It is not the first time the this project creates a momentum out of its own and steers to directions I have never thought of.
Today I managed to get a very generous offer from a local cinema. With the idea of supporting the local movie making community, I was offered to rent a full cinema hall for a local premiere of Ara’s Tale. The price is such, that I feel able to raise enough donations to get this actually financed.
This all comes with a catch, .. of course 🙂
To ensure the best picture and audio I have to deliver the movie as DCP – Digital Image Package, the actual world wide standard for distributing digital cinema content.
Fortunately there are free possibilities to be able to produce these type of digital media. But looking at the whole specifications behind this, I guess that there is a whole new world of things which needs to be handled correctly to get a working DCP movie.
What I would like to ask the community: Is there any knowledge out there, that could give me a good starting point and tips to start into the right direction ?
If you happen to have some experience with this, I am glad for any input you can provide.
Hi there, I had never heard of DCP before, so I got curious after ready your post. Here are the few things I have found during my research. You most likely have seen those before, but I’ll post this anyway just in case it can be of some use:
Everything seems to point to OpenDCP being the tool you’ll want to use to create your Digital Cinema Package. I’ve included examples with other programs since this usually helps me get a better understanding in a more general way.
From what I can see, it shouldn’t be too hard to get your DCP version working. Good luck!
My other post seems to have been messed up so sorry for the double post. This is a simplified version:
Hi there, I had never heard of DCP before, so I got curious after ready your post. Here are the few things I have found during my research. You most likely have seen those before, but I’ll post this anyway just in case it can be of some use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Package
Wikipedia DCP page
http://code.google.com/p/opendcp/wiki/Documentation
OpenDCP official tutorial
http://www.dcpbuilder.com/support/tutorial-2/tutorial.html
This is only a freeware, but it may give you a better understanding in how DCPs are made from the tutorial.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?249664-Making-a-DCP-%28Digital-Cinema-Package%29
This is a thread asking the same question as your are with some pretty good answer. It appears the creator of OpenDCP was there to answer the question.
http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/06/how-to-make-a-dcp-digital-cinema-package-on-your-own-computer.html
This is a video tutorial that uses OpenDCP
http://bitfilms.blogspot.fr/2010/11/making-dcp-entirely-with-open-source.html
This uses the OpenCinemaTools and seems to be done entirely using the terminal. The comments seem very positive.
Everything seems to point to OpenDCP being the tool you’ll want to use to create your Digital Cinema Package. I’ve included examples with other programs since this usually helps me get a better understanding in a more general way.
From what I can see, it shouldn’t be too hard to get your DCP version working. Good luck!
Again, sorry for the double post.
Thanks a lot for these links.
I already ‘know’ OpenDCPand also the open cinema tools. just this minute I am giving OpenDCP a test run 🙂
These other links are very informative as well.
Thanks again.
If everything works out, I will see to have the DCP files as download as well.
my “significant other” is the protection/technical manager of an 8 screen multiplex. I’ve been taking to her about how they show third party movies/clips/presentations. the dcp route is if your show needs integrating with their TMS (theatre management system) etc.
it would appear this happens extremely rarely, the common way is to pipe a 1080 movie into the projector directly using a media player with and hdmi output. this can go straight into some projectors allthough some need and hdmi-dvi conversion.
they’ve used domestic blu ray players (a lot can play many formats via USB memory stick ie. divx, mb4) as well as disks. another great option would be a ps3 as they are cheap, automatically update codecs etc, can play pretty much anything you throw at them and have both analogue and digital outputs. (and blu-ray)
if the projector can’t handle any of these directly, you can pump the signal through their upscalers which will basically only serve as a signal/input conversion.
I’m by no means an expert, but this is the way I’ll go when I come to show my short. the shows if seen like this look as good as anything else I’ve seen screened. it also keeps it easy for the projectionist as well as avoiding the minefield that dcp seems to be.
hope that’s an insite into a different approach
n.
Thanks a lot for these detailed options. I will keep these in mind if everything else fails.
The DCP creation is now pretty much handled. I have a test screening at the cinema to check out any issues there are.
I would like to go the DCP route, because as I understand it the used color space and depth gives much more definition to the movie on the screen.
cool, glad you’re pretty much sorted.
you going to document the process? or any pointers to specific tutorials that helped?
If all goes well, I might do that, although the process itself isn’t so much of a problem, if your workflow was setup correctly 🙂