Feature FIim

Assistant Editor Essentials

Your 5 Key Contacts On-Set.

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Establishing Relationships With The Key Crew

1. DIT - Digital Imaging Technician

2. Data Wrangler

3. Script Supervisor

4. Assistant Camerapersons

5. Production Sound Mixer/Recordist

1.
The DIT – Digital Imaging Technician

One of the first people you want to establish a relationship with on

the set is your Digital Imaging Technician or DIT. In addition to
overseeing the recording of each scene and take, the DIT often
assists the cinematographer in creating a “look” (CDL - color
decision list or LUT - lookup table) which can be used as a guide for
the final color correction of the film.

DIT’s set up their equipment on set usually close to where the

Director, DP, Script Supervisor and others will be monitoring each
shot, in a spot that has come to be referred to as “Video Village.”

2.
The DIT – Digital Imaging Technician (cont'd)

In many cases your DIT will be supplying you with your dailies. The
DIT sends each day's recordings from set, along with corresponding
metadata, to the post production team to be prepared for the editor.

On our recent film , “Naked”, our DIT was supplying us with dailies,
so he was our direct contact in regards to the footage.

You want to get on the same page with your DIT very early on. It's
helpful just to know these people socially and have a good rapport
with them. You're going to be working with them for three, four,
sometimes eight weeks and longer depending on the size of the film,
so it's really important to know your DIT and develop a clear line of
communication with them.

Data Wrangler

On some films where the DIT is overloaded, he or she might be

assisted by a Data Wrangler. The Data Wrangler’s job is to get the
film from the DIT and prepare it for viewing by various principals on
the film; the studio, producers, etc. Sometime this involves syncing
sound to picture, compression for different cloud based viewing
platforms and making redundant backups to hard drives or digital
tape formats, most commonly LTO.

3.
Data Wrangler (cont'd)

At the time of this writing the Data Wrangler is a position that exists in
somewhat of a grey area of union classification, as
they perform many tasks similar to an assistant editor and/or a
camera assistant. Quite often, and when budgets are tight, they are
hired as a non-union worker.

Script Supervisor

If you've only worked in reality, or on promos, trailers, or other non-

scripted projects you probably have never interfaced with a Script
Supervisor, but the Script Supervisor is another one of your primary
liaisons to production.

4.
Script Supervisor (cont'd)

As general rule, whenever the Assistant Editor calls anybody on set,

people tend to think they're going to be delivering bad news. And,
sometimes this is the case. People on set assume that if post is
calling it's because something has gone wrong.

Usually, the first person you'll call with any concern about something
that was, or more likely wasn’t shot is going to be your Script
Supervisor. In addition to his or her duties regarding continuity, this
person notes what was shot on a daily basis, what was scheduled to
be shot but possibly got rescheduled, and all of the technical
information that needs to be documented with each day’s work. The
Script Supervisor also talks with the camera crew regarding each
setup and notates the lens information of all your given takes
recorded.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to reach out to these people preemptively,

before there are any problems just to say, "Hi, I'm your assistant
editor. I'll try not to annoy you but I'm probably going to be calling
you quite a bit." Once again, if you start off by establishing a cordial
relationship, letting them know you are on the same team, when
there is a problem which, invariably there will be, they will have a
better

5.
Script Supervisor - (cont'd)

understanding that you’re calling just to get some information that

will be in the best interests of the the film.

The Script Supervisor also is your closest link to the director and
what's going on in their mind. Often they will get a good idea of how
the director is feeling about each day's shooting. In most situations
the Script Supervisor will be giving you notes on the director's
preferred takes. For this and the other reasons stated above, the
Script Supervisor is a very important person to get to know and to
develop a good relationship with early on.

Assistant Cameraperson

You'll typically have at minimum one or two Camera Assistant's per

camera. Camera Assistant's duties are traditionally delineated as
1st AC (or focus puller) and 2nd AC (or clapper loader in the UK). On
really busy days, if you're doing big stunts, etc, you could have many
more. We had a big stunt segment on "Naked." On that day, I
remember our DP talking about there being somewhere in the
avenue of 10 or 12 AC's.

6.
Assistant Cameraperson (cont'd)

In general, AC's have more than enough work to do on set, and I'll
usually contact them via email if I need to get information that only
they would know. Otherwise, to not overburden them while they're
on the firing line, It’s best to try and get the information you need
from the DIT or Script Supervisor.

However, there are times when you just need to speak to someone
directly on the camera crew. For example, one thing that tends to
happen on a lot of films is bad or missing slates. You might have
slates not quite making it into the frame or pehaps you can’t read a
slate because it was too dark and it’s causing you a problem.

7.
Assistant Cameraperson (cont'd)

The person who's holding the slate is typically a second AC. This is
the person who you want to reach out to and just say, "Hey, I know
you're really busy, but could you get that slate more in shot, I need to
see what it is we have."

The Director of Photography is far too busy to take your calls

directly but if it becomes an emergency situation, you as the
assistant editor should ask your editor if he wants to talk to the
DP themself. Your editor is the editorial department head. The DP is
the camera department head. You want to keep them in the loop
in critical situations. Otherwise, the proper channel to get to camera
is going to be through an AC.

Production Sound Mixer

Your Productions Sound Mixer/Recordist is another critical link to

production. Hopefully the shoot will be going well and you won't
need to talk to them much after your initial conversation about their
recording specs, etc. but it's in your best interest to get on the same
page about their setup before the start of principal photography.

8.
Production Sound Mixer (cont'd)

As an assistant you're going to be hearing the production sound

from day one. You need to be on the lookout for things that could
potentially become problematic. One thing you might find is if
people are using their walkies on set and they're standing too close
to the sound mixer.

Those walkies tend to create pops. It's an interesting effect because

you don't notice it on set but you'll notice it after the fact. It can be a
very difficult battle to fight, particularly because you're not on set
and everyone needs to use their walkies but it helps the sound mixer
build a case if they can say, "editorial has been telling me we're
getting these pops and I need you guys to take those walkies farther
away from me."
9.
Production Sound Mixer (cont'd)

That's a battle that sometimes you will win, and unfortunately

sometimes you won't. In either case, your relationship with the
production sound mixer is another very important one, because the
cleaner sound you have, the less problems your editor will have
working with the material, and money and time will be saved by not
having to do ADR later on.

10.