Hire a DIT in Birmingham. Every card checked, copied twice, and on its way to the edit.
Digital imaging technicians and data wranglers for shoots across Birmingham, from the stages at Curzon Street Studios to conference halls at the ICC and the NEC. They copy and verify every card, check the pictures while the crew can still fix them, and get the rushes to the edit, whether that’s across the city or down the line to London. £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
- 2,800+ freelance crew on our books, across the UK
Photos: Here Now Films, Vitaly Gariev, Samsung Memory, Aleksandrs Karevs and Chris Dack
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.
On a Birmingham shoot the DIT also plans how the rushes travel, before the first card comes off camera: a shuttle drive on the train from New Street, or proxies uploaded through the day to an editor in another city or another time zone.
- 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
- Shuttle drives to the edit, by train or courier, at cost
- Travel from outside Birmingham, and mileage, parking and the Clean Air Zone charge where the day needs them, at cost
How our rates work, and the two ways to book: crew rates in Birmingham.
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 Birmingham 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 in Studio A at Curzon Street Studios, with dailies for the agency that night and the edit in London. Times are an example; the call sheet sets the real ones.
- 07:30 Set up the station A cart at the edge of the studio floor, 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 on the train from New Street to the edit; the masters stay with the production until it has arrived.
Which kind
DIT, wrangler or loader?
Jobs that overlap and get called different things on different sets, plus the way to start the edit before wrap.
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 conference days at the ICC or the NEC, 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 Birmingham.
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: in a venue or an office block, a wired line booked before the day.
Best when the client or editor isn’t in Birmingham.
What it’s for
What people book a DIT for in Birmingham
Cinema camera shoots
ARRI, RED or Sony Venice at Digbeth Loc. Studios and Curzon Street Studios, where RAW fills drives fast.
Conferences and events
Three or more cameras rolling through a day of sessions at the ICC, the NEC or Edgbaston Stadium.
Agencies who want dailies
The day’s pictures with the look applied, on the agency’s screens the same night.
Shoots you can’t repeat
Chief executives in offices on Colmore Row, researchers at the universities, surgeons between lists, one-off events.
Overseas productions
Teams who fly into Birmingham Airport with their own director and DP, and fly home with verified drives.
Recent work
DITs on our jobs, and how we crew Birmingham
Production service · 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, 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.
How we crew it · Birmingham
Rushes from New Street to the edit
When the edit isn’t in Birmingham, we plan how the rushes travel at the recce. Proxies go up through the day if the building will give us a wired line. The shuttle drive goes on the train: New Street to London Euston is 1 hour 17 minutes on the fastest services, and about an hour and a half to Manchester Piccadilly. The masters stay with the production until the copy has arrived and been checked.
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 the train
- An hour of Sony FX6 4K in XAVC-I is up to about 112 GB at 25p, and up to about 225 GB at 50p (Sony’s maximum bit rates).
- Three copies, checksum-verified, one off site: tell us whose drives they go on.
- A shuttle drive can go on the train from New Street. Send a copy, never the only one.
In the city
- A DIT who drives the cart inside the A4540 Middleway pays the Clean Air Zone charge if the car or van isn’t compliant: £8 a day (checked October 2026). It goes on the quote at cost.
- At the ICC or the NEC, tell us the hall: power and a corner for the cart are agreed with the venue before the day.
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.
- Production Central WM asks for at least £5m public liability and a risk assessment before it issues a permit.
£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.
- 50% by card at booking, 50% on the final rushes
- Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours
- Every line on the quote before anything is booked
Or call us on 07412 543822.
Reviews
What clients say about our crews
Straight from our Google Business Profile.
Book a DIT in Birmingham.
Tell us the cameras, the formats, how much you’ll roll, and where the rushes need to go, in Birmingham or beyond. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Check availability
The whole crew
Every role in Birmingham, booked the same way
One brief, one quote, every role on its own line. Our day rates in Birmingham, 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 Birmingham. Or start from a set-up: interview crews and units in Birmingham.
Production support
Everything around the crew
A DIT sits between the camera and the edit. Here’s how the rest of a Birmingham shoot works around them, from kit and permits to getting the rushes out.
02
Locations and permits
Production Central WM, the canals, New Street, the parks and the airport’s drone zone.
03
Studios and set builds
Digbeth Loc., Curzon Street, blackout and green screen studios, and set builds.
Questions
Hiring a DIT in Birmingham: questions
How much does a DIT cost in Birmingham?
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 any shuttle drives 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 an office on Colmore Row, a camera assistant with verification software is often enough. For a multi-camera conference at the ICC, book a wrangler at least.
Can you get rushes from Birmingham to our editor the same day?
Yes. A shuttle drive goes on the train from New Street: 1 hour 17 minutes to London Euston on the fastest services, about an hour and a half to Manchester Piccadilly, and an hour and a quarter to Bristol Temple Meads (checked October 2026). Proxies can upload while you shoot, if the building gives us a connection. The masters stay with the production until the copy has arrived.
What does a DIT need from a Birmingham location?
Power, a corner for the cart out of the traffic of the set, and a way in for the kit. The big venues, the ICC, the NEC and Edgbaston Stadium among them, don’t publish filming rules, so we agree power and a room with the venue before the day. If the DIT drives into the centre: Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone covers every road inside the A4540 Middleway ring road, around the clock. A car or van below Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol pays £8 a day, an HGV or coach £50 (checked October 2026).
Where do Birmingham DITs get their kit?
Most bring their own cart, drives and readers, priced on the quote. Kit houses in and around Birmingham include Media Dog Hire at the NEC, and Wex Rental, collected from Wex Photo Video on Hagley Road. Specialist kit can come up from London or across from Manchester.
Are your DITs local to Birmingham?
Where we can. We crew Birmingham shoots from Birmingham first, and from Manchester, London or Bristol where the brief needs someone particular, with the travel on the quote before anything is booked. Our own team is based in London, on City Road, with bases in Manchester, Bristol and Cornwall.