Hire a DIT in Cornwall. Every card checked, copied twice, and on its way up the line to the edit.
Digital imaging technicians and data wranglers for shoots across Cornwall, from a cinema-camera advert on the north coast to a studio day at Falmouth University. They copy and verify every card, check the pictures while the crew can still fix them, and plan how the rushes leave the county, because the edit is rarely down here. £527 a day, the APA/Bectu card rate, paid to the DIT in full.
- 2,800+ freelance crew on our books across the UK
- 30+ of them in and around Cornwall
- 54 five-star Google reviews
- 2 hrs for our team to read your brief, in working hours
Photos: Here Now Films, Samsung Memory, Vitaly Gariev and Carl Beech
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 agree the camera settings and the look with the DOP, check every take for focus, exposure and noise, run verified backups, and often make the dailies the client watches that night.
The footage is all a shoot makes, and on a Cornish location it can be a long way from anywhere you could reshoot it. Dragging files across in Finder gives no checksum, so a corrupt clip can go unnoticed until the card has been formatted. A DIT makes sure the only copy is never the only copy.
Down here the DIT also plans the route. Our own post team is in London, and most agencies are further still, so the way the rushes travel is set at the recce: a shuttle drive on the train from Truro, a copy in the car up the A30, or proxies sent from wherever the connection is good enough. On a clifftop, that is rarely the clifftop.
We’re a crew agency with 2,800+ freelance crew on our books across the UK, 30+ of them in Cornwall, and we scale a crew up as the shoot needs. DITs are one of the roles Cornwall is short of, so when a shoot needs one they come down from Bristol, Devon or London, with the travel and a hotel on the quote before anything is booked.
- 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 goes back to camera; a third, kept apart, by wrap.
- Pictures checked. Focus, exposure, noise and spray on the filter, spotted while the crew are still on the beach.
- A route for the rushes. How the copy reaches the edit, agreed before the day: train, road or upload.
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
- Battery or portable power for the station, where the location has no supply
- Drives, at cost, or bring your own
- Dailies, transcodes and colour, if the brief needs them
- Shuttle drives to the edit, by train or by road, at cost
- Travel from outside Cornwall, hotels where the day needs them, mileage and parking, at cost
How our rates work, and the two ways to book: crew rates in Cornwall.
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 Cornish 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 cinema cameras at Watergate Bay, on the north coast near Newquay, with dailies for the agency that night and the edit in London. Times are an example; the call sheet sets the real ones.
- 06:30 Set up the station The cart in the back of a van above the beach, out of the wind and the spray: batteries, a hooded monitor, card readers, three drives.
- 07:00 Camera check Settings agreed with the DOP and checked on both cameras: format, frame rate and look.
- 10:00 First cards Brought up from the sand in a dry bag, offloaded with checksums to two drives, then checked: focus, exposure, noise and timecode.
- 10:30 A note to camera Spray on B camera’s filter on the last take. 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, rendering for the agency. They go up from the hotel’s line tonight, not from the beach.
- 19:30 Wrap Last cards in, the third copy made. Next morning a shuttle drive goes up on the train from Truro; the masters stay with the production until it has arrived and been checked.
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, and what happens when the camera shoots film.
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 for an agency that isn’t in Cornwall.
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: a festival weekend, or a week of documentary across the county.
Loader with verification On small shoots Card £355–448
The 2nd AC offloads cards with verification software between set-ups. See clapper loaders in Cornwall.
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, so the edit can start before wrap. It needs a connection, and plenty of Cornish locations don’t have one: we check at the recce, and if there isn’t one, the proxies go up at wrap.
Best when the client or the editor isn’t in Cornwall and the location has a signal.
Shooting on film No cards, no DIT Quoted on the brief
Cohere’s AI for Empowerment was shot on 35mm, so there was no DIT on the Lizard: the camera team worked in rolls, not cards, and nobody saw a frame until the lab had processed and scanned the negative.
Best when the texture of film is the point. Plan the lab before the travel.
What it’s for
What people book a DIT for in Cornwall
Adverts on the coast
Cinema cameras on beaches and headlands, where RAW fills drives fast and the van is a walk away.
Drama
Series and features: Screen Cornwall’s SCEPI fund invests in up to ten film and HETV projects filmed between 2025 and 2028 (checked October 2026).
Surf and water
Housings in and out of the sea all day, and wet cards checked before anyone formats one.
Studio days at Falmouth
Studio 1 at Falmouth University, 154 square metres with a live gallery, or the green-screen studio on the Penryn campus.
Edits a long way off
Agencies and editors in London, Bristol or abroad who want verified drives and dailies, not a bag of cards.
Recent work
DITs on our jobs, and how we crew Cornwall
Production service · Portsmouth, London and Oxford · November and December 2023
A DIT in three cities on three days
Swanson Studios, from Oregon, flew in with two RED cameras to interview surgeons for Intuitive: a hospital in Portsmouth, a hospital in London, then an office at Oxford Science Park, one city a day. We supplied the rest of the unit. Our DIT ingested the RED footage and the audio, made proxies, and backed up to two mirrored drives, one for Swanson and one for their client, before the vans drove on to the next city.
