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Question about submitting a short film to festivals.

H

harmonica44

Me and some friends, or rather a team of aspiring filmmakers, have finished post production on a short film and would like to make some copies of it for sending out to festivals. However, we do not know what DVD or blu ray format to put it on. Even if you put it on a disk, we are not sure how to transfer it on correctly, for the proper quality and format that they want.

We put out adds on craiglist and facebook, but haven't really found many responders. All of them say they are not familiar with festival standards and are just use to putting movies on disks for family home viewing.

I talked to a guy who runs a local festival. He says that he is no expert on how the movie should be put on DVD (that's not his department), but that he knows that 9 times out of 10, a movie is rejected by how it is formatted in it's final copy, that is presented to them. So if that's true, we want to be very careful when hiring someone, and make sure they do it right.

What should we be aware of, format and transfer wise (if that makes sense), when getting our copies made for festivals? Also does blu ray make a better impression or is DVD just as good to them? Or should I just send the movie electronically, like through withoutabox, or something like that? Thanks.
 
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AcousticAl said:
You need to speak with the rep of each individual film festival and get their specific delivery specs, then deliver to those specs.
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That info should be o the website.
Read the submission requirements of the filmfestivals you want to submit to.

"...9 times out of 10, a movie is rejected by how it is formatted in it's final copy, that is presented to them..."
Never heard that before, but apparently a lot of people don't read very well then...

Making a DVD for a DVD player isn't rocketscience when it comes to formatting. It's either PAL or NTSC. (And 16:9 or 4:3 plus some bitrate settings.)
BluRay for a BluRay player is something like that as well.

What format is the short now?
23,blabla fps? 1980x1080?
 
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It was shot with the T2i so that would be 23.976 fps at 1080p. I can convert to 24 fps, in the final export. I can set it to H.264 or something else if better. But there is a lot in the audio format, that I do not know how to export on as well. Basically that's what it was originally shot in, camera wise, but I still need to make an export decision.

I will ask each one. I asked one already a few weeks ago, but they did not get back to me. I will ask more.
 
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Again, look at their websites for delivery specs, and talk to a rep if you need more information. Some festivals may accept DVD or BluRay. If so, great. Some may want digital file delivery, and that's where things get tricky. Some festivals are okay with h.264 and AAC audio. Some want hi-res files (ProRes or similar) because they will do the compression themselves for the comp reel (common in local 48hr, 56hr, 7-day shootouts).

But you need to get the specs from each individual festival, and export once for each different delivery spec. Or, just export your project at full, uncompressed resolution now and use a third-party compression program to conform the master export file for delivery specs per festival.
 
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AcousticAl said:
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Or, just export your project at full, uncompressed resolution now and use a third-party compression program to conform the master export file for delivery specs per festival.
Click to expand...

This is something you should always do for archieving and because it will compress faster this way than rendering every effect and transition over and over again.

When you email about delivery specs you likely won't get a reply, because it should be on the website.
People don't like anwsering such questions a 1000 times, so they put it on the website.

Some festivals accept a DVD as preview and will ask for a DCP version when your short is selected.
 
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Okay thanks. I was thinking of doing that now for a back up copy. I would like to export a full resolution copy as back up, just in case, while the festivals are getting back to me.

However there are a lot of things that I would need to know like how many kbps or how much biterate to add to the final copy. Every site or every tutorial has something different to say. Also, should I ask the festivals how much biterate or kbps they want, or does it not have to be that specific?
 
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harmonica44 said:
Okay thanks. I was thinking of doing that now for a back up copy. I would like to export a full resolution copy as back up, just in case, while the festivals are getting back to me.

However there are a lot of things that I would need to know like how many kbps or how much biterate to add to the final copy. Every site or every tutorial has something different to say. Also, should I ask the festivals how much biterate or kbps they want, or does it not have to be that specific?
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Again, that should be in the submission requirements. (Sometimes there are FAQs that answer that.)
If kbps isn't quoted: what looks good enough should suffice.
 
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A lot of times people submit copies that are not playable on all machines. After you get the requirements, make sure that it is playable on several different types of machines.
 
