My DIT Cart: Brett Ramker

For this interview series, we regularly sit down with members of the DIT community to talk career paths, recent projects, and of course, what’s on their carts! 

This time, we’re chatting with Florida-based DIT, editor, and post supervisor Brett Ramker, who took an unconventional path into the film industry. He spent years working in high-pressure restaurant kitchens, where staying calm, thinking on your feet, and solving problems fast were essential. He later brought those same skills into the world of film by joining NASCAR Productions – the media arm of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. With two Sports Emmys and a wide-ranging portfolio across broadcast, commercial, and documentary work, Brett knows how to stay cool under pressure and adapt on the fly. Let’s hear how he does it and which gear he relies on! 

Thanks so much for this interview! To start, could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your professional life? 

Brett: „Sure, I appreciate this space to highlight DITs! My name is Brett, I’m a post production supervisor, editor & DIT based in Tarpon Springs, FL. A small fishing village on the Gulf Coast of Florida. 

I came to the industry by way of the broadcast engineering team at NASCAR Productions. I joined NASCAR as a technical operations specialist. Starting my career on the broadcast engineering team proved to be tremendously beneficial to my technical knowledge of live and post-production workflows. Over time, I grew out of that role and found my home in a creative position as IMSA’s (American sports-car racing series) associate producer. As an AP, I was editing all of IMSA’s social, digital, and broadcast content as well as running the camera department on race weekends. I left NASCAR after 5 years to pursue a career as a freelance editor. Over time, my offerings expanded to post-production supervising and DIT.”

So how exactly did you land your first DIT job then? 

Brett: „I started DITing through post. I was freelancing at a local production company here in Florida as an editor. My desk was next to the Post Sup, and it seemed like every week the camera department was losing cards on shoots. I asked the production heads if they would hire me to manage media on set, and they said yes. I built a terrible V1 kit and started downloading for them.”

You’ve been in the game a while and worn a lot of hats – what’s your take on the film industry in Florida?

Brett: „The industry in Florida is really cool, and I think a bit underrated. We have a ton of cool location-based jobs, and post-pandemic, a lot of shows are filming here. We have an amazing film infrastructure and really top-tier talent across all departments. Like all things Florida, everyone in film is personable, fun, and savvy. I love working and living here.“

With so much happening in Florida’s production scene, what types of projects do you typically find yourself working on?

Brett: „My bread and butter is large multicam workflows for documentaries. Specifically, organizing projects on set for quick turnaround doc workflows. Ironically, those jobs take me out of Florida on the road. Because of my background in engineering and post, I tailor those jobs to focus more on the data and post pipeline than the images. When we are doing run-n-gun docs with 4-6 operators, we talk settings, image and LUTs. But once you send those operators out, they’re on their own to make image decisions. We regroup after shoot days and compare images. As I’m downloading throughout the day, I’m laying base grades and sending stills to the group chat so everyone can get excited about the frames. I also like to send screenshots of the camera roll details from Silverstack Lab and create a little competitive camaraderie about who shot the most. I work with one operator who simply can’t be outshot. It’s really fun. 

I also like to send screenshots of the camera roll details from Silverstack Lab and create a little competitive camaraderie about who shot the most.

In town, I’m typically on commercials where I’m doing a more traditional DIT workflow. Because I came to DIT with a workflow approach, it’s taken me a while to establish the confidence and working relationship with the DPs I’m working for. To be totally candid, a lot of the DPs I worked with in Florida weren’t used to having a DIT looking over their shoulder. It wasn’t until I worked with some DPs from major markets that I really started to understand the full breadth of my role as the DIT. This isn’t anything against my local people. For a lot of producers, DIT is an afterthought. It’s very common here to have the 2nd AC download and not have a DIT on set. Because of that, a lot of our local DPs just learn to work without one. 

It wasn’t until I worked with some DPs from major markets that I really started to understand the full breadth of my role as the DIT.

The turning point for me was working jobs with out-of-town DPs who are used to having a local 600 DIT on set. They really want me to interact with them and talk them through each shot, controlling exposure, and live grading. Coming back to my local DP buddies with this perspective has been a big improvement and gotten me a lot more work.“ 

So, when comparing documentary and commercial projects, how do they differ, and what does that mean for your setup/workflow? 

Brett: „The biggest difference for me between commercials and docs is kit size and speed of work. With commercials, we have time to really stare at the setups and tweak the lighting plots to get them dialed. We are always comparing to what we shot earlier in the day, etc. That’s why I’m usually using my full cart with two monitors, live video, live grade – all the things. 

