It's infuriating to me that more festivals aren't tech savvy. DVDs are dead and blu-rays are too expensive. Why don't more festivals accept file transfers? If I ran a fest I wouldn't want to bother with physical media. You can make a playlist in VLC and run blocks of programming off a laptop way easier than shuffling discs or burning a new master.
Dear Festivals, please get with the times
- Thread starter IndyJones1023
- Start date
How so? There's a selection process. Don't let in the crap films.
Doesn't it depend on the theater they are using?
And don't forget the Union that controls the projectors. It might not be possible to just hook up a laptop to the technology the theater has.
At Writers and Filmmakers.com we aren't renting a theater to show the winners (yet), but our website is written in asp.net infrastructure (which is used by fortune 500 companies) and incorporates very modern security techniques and coding.
And don't forget the Union that controls the projectors. It might not be possible to just hook up a laptop to the technology the theater has.
At Writers and Filmmakers.com we aren't renting a theater to show the winners (yet), but our website is written in asp.net infrastructure (which is used by fortune 500 companies) and incorporates very modern security techniques and coding.
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I didn't know about a projectionist union. But I see so many theaters that routinely use screens for skyping or conferencing or streaming of live events that I believe they must have this capability.
But what does your web site coding have to do with anything?
But what does your web site coding have to do with anything?
Reliable. Tangible. I don't know what codecs their laptop has. I know what codecs to best use on DVDs that play on all NTSC devices.
Emails get lost, DVDs not often. It's on their desk.
I know many theaters that play Call of Duty or other games on the projectors after they close.
Wow, I have pretty much the opposite opinion.
Codecs? Any film person worth their salt can easily download CCCP full of codecs. If some filmmaker rendered their file in some esoteric codec that doesn't play, then they just lost out on their entry fee.
Emails don't get lost. They get deleted. Physical mail gets lost exponentially more often than failed emails.
And DVDs get lost in a shuffle. A link to download a file is always there.
If for none of the logical reasons, then do it for the environment. No shipping, no waste, and it's instantaneous.
I prefer physical media simply because I live in the mountains and we don't have fast internet available. If I stream or upload something on even youtube, that ties up my entire connection. I also don't have phone service out here, so the internet is my connection to the world. To upload a feature to some fest would tie up my internet for two days. Physical media doesn't do that.
I can see your concern, but you only have to upload your film once to a storage site, then send out links when accepted to a fest. Or hell, with FilmFreeway upload once and they can view your film then request a download.
I've had festivals say they never received the email or that the email was overlooked, but I've never had a festival say they lost my dvd.
It's just my experience. I'm not going to change a pattern that has worked flawlessly for me.
You are getting a lot of backlash for this comment, but I completely agree.
The lost emails argument is irrelevant because you'd still be submitting to festivals through their website application, and you'd just upload your file straight to their site. No emailing whatsoever.
Also, film festival programmers don't screen submissions in theatres, they do it on computers or on TV screens. It would be easy to require all filmmakers to submit their digital files in the same .mov format which will have no problems playing on their systems. Once your film gets selected, THEN you have to worry about sending in a format that is playable in a theatre, but the festival will send you detailed specs for that.
The biggest reason I am FOR digital submissions is the quality loss for DVD, Blu-ray, and even Vimeo submissions. Most people don't even realize DVD quality is terrible. It's not even HD. Blu-ray is HD, but the average filmmaker doesn't know anything about professional film compression and their movie is going to look like shit unless they pay money to have it done.
If I can upload an uncompressed .mov file straight to the film festival's FTP, I know for a fact they are getting my film and it will look the way I intended it to. It's also completely free
The lost emails argument is irrelevant because you'd still be submitting to festivals through their website application, and you'd just upload your file straight to their site. No emailing whatsoever.
Also, film festival programmers don't screen submissions in theatres, they do it on computers or on TV screens. It would be easy to require all filmmakers to submit their digital files in the same .mov format which will have no problems playing on their systems. Once your film gets selected, THEN you have to worry about sending in a format that is playable in a theatre, but the festival will send you detailed specs for that.
The biggest reason I am FOR digital submissions is the quality loss for DVD, Blu-ray, and even Vimeo submissions. Most people don't even realize DVD quality is terrible. It's not even HD. Blu-ray is HD, but the average filmmaker doesn't know anything about professional film compression and their movie is going to look like shit unless they pay money to have it done.
If I can upload an uncompressed .mov file straight to the film festival's FTP, I know for a fact they are getting my film and it will look the way I intended it to. It's also completely free
1. Exactly! So you're saying; no h264's, mp4's, avi's, mov's or other "esoteric" internet, broadcast or DI video codecs/containers, just the one standard worldwide film codec/container, or you loose your entry fee?
