You've worked on a wide range of productions over the years. What led you to DIT work specifically?​

I went to film school for cinematography after falling in love with cameras while filming and making skateboarding videos in my teens and early 20s. After graduating, I started as a camera trainee with ICG 669 in my home city of Winnipeg, MB Canada. Just as I was about to upgrade into the union, my last trainee rotation was on the first union Red One show in Winnipeg, which introduced me to a DIT out of Toronto named Erik Greensmith. Erik was replacing Technicolor by doing all the media offloads, color grading with the cinematographer, creating Avid files and DVD dailies on a camera cart in the janitor's closet of a hockey arena in rural Manitoba. It was then that I knew file based digital was the future. I also loved the collaboration Erik had with the cinematographer, talking about lighting and color as we shot. So, I shadowed Erik and started working as a DIT a year later.

From a DIT's perspective, what makes Shōgun so unique in terms of technical and creative demands?​

Shōgun is unique in its sheer scope. The sets are all large and incredibly beautiful. The hair, makeup, and wardrobe team is a massive force on its own. Today we have over 80 people working in those 3 departments. There's so much effort to make sure everything is authentic to the Japanese heritage and history. It's very inspiring.

From a DIT's standpoint, the most challenging aspect is the size of our sets and setups. We always have a lot of equipment on set – multiple cameras, Technocranes, sometimes up to 15 lifts for blue screen, negative fill, lighting, special FX, etc. All of this pushes the DIT cart much further from the action than I'm used to on other shows where I'm often the closest cart to camera.

Therefore, my Digital Utility, Rob Piercy and I need to work extra hard to keep communication with the cameras at all times from a far. bitbox has been a great improvement to our quality of life.

All this along with our 4x Sony Venice 2 camera bodies and over 40 unique lenses just on the main unit; it's a lot to keep track of. We have multiple formats and custom frame lines to accompany the requirements/limitations of some of our lenses. There's a lot of subtlety to our hero set of Hawk anamorphic lenses in the T 2.7 - 3.5 range so having strong camera and iris control to manipulate the lens falloff and exposure per setup is crucial for me. To maintain this look on day exterior, I need to constantly be manipulating the ND and exposure index between takes and sometimes mid shot if we "keep rolling". There's no time and it's not always possible to have an assistant walk over to the camera to change a setting, I need a reliable camera control system that's always responsive. bitbox and bit.ctrl for the Sony Venice 2 have been a game changer.

Can you speak on the various locations/seasons/lighting conditions the show requires and how they affected your overall approach?​

Since Shōgun takes place in 1600s feudal Japan, being shot in/around modern Vancouver, we are either in beautiful castle sets built on the stage/exterior backlot or we are in forests or fields. Shōgun always looks best by underexposing British Columbia's gloomy overcast or rainy exteriors. So needless to say, our locations and weather are tough! The weather can change a lot, so having reliable connections to the camera in order to react in a second is essential.

What decisions were made during prep to accommodate flexibility day to day?​

There were a lot of RF challenges last season, so this time around I insisted that all of our cameras wear a bitbox full time. I had our rental house purchase 4x full Arri Hi-5 kits solely for my iris control. Pulling the iris antenna off the DIT cart [by converting it's LBus protocol to ethernet IP and running ethernet in my cable snakes/fibre optic out to my Receiver cart, closer to set along with a bitbox base] allows me to park the DIT cart where it makes sense for the set/scene and not need to constantly chase the cameras to keep wireless control. This has been extremely freeing and makes the set much more efficient.

I've been running the beta firmware for bitbox this season using Roaming mode which has been very useful. We often have cameras splinter off in the opposite direction of A camera, so being able to use more than one Base hardwired back to the DIT cart via ethernet or ethernet over fiber is amazing. This just means we can stage cameras wherever they need to be while still having full control.

Ian Edwards helped me out with a very early beta of bit.ctrl for the Sony Venice 2 about a month into shooting Season 2. Being able to ditch Sony's web interface and actually map white balance, tint, EI and ND controls to StreamDeck knobs has been amazing! Now I can finally use the Venice the way I work with Arri and Red cameras. I love having the tactical feeling of dialing in white balance and tint via a knob on the DIT cart. It's a real crowd pleaser with cinematographers!

