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Bantam Cinema, CT's oldest continuously running movie theater, is reopening as a nonprofit with me as the only current employee. We have two rooms (seating 61 and 85) each with a Christie Solaria One and new GDC SR-1000 IMBs (installed by New England Theatre Service). Because of a funky business structure right now, we can only show Blu-Rays, as we can't show anything under the MLA's in our name yet, but I have questions about how to switch between formats so it looks nice without menus on the screen and so on, AND I will most definitely have questions about how to use all this new gear I am responsible for- so I am hoping to find a patient, slow-talkin' friend who can serve as a teacher? LIve theater background- lighting consoles, soundboards, some projection experience, but willing to have things described as if I am a toddler. Thanks!
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HERE WE GO.. I think "NEW ENGLAND THEATRE SUPPLY shoud give you free lessons on the new equipment they sold you.
lesson 1 - don;t show unlicensed content if you plan to be in business next year
lesson 2 - keep power ON to projectors & servers as much as possible. -
One potential solution is to convert the BluRay to a DCP. But Allan is right that if you don't have exhibition rights you can't do anything that would make money off the showing of copyrighted material.Comment
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there will most certainly be no showing of unlicensed content, but great place to start! and power to projectors and servers is ON. sooooo... can we talk about converting to DCP? how does one do this? on the server? or on a separate computer?Comment
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My procedure for converting a BluRay to DCP is:
1. Rip the movie from the BluRay into mkv format. My program of choice is MakeMKV. This will preserve the surround and subwoofer tracks from the BluRay if they exist. There are other programs, but this one works well and I've never run into a problem with copy protections with it.
2. Use DCP-O-Matic to convert the MKV file into a DCP. The best way to get good at this is practice, practice, practice. There are a lot of settings and "pitfalls" along the way -- read the manual.
You can't convert the files from the BluRay directly into a DCP because .... well, technical reasons I'm not sure about, but trust me, you need two programs to do the job: One to get the movie into a format that DCP-O-Matic can use, and then DCP-O-Matic to create the DCP.
Allow at least a full day for this process because it can take an hour or two to convert your movie to MKV, and then it's about an overnight project to convert the MKV to DCP. All depending on the speed of your computer and the length of your movie. If you have a lot of computers around, you can network them together to speed up the process but I've never done that.
3. After you have created your DCP, copy it over to your server and then give it a complete run through to test it. DO NOT RUN A DCP FOR AN AUDIENCE WITHOUT TESTING IT. Who knows, you might have accidentally used the wrong language, or maybe you picked the wrong file to convert, or you've got a Scope movie in a Flat container, or the sound is way too loud or too soft......that's why practice makes perfect. Write down the settings that give you the best results. For example, I always reduce the gain on the sound by 1.5 dB, otherwise it can overload our sound system. Your own mileage my vary.
Pro tip: Don't mention the phrase "converting the Blu-Ray to DCP" to your booker or to anybody from the studio. Technically, you're only licensed to play the BluRay on your screen when you license content. But the convenience of having a DCP is well worth the work (and very minimal risk) it takes to make them.
Lastly, when you are running your movie, have the BluRay there as a back up just in case something happens to go wrong with your server. Better safe than sorry.Comment
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The easiest place to start in terms of converting content to DCP is probably DCP-O-Matic.
https://dcpomatic.com/
This is a piece of software you will run on a separate computer. Import your video file into the software, define/confirm some parameters as required and set it going. Depending on your computer, it may take a while to convert (up to several hours if it's quite an old PC). Once the DCP conversion has finished you can copy that DCP to a portable HDD then ingest to your server from there. (There are other methods to move the content via Network transfer, but I wouldn't tackle that to start with).
Also note; most cinema servers don't like exFat or MacOS formatted drives, so EXT2 is best if your working in Linux, but generally NTFS will be OK if you're working in Windows.
If your content is on Bluray at present, I can't help get it off as I've not had to tackle that particular problem in a long while, but there is other software for your computer that does that too.
