DIY DCP

If, after reading last week’s post about exhibition formats, you really want a DCP but lack the budget to get one professionally made, you’re in luck.

Danny Lacey has created a tutorial for OpenDCP, open software to create Digital Cinema Packages.

Danny says,

I’ll tell you what, this is going to open a lot of doors for Indie film makers too, I believe it’s going to be incredibly helpful for those going down the self distribution route. It’s quite simply chopping down the prices and expense of delivering your movie.

The 27-minute video has all the details but in a nutshell:

  1. Export your film as a 16-bit TIFF sequence.
  2. Use free, open source DCP software to convert the TIFF sequence into JPEG 2000
  3. The DCP software then wraps the video (JPEG2000) and audio (WAV) in to MXF files.
  4. The final stage is creating the DCP which generates 6 files that will be recognised by a DCP server.

My take: well worth the watch!