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Okay thanks people! We would also like to give the actors blu ray and dvd copies, that were promised to them. Would anyone be able to specify the best quality for that? I keep hearing H.264, but there is a lot more to it than that, like many kbps is the best, or many mbps, or AAC, or AAC plus version 2, etc. Things like that.
 
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H264 is the best codec option for the bluray format, yes.

Also, as for festivals, many (maybe even most?) accept digital submission online, rather than mailing a disc that may or may not play in their dvd/bluray player. If accepted you may be asked to provide a DCP.. so you should be prepared for that ahead of time.

As for bluray bitrates.. you can (should) do your own research. It will somewhat depend on what your footage is like to start with. If the entire program is well lit, and you've got plenty of picture information from the shadows through the highlights, you can likely get by with a bit lower bitrate, if you've got lots of shadow, and are likely already missing data in the shadows, a higher bitrate should help prevent adding a bunch of excess visible noise.

For reference, most bluray discs have a video bitrate somewhere between 15 and 30 megabit/second. The majority seem to settle around 25Mbit/s
 
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Okay thanks. I have been doing a lot of research on it already, but everyone has something different to say, and certain details are left out here and there. What if I just turned everything up to the higest rates, would that be good and ensure good quality under all circumstances, or is it possible that doing that could bring down quality?

When it comes to making blu ray copies for the more local festivals, who said they will accept that, should I burn the copies out of my own personal home blu ray burner, or will that just not be as good quality wise, and I should hire a professional company to do it?
 
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You have PPro 5.5, right?
There are export settings for both BluRay and DVD.
You can set the maximum and average Mbps higher than the preset.
Make sure to select 'dual' or 'double pass render' (or something like that, in stead of 'Single pass').
This will make the render look better, but it takes more time.

Burn a disk on your own burner and test it on multiple machines.
In the end data burned on a disk, is data burned on a disk.
Sometimes the brand of disks or the build of the burner can cause playback failures. But I found that's rare.
Normally you would hire a company for duplication, if it would take you too much time and effort to do it yourself. (Burning 100+ disks isn't something you want to do at home, unless you have got plenty of time instead of money.)

You really have the gift of 'panic' and overcomplication.
 
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harmonica44 said:
What if I just turned everything up to the higest rates
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Most likely that would be fine, although the filesize will end up being massively larger than necessary. You also, potentially, would run the risk of producing a file with a bitrate too high to be played back smoothly on various playback equipment...

As with most of the other things you ask about, the answer really is "research and do your own testing."

WalterB said:
You really have the gift of 'panic' and overcomplication.
Click to expand...
:lol: Truth.
 
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Okay thanks. I tested it out on my tv so far. So far the image looks a little dark, like a little faded. I cannot find the 'double pass' on Premiere Pro, unless it has a different name on there or something. Should I use the Encore DVD program that came with my Adobe package, to make the DVD properly, or is sending it to right to the burner, causing it to look faded, and lower quality? I will try encore, just not sure if it's possible to hook up the burner with it, maybe they are incompatible or something.
 
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Export > MPEG2 DVD
In that menu there should be in the 'video' tab: single pass or double pass.
Also choose muxed (for DVD)

Encore is very suitable to make DVD's with. I do that all the time.
 
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Okay thanks. I found someone willing to put the movie on DVD where I live. I want to make a master copy of the movie as back up, so I want to export it on the best settings. That way, I can have something at the best quality as back up, just in case. From there we can downgrade it to another quality if a festival asks for it, or for a DVD the actors, crew, etc.

So I will export a copy with things everything set to the highest, and then just downgrade that later, into a lesser quality copy if I have to. What about AAC, AAC plus version 1, and AAC plus version 2, what is the difference in quality between those three export settings?
 
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Your mastercopy would be Uncompressed avi or Quicktime (compression: none/ animation 24bit)
Sound is probably stereo 16-bit 48kHz or did you make a mix with higher settings? Then use those settings.

For your master you want no compression.
(That's not always the same as everything set to the highest number.)
 
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