Film crew hire/London/DIT
Hire a DIT in London. Every card checked, copied twice, and on its way to the edit.
Digital imaging technicians and data wranglers for shoots across London, from Park Royal stages to City boardrooms, booked from our office on City Road, by Old Street. They copy and verify every card, check the pictures while the crew can still fix them, and get the rushes to the edit, in Soho or New York. £527 a day, the APA/Bectu card rate, paid to the DIT in full.
- 54 five-star Google reviews
- 2 hrs for our team to read your brief, in working hours
- £10m employers’ liability on every crew member we book
- 1,400+ of our freelance crew live in and around London
Photos: Vitaly Gariev, Here Now Films, Samsung Memory and Aleksandrs Karevs
The role
What a DIT does on your shoot
A DIT (digital imaging technician) looks after the pictures between the camera and the edit. They work with the DOP on the camera settings and the look, check every take for focus, exposure, and noise, run the verified backups, and often make the dailies the client watches that night.
The footage is the only thing a shoot makes. Copying it in Finder gives no checksum, so a corrupted file can go unnoticed until the card has been formatted and the original is gone. A DIT makes sure that never happens.
In London the DIT also plans how the rushes travel: a courier’s ride to an edit in Soho or Fitzrovia, or proxies to an overseas editor in another time zone, decided before the first card comes off camera.
- Verified copies. Checksum-verified software such as Silverstack or ShotPut Pro, never drag and drop.
- Two copies, then three. Two verified copies before a card is reformatted; a third off set by the end of the day.
- Pictures checked. Focus, exposure, and noise spotted while the crew are still there to reshoot.
- A chain of custody. A report for every card, with an MHL file of checksums travelling with the media.
What’s included
What the day rate covers
In the day rate
- An 11-hour day, including an hour for lunch
- Offloading every card with verified copies
- Spot checks for focus, exposure, sound, and timecode
- The media log and checksum reports
- Working with the DOP on the camera settings and look
- The drives handed over at wrap
On top, each on its own line
- Our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance, on the whole quote
- The DIT station or cart, at a day rate
- Drives, at cost, or bring your own
- Dailies, transcodes, and colour, if the brief needs them
- Couriers to the edit, and parking for the cart, at cost
How our rates work, and the two ways to book: crew rates in London.
Two ways to book
Crew hire or full production: who’s the producer of record?
One question sets the price: who’s the producer of record? Book a DIT for your own London shoot, or have us take the production on, with the rushes delivered to the edit.
Crew hire
You run the shoot.
10% + 2% booking fee and insurance, on everything we book for you: crew, kit and travel.
We do
- Find, book and brief the crew, and pay them
- Book kit, travel and hotels too, if you want them
- Send the full price before anything is booked
- One person to call all day
- Employers’ liability for the crew we book, and insurance on kit we hire in
You do
- Run the shoot, or your producer does
- The plan, the schedule and the call sheet
- The location, its permission and its public liability
- Responsibility for the production: you’re the producer of record
What the 2% insures: employers’ liability for every crew member we book, and the kit we hire in for you. Nothing else on the shoot. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote.
Full production
We’re the producer of record.
15% + 5% production fee, plus insurance and contingency, on the whole production budget. Quoted as a production.
We do
- Our producer plans it with you and runs the day
- Locations, permits, kit, studio, travel and hotels, booked and paid in our name
- Insurance for the whole shoot, public liability included, plus the risk assessment and the call sheet
- One contract and one invoice, so overseas teams need no UK company
You do
- The creative calls
- Signing off the plan and the budget
What the 5% pays for: our production insurance across the whole shoot, £10m public liability included, and the contingency.
Not sure which you need? If your own producer or director will run the day, it’s crew hire. If you want us to take the production on, it’s a full production quote.
On the day
A day with a DIT, call to wrap
A two-camera advert on ARRI Alexa Mini LFs, on a stage in Park Royal, with dailies for the agency in Soho that night. Times are an example; the call sheet sets the real ones.
- 07:30 Set up the station A cart by the stage door, out of the traffic of the set: power, a calibrated monitor, card readers, three drives.
- 08:00 Camera check Settings agreed with the DOP and checked on both cameras: format, frame rate, and look.
