For Avatar 3 theatrical DCP distribution

[Shibu Paul]

Are standard DCPs limited to 2.39:1 scope at 24 fps and 48 fps globally? • Are flat / expanded-ratio masters issued only for IMAX and Dolby Cinema? • Are there any territory-specific DCP variations, or is delivery identical worldwide aside.

[Steve Guttag]

I cannot speak to how it is distributed to the entire world. But from my clients, none of which are Dolby Cinema and only one has IMAX, what is being released on the DCDC (Deluxe) drives are the least-common-denominator versions. These are:

For 2D, Scope is the default image ratio.
For 3D, FLAT 4fL (peak brightness) is the default.

2D, 48FPS (HFR) is also defaulting to the Scope ratio.

You sound format of 5.1, 7.1 and IAB are available for all of the "default" formats above.

As you move into specific theatre capabilities, you get a specific drive sent for those capabilities, like HFR 3D, or specific aspect ratio needs or even the various levels of peak brightness on 3D. They have Maxbright (6fL) as well as 14fL available.

I can't tell you how many permutations of drives and combinations of 2D/3D, Flat/Scope, HFR, 4fL/6fL/14fL there are. Clearly, as a math permutation problem, this can spiral out very fast. Heck, they may even have another level of brightness available rather than the jump from 6 to 14fL and since they've run it in Dolby Vision already, we'll presume there is one of those too with HFR and Atmos and possibly both Scope and Flat ratios.

[Shibu Paul]

3D-9FL-HighLite-48FPS DCP Available.

[Steve Guttag]

Well...there you go. It makes sense to offer something like a 9fL and even an 11 or 12fL since, with each increment, the black levels can be vastly improved with more detail. Clearly, they want 3D as bright as 2D.

[Chris Haller]

I can verify right now, through pinging Deluxe with requests, that there is

Scope 2D 24fps
Scope 2D 48 FPS

3D 24fps Scope in 4-6fl variants
3D 48fps Scope in 4-6-9-14fl variants - this strikes me as bizarre that the 9 and 14fl variants are 48fps only. I have standard and HFR 3D and that irks me a bit.

And I don't have any flat screens without masking to run the flat version for, but there is no flat 2D variant at all. I would assume Flat also has the same variations as scope.

And then there's Dolby, Barco HDR, IMAX. Even Screen X has different builds of the movie for the 2 24fps 3D light levels and 2D. It is enough to make one's head spin.

I've requested the 6fl 3D Scope and 14fl 3D Scope HFR for my main theater's 3D. All of our 2D screens will run 2D HFR Scope.

[Steve Guttag]

I now see that if you want HFR and 2D, you give up 4K. I'm sure we're bonking into the ICP bandwidth limits. 48fps double it but 4K quadruples it or 8 times the bandwidth of 2K/24. Series 4 projectors should be able to go up to 4K/60 and some can even tickle 120fps.

[Jim Cassedy]

I was sent some 48fps Barco HDR test files yesterday and also a 48fps/HDR Avatar F&A
trailer yesterday since we will be be playing it in that format here. I managed to squeeze
in an on screen test between two 70mm shows yesterday & it looked great. I'm not sure
yet how they're going to juggle shows in the upcoming weeks because we also have
several 70 & 35mm film commitments, over the holidays, plus Avatar F&A which all have
to play in that same auditorium, since it's the only one that can do 35/70 and HDR. (We've
got two 70mm shows today- then 35mm tomorrow, and then have to switch back to 70mm
for Fri-Sat-Sun.)

The CPL for our HDR content is:
AvatarFireAsh_FTR-2D-48FPS-BarcoHDR_S_EN-EN-CCAP_US-13_IAB-HI-VI_4K. . . etc

[Chris Haller]

The CPL for our HDR content is:
AvatarFireAsh_FTR-2D-48FPS-BarcoHDR_S_EN-EN-CCAP_US-13_IAB-HI-VI_4K. . . etc

Shoot. I wish we'd received the HFR trailer in some format. We just got in a 48fps trailer for the billie eilish concert movie that Cameron is connected to. I'm going to run it tonight when I go up to ingest my Avatar drives just to check HFR playback with actual content. There's a little ghosting in the 3D HFR test file I've got from Deluxe that I couldn't eliminate no matter what settings I adjusted. We'll see how it manifests on screen.

[Jim Cassedy]

> In my previous post, I wrote:
"I'm not sure yet how they're going to juggle shows in the upcoming weeks because
we also have several 70 & 35mm film commitments over the holidays, plus Avatar F&A"

Well, the mystery has been solved: We're not actually running AVATAR F&A. DIsney
pulled it because we couldn't commit to a certain number of shows on our biggest
screen. We've had a couple of other film & digital commitments that were booked
long before the A-F&I. So we're only authorized to do two shows, for which a
number of advance tickets had already been sold. Even the keys they sent are
only good for apx 48hrs to cover those two shows.
"Problem Solved!"

[Carsten Kurz]

No 7.1 VFs in Germany. The IAB/ATMOS CPLs contain only 5.1 fallback.

[Agnius Acus]

For us, a 2D flat would be the best option, but we’ll have to settle for a 2D scope. At least this time we got the HFR version.

[Chris Haller]

Locking 2D to scope is weird to me as the eventual home video releases of all Avatar films have been in 1.78:1 on disc. So clearly that version of the movie does exist.

Anyways - we screened the Full Lite 14FL 3D HFR atmos print of the movie last night after close and its easily the most beautiful movie we've screened in our PLF theater. Just a bright, beautiful image. I can't imagine a better way to see it in my city than you can in my PLF house. What a treat. Worth getting home at 4:30am, I tell ya.

[Ceri Hawkins]

We received an "Additional Technical Guidance" email from Disney outlining these versions.

[Agnius Acus]

Wait, no 3D flat 4K HFR, except for Dolby? Not even for IMAX?

[Ceri Hawkins]

It's possibly too high bandwidth with 4K + 3D + HFR or it's been reserved for Dolby Cinemas.