2. You've got an internet connection which can "instantaneously" upload 100-200GB?
1. BluRay is ridiculously cheap! Any idea how much a single 35mm print used to cost if you wanted to screen in a cinema?
2. It's infuriating to me that so many of those who call themselves filmmakers don't even know what a film is and therefore don't know the difference between a film and a video!
Many of the countless film festivals which have sprung up in the last few years are not film festivals, they're effectively video festivals, set-up to cater to the demand of thousands of amateur video-makers who want to have their DIY videos screened in a cinema. The problem of course is that cinemas are designed, built and equipped to screen theatrical films, not home-made YouTube videos!
While it is possible to jerry-rig a theatrical system to play consumer videos, it's much easier to just plug in a consumer video player (and then unplug it when the festival is over) than it is to try and support various flavours of DI and consumer video codecs/containers. Even with a relatively easy to plumb-in consumer video player, there's still usually technical issues and a fair percentage of the exhibitors whose films don't screen how they expected, and not just because the jerry-rigging may not be working well/reliably but also because those who made the "films" are not "savvy" about the video player "tech".
Even the very top festivals have to have test screenings and specialist technical consultants (usually supplied by Dolby) to help cope with all the errors made by filmmakers who are not "tech savvy" enough to produce standard industry compliant DCPs. Even with this expert technical help, a fair few who have been accepted for screening find themselves having to make hasty corrections and/or ultimately having their films pulled from the screening schedule.
OP: You are pointing your finger at festivals for their lack of being "tech savvy", while at the same time contributing to the demand for screening content in theatres made by those who have little or no "tech savvy" (in actually making theatrical content) and furthermore, at a price which precludes the lesser festivals from hiring professional technical expertise?!
These days there's not much need to know about projectionists because they're an endangered species. Instead of a knowledgeable professional for each screen, as was required with 35mm film projection, today it's most commonly just a single, minimum-wage employee making a few mouse clicks on a digital cinema server system which supplies all the screens. Either you give them an industry standard DCI/SMPTE compliant set of DCP assets or they'll just look at you blankly and give you your hard-disk back.
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If I can upload an uncompressed .mov file straight to the film festival's FTP, I know for a fact they are getting my film and it will look the way I intended it to. It's also completely free
And "I know for a fact" that your film will not look the way you "intended it to", unless you made a silent film which is black screen throughout! Even if there were some way to get a .mov file on to a DCP server and actually playout through the projection system (which there isn't), it still wouldn't play how you "intended it to", unless you've graded the picture and mixed the sound specifically for theatrical presentation.
Moonshieldmeedia, you seem to realise some or all of this already, from what you wrote in a previous paragraph. If so, this was for the benefit of others, who apparently don't.
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Whoa.
1) You're making some really illogical assumptions. All the codecs you list are pretty standard. I'd say MP4 is king right now. WMVs are pretty antiquated, though. And if you submit something with the Iomega Buz codec, then like I said, you're out your entry fee. Don't try to derail this with FUD.
2) Again, you're either misinterpreting what I said or trying to sabotage my argument because you don't have a counter. I was referring to the submittal process. If you have to mail in a physical disc it uses materials for the disc, a shipping envelope, gas to ship it, etc. And it takes days to cross country or the world. The "instantaneous" comment refers to submitting. I have my films on FilmFreeway. When I submit they can watch it as soon as they click the link, not waiting a week for a disc. Thus, instantaneous.
Sure, blu-ray media is under $1/piece, but I don't have a BR burner. And you're honestly trying to bring up 35mm prints? That's a strawman argument right there.
As for the rest of your post, I see you just long for the good old days. The times they are a changin', though.
I wouldn't process my own film, why would I make my own DVDs?
Hire the professionals.
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As for the don't submit with emails comment, I'm not sure for all sites, I know some do have good websites and all that you can submit too, which half of the time is most likely just an email forwarding code anyways.
Most Mississippi websites weren't coded that well. Very basic sites with emails asking for either YouTube or Vimeo links be emailed to them for screening.
It used to be about $1200 for a fiim print and you could ship them through the P.O. I did have an uncle who was a projectionist in the 30s through the 50s and maybe a part of the 60s. That was before platters. Had a friend who has a theatre who had to convert to digital. He ran festivals out of it and a few other places. We had a special film festival for high school students as part of a larger festival and had the submissions on DVDs. While there were prizes, there was no submission fees. DVDs were the most cost effective way of submission for us.