![]() OpenDCP is a great program to use if you can export out TIFF or JPEG 2000 frames for your film and the necessary 24-bit audio that digital cinema requires.ĭo not use the Wraptor DCP Creation Plugin found in Adobe Premiere Pro. The most reliable program I’ve used to make DCPs is free. Some editing software packages are also starting to include DCP export options. There are also plugins and software that range in price from free (DCP-o-matic) to tens of thousands of dollars (DVS Clipster). ![]() You already paid your submission fee - don’t let festivals nickel and dime you further. The day before the screening, she was informed that the DCP didn’t work and she needed to pay another couple hundred dollars to make a new DCP if she wanted to screen. Buyer beware, though: I had a filmmaker tell me a horror story about a DCP that a festival made for her through one of the festival partners (who was on the board of the festival) for a couple hundred dollars. If you don’t have a DCP, ask the TD if there are any options for a free or discounted DCP conversion. Some festivals have sponsorship agreements with posthouses that will either convert a film for free or for a deeply discounted price. The quality of service that I have witnessed from these services range from very good to horrific -mostly hard drives that won’t start when you get them or delays getting films to festivals. There are other DCP services that will make a DCP for prices ranging from $750 to $1,500. If your film’s budget is at least $100,000, save yourself a headache and budget between $2,500 and $5,000 for a DCP. You should definitely contract a professional posthouse, such as Deluxe Technicolor. The near universal transition at every theater has made the format ubiquitous. Conversion and mastering of tapes was expensive (further increased by factory closures following tsunamis related to the 2011 Japanese earthquake that caused the Fukashima disater) and the playback decks cost as much as an souped-up Honda Accord.ĭCP (Digital Cinema Package) has become the primary format for most festivals. What was maybe the greatest format for festival releasing has bit the dust. But you should also send the requisite digital backups the festival asks for, because you never know what will happen. It also doesn’t hurt if, when submitting your film, you mention that you have specific film formats that you’d like to present your request might catch the eye of an adventurous programmer. If you are such a filmmaker, it never hurts to email the technical director (known as TD from now on) to see if there is any chance of specialty film formats being projected. There are, however, experimental and other short filmmakers who use 16mm film as part of their artistic practice, and there are festivals - such as Ann Arbor, Media City and New York Film Festival’s Projections program - that still project 16mm. There has been something of a 35mm revival in the last couple of years, but that is mostly outside of the festival world. This applies even more if the festival is asking for a specific digital file format that isn’t a DCP.įirst, you probably don’t have a costly 35mm print unless you’re Paul Thomas Anderson or someone of his ilk. Caveat emptor, though: If a festival asks for anything that contradicts this guide, do exactly what they say. Instead, phone your editor, and read this guide. The tersely worded communication from the technical director would put you to sleep if it didn’t terrify you.īut don’t panic. One lands in your inbox, and you excitedly read through the letter until, when you get to the festival’s technical requirements, you develop a sense of dread. You’ve worked on your movie now for some time and have been eagerly waiting for acceptance emails from festivals. ![]() Check the date of the article: If it’s more than two years out of date, there is hopefully an update that’s been published.įormat. Additionally, there are internet commenters who exclaim that the information provided is out of date. Why the update now? Allow me the use of a clumsy and imperfect technical reference to Moore’s law that computing power doubles every eighteen months and the same has happened to available filmmaking technology. Now in 2018, my editors have asked me to update it. In the ensuing two and a half, almost three years, I’ve received a lot of positive feedback, including a few panicked emails from filmmakers submitting their films to a festivals I worked at. ![]() mp4, Apple ProRes 422, Avid DNxHD, Blu-ray, CRU drive, DCP, Dropbox, Key Delivery Message, Ki Pro, OpenDCP, Pelican caseīack in 2015, I wrote an article for Filmmaker on the best practices for delivering an exhibition copy of your film to festivals. In Distribution, Festivals & Events, Filmmaking ![]()
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