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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Shipping out DCP drives after ingestion but before the show - a cautionary tale (Page 1)

 
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Author Topic: Shipping out DCP drives after ingestion but before the show - a cautionary tale
Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 05-01-2016 04:07 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We quite frequently get requests, almost all of them from arthouse and niche title distributors and festival print traffic co-ordinators, to ingest a DCP on receipt of their drive, and then to ship the drive on to another venue before our playdate. I always protest at this, to which their response is that the DCP is on a RAID in our server, so what's the problem?

I had an issue this afternoon which illustrates what that problem can be. We are playing a preview screening of a soon-to-be-released movie for a private rental. The DCP drive was ingested by my co-worker last week, plus the KDM, both of which went in without any error messages, verification fails, or any meowing and hissing from the server at that point.

The KDM opened two hours before showtime. When I pressed play (DSS200), it said "Checking content and licenses...", but then instead of "Selecting..." and then lighting up the transport buttons, it just went back to "Please select a show for playback."

So I checked the server and projector logs - no sign of any weird sh!t. I then tried to play the DCP straight from the distribution CRU drive, which worked - it played fine. After that I deleted the DCP from the server's RAID, reingested it from the distribution drive. That worked, just in time for the show.

The only explanation I can come up with for what happened is that some data got corrupted during the original ingest, which transferred successfully on the second attempt. If so, that raises the question as to why the bad transfer passed verification, but that isn't a question I can answer.

The moral of this story, especially for those of us working in the arthouse/rep/festival world, is that if you are asked to let a DCP distribution drive out of your booth before the actual show, there is a risk involved, even if it has ingested without reported errors, and especially if the show is encrypted and the KDM is not yet open.

A secondary moral is that the ability to play a DCP straight from a CRU drive, while not something that should be done normally, is potentially a show-saving last resort option, and to avoid servers that don't offer this feature.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011


 - posted 05-01-2016 04:10 PM      Profile for Frank Cox   Author's Homepage   Email Frank Cox   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
And a third moral: Watch the damn thing yourself, by yourself, before playing it for the public!

I remain amazed at how many of you folks seem to operate on the "push play and pray" principle.

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

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From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
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 - posted 05-01-2016 04:26 PM      Profile for Carsten Kurz   Email Carsten Kurz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We never ship-out drives before we finish playing the title. Aside from the problem Leo described, it can always happen you ingested the wrong version, then you end up with a mismatch between KDM sent out and the CPL on the server on the first day. Reingesting a VF usually takes only a few minutes and is never a problem to do in the last minute. We receive most of our KDMs very late, and they rarely allow to check the content earlier than one day in advance.

Someone also may accidentally delete the feature or part of a feature during the engagement, or you may need to reinit the RAID and reingest the content.

Some distