Chandler Tucker

Sorry John, it wasn't my intention to come across as disagreeing with you. I was more trying to emphasize what Phil was saying. Looks are an invaluable part of production in my opinion, but too many people think what is being done on set is what is going to be done in post. I see LUT boxes and live grade setups being used all the time, but I think people need to be aware that their purpose is to create a better camera original file than by simply trying to film looking at log or raw. The DIT is there to assist the DP and help him dial in the image so he is getting what he wants without being under or overexposed in parts of the image. I've found a lot of times I may also go in with HSL qualifiers or windows to give him a rough idea of what will be possible in post when he is setting up a shot that he simply can't get everything in the image exposed the way he wants due to whatever external factor. I personally don't think that LUT boxes or live grade slows things down unless you get a lazy DP that just wants to sit at your cart and talk about the picture all day.

LUT's created before hand and one lights done on set for dailies should never be used to master the film anyway. LUT's are created so that the signal that is being sent to village isn't raw or log and the client/director/producers aren't complaining about how flat the image looks, that there isn't enough contrast or saturation. Predefined LUT's also don't work for every single shot you are going to have on set. They will inevitable have to be tweaked. Dailies have a very basic one light on them just for the purpose of dailies. The DIT will take the base LUT used to correct for the Rec 709 look or whatever other stylized look the DP is going for and will then adjust it to make it work for that scene. Dailies are simply a reference tool to make sure coverage, continuity and overall look is there. Again, this is simply to make sure that those looking at dailies aren't complaining about a raw or log image. If your budget is higher, and you are actually paying a post house to create dailies, then a little more might be involved. The colorist should also never just blindly use any looks created on set. Working on set does not provide an optimum environment for ambient light when doing color correction. It's also much harder to scene match while in the moment. It can be done, but as mentioned before, unless you are working on a very large budget film, you don't have all day to sit around and dial it in. If your DP knows what he is doing, he will use the dailies to make his notes for the colorist and keep in touch with them during the coloring to ensure his look makes it into the final film. DIT's main focus should be on making sure that the best image possible is available to post. The DIT shouldn't be concerned with achieving a final look for the film.

Yes sir it is. Wonderful read. Unfortunately since it's print it can be hard to visually tell the difference in some of his examples of film clips, but he does a good enough job explaining the process that it shouldn't make much of a difference. He also explains color grading from a overall point of view instead of a one program specific process. Though he will give examples from different programs from time to time

I highly suggest Alexis Van Hurkman's "Color Correction Handbook." Make sure to get the most recent version that came out beginning of this year I believe. I just finished reading it and it has a wealth of knowledge. If you plan to use Davinci Resolve for any coloring or DIT work, which I find to be one of the better solutions for both, then I would suggest trying to get a hold of his Ripple Training videos. Unfortunately the videos are for version 9 of Resolve, but the techniques and practices he describes are still valid in Resolve 11

I would agree with everything everyone has said so far. I worked in post for 10 years before moving to be a DIT. I also did VTR for a while. In my opinion the DIT is the middle man between the camera department and post. You have to have an understanding of both if you want to be effective at your job. You need to make sure to communicate with a projects post supervisor to make sure you are providing the requirements for what they need. I showed up halfway through a shoot one time that didn't start with a DIT and the AC's had both camera's shooting at different frame rates and one was shooting in 422 and the other in 444. Your job is to make sure that cameras are consistent and footage comes out right. As Dwight mentioned you should have a good understanding of color theory and have practice as a colorist as well. You need to be able to look at the shot with the DP and given that he isn't a complete ass, work with him to dial in the shot to where it should be. I also do a lot of scene matching to make sure that every time we move the world, that the lighting is consistent from shot to shot. Outside of that you should have a good understanding of technology, file formats, archiving and data throughput. Your job is the one on set that is constantly evolving and changing, literally day by day. If you don't stay on top of that information you will fall behind everyone else