Amidst changing days, what was the core workflow that remained consistent?​

The general way I like to work has stayed constant. I like to do as much as I possibly can in camera with one Show LUT (if the story warrants one LUT). I try to keep my CDLs very minimal, mostly just contrast and saturation adjustments. I balance for lenses, weather, and body inconsistencies in camera whenever possible.

Muscle memory is essential for being efficient on set, so the top half of my cart hasn't changed too much in the last 6-7 years. The Streamdeck is key: I have dozens of buttons and knobs that are dynamic depending on what I'm doing within Pomfort's LiveGrade or bit.ctrl.

At what point did you bring in bitbox?​

I got in on the original bitbox preorder and received my units in the fall of 2024, I've never looked back. They have been used on every one of my productions since.

What main issue was it solving?​

bitbox is my 3rd iteration of camera control. My previous versions relied on consumer travel routers or modified Raspberry Pis connecting to my 2.4GHz Ruckus mesh wifi network with mixed results. On the first season of Shōgun, I had major issues with wifi interference from our lighting board operator. Since our lighting grid was massive and their system scanned the RF range (hogging up any available frequencies), I would often get squeezed out. This, paired with the slow 2 minute boot time of the Ruckus network or camera control boxes made it a pretty unreliable system when time was sensitive.

The 5 second boot time and extended range due to the less cluttered 900MHz frequencies of bitbox has been a game changer!

How were they received?​

Camera assistants love bitbox and never complain because they are small, light and built like something that belongs on the camera. Now that I take care of everything to do with the digital side of the camera, they can focus on their builds and focus marks while I do everything else from the DIT cart. This has greatly improved our efficiency and allows me to make micro adjustments to the white balance, tint and ND/ASA that I wouldn't have necessarily done if it would interrupt the flow of the set. This just results in much higher quality, more consistent images.

How did your wireless workflow affect collaboration between departments?​

I think having camera control allows me to contribute even more to the camera department by taking a large amount of work off the camera assistant's shoulders. We move faster, smoother and more seamlessly.

Any surprise use cases that proved to be invaluable?​

I use bitbox to wirelessly connect my on-set SmallHD OLED 22 to Pomfort's LiveGrade so that our Director and Cinematographer can have a wireless monitor close to camera that always shows the same LUT and CDL that I'm viewing in the tent while not needing to be tethered to the DIT cart.

I've also used bitbox to wirelessly connect Pomfort's LiveGrade to LED walls so that I can make small grading adjustments to the wall without being physically tethered.

Are there instances that stand out where bitbox solved a time sensitive production issue?​

All day, every day. I'm able to make exposure and color adjustments no matter what kind of build the camera is in. For us, this is mostly Technocrane, Steadicam or handheld. So allowing the camera assistants to focus on their job and allowing me the freedom to make on the fly adjustments during the take or seconds before we roll without interrupting the flow of set is wonderful.

Were there any major changes made in your workflow from Season 1 to Season 2?​

bitbox for camera control and Arri Hi-5s for iris. With over 40 unique lenses, having a handset that can map iris to a ring allowed me to reduce the number of rings in my cart drawer by over half! Paired with extending the antenna off the handset and onto set over IP, it really is the most advanced iris handset for DITs.

Any specific workflow improvements you've implemented that you're excited to carry forward on future productions?​

I'm very, very excited to try out the bitbox max for extended range and I can't wait until the release of the LBUS expansion. On Shōgun, we are using a mixture of 2.4GHz RF motors and 900MHz RIA-1 antennas on the cameras with the Hi-5s just to keep a couple of our builds tight. But my dream is for all iris to be transmitted over 900MHz using the bitbox as that communication device. It will allow for less bulk on the camera and on the DIT/Receiver carts with the added range/reliability of 900MHz.

Shōgun Season 2 is officially in production, with no official release date yet.