DCP-O-Matic is pretty user-friendly but there are a lot of options, so you need to get some understanding about what 'makes up' a DCP. So, maybe a good place to start before even converting content is doing a little research into the DCI-Naming convention, as this will also help you understand how various content is formatted and help you name your DCP's accurately. (Of course if you're the only person ever seeing your DCPs, the name doesn't really matter, but for the sake of future-you (and anyone providing you support), it's best to stick with the naming conventions the rest of us are already using...
https://registry-page.isdcf.com/
After that, the user manual for your Server will be useful in understanding how to ingest content, create automation cues, build playlists and play shows. Most GDC manuals on on their website I think.
It's more important to understand your server (as opposed to the projector) from an operation point of view as you interact with it a lot more, but you do also need to understand your projector as it will ultimately define what hits the screen.
If it's set up correctly though, there are very few things to do with the projector. Turn it on, that's pretty much it. The projectors Lamp, Douser and 'Channel Preset/Macro' would normally be controlled by an automation cue coming from the server.
However if the automation is not set up for whatever reason, you need to control those three things manually. (Again, an understanding of the DCI naming convention and the format of your content makes this bit makes sense. There will typically only be a few presets to recall on the projector. If the content is FLAT, press the button for the Flat preset. If the content is SCOPE, press the button for the Scope Preset. Of course I'm over-simplifying, but that the general gist.
A key thing to note about "Automation". In cinema automation is not really 'automatic'. The server does not tell the projector what format the content is unless you place that specific cue in the Show you build, so if you play Flat content from the server in a Scope preset on the projector, you will not be showing the picture correctly but the system will not throw any errors. It doesn't care.
So "Automation" is simply a cue/event that you place on a timeline within the show, so at X:XX the lamp will turn on, or at Y:YY the projector will change from Flat to Scope etc
There are ways to simplify this by creating a "blank show' as a template with all your required cues, then each time you need to create a new playlist, create a copy of your template with a new name, add your content into the show and save it. This way you have not edited the template/s once they're all set.
There's a bunch of TLA's and FLA's you will need to learn over time, such as CPL and SPL and OV and VF. You're kinda coming into it from a unique angle if you're starting by learning to make content rather than getting to learn all this background info with existing content, then moving on to making DCP's. So you might find some things a bit frustrating.
Also, coming from a theatre background, where maybe you can do "whatever you want as a show requires", you may find some of the DCI requirements imposed upon us by 'Hollywood' to be frustrating. We all do. But, whatcha gonna do. You wanna screen their content, you gotta play by their rules.
Hope that helps.
But also as Alan said, the installer would normally provide you with at least some basic training to get up and going.
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A big question we didn't ask is if you've ever used digital cinema servers or equipment before. Your OP alluded to 'projection' but that can be a lot of things.Comment
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First I'd like to say how encouraged I am by the very kind and detailed responses I've gotten so far. Thanks to everyone who has chimed in. Great clarifying question, Jon. Nope! No experience with digital cinema equipment, just the kind of standard projections one does in an auditorium to use images as a theatrical lighting effect or to show teacher or student made powerpoints and so on.
Having said that, last night I ripped the blu-ray we intend to show (prepaid through Rialto) to my PC using MakeMKV and I read through the important parts of the DCP-O-Matic manual and am now creating a DCP of the film w/o all the audio commentary and Criterion Blu0Ray extra files... so far so good. Next step will be getting the server to ingest it and creating a playlist- both of which I have seen done exactly once...Comment
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If the technical things are being taken care off and the whole setup is in good condition, then running a show is really no rocket science, especially if you're running a single or duplex operation and don't need to deal with a lot of alternative content. Just make sure you program the right content for the equipment you have, e.g. 5.1 v.s. 7.1 DCPs.
Furthermore, make sure you're building a good relationship with the installer/integrator or service support company you put in charge, as issues will eventually manifest itself. This equipment also needs regular maintenance and skipping on it will not only lead to degraded show quality, it can also lead to very costly surprises afterwards.
The good news is that your Solaria One got its now unsupported, dreadful "in-house" IMS replaced by a GDC IMB.Comment
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Do you have the SR1000 user manual?
For ingest just insert your media with the dcp on it (hard drive, flash drive, whatever) and click on Content, then Source. Pick the source you want (your media with the dcp on it) and click Open. Put a check mark on the name of your dcp and click on the Copy button (is it called Copy? I don't remember without going to look at it, but it's something like that).
You can click on Status to see the progress being made. After the copying process is completed (100%) go back to the Source page and click on Close. Remove your media since you're now done with it.
Creating the playlist is very similar to making a playlist on mp3 player. Click the + to create a new playlist, give your playlist a name (usually the name of the movie) and then drag the content from the left window to the right window. You can move stuff up and down in the playlist just by holding the mouse button down on top of the filename and dragging it up and down too.
You use cues to do stuff like start the projector, switch the sound source, turn lights up and down and open and close curtains and whatever else you've got. These cues were probably set up by whoever installed your equipment.
One single cue can do a lot of stuff. For example, I have a cue named "3D Scope on Screen" that starts the projector, switches it to 3D mode, sets the lens for Scope, switches the sound source to the movie soundtrack and turns the lights down. I have another cue called "Feature" that turns the lights down some more and turns the volume up on the sound. At the start of the credits I have a cue called, amazingly enough, "Credits" that turns the lights up a bit. And yet another cue is "End show" which switches the projector off, turns the lights up to full brightness and switches the sound back to non-sync (i.e. the music between the movies). Your cues may be a bit different depending on what equipment you have and how it was set up but the idea is the same.
To insert a cue you click the little three horizontal lines icon to the right of the filename in the playlist, then choose your cue and tell it when you want it to fire. For example, you want your cue that starts the projector at the very beginning of everything ("Start cue" in the window where you set the cues), but you want your Credits cue at the point in the movie where the credits actually start so you would set the start time for that to whatever point the credits actually start.
A typical playlist for me would look like this:
Black MOS 10 sec -- cue: 2d Flat on screen: at the start
Turn off your cellphone
Trailer
Trailer
Welcome to the movies -- cue: Feature: at the start
Feature -- cue: Credits: 1:42:05
Black MOS 10sec -- cue: End Show: at the start
In this example the movie is 2d and flat format. (The other choices are 3d and scope, so you can have a 2d scope movie or a 3d flat movie or whatever combination the movie actually is in.)
Black MOS is just black with no sound. The projector starts, the auditorium lights turn down, and you get ten seconds of silence and then the movie starts playing and tells you to turn off your cell phone.
After the trailers we see Welcome to the movies. The lights turn down further while that's playing and the sound volume increases.
The feature starts and at (in this example) 1 hour 42 minutes and 5 seconds the credits start rolling and the lights turn up again.
At the end of the credits the next thing on the playlist is Black MOS again. The projector switches off, the lights come up to full and the sound switches back to non-sync so we have music in the auditorium again.
Your cues may be named differently but that's the general idea of how it all works.
You generally want your sound volume set lower when the trailers are playing and higher when the movie is playing. The movie companies record the trailers at such a high volume that they'll blow your customers out of their seats if you play them at "feature" volume.Comment
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Frank gives good advice. Once you give ingesting a try, assuming it all goes well, it's a good idea to spend some time really studying how your system is put together and what it's capable of. Your installers should be able to answer any major integration questions, although they may not know every detail of every part.Comment
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One thing that I meant to point out (and haven't seen written down anywhere) is that when a cue is attached to a filename in your playlist a lightning bolt shows up to the immediate left of the filename. If there's no lightning bolt there's no cue at that point in the playlist. Click on the lightning bolt to see what the cue(s) are that are attached to the filename.
So in the sample playlist I posted above there would be a lightning bolt in front of the Black MOS 10 sec, Welcome to the movies, Feature and Black MOS 10 sec. If I clicked on the lightning bolt beside the Feature I would see "Credits 1:42:05".
Also note that there are two different ways to enter cues. A cue is either a start cue or anything else.
A start cue fires at the start of whatever element in the playlist you attached it to. So my first "2d Flat on screen" cue would be a start cue because it fires as soon as I press play and stuff starts happening. The Feature cue would also be a start cue, as would End Show since those all fire at the start of an element in the playlist.
Start cues are entered at the top of the enter cue screen that comes up when you click on the three horizontal lines. Just check off "start cue" and select the cue you want to put there and click on OK at the bottom.
A cue that isn't a start cue (like Credits) is takes a few more steps. You enter the time you want the cue to fire into the box at the bottom of the screen and then select the cue that you want to insert at that point. Then click on Insert and that cue will move into the list in the middle of the screen. When you're done click on OK and that's all there is to it.
I occasionally enter a cue with an offset and then wonder why the little lightning bolt didn't show up. That's because I forgot to click Insert and just hit OK so I have to go back and do it again.Comment
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Thanks for all the help here so far.
I tried transponding (?) an the mkv file of THE GRADUATE twice and after many hours and the green bar being filled, in both instances the text beneath the green bar reads
"error cannot open file c:\desktop\TheGraduate\info\185_2K_33a751d80e503ca add5431cade6c1993_24_150000000_P_I_0_610256000 for read/write"
while the above file in the "info" folder in "the graduate" DCP saved to the desktop shows a green check next to it in the status column, the one in the "video" folder with the .mxf extension shows an x in a red circle in the status column and that same x in a red circle shows up as a badge in my file explorer on onedrive, desktop, the graduate, and video
(185_2K_33a751d80e503caadd5431cade6c1993_24_150000 000_P_I_0_610256000.mxf)
not sure if or how I need to fix this before copying the graduate folder to an external drive for transfer to the server...
Thanks for any insight,
RobertComment
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Rather than trying to make sense of the above, I will attempt to write out the procedure for moving a DCP to the server.
When you create a DCP, the software asks you to name your movie and specify where to store it. So in your case you would name it "The Graduate" and let's say you put it into the default location, which is your C:/Documents folder. The DCP will be created at that location.
After you have run the "Make DCP" procedure on DCP-o-Matic, you would navigate to your Documents folder and then open your "The Graduate" folder.
In that folder, you'll see a bunch of sub-folders, but the ONLY one you need is the one with the name of your movie on it. It will have that name, plus all the other attributes that make up the DCP naming convention. Copy that folder over to a transportable drive. NOT just the folder contents, but the whole folder. (You can also specify to create your movie onto a transportable drive to start with, rather than going with the default.)
The other folders like "info" and "log" and such are just information, and can be useful if you have a problem with your DCP. If you contact the fine folks at DCP-o-Matic, they might ask you to send them one or more of those folders.
When you move the transportable drive to your server and open it, you should see your movie file displayed and that's when you can copy it to your server.Comment
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The term you're looking for probably is "transcoding". If you convert something from format A to format B, while keeping the content itself intact, it's often called transcoding.Originally posted by Robert Kwalick View PostThanks for all the help here so far.
I tried transponding (?) an the mkv file of THE GRADUATE twice and after many hours and the green bar being filled, in both instances the text beneath the green bar reads
"error cannot open file c:\desktop\TheGraduate\info\185_2K_33a751d80e503ca add5431cade6c1993_24_150000000_P_I_0_610256000 for read/write"
while the above file in the "info" folder in "the graduate" DCP saved to the desktop shows a green check next to it in the status column, the one in the "video" folder with the .mxf extension shows an x in a red circle in the status column and that same x in a red circle shows up as a badge in my file explorer on onedrive, desktop, the graduate, and video
(185_2K_33a751d80e503caadd5431cade6c1993_24_150000 000_P_I_0_610256000.mxf)
not sure if or how I need to fix this before copying the graduate folder to an external drive for transfer to the server...
Thanks for any insight,
Robert
You need to check your path names, this C:\desktop strikes me as very odd. The default directory Windows uses for user-desktops is "C:\Users\<username>\Desktop". If that C:\desktop directory exists at all, the user you're logged on with, may not have write access to that directory.
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