Creating Digital Cinema Package from a FCP6 project

Question

Creating Digital Cinema Package from a FCP6 project

My documentary will be screening in a film festival and a DCP (digital cinema package) is the preferred exhibition format.

I edited on my DVCPro HD 1080i60 footage on a DVCPro HD 1080i60 timeline. There are also some DSLR clips and SD archival video clips

that will need to be conformed (via Compressor, or perhaps via hardware) into the codec of the editing timeline.

In reading online info on DCPs, it seems that I should convert my 1080i60 footage into 24fps (or 23.98), and I'm assuming that means I

should go from interlaced to progressive but I'm still reading up on all of this.

Some facilities take both DVCProHD and ProRes projects, while others stongly recommend

ProRes -- which would be a really time consuming Compressor conversion on my iMac!

Any help or tips on how to prep the movie prior to sending it out to a facility that creates DCPs will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

iPad, iOS 5.1, iPad is 3rd generations

Posted on Jul 30, 2014 11:56 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Jul 30, 2014 1:16 PM in response to Newton the Newt

I suggest calling and asking the facilities directly. Only they can tell you exactly what they need.

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Answer 2

Aug 2, 2014 11:07 AM in response to Shane Ross

Shane,

Thanks for the quick and helpful response.

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Answer 3

Aug 2, 2014 1:42 PM in response to Newton the Newt

Kinda crazy and tired right now, but if you want, post back and I'll give you the workflow for outputting for DCP. I've done a few of them. However, since your material is 1080 to begin with, if your venue will accept it, you might do just as well with HDCam or blu-ray and save yourself quite a bit of money with out much if any visible quality loss.

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Answer 4

Aug 2, 2014 7:26 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

The festival specified DCP as the exhibition format for all entries, but I'll check back with them in case they can accept any other formats.

Thanks for your help and I'll post back to let you know if I still need the workflow for outputting for DCP.

Thanks again!

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Answer 5

Aug 5, 2014 1:03 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your original response on a busy day. You've helped me several times before on this forum regarding this project and I really

appreciate it.

I've checked backed with the festival and they're sticking with the DCP as the sole exhibition format.

I edited primarily DVCProHD 1080i60 footage on a FCP6 timeline with that same codec. I do have some H.264 clips from a DSLR, some SD DVCPro archival footage, and some Motion JPEG A archival footage all on the same timeline, all at 29.97fps.

When I export a Quicktime Movie from the timeline it all plays without any issues.

The LA post houses I've gotten bids from for creating the DCP all include a charge for transcoding to 24fps. Nobody mentions interlaced vs.

progressive which confuses me. Does interlaced vs. progressive just not matter in creating a DCP? Will the transcode to 24fps resolve interlaced vs progressive?

If it's not a big hassle, it would be great to have a copy your workflow for outputting to DCP.

Thanks again for your help now and in the past!

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Answer 6

Aug 5, 2014 1:11 PM in response to Newton the Newt

24p (23.976 fps) or 24fps are always progressive as far as I know. You can do a pretty good conversion using compressor. Gotta run now, but I'll post back some more comments on workflow when I get a moment. If you're in NYC, I can recommend some places to make the DCP.

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Answer 7

Aug 6, 2014 9:15 AM in response to Michael Grenadier

A couple of questions. Did you edit your h264 footage directly into the timeline? H264 is not fcp friendly and can cause all sorts of problems.

I strongly advise that you scale all footage whose pixel dimensions do not match your timeline settings before you edit them into the timeline. Compressor does a much better job of scaling than fcp if you set the resize filter to best in the frame controls tab.

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