If you've attended a film festival in the past 24 months, then you've already seen our work.
Recent feature DCPs
Late Night With The Devil
Cameron & Colin Cairnes
Future Pictures
View stills
Voices In Deep
Jason Raftopoulos
Exile Entertainment
View stills
Clean
Lachlan Mcleod
Walking Fish, Good Thing Productions
View stills
Pricing (ex GST)
2K / 4K
Films under 40 min
$300
2K / 4K
Features
$7.35/min
2K / 4K
Commercial Advertisement
$770
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Response time: 24 hours.
Submission Guidelines
We can accept almost any format, however, where possible we ask that you provide a ProResHQ or equivalent 10-bit file at native resolution , frame-rate and aspect-ratio (no letterboxing). We will take care of any adjustments on our end. Read the full technical specifications here.
Delivery Mediums
CRU Drive
The industry standard method for delivering large DCPs to cinemas, these drives are rugged and require a special dock to access.
USB Thumb-drive or HDD
USB thumb-drives and portable hard-drives are the cheapest and easiest way to physically deliver your DCP to cinemas.
Digital Delivery
We offer free digital delivery for all DCPs. This is a good option if your cinema or festival is willing to accept a download link. Short films are typically under 20GB, and features are usually around 60-100GBs.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Digital Cinema Package, otherwise known as a DCP, is the package used to distribute content to commercial cinemas. Unlike regular video files, a DCP is made up of a collection of specially encoded formatted video, audio & data files. These files are assembled and transferred onto a drive that is formatted for compatibility with cinema playback servers around the world.
What resolution should I use? 2K vs 4K?
The vast majority of Hollywood feature films are released and distributed at 2K. In Australia, the vast majority of cinema screens cannot play higher than 2K resolution, with the exception of specially marketed screens such as Hoyts eXtreme, Village Vmax and IMAX. So unless you have a specific 4K cinema in mind or a requirement from your distributor, then your best bet is to go with 2K. If you are still unsure we are more than happy to assist you further in making the correct decision.
What frame-rates are supported in a DCP?
SMTPE DCPs support 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, and 60 fps.
What if my film has multiple internal aspect ratios?
In situations when the film has both scope and flat elements, it is better for the cinema projection to create a scope export (2048x858) to the full frame with pillarboxed flat sequences. The flat elements would be scaled down without being cropped. If you'd like we can create a flat DCP, however we highly recommend rescaling your film to the above specs.
What if my film is not at 24fps?
If you can confirm that the cinema venue used for the screening has a 25fps projector we could create 25fps DCP, however most of the time if your film is not 24fps we will have to convert it in order to create 24fps DCP. This is due to the fact that most of the projectors are 24fps and with DCPs in another frame rate the picture might seem jarring. We will convert the sound for your film as well which will result in a slight sound pitch shift. Alternatively you could provide us with separate sound deliverables in 24fps from your sound engineer.
What file format do you accept?
We can accept almost any file format but we ask that - where possible - you provide your material in accordance to our specs sheet available above. If you are unsure, get in-touch with us and we can help.
How are DCPs delivered to cinemas?
Typically, feature films are distributed to cinemas in special carriers called CRU drives. These CRU drives are formatted and designed to integrate specifically with a cinemas playback server. They are about the same size and weight of a desktop USB drive, but you cannot access them without special hardware.
How does CRU Drive hiring work?
Sometimes you may not want to buy an expensive CRU carrier, so we have rental drives that you can lease. Once we've loaded the DCP onto the CRU carrier we arrange all the logistics of getting the drive to the cinema and back again.
What is Upmixing and do I need it?
Upmixing is the process of taking an audio mix and processing it to a higher channel format. Typically, this means taking a stereo audio mix and converting it to surround sound. We highly recommend that your DCP is mastered with surround sound, as stereo audio can sound quiet and odd in a cinema environment, especially if played along side surround sound content. The best quality is always for your audio mixer to master your mix in surround sound, but this is not always possible - so if you only have a stereo mix, we can upmix it for you and create a pseudo surround sound mix. We include this as a free service for all stereo DCPs.
Should my DCP be in Interop or SMPTE?
There is no easy answer. SMPTE and Interop are two different standards for DCPs. Think of them like a Quicktime file versus a MP4.
What colour space should my film be delivered in?
If you are asking the question, then its best to let us convert your material into the correct space on our end. Simply tell us what your current colour space is and we'll do the rest.
If you already have subtitles then you can burn them in yourself or provide us with a SRT file and we can do it for you. Make sure to consider that your DCP will be played on a huge cinema screen, so subtitles can be smaller than what you would do if delivering for web. If you don't have subtitles but need them made, get intouch and we can arrange to have your material transcribed and translated.
Should my DCP be encrypted?
If you're asking the question then the answer is no. Unless your distributor requires an encrypted DCP master, then encryption is more hassle than its worth. With encryption, each cinema screen that plays your DCP must be given a special decryption key that is unique to that screen for a certain time-period. This is how Hollywood feature films are protected and its very effective, but its also costly as it requires a great deal of management. Give us a call if you are unsure and we can help.
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