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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Author
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Topic: Shipping out DCP drives after ingestion but before the show - a cautionary tale
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-02-2016 01:52 PM
Having just spent a week dealing with DCP disasters at a "film" festival, I have seen the following issues:
- completely blank disk (no partition table, no data, no nothing) - required getting another copy from the "film" maker
- tons of exfat-formatted disks - required copying to ext3 disks
- GPT-formatted disks (content usually shows up under partition 2) - not actually a problem, but annoying
- unrecognized DCP, but with good MXF files - needed to be re-wrapped with OpenDCP
- DCP encoded at very high bit rate that had sync issues on a GDC server that arrived too late to properly inspect - had to be swapped with Blu-Ray backup during screening
- DCP at 23.98fps frame rate - had to be re-made using DCP-o-matic at 24fps
- multiple interop DCPs at frame rates other than 24 - had to be re-encoded as SMPTE (non-24 frame rates are not supported under interop)
- many HFS+ -formatted disks - content had to be copied to ext3-formatted disks
- disk labelled "DCP" but with non-DCP content (usually Pro Res files) on them - required making DCPs from whatever content was there
- disk with multiple CPLs per disk - required extra time to figure out what was what
- DCPs more than one directory level from root (as Leo mentioned) - required copying DCP files to new disk
- DCPs encoded with awful software ("Wraptor" is a major culprit) that simply did not play - required creating DCP from whatever backup format the "film" maker provided
- DCPs encoded with Lt/Rt soundtracks (often on shorts) - not so much a problem, as a lack of understanding of how cinema sound works
- DCPs that played elsewhere (apparently with success) but did not play properly on the specific set of equipment that we used (see Brad's point above)
- DCPs that were simply encoded wrong, with the sound out of sync or other major issues
The biggest issues overall were HFS+ disks and sound sync issues in general.
This was a week full of major headaches. And it was not just bad DCPs at fault. This festival accepts 35mm, HDCAM, and DCP (and says so in its submission application), and at least a half-dozen or so "film" makers were either unable or unwilling to provide one of those formats. The lack of concern about exhibition among the people who are making "films" now is just astounding.
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-02-2016 02:29 PM
quote: Frank Cox
"Film done wrong" is bad and we call out people by name on this forum when they screwed something up, but digital done wrong is just fine and dandy because nobody has time to do it properly?
If somebody told you that you couldn't drive your car except during the hours of midnight on Friday until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, you'd be out for blood. If somebody sent you a set of wheels for your car which had five lug nuts instead of six, you'd send them right back.
But, why is it that because something is ~D~I~G~I~T~A~L~ it's okay to send you anything and everything under the sun and just expect it to work without complaint?
Like others, I have had people send me everything from oddly formatted or corrupted files to completely blank disks and, when I tell them that their content can't be played, somehow it's my fault.
I even had a woman complain to me when her CD disk that she brought with her wouldn't play in my Tascam CD player. When I examined the disk, I found out that she had used a Pentel paint marker to write the title of the disk on the DATA side of the disk. Somehow, this became MY responsibility to fix!
Only after more than an hour's worth of time and painfully slow, careful application of paint thinner with Q-Tips was I able to get the disk clean enough that I could copy it to new media. At the same time, it became my fault that the rehearsal was late.
If I had been handed a vinyl record with paint spilled on it, I would have said, "Sorry," and nobody would have even batted an eyelash.
So, why is it that people think that they have the right to disobey every standard and do lazy, slipshod work just because something is digital?
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Steve Kraus
Film God
Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000
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posted 05-02-2016 02:33 PM
In my admittedly limited experience, on the DSS200 the only time I have seen a show listed on the "Please select a show for playback screen" where selecting it bounced me back to the same screen it was because the system clock had drifted ahead to the point where the key was allegedly open while the media block clock still said no no (they both must agree that it's time to open).
A few weekends ago I went round and round with a studio for a special VIP screening where they kept sending me keys that did not match as per the server. And of course they kept telling me that it played successfully elsewhere. Keys were being made by the post house. First they thought maybe they had the wrong cert so they tried again. No good. There were at 9 on the email chain including their VP of post production. Then someone said maybe you should delete keys, reboot the server, and try again. I figured it was useless but not to contradict anyone I did as asked (which on Dolby requires a site visit). No good. Then they said well, let's have Deluxe make him a key. Again, no good. I got in touch with Dolby whose tech asked to see the logs. (Another site visit for that.)