On multi-cam doc jobs, however, it’s more like ‚How quickly can you download this card so we can strike out of this location?‘. Or, I’ve got the core of my kit, what I call War Chest, in the back of a passenger van downloading as we’re blasting down the highway. On doc jobs, you really have to provide structure on when you want to reload the camera so you can stay ahead of the work. The worst thing you can do is not hedge mags, as the crew is moving toward Martini. Getting several 1+ TB mags at wrap is never a good thing.“ 

What’s the most recent project you’ve been working on?

Brett: „My last project was a very fun commercial for EY Golf with Keegan Michael Key and DP Powell Robinson. That was one of the few times I’ve been on set with a professional actor, and that was an amazing experience.“

Looking back, is there a project that means a lot to you or that you are especially proud of?

Brett: „The project I’m most proud of was a documentary that I DIT’d and post-production supervised for NASCAR. We took a NASCAR Cup Series car to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We shot 6 Alexa 35s over the course of 2 weeks at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was a very challenging job in a myriad of ways, but once I found a flow on set, we had an awesome time and made a killer show. That job is really special to me because I was the SUP as well as the DIT, so I got to manage that entire show from pre-production, to shoot through online edit/color/mix/QC and delivery. You can watch it on Prime; it’s called American Thunder – NASCAR to Le Mans.“

Alright, let’s get into the gear. What’s your go-to DIT setup, and how do you tweak it for different jobs?

Brett: „My setup started really minimally but has grown over time. The biggest difference in my kit is twofold. Number one: It’s built around an SKB Studio Flyer 2U case that I call War Chest. That is the brains of my operation and allows me to have the same basic kit in one case for documentary jobs where I’m flying out, or expand it to a full-size DIT cart for commercial jobs.

Number two: I use a custom-built vertical Magliner exclusively. I find myself on a lot of smaller sets, and having a tiny footprint is really welcome. Because I split my time between DIT, editing, and supervising gigs, I can’t justify buying a van. So I really needed a small cart that’s easy to transport and set up quickly. One party trick that people really like is how my cart mounts into my truck’s trailer hitch receiver. Without that, getting my kit to set would be a PITA.“

What are your key tools and pieces of tech?

Brett: „For monitoring, I technically use three: I use an Odyssey 7Q+ for signal flow, waveform, and vectorscope. And then two Flanders Scientific DM160s as picture monitors. 

I’m still rocking my trusty MacBook Pro M1 Max. Apple did us a tremendous service by figuring out hardware-based ProRes encoding. That has extended the life cycle of these computers tremendously. However, I plan on upgrading to a Mac Studio Ultra this year. I’m going to set up a quick-release mount so I can move it from my studio to the cart. That’s been the reason I haven’t wanted to get off the MacBook, it’s so easy to have one computer to rule them all.“ 

– and which Pomfort applications do you use? 

Brett: „Right now, I’m using Silverstack Lab. There is no more efficient way to download, transcode, and manage large sets of data. I also absolutely love the Silverstack UI; it’s intuitive, pretty, and data-rich. 

I also absolutely love the Silverstack UI; it’s intuitive, pretty, and data-rich.

How do you handle your power supply on set? 

Brett: „EcoFlow!!! I’m so happy that EcoFlow has created these inexpensive, large power supplies. They make life so easy.“ 

What is your favorite component of your cart, and why?

Brett: „Right now it’s my new DM160s. It’s been a nice addition, adding OLEDs as they are becoming so common in people’s homes. Having two identical monitors is really useful. When I’m watching a live image, I have one monitor on false color full time. I came up as a camera operator, so false color is really my preference for understanding exposure.“ 

Are there any memorable stories from set that you can share? 

Brett: „Probably the scariest thing happened to me on a job this year. We were working on a golf course in Florida, my first time. In retrospect, I would have requested my own golf cart and built my cart into it, essentially. However, I didn’t… So I pushed my cart to the 10th hole for the first setup. The producer wasn’t loving my speed to the location, so they tried to tow me to the next setup. He ended up going too fast and dumping my cart over… Luckily, because it’s built like a tank, nothing happened, but it was not a great experience tbh.“ 

To wrap things up, what would you say is the most challenging part of being a DIT—and what’s the most rewarding?

Brett: „For me, it’s getting up to speed with the camera department on one-day jobs. I NEVER get invited to the prep, and many times production will set my call time one to two hours after camera. So a lot of times I have to come in hot after everyone has been together for a day or so. So, just hitting the ground running, instilling confidence in the camera department, and jumping right into a flow can be challenging. Before I came to this industry, I was cooking professionally. In that world, we call it getting in the weeds. Many times, the first couple of hours of my day feel that way, but to be honest, I thrive under pressure. I enjoy digging myself out of the weeds. 

Thanks so much for sharing these insights with us!