How we crew it · Cornwall
Rushes off a remote shoot
Most Cornish locations are a long way from the edit, and some from a phone signal. On the Lizard, for Cohere, there was no phone signal on the headland at all, and the unit ran on twelve walkie-talkies along a mile of cliff path. So we plan the rushes at the recce. Two verified copies on set, a third by wrap, and the copy for the edit goes by rail or road: London Paddington to Truro is 4 hours 21 minutes on the fastest trains, and the Night Riviera sleeper leaves Penzance at 21:45 on weekdays and reaches Paddington just after 05:00 (checked October 2026). An hour of FX6 4K can run past 100 GB, so proxies go up from wherever the line is good enough, tested before the day.
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, checked October 2026).
- Three copies, checksum-verified, one kept apart: tell us whose drives they go on.
- A shuttle drive can go on the train from Truro or Penzance. Send a copy, never the only one.
Filming in Cornwall
- Cornwall Council asks for £5m public liability and a location-specific risk assessment with every application.
- A beach or a clifftop rarely has power: the station runs on batteries or a portable power station. On Cohere’s clifftops on the Lizard, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, no generators were allowed, and the whole shoot ran on portable power stations.
- Cornwall Council’s permit terms don’t allow vehicles onto its land without specific permission, so the kit often goes in on carts.
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.
- Moving the date? Tell us as soon as you know.
- 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.
£527 a day
APA/Bectu card: Up to £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 Cornwall.
Tell us the cameras, the formats, how much you’ll roll, and where the rushes need to go: across Cornwall, up to 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 Cornwall, booked the same way
One brief, one quote, every role on its own line. Our day rates in Cornwall, 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 Cornwall. Or start from a set-up: interview crews and units in Cornwall.
Production support
Everything around the crew
A DIT sits between the camera and the edit, and in Cornwall the edit is usually a long way off. Here’s how the rest of a Cornish shoot works around them, from kit and permits to getting the rushes out.
01
Kit rental
Kit in West Cornwall and Falmouth, the crew’s own kit, and what comes down from Bristol and London.
02
Locations and permits
Cornwall Council, the National Trust, Natural England, the harbours and the drone rules.
Questions
Hiring a DIT in Cornwall: questions
How much does a DIT cost in Cornwall?
The APA/Bectu card puts a DIT at £527 for an 11-hour day, including an hour for lunch, 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, shuttle drives and any travel and hotel from outside Cornwall are priced separately, each on its own line.
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-camera interview day in an office in Truro, a camera assistant with verification software is often enough. For a multi-camera advert on the coast, or a week of documentary with the edit in London, book a wrangler at least.
Can you get rushes from Cornwall to our editor the same day?
Sometimes, and we’ll tell you which at the recce. A shuttle drive can go on the train: London Paddington to Truro is 4 hours 21 minutes on the fastest trains, and the Night Riviera sleeper leaves Penzance at 21:45 on weekdays and reaches Paddington just after 05:00 (checked October 2026). Uploading needs a connection, and a remote location may have none: on the Lizard, for Cohere, there was no phone signal on the headland at all, and the unit ran on twelve walkie-talkies along a mile of cliff path. An hour of Sony FX6 4K at 25p is up to about 112 GB, so full-resolution files rarely go up a rural line. Proxies can, from the hotel or a building with a wired connection. The masters stay with the production until the copy has arrived.
What does a DIT need on a remote Cornish location?
Shelter, power and a way in. A gazebo or a van out of the wind and spray, weighted rather than pegged if the ground is protected; batteries or a portable power station, because a beach or a clifftop rarely has a supply; and carts, because vehicles can’t go onto Cornwall Council land without specific permission. Filming on Cornwall Council land, its beaches, woods, parks, gardens and old mining sites among them, needs a permit through FilmApp. Screen Cornwall’s Film Office gives advice, locations and introductions to landowners, but doesn’t issue the permits.
Where do Cornish DITs get their kit?
Most bring their own cart, drives and readers, priced on the quote. In the county, The Cornish Camera Co. in West Cornwall hires monitoring, batteries and power, and Falmouth University’s film school stores hire to outside productions on 24 hours’ notice (checked October 2026). Anything more specialist comes down from Bristol or London with the DIT.
Can we grade or review dailies in Cornwall?
Falmouth University’s School of Film & Television, on the Penryn campus, hires out a colour grading suite to outside productions: £375 a half day or £750 a day, plus VAT, room only, with no technician (checked October 2026). For most shoots, the DIT’s own station and a calibrated monitor in the hotel do the job, and the grade happens later with the edit.
Are your DITs local to Cornwall?
Where we can. As a crew agency we have 2,800+ freelance crew on our books, 30+ of them in Cornwall, and we scale a crew up as the shoot needs. Cornish crew first. When a shoot needs more hands, or a role that’s scarce down here, they come from Bristol, Devon or London, and the travel and hotels are on the quote before anything is booked. DITs are one of the roles that usually travel. We started in Cornwall, and our founders still work from our Newquay office; our post team is in London.