DCP Transfer for Indie Films to show in theaters

Marlon Ladd

Marlon Ladd

Veteran
Hey, everybody. I'm doing a movie premiere for my new film Bad To The Jones in a theater and had to get a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) version of the film. After much research, I found Stephen that could do the transfer for pretty cheap. For those of you that don't know, 2/3 of all theaters in the US no longer use 35mm film prints, but DCPs loaded on a hard drive instead. So, if you want the best quality for your film to be shown on the big screen, get a DCP copy. Some theaters actually require it. Anyway, here's the link: http://www.sv2dcp.com/contact/about/

Bad to the Jones Trailer: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=okTd1CIkluk
 
We are in a situation where we will require this for our feature...thanks you so much. How painless was the process? The prices seem reasonable. Thanks again.
 
They charge around a grand for a typical feature.

Software is available to do DCP creation ranging from free, to around $700 or so.

A lot of folks are doing this to avoid paying for a Dolby license.
 
I'm still going through the process right now, but I've read about all the nightmares and less than stellar results from buying software. You really need somebody that has some experience to get some excellent results. Plus, I didn't have time to experiment for a few months to try and get something right. It's a great price and worth every penny to me after going through all the research.
 
I've been doing a lot of research on DCPs ever since I had to use them for a Carmike theater for a film festival. I too found that it's best to get a DCP done by someone professionally. This is a good resource. The one I went with was Creative DCP (www.creativedcp.com) - they offer a lot of monitary incentives and the DCPs were top notch for my festival.
 
This seems silly to me. What are these services doing that one couldn't do on their own computer? Sounds to me like they are just rendering out to a specific file format. I do that at work for clients all the time. But those clients aren't filmmakers who do their own editing, they are just business people wanting a video to go from DVD to web or web to cable TV or whatever.
 
A DCP isn't a format like h.264 though A DCP contains 6 files that are read by a DCI compliant server at a professional theater (in my case it was a Carmike, but Regal requires them too). It's the digital version of a film print, a ton of conversion goes into it (including colorspace).
 
Ya why hire a colorist, editor, cameraperson, director, writer...... when my iphone can do it all. Lets get real.
 
DCP isn't that difficult to make on your own for free. OpenDCP can produce every needed files for your DCPs (2K Tiff RGB sequence (or DPX) to Jpeg2000 XYZ sequence, 5.1/7.1/2.1 sound...) and it makes the DCP structure also.
The color conversion from RGB Tiff is good (I didn't notice any color/gamma shift on our short-film between color grading and the movie theater). The problem with the DCP is that you can't verify it at home, you have to go to a movie theater to get it tested. So you have to be extra-careful when you format a Hard drive on your own for your DCP because some DCP servers only read particular ext3 hard drive (you have to format it with Linux)

OpenDCP: http://opendcp.org/
Hard Drive: http://www.knuterikevensen.com/?p=437

Hope it helps.
 
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