Had to get a promo for a 3D film up on the big screen this week so been delving into the world of Digital Cinema Package’s.
Firstly discovered they need to be 2K and 24fps which is fair enough, so anything HD get’s upscaled and anything 25fps gets retimed. Most DCP service providers can do this as part of the deal.
If it’s 3D then it becomes a 48fps package with left and right eyes alternating every frame – obviously you need the projection system at the other end to be able to handle this.
I had a company in the States provide a DCP via FTP upload, but this one just wasn’t happening. The system at the cinema couldn’t load the DCP because one of the XML files in the package was supposedly the wrong size.
Turns out some XML files can be corrupted upon FTP upload if the transfer isn’t forced to use Binary rather than ASCII.
Zipping the DCP up before FTP’ing overcomes these issues and might save you some time on the transfer too.