The tech's review of the logs with ample quoting said here this indicates a key valid for your system. And this indicates valid content. Don't know why you are seeing what you are seeing but it should open on time. I sent out the word but also followed up with a question: You are saying this is good and that is good but where does it indicate that this good key will open that good content? He phoned back the next morning to say actually there is nothing that says it will. By then the studio had decided to make another key which would open sooner so we can see if it does. As soon as they can arrange security so I don't pirate the movie, of course.
Then a curious thing. The post house woman asks me to send her the CPL file, which I get straight off the drive. And finally, an admission that they are having problems with playback at their own screening room. The answer: They'd made keys from a wrong CPL file. New key came, I could see right away that it was a match and both the test run and screening went fine. Whew!
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Frank Cox
Film God
Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 05-02-2016 04:20 PM
Some years ago, not too long after I got my digital setup, I had a movie that played in the wrong order -- just as if I had the reels mixed up on film. Deluxe, Technicolor or Cinedigm (one of them) emailed me a tiny file that solved the problem. I can't remember what that file was, though.
Had I not watched the movie in advance from start to finish *AHEM*, I wouldn't have known about the problem. Even spot checking it wouldn't have told me there were issues.
Once again, folks, if you're not watching the movie yourself, by yourself, before showing it to the public, you're begging for trouble.
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Tony Bandiera Jr
Film God
Posts: 3067
From: Moreland Idaho
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 05-02-2016 10:17 PM
quote: Frank Cox
Had I not watched the movie in advance from start to finish *AHEM*, I wouldn't have known about the problem. Even spot checking it wouldn't have told me there were issues.
Once again, folks, if you're not watching the movie yourself, by yourself, before showing it to the public, you're begging for trouble.
Ok Frank, we get it already, you are obviously better than the rest of us and live in the ideal world where you always get the Keys and drive early enough, the key unlocks early enough, have free time enough, and possibly even get paid for your time to screen EVERY DCP in its entirety.
You point is being undermined by that arrogance, give it a rest please.
Even in the film days ALL of my screenings at UC Irvine had NO time for a trial run, no matter what the format. The facility (you can see it in the picture warehouse here) was a (very busy) lecture hall. I often had 10 minutes or less to set the speakers and screen and masking before we had to open the house to get the audience seated.
And in the case of the film festivals I ran there, we often had film prints (and almost always with video media) arriving less than a half-hour before showtime. More than once I had to fast-inspect the first two reels of a 35mm feature checking only for gross tears or really bad splices and making sure there were proper changeover cues, praying I didn't miss a splice with bad framing..then as soon as I got rolling inspecting subsequent reels as the show ran.
Video? Fuggeddaboutit....it was almost always play and pray, and hope the player, media and video projector were all in a good mood that day.
Exhibition has always gotten the short end of the deal it seems, especially in the film festival and special screening world.
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Frank Cox
Film God
Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 05-02-2016 10:39 PM
quote:
Ok Frank, we get it already, you are obviously better than the rest of us and live in the ideal world where you always get the Keys and drive early enough,
I don't know about the "better than us" part, but I usually get my movie on the Thursday morning bus so I set everything up right after lunch and watch it on Thursday afternoons.
On rare occasions the key isn't valid or the drive doesn't show up until Friday morning. In that situation, I get up earlier in the morning and get things done so I can check things out before showtime.
About once in two or three years, usually due to a screw-up somewhere down the line, I don't get my movie until late Friday afternoon. In that case I don't have time to watch it all the way through before showtime, and I don't like that at all. Fortunately, that's only happened maybe three or four times since I got the digital setup installed.
quote: Tony Bandiera Jr
have free time enough, and possibly even get paid for your time to screen EVERY DCP in its entirety.
It's not that I have the "free time", but rather that running my theatre is what I do do and I take steps to make sure that I have or make the time to do what is needed to accomplish that task. I try not to schedule anything else on Thursdays (dentist appointments, hair cuts, whatever) and therefore I keep the time available to do what needs to be done in order to provide a good experience for my customers.
Since the theatre belongs to me, I don't get "paid for my time" for anything at all. It's just part of running the place.
quote: Tony Bandiera Jr
You point is being undermined by that arrogance, give it a rest please.
I honestly don't see how getting the job done as well as I can is arrogance.
With film, you can see the film sitting there, you can check the heads and tails to know that it's in the right order, and you can see if it's in good shape or spliced 40 ways from Sunday using cheap masking tape. There were a few times that I watched a movie through start-to-finish with film if I was unsure of its condition but I didn't do it every time or probably more than once or twice a year. Unfortunately, with digital there's nothing to see, I can't check it by just looking at it laying there, and the only way to know what I have is to watch it. The time that it takes to do that is the time that it takes. I guess it's equivalent the time that I don't use setting stuff up and tearing it down on the platter, just reallocated to actually watching the movie now that it's digital.
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