software that I use on set. I appreciate the constant updates for new equipment – which always work. Finally, the ability to use HDE is a great advantage in saving storage space, which production values ​​highly.”