What are Digi Ops?
A digi op is a secondary assistant on set who takes care of the workflow from image capture through to file structure and basic retouching of images in-situ if required.
During our talk with Nic Bezzina he highlighted the two main ways to go about seeking work as a Digi Op, these were
- Generating your own work as a freelancer through contacting photographers and studios.
- Working "in house" for an agency or studio
An example of capture workflow with various capture folders for each look being shot. (From a shoot I assisted on)
To digi op successfully the kit list is surprisingly short (but it's useful to have spares of most things!) when I assist I can comfortably get by with:
- Mac (plus charger and cables)
- External Hard Drive
- Sharpie and Tape
- QP cards
- Screen wipes
I may also bring my camera, a lens and batteries if the photographer requests it as a back-up.
You should have a good working knowledge of the raw processing system you are working with and tethered into, and also the operating system your laptop is running so in the event that files go walk abouts you can hunt them down easily without wasting too much time!
Although you are one of the least noticed people on set, I always like to arrive nice and early to get an idea of the shoot and give myself to understand the photographer I'm working with and their workflow, this helps you with file and folder naming so that when you hand over the images back to the client they aren't baffled by a series of cryptic folders and no idea where to find anything!
