Richard studied Fine Art and trained as a video artist. After graduating he set up a digital imaging agency and learned the film-to-digital and RAW workflows for still photography at the time when RAW was an emerging technology in stills world. After crossing over to motion pictures and working in the camera department for several years he teamed up with Simon Minett in 2007.

A Digital Acquisition Supervisor has a multitude of responsibilities. These start in pre-production, where he is involved in discussions regarding the workflow between set, editorial & grade, and he liaises with the DP and Focus Puller about the camera package and any special requirements of the format.

On the day he sets up and maintains the camera system and monitoring colour pipeline. He can advise the DP about how to get the most out of the camera regarding exposure & filtration, taking into account the vagaries of different types of RAW file and different view LUT options. He sets up view LUTs in monitors or LUT boxes, and liaises with playback over video feed formats. An experienced image retoucher, he can create special looks for a shoot to be used on monitors and passed on to the online colourist.

He is in charge of managing the data that the camera creates, transferring it to production hard drives to be sent to the lab or post house, and making backup copies as necessary for bonding. He reviews footage immediately to look at focus, exposure and technical performance, a bit like a film lab would. This shot review can also enable the DP, Director and Producer to look at shots at full 4K resolution, with a preliminary grade applied if necessary. On a specialist set (greenscreen, fx comping etc) he will also look at the quality of keys and shot matching.

Finally he creates data report sheets that accompany the loader's camera report into post, and signs off the footage at the end of the day.