ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

11 years, 5 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Deborah, if you use Adriano's link on a DIY DCP, please come back and let us know how it goes! I think these new Open Source DCP could be really interesting.

11 years, 1 month ago - Karel Bata

There's a mention of Adobe's DCP capability here: https://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2014/04/next-adobe-media-encoder-cc.html I'd be inclined to use Media Encoder rather than go from Premiere, which also suggests you may be able to create DCPs from anything that ME can ingest!

I'd be very curious to hear how anybody fares with this.

I'm not sure why Danny Lacy's blog suggests rendering to TIFF then later converting to JPEG2000 in a separate step. Why not just go straight to JPEG2000, which is what I've always done?

Oh, and don't be fooled by CineAsset's FCP 'plug in' - it still requires that you create a JPG2000 sequence first, so you can't render straight out of a FCP project (wouldn't that have been nice?). You may as well use the standalone Cineasset prog and save yourself the CPU overhead of running FCP at the same time.

11 years, 1 month ago - Karel Bata

I think you're confusing the centre channel with a domestic sub-woofer.

The centre channel in a cinema is used to locate screen centred sounds, not to add bass. Sitting to one side in a stereo mix (with no centre) in a cinema will result in the sound appearing to come from the speaker closest to the listener. A centre speaker will help avoid this. Most dialog will be located in the centre. A centre speaker also means not having to fake a centre with an equal L/R mix, which only really works with a centrally located listener.

I just opened up OpenDCP and the options for encoding are stereo or 5.1.

I guess the upshot is that you can get away with using a stereo mix, as I have, particularly if the stereo imaging isn't particularly wide, though it's still not optimal for someone sitting off to the side, but you'd be best off preparing a 3 track (or paying for a 5.1) mix.

11 years, 1 month ago - Ryan Hooper

I'm the filmmaker that Steph (Bang Post) is referring to whose film was finished by friends at home. The screening was at Edinburgh Film Fest and the DCP made an incredible difference. I would recommend getting it done, Blu-Ray is still an unstable format and I'm sure everyone on this site has a tale about a screening that had technical problems.

I'd also recommend Bang in Cardiff, they did a great job for me and were endlessly helpful

11 years, 1 month ago - Tony Oldham

A DIY DCP link:

http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/06/how-to-make-a-dcp-digital-cinema-package-on-your-own-computer.html

Hope it helps

11 years, 1 month ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

DCP's are for theatrical distribution, missing the centre channel is going to/may sound reedy/thin compared to one with the channel. And if the sound is bad, people blame the lighting!

11 years, 1 month ago - Steph Lynch

Here at Bang Post Production in Cardiff we offer DCP mastering at competitive prices as well as offering film makers advice on how to get their film looking the best it can for screenings. Having a properly made and technically accurate DCP does look a lot better than a Blu-ray at screenings which can make a big difference to interested buyers. If your film doesn't look as good as it could when screened in a professional environment it can be heart breaking. We recently helped one film maker who wanted a DCP but their film had been finished by friends at home and it would not have looked right when projected in a cinema. We were able to help him fix his film to get it in shape for the screening prior to making the finished deliverable and it made a world of difference.

11 years, 5 months ago - Deborah Perkin

Thank you all for the responses. Really excellent. Chris here's my email deborah@deborahperkin.com
I don't think I'll be taking the DIY option - I'm not confident enough.
Thanks again to all, and please don't hesitate to suggest firms and prices. I don't know what I want as the cinemas I'm self-distributing to haven't given me a spec as yet. One said they could play DVDs but I'd like to offer top quality.

11 years, 5 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Call the post houses and haggle! It may be cheaper to get it done outside of London, so try Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham. Manchester may be dearer now the Beeb are up there, but their overheads are still lower than Soho so worth a try.

11 years, 1 month ago - Karel Bata

Hmm the advice at http://www.dcpinfo.com states "Audio: Minimum 3 channels (Left,Right,Center) "

I've made DCPs using a stereo mix with no problem. Any one care to comment?

11 years, 1 month ago - James Strange

You can actually export a DCP straight from adobe premiere with the most recent (CC 2014) upgrade, I'll be testng it at my local cinema in the next month or so.

11 years, 1 month ago - Benjamin Kent

I made a DCP for a short of mine a while back using the free program OpenDCP and it worked just fine. It didn't have any encryption key capability (at the time, at least), so it's probably not suitable for a feature, but perfect for a short where you probably don't need to be worried about someone ripping it.

11 years, 5 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Deborah, just remember a DCP won't add any production value, and if the exhibitor will play a DVD/Blu-Ray then that £1450 difference could be better spent on promotion? I'd only create a DCP if required to do so.

The other thing with a DCP is that the film needs to be ingested by the playback server, so delivered in advance on hard drive and take a couple of hours+ maybe to ingest. This is brilliant for runs of a few screenings or more, but if it's one-off screenings, then a blu-ray is faster and easier for all parties too.

11 years, 5 months ago - Adriano Cirulli

http://dannylaceyfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/getting-to-grips-with-making-digital.html

11 years, 5 months ago - Deborah Perkin

I need to get a DCP here in the UK for my 82 minute indie film. How or where can I get the best deal? Thanks.

11 years, 5 months ago - Chris Milton

Thanks everyone for the feedback. As I thought everyone seems to think either the price is prohibitive or it is an unnecessary expense. For this most part I agree with you.

Deborah - I would think this will cost in the region of £1500 but it really depends on what you want in the package. e.g do you want it encrypted, do you need it on a CRU drive, does it need to be tested, do you want to personally sign it off etc etc. I don't want to use this page to advertise my employer but if you want to drop me a direct message I can point you in the right direction.

11 years, 5 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

DCP isn't something I have an opinion on any more than any other container format! It's something you have to use for any kind of distribution, but most indie films never get distributed, so don't bother with the expense. I know some post houses were charging £12k (surely less now?) for DCP creation.

It's a good format for packaging, it's a series of jpeg2000 compressed individual frames so no intraframe compression artefacts preventing that horrible 'floating face' effect, but the upshot of that is larger package size (why DCPs are delivered on hard drive). Is also possible to encrypt the contents to decrypt with a key (on USB thumb drives usually). They're also standardised across projection system suppliers.

11 years, 5 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Yep, Paddy, they are less now: comparable to a 35mm print. Somewhere between 1500 and 3500 dollars. It kind of depends on the options you want (2k 2D, Scope, 4k etc.) and whether you wanted it tested (and yes, you want it tested). I'm dealing with that right now, as a matter of fact.

And for the curious who think they have an academy award caliber film, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences wants this:

Video: 24.00 frames per second
Compression: JPEG2000
Color Space: XYZ
Video Format: 2K - 2048x1080 container size (1920x1080, 1998x1080, 2048x858 and other image sizes are acceptable)
Audio Format: 24-bit, 48 kHz uncompressed
Minimum 3 channels (Left,Right,Center) or 5.1 (L,R,C,LFE,LS,RS)
Audio Channel
Mapping: 1:Left 2:Right 3:Center 4:Subwoofer 5:Left Surround 6:Right Surround
Encryption: Unencrypted material only

There are people out there saying you can make your very own DCP, but they're wrong. I never saw a DIY DCP that was worth a damn.