DCP Creation from Home

[Anderson Boyd]

For those interested in the topic of DCP creation (especially since most big festivals now support and encourage it as delivery) I spent time this week researching home-grown but professional DCP creation. There are a couple open source solutions out there like opendcp (decent but limited to TIFF/JPEG2000 input) some high priced ones with disappointing features (easyDCP Creator+ and easyDCP player, $2,500.00)

And then an impressive group with a solid feature set that's soon to expand: Quvis Wraptor www.quvis.com is $699 and while definitely pricier than freeware offers an incredible feature set all controlled through Compressor 3 or 4. You can export straight out of FCP, or if coming from another NLE, just export your highest quality master file and drop it in compressor for Digital Cinema Packaging. It even comes with a plugin to write to Linux harddrives for delivery, and extensive key management seems to be coming soon.

Keep tabs on it---it for sure puts some freedom back in our hands for content creation. Having years ago worked at a post house solely on digital intermediate stuff I saw firsthand the highway robbery that can occur, where clients of all sorts were unnecessarily taken advantage of with sky high quotes for even the simplest DCP.

[Marc Wielage]

I dunno, Drew. I see all kinds of facilities out there that are routinely charging $10 a minute for a 2K DCP ($2400 for a 120 minute movie). I don't think that's highway robbery, especially when you consider the vast number of things that can go wrong, as well as most people who don't have access to a DCP-compliant projector.

I agree, the top LA firms like Deluxe, Fotokem, and Technicolor are not cheap, but even they have rolled back their prices today compared to what they were, say, 3-4 years ago. And I've actually seen cases where at least Technicolor has made some substantial discounts for indie filmmakers who were stretched pretty thin, budget-wise.

As others have noted on this group, just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should do it. I think this is particularly true with something as critical as a deliverable element like a DCP or a videotape. As long as you have the necessary facilities to check it, it can work. But I know of many, many cases where things have gone horrible wrong -- like a critical screening that had a reel :10 seconds out of sync, or the DCP simply stopped playing 45 minutes into a screening.

[john jeffreys]

http://code.google.com/p/opendcp/

Free, open source DCP maker, at home.

[Marc Wielage]

Again, the problem I see is being able to actually watch the movie on a projector in real XYZ D-Cinema color space and knowing that the conversion was successful, the audio is in sync, and there are no issues. Creating the DCP is only part of the battle.

To me, this is one of those things like a final sound mix. Sure, you can try to do it all yourself on a home computer, but do you really want to? At some point, it's like trying to take out your own liver or fill one of your own cavities. I think you're better off hiring a pro to do it at a reasonable price, than doing it yourself and risk screwing it up.

[Anderson Boyd]

QuVis will offer a DCP player to monitor and verify any package in XYZ color space. I now hear there are better, equally priced programs. The players will obviously be essential in gauging a home-brewed DCP. There are several more solutions out there. This is a good thing. The cottage industry is growing and democracy is the ally of art and entertainment.

They say, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should." But from my school of thought, it absolutely does...but not just "do it"...learn it, master it, and become a better and more efficient filmmaker. Reduce as much overhead as possible and become an indispensable asset for all future endeavors.

'Highway robbery' doesn't apply to the entirety of post-houses doing DCP's, but when DCP creation time unequivocally takes the same amount of time for any project at the indie, non-3D level there is something wrong in quoting an exponentially more expensive price because there has, to this point, been limited access to these tools. The last two features I was on spent 5000$ a piece (unencrypted at that) at a high end, well known post house here in NYC for the quickest job imaginable. It takes maybe 30 minutes to have a film that's ready to go locked into a DCP. 80$ per work minute, for a relatively simple process, is unreasonable when it's becoming a reality to do high quality work from an independent station.

Color grading is a specialty that is hard to master which should rightfully be charged a premium. The technical automation that goes into creating a DCP is not the same, and should not be used to take advantage of filmmakers, which inarguably it has.

Without compromising quality, DIY.

[Terrence Meiczinger]

opendcp (decent but limited to TIFF/JPEG2000 input)

OpenDCP will also read DPX and BMP. However, DCP software really shouldn't accept anything other than DCDM content (12 or 16-bit TIFF). This is based on the digital cinema workflow, which is designed to yield the best quality for your feature and encourage good habits. For example, using say H264 content might be convenient, but the quality will suffer as it will only be 8-bit. As for the plugins, I'm not a huge fan because I don't want to be tied to a specific editing package and if I want re-wrap a DCP most of them won't let you do that nor do they offer many of the options of dedicated DCP tools. Of course, I'm biased toward OpenDCP, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. :-)

[Anderson Boyd]

Very cool. I'll probably output directly out of the finishing platform to 16 bit TIFF, but for testing I've been going to a ProRes 4444 file then converting to TIFF before dropping it all in openDCP. Do you have a home player/monitoring solution at the moment? I have access to a full server/projector suite at maybe a 2 weeks notice, and at the kindness of the owner, but I'm still on the hunt for a solid home solution to make sure everything's gravy. In terms of packaging I haven' heard a bad word about openDCP so I may stick with it.

[Mike Lary]

I've been testing several of the low-end DCP-creation software packages. On the Mac side, getting audio playback was impossible with most of the DCPs I created. Once I brought them onto Windows with the same player they all played fine. Has anyone had success with a software-based player for Mac OS?

[ERIC PECK]

Any suggestions for DCP players?... perhaps that will run on Mac?

[Marc Wielage]

QuVis will offer a DCP player to monitor and verify any package in XYZ color space.

Tell me again what kind of monitor you're going to use to reproduce XYZ color space for D-Cinema. How do you go about calibrating it? Are you sure this will translate to a theatrical projector?

I really think this is fraught with problems, very similar to the concept of trying to do a final sound mix for a film on computer speakers. The two tasks are very similar, because each requires a specialized environment in addition to skill and experience.