SXSW AND "I AM NOT A TECH GUY"
Well, this is frustrating...
Just upgraded my vimeo account ($60 a year) to have a streaming password-protected copy of the movie online - this was mainly because Jonny had "Streaming and Downloadable Copy of The Movie" as a Kickstarter award, but I discovered that South By Southwest only accepts films that are streaming on vimeo. So, cool! No more Film Freeway or Withoutabox for this one, I can go directly to the source!
So I looked at all of the info for submissions (the usual $40 for short films, have the vimeo streamer available, they'll set aside hotel rooms for you if you get it - not pay for them, mind you, that kind of thing) and then I took a look at how SXSW accepts films to be shown at the festival.
It's called DCP or Digital Cinema Package. This is a very specific package which gives your film the best resolution possible in 2K or 4K by upgrading everything, even if it wasn't necessarily shot in 2 or 4K. It requires downloading a free program (so that's alright), and then basically being a technical wizard going through forty thousand steps transforming the movie into TIFF images, then to JPEG 2000s before getting original audio source files into a Surround format--
That's when I stopped watching the "How To" video. I even found a way to do this on FCPX, but considering how much technical work this requires (and files that I may not even have), I may just have to skip the whole festival. Part of me thinks this is ridiculous and I should never give up chance to get into a festival, and the other part of me thinks that in the middle of doing all this work, I'll find out I don't even have enough space on my external hard drive and I'll wind up getting screwed anyway.
A quick chat with my buddy Chris Hill (professional awesome editor guy) sent me to easydcp.com while he told me, "Yeah, it'll probably cost around $3000-$6000 for a DCP." After telling him about this workaround I found online, his immediate reaction was "chances are it won't work well and will be unusable." And knowing my technical expertise, that sounds about right. The other option is buying a DaVinci Resolve plug-in (also for a few grand) that apparently has an "Easy DCP" button. BUTTON. Like, press a button, get a coffee, DCP ready. Worth buying with a group of filmmakers is my thought....
So, this is annoying. Obviously, I can't complain too much - if this is the way movies are headed and some festivals have certain technical aspects, so be it, but I know my limits. I've taught myself a lot of technical things over the last few years, but I'm a storyteller, not a tech guy. That's why my initial toe-dip into the world of becoming an AE (which I did because I thought I was going to get married.... long story...), was simply a toe-dip: I can shuffle footage around to tell an interesting story, but I'm not into the gear, file formats, etc. Which also means that I shouldn't kick myself when I don't know or understand technical stuff and can't just "do it all myself." I'm just not that guy. Which is okay.
But if anybody wants to buy me a full-on DaVinci Resolve and ten years of access to AfterEffects and Photoshop, I won't be sad.
Just upgraded my vimeo account ($60 a year) to have a streaming password-protected copy of the movie online - this was mainly because Jonny had "Streaming and Downloadable Copy of The Movie" as a Kickstarter award, but I discovered that South By Southwest only accepts films that are streaming on vimeo. So, cool! No more Film Freeway or Withoutabox for this one, I can go directly to the source!
So I looked at all of the info for submissions (the usual $40 for short films, have the vimeo streamer available, they'll set aside hotel rooms for you if you get it - not pay for them, mind you, that kind of thing) and then I took a look at how SXSW accepts films to be shown at the festival.
It's called DCP or Digital Cinema Package. This is a very specific package which gives your film the best resolution possible in 2K or 4K by upgrading everything, even if it wasn't necessarily shot in 2 or 4K. It requires downloading a free program (so that's alright), and then basically being a technical wizard going through forty thousand steps transforming the movie into TIFF images, then to JPEG 2000s before getting original audio source files into a Surround format--
That's when I stopped watching the "How To" video. I even found a way to do this on FCPX, but considering how much technical work this requires (and files that I may not even have), I may just have to skip the whole festival. Part of me thinks this is ridiculous and I should never give up chance to get into a festival, and the other part of me thinks that in the middle of doing all this work, I'll find out I don't even have enough space on my external hard drive and I'll wind up getting screwed anyway.
A quick chat with my buddy Chris Hill (professional awesome editor guy) sent me to easydcp.com while he told me, "Yeah, it'll probably cost around $3000-$6000 for a DCP." After telling him about this workaround I found online, his immediate reaction was "chances are it won't work well and will be unusable." And knowing my technical expertise, that sounds about right. The other option is buying a DaVinci Resolve plug-in (also for a few grand) that apparently has an "Easy DCP" button. BUTTON. Like, press a button, get a coffee, DCP ready. Worth buying with a group of filmmakers is my thought....
So, this is annoying. Obviously, I can't complain too much - if this is the way movies are headed and some festivals have certain technical aspects, so be it, but I know my limits. I've taught myself a lot of technical things over the last few years, but I'm a storyteller, not a tech guy. That's why my initial toe-dip into the world of becoming an AE (which I did because I thought I was going to get married.... long story...), was simply a toe-dip: I can shuffle footage around to tell an interesting story, but I'm not into the gear, file formats, etc. Which also means that I shouldn't kick myself when I don't know or understand technical stuff and can't just "do it all myself." I'm just not that guy. Which is okay.
But if anybody wants to buy me a full-on DaVinci Resolve and ten years of access to AfterEffects and Photoshop, I won't be sad.
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