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Topic: Cost & method of digital print delivery

Tony Ratcliff
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 216
From: Madison, IN, USA
Registered: Mar 2002

posted 06-22-2008 07:51 PM

From what I can conclude from posts about digital prints, the "print" is physically coming to theatre via a portable hard drive. Is that correct?

How and when is that drive delivered to the theatre and by what courier?
And how and to who is it shipped when the movie run is complete?
And what are the costs of this shipping?

I'm just trying to wrap my brain around all the costs and procedures involved with digital.

If this question has already been answered somewhere, please forgive me and point me to it. I searched but wasn't able to find the answer.

Thanks!

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Carey Barber
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 143
From: Newport News, VA, USA
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 06-22-2008 08:15 PM

quote: Tony Ratcliff
the "print" is physically coming to theatre via a portable hard drive. Is that correct?

Yes.

quote: Tony Ratcliff
How and when is that drive delivered to the theatre and by what courier?

Either by Technicolor (using DHL) or Deluxe (using Highway in my area), depending on the film company. They are delivered in a protective case and usually arrive on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

quote: Tony Ratcliff
And how and to who is it shipped when the movie run is complete?

It goes back to either Technicolor or Deluxe, picked up by the same couriers. I have no clue what happens after that or anything about shipping costs.

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

Posts: 432
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 06-22-2008 09:03 PM

Basically everything ships in/out just like it does with 35mm - whatever shipper each distributor uses now does the HD shipping.

AccessIT and Technicolor are doing **some** satellite deliveries, Deluxe is working on their delivery plan - satellite deliveries cost the same as HD delivery.

Costs for all (including satellite) are the same as current print delivery (i.e. if it currently costs you $50 per delivered print you will most likely get charged $50 for a HD delivery).

Currently our HDs come in anytime between Mon and Wed, satellite deliveries are usually started early enough to complete delivery by Mon/Tues so they can dispatch a HD if the download fails.

The biggest question in costs are on the service side - a maintenance contract can get expensive, but it means you don't have to buy any parts if anything goes wrong; not having one means you are on the hook to buy any needed parts. I can say lamps are moderately more expensive.

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Mark Hajducki
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Edinburgh, UK
Registered: May 2003

posted 06-23-2008 11:20 AM

Over in the UK, digital prints are delivered by the same couriers as do the main print delivaries (unless as a late booking requiring priority shipping).

The packaging ranges from a small disk case to the same packaging as upto 8 reels of 35mm.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 06-23-2008 02:57 PM

When I was projecting we were asked to return the portable disks as soon as they had been loaded onto the raid array and the first show completed.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-23-2008 04:05 PM

quote: Stephen Furley
When I was projecting we were asked to return the portable disks as soon as they had been loaded onto the raid array and the first show completed.

You musta been a single screen loccation. Personaly if the run is more than 1 day I would have refused to return it till the end of he run. RAID arrays also fail... with misreading a data block every so many billions of bits being the most common problem. Then you get a red light on a drive. Failures of hard drives are also no uncommon...Some RAIDS keep on going, but not in all cases.

Mark

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

Posts: 432
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 06-23-2008 04:51 PM

We don't return ours until the run is over, although I hear lately there have been a few requests to have the drives returned after ingestion into the TMS . . . . . our staff currently ignores these requests.

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 06-24-2008 12:53 AM

Our situation and policy is the same as David's. Drives stay at the theatre until the day after the run is over.

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Mark Hajducki
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Edinburgh, UK
Registered: May 2003

posted 06-24-2008 04:53 PM

quote: Stephen Furley
When I was projecting we were asked to return the portable disks as soon as they had been loaded onto the raid array and the first show completed.

I suspect that this is due to the number of disks that Arts Alliance Media have, rather than for safety.

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
You musta been a single screen loccation.

The UK Film Council installations are independent from one another, so a site with 2 digital screens will have 2 separate systems. I have not seen instructions for copying between the servers (although I suspect it is possible).

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-26-2008 12:44 PM

If you have a setup where you have more than one server, is it possible to ingest the data from a hard drive to more than one server? Is it the unique key that protects the copy or are the HDs individually coded with the key opening the data from only a specific HD?

BTW, what are we calling the HDs with the movie on them? Are we using the "Virtual Print" moniker?

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

Posts: 432
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 06-26-2008 01:03 PM

The HDs are all the same - i.e. the content is the same on all so you can ingest it into multiple servers from 1 HD (or copy into a library storage server and transfer out to multiple screen servers).

The key ("KDM") is what authorizes a given screen server to playback the content - every theatre gets the same content file(s) but unique KDMs are generated for their serial numbered servers.

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John Hawkinson
Film God

Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 06-26-2008 02:57 PM

For a tutorial on some of these issues, it might be worth watching the D-Cinema Training Videos from Pixar's web site. They're vaguely cute/funny and not too long but give you an idea what's going on (right-hand navigation pane).

--jhawk

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Mike Renlund
Film Handler

Posts: 71
From: San Francisco
Registered: Feb 2008

posted 06-26-2008 06:56 PM

We currently use Microspace for the satellite delivery, and have their dishes on all of our locations. Fantastic group to work with. And the cost for a delivery is less than half of a hard drive. I would recommend them to anyone.

We plan on testing Technicolor's and Deluxe's system. We'll see how that goes.

As I get more testing done, I will post here.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-27-2008 04:10 AM

These are Pixar's 10 Commandments of "Perfect Projection"

quote:
Do a Run-Through of the Built-Up Print
Confirm that you are running Scope Format (2.39:1)
Confirm Projection Light Level (16fL open gate)
Confirm Sound Level (85dB), Dolby/DTS Faders at 7, SDDS at 0
Fresh Lamp Life (70% of rated life remaining)
Full Framing (no image cut off)
Sharp Focus Across Entire Image
Sharp, Tight Masking That Doesn’t Cut Off Picture
Check and Clean Aperture Plate
Check Cleanliness and Operation of Entire Film Path Fresh Lamp

So do I understant this correctly....they want you get your 16FtL of light on the screen, but then they want you to have a bulb that's been in use for only 30% of it's rated life? In other words, every time you open a feature, your bulb has to be almost new or you're not Perfect Projection*? If that's what they are saying, it's absurd. What difference does it make where in the life of the bulb you're at as long as you are getting your 16FtL on the screen?

Yah, Perfect Projection. These are the people who instead of making sure there were visible frame-lines in two fade-outs (see Wall*E Thread), instead put SPLICE HERE arrows, only they put them one sprocket off. Doh.

* "Perfect Projection" -- Hey, Pixar, nice try....but we call it Film Done Right, thank you very much, and we've been calling it that long before you were even a corporate zygote. And we'll keep calling it that in honor of our friend who coined the phrase.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-27-2008 05:49 AM

Maybe they don't want bulbs that flicker?

What about carbon-arc houses? They can't have perfect projection, either?

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