- 10:30 First cards Offloaded with checksum verification to two drives, then checked: focus, exposure, noise, and timecode.
- 11:00 A note to camera A soft take spotted on B camera. The focus puller knows before the next set-up.
- 13:00 Lunch Cards cleared back to camera only once two verified copies exist.
- 16:00 Dailies Proxies with the look applied, uploading to the agency and the editor while the crew shoot on.
- 19:30 Wrap Last cards in, the third copy made. A shuttle drive goes by same-day courier to the edit in Soho; the masters stay with the production.
Which kind
DIT, wrangler or loader?
Jobs that overlap and get called different things on different sets, plus one London option: a facility that does it for you.
DIT Pictures, settings, backups, and dailies £527 a day, card rate
Works with the DOP on the camera and the look, checks every take, runs the backups, and makes dailies.
Best for RAW, ARRI or RED, three or more cameras, or same-night dailies.
Data wrangler Backups and the log Quoted on the brief
Takes the cards, copies them with verified backups, and keeps the log. On bigger shoots, the DIT’s assistant.
Best for multi-camera days without a colour pipeline.
Loader with verification On small shoots Card £355–448
The 2nd AC offloads cards with verification software between set-ups. See clapper loaders in London.
Fine for one camera; not for a multi-camera RAW day.
Camera to cloud Proxies as you shoot Quoted on the brief
Proxies sent from the camera to Frame.io through a Teradek or the camera itself, so the edit can start before wrap. It needs a connection, which we check at the recce.
Best when the client or editor is in another city or country.
A dailies facility On set, or back at base Quoted on the brief
On a bigger job, a London facility can run on-set DIT and dailies as a service. Mission, at Shepperton and in Park Royal, is one.
Best for drama, long shoots, and heavy VFX pulls.
What it’s for
What people book a DIT for in London
Cinema camera shoots
ARRI, RED, or Sony Venice on the stages in Park Royal and Acton, where an hour of RAW can run to terabytes.
Overseas productions
US and European teams who fly in with their own director and DP, and fly home with verified drives.
Agencies who want dailies
The day’s pictures with the look applied, in Soho the same night.
Shoots you can’t repeat
Chief executives in City boardrooms, surgeons between lists, athletes, and one-off events.
Multi-camera days
Conferences and events with three or more cameras rolling.
Recent work
DITs on our jobs, in London
Crew hire · Chelsea, London · November 2023
A DIT in a hospital boardroom
Swanson Studios, a US production company, filmed interviews for a medical technology company over three days in Portsmouth, London, and Oxford. The London day was in the main boardroom at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on Fulham Road (SW10), with the deputy chief executive, consultant surgeons, and the lead nurse on camera. Parking there is a challenge, so the call sheet sent the kit through the loading bay. The client shot on two REDs, and the brief for our DIT was the RED media and sound ingested, double backups, and H.264 proxies.
Crew hire · Marylebone, London · May 2025
A DIT for a US production’s startup series
A US production filming a startup series over two days at a workspace on Bird Street (W1U). We supplied the UK crew (a DP, an AC, sound, a gaffer, a DIT, HMU, and a PA) and a fixer for parking, catering, and the producers’ transport, with the unit parked in the Selfridges car park off Edwards Mews. The DIT was on the call sheet from the 08:00 call to the 16:00 wrap.
Before you book
Things to know
The day
- 11 hours, including an hour for lunch.
- Overtime at card rates, agreed with you before it happens.
- Prep and travel days are quoted separately.
Drives and couriers
- An hour of Sony FX6 4K at 25p is about 112 GB; an hour of ARRIRAW 4.5K about 1.9 TB.
- Three copies, checksum-verified, one off site: tell us whose drives they go on.
- A courier’s cover is for the drive, not the footage: Gophr’s goes up to £5,000 (checked October 2026). Send a copy, never the only one.
Paying and changes
- Nothing to pay until you confirm the DIT.
- 50% by card when you book, 50% on receipt of the final rushes.
- Every line on the quote: day rate, booking fee, kit, travel.
- Cancellation terms are on every quote.
What our insurance covers
- Employers’ liability for the DIT we book: £10m.
