Please indicate what your current sound mix format is
If your film is playing at a festival and has not been announced yet please write (Confidential) after the festival name.
If you have a link to your master, please provide it below. Please add any link passwords to the comments box below.
Remember to include country and area code
If you were referred by a person or company, please let us know.
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.
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.
SMTPE DCPs support 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, and 60 fps.INTEROP DCPs only support 24 fps.
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.
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.
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.
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. However for shorter content, such as advertisements and short-films, DCPs can be delivered on specially formatted USB Thumb-drives or hard-drives. These are the most cost effective solution for shorter content.
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.
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.
There is no easy answer. SMPTE and Interop are two different standards for DCPs. Think of them like a Quicktime file versus a MP4. SMPTE is the newer standard and is definitely the better of the two. It supports more features, deals better with subtitles and encryption, and supports a vast number of frame-rates; 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, and 60 fps @ 2K. 24, 25, and 30 fps @ 4K. Interop on the other hand is old only supports 24 and 48 fps @ 2K and 24 fps @ 4K.Interop - having been around for much longer then SMPTE - is guaranteed to work in any cinema around the world. Whereas SMPTE, while being the better format, has not yet been completely adopted. That said, the majority of Australian cinemas support SMPTE.So the question comes down to two things:1) What is the frame-rate of your material?2) Where is the DCP going? What are the specs of the cinema or festival for which DCP is going to?If you are unsure, get in-touch with us and we can help you figure out the best option.
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.
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.
.png)