We got selected as one of the guest films for the Real Experimental Film Series at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills, and we needed a DCP, pronto!
I started researching DCPs a couple years back when I worked as a post-producer on an other indy feature, but the tests weren't conclusive, so I didn't get to make the actual DCP for it.
It was time to dive again into DCP waters. I tested a few new encoding apps, Wraptor for AME, DCP-o-matic, EasyDCP plug-in for Resolve. But at the end of the day, I went back to FinalDCP. I retested the entire workflow, and talked to a couple of colleagues just to make sure I got everything right.
I elected to make a flat, Interop DCP and I set the Jpeg2000 bitrate at around 150Mbps. Since our master was HD, I selected to pad the image, without resizing.
I had previously prepped an LCR mix from the stereo mix stems, so I encoded in 5.1 with empty LFE, Ls, and Rs tracks.
It took 16 long hours to encode, but it went steadily. The software converted from the 23.976fps of the ProRes QT HD Master to the 24fps of the DCP which probably added to the render time. The conversion was perfect, no skipping frames or stuttering.
I QC the package on the computer using the DCP Player app, and all was fine! Image checked, sound checked.
I then formatted a WD portable drive to Linux Ext3, using an old MacBook with Ubuntu, and I copied the DCP from the Mac HFS drive to the Linux drive on the same MacBook.
The drive was sent to the theater for ingest. I got to check the film a couple days before the show... and the movie played beautifully! Yes!
On screening night the movie looked and sounded great on the big screen, with cast and crew and an audience, powerful stuff! The director was thrilled, and so was I.
It's a success!
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