- Kit we hire in for you is insured. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote.
- Nothing else on a crew hire. Public liability, the location and your own kit stay with you, and your venue will want your certificate. When we’re the producer of record, our policy covers the shoot.
- In London, councils and the Royal Parks ask for £5m public liability, TfL and Canary Wharf £10m, and Network Rail up to £10m (checked October 2026).
£527 a day
APA/Bectu card: £527 a day for a DIT.
| Day rate, 11 hours | £527 |
| Booking fee, 10% | £52.70 |
| Insurance, 2% | £10.54 |
| One day, before the station and drives | £590.24 + VAT |
The 2% is employers’ liability for the DIT we book, and cover on kit we hire in. What it covers
You won’t pay anything until you confirm the DIT.
- 1,400+ crew living in and around London
- 50% by card at booking, 50% on the final rushes
- Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours
Or call us on 07412 543822.
Reviews
What clients say about our crews
Straight from our Google Business Profile.
Book a DIT in London.
Tell us the cameras, the formats, how much you’ll roll, and where the rushes need to go, in London or abroad. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Check availability
The whole crew
Every role in London, booked the same way
One brief, one quote, every role on its own line. Our day rates in London, paid to the crew member in full:
Production 06
- Director From £500
- Producer From £450
- Production manager £504–627
- 2nd AD £355–448
- Production assistant £400
- Runner £245
Camera 07
- DOP From £850
- Camera operator £529–656
- Focus puller £461–575
- Clapper loader £355–448
- Steadicam operator From £950
- Gimbal operator £529–656
- Drone operator From £750
Data and playback 02
- DIT This page £527
- Video playback £334–518
Sound 01
- Sound recordist £550
Hair, make-up and costume 02
- Hair and make-up £398
- Costume £519–694
Art department 02
- Art director £675–878
- Set builders £341–512
Post-production 01
- Editor From £350
How our rates work: crew rates in London. Or start from a set-up: interview crews and units in London.
Production support
Everything around the crew
A DIT sits between the camera and the edit, and from London the edit could be round the corner or across the Atlantic. Here are the guides for everything around them.
02
Locations and permits
Borough film services, the Royal Parks, TfL, the private estates and the drone zones.
Questions
Hiring a DIT in London: questions
How much does a DIT cost in London?
The APA/Bectu card puts a DIT at £527 for an 11-hour day, and we pay that in full. On top go our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance: £590.24 + VAT for the day. The DIT station, drives, and couriers are priced separately.
What does the insurance on a crew booking cover?
Two things. Employers’ liability for every crew member we book, up to £10m, and insurance on the kit we hire in for you. That’s what the 2% pays for. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote. The 2% doesn’t insure the rest of the shoot: public liability, the location, your own kit and anything you book yourself stay with you, because you’re the producer of record. If you’d rather we were, it’s quoted as a full production, and our insurance covers the whole shoot, public liability included.
What’s the difference between a DIT and a data wrangler?
A data wrangler copies and logs the cards. A DIT does that and works with the DOP on the pictures themselves: settings, the look, checks, and dailies. For a one- or two-camera interview day in a London office, a camera assistant with verification software is often enough.
Can you get rushes to our editor in Soho the same day?
Yes. A same-day courier takes a shuttle drive across town (Gophr prices a bike from £7.50, checked October 2026), proxies upload while you shoot, or the drives come to our own edit. The masters stay with the production until the copy has arrived. See getting rushes to the edit in London.
What does a DIT need from a London location?
Power, a corner for the cart out of the traffic of the set, and a way in for the kit: in City offices and hospitals, usually a loading bay and a booked room. If the DIT drives in, the Congestion Charge is £18 a day (07:00–18:00 weekdays, 12:00–18:00 weekends), and a van that doesn’t meet ULEZ pays £12.50 on top (checked October 2026).
Where do London DITs get their kit?
Most bring their own cart, drives, and readers, priced on the quote. London kit houses include VMI in Acton, whose VMEDIA side stocks fast cards and SSDs, and The Kit Room in E2, which hires data storage. For bigger jobs, Mission runs on-set DIT and dailies from Shepperton and Park Royal.