FS7: Best way to deliver a film to your client

P

Publimix

Veteran
How do you send your finished films to your clients? They will use it for shows and it will be viewed with a beamer or a tv set.

On a usb- stick, a sd card Or a DVD, or other ways?

I can put the films on Vimeo or send it via wetransfer, but what could I do best?

It is 1-7 gig. of HD film, rendered from davinci resolve.

thanks a lot
 
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Ben Scott said:
Ask them how they'd like it delivered.
Click to expand...
Ben, you're assuming the client knows what they want...

This is 2016, clients know diddly squat. Even when they think they know, they'll probably ask for the wrong thing. So, I find out how/where the video is being played and advise accordingly. Usually, I supply multiple masters in different formats for different needs.
 
Well yeah. That kinda what I meant. Speak to them and find out what's what.

I had a client recently going mental at me for providing some .mp4s when he DEMANDED .h264s. Cue a very awkward conversation about what .h264s are and him trying to save face...
 
I often have clients asking me to delver originals over the web through dropbox. But it always seems to me that the files are huge and I just don't have a fast enough connection to send them unless they were very short. My favorite is just to buy a cheap hard drive and count on Fed ex.
 
I have a 256Gb USB flash drive for sending day's rushes (I provide a return addressed jiffy bag for it too) when data wrangling doesn't take place on the day. It's actually fast enough to edit on too which is cool.

I usually deliver masters/viewing copies/youtube and social media copies via Dropbox, or budget in USB Drive or hard drive plus courier. All this is discussed and budgeted beforehand.
 
Brown paper bag coated with blood stains. Let them know I mean business.

Failing that, I upload rushes to Dropbox, Wetransfer, Hightail etc.
 
Thanks, so far.

What would be the most safe and easy file format? (HD)? In Other Words what can I advice the contractor.

One client is a contractor who knows everything about dykes, machines and digging 'polders'. But he knows nothing about and file formats (and to be honest so don't I, the last time I had to deliver film it was color negative or betacam sp). The file format I want to use is quicktime. So they can play it with VLC media or similar. But I am not sure.

The other client has a professional PR department, they will know what they want I suppose. (But I won't be supprised if they don't)

But is it good to send only files, we all have very fast 120mb/s Internet. A dvd or another device with name and adress from the maker would also be nice I think. The harddrive sounds good, including a sticker with my name and address. (For marketing purpose.)
 
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Do you guys often send uncompressed rushes over the internet ? How fast a connection do you need for that and how large a fie will you send before you draw the line? I have no problem sending compressed files that way especially if its just for review nd occasionally small originals but not if the files get large. I have comcast with download speeds of up to 90 Mb/s but upload is barely 6 .
 
I don't send rushes (unless it is the odd clip) but for example I was doing stuff onsite for the Champions League final the other day for Sony and was uploading BRoll selects each evening for them to release to press next morning. They were 1080p 16Mbs h264s.
 
For anything under 60 GB I use a low cost high performance USB3 key. ( $40 key that transfers at 6 GB/minute when connected via USB3, and about 1.5 GB/minute with a USB2 connection )

For larger work it's usually a 2 or 4 TB portable hard-drive. ( if the client can't supply the drive then I buy the drive and bill it to the project )
 
We have done delivery via lots of different ways. For anything under 4GB, we use Dropbox. Typically for anything larger than that we ship a drive (sometimes a thumbdrive, sometimes a harddrive).

We did have a client that worked with us to use a private Bittorrent transfer. It required more work to setup and use, but it worked phenomenally well to distribute about 20GB to the client.

I can't stand the cable companies that advertise high speeds, but don't mention the slower upload speed. Our city rolled out municipally owned and run internet a couple of years ago—$79.99 a month for 1Gb/s symmetrical connections.
 
Which thumb drive do you guys like for price/performance ratio? Some are godawful slow even though they say USB3.
 
I recommend a service called Mailbigfile - their "Business Lite" package at £75 per year. I reviewed Matobo's delivery strategy recently, and I can't find anything that ticks my particular boxes any better:

Web-based UI uploads file from your computer (any number of files - up to 20 Gigs each) and sends a link to whomever you want.

They are sent an email, customised with your company logo, plus any other messages you want to add.

They click on the link and download. Or they can just forward the link to their "web people."

Whenever the file is downloaded, we get emailed a notification. Nice to know, but also useful when someone says you never sent them the file (it happens...)

You can opt to keep the file indefinitely or set to self-destruct at any given time.

You can embed a simple iframe code in your website, to allow people to send files directly to you (again, up to 20 Gigs per file.) If you go to www.matobo.co.uk and scroll to the bottom, click on "upload files" to see what I mean.

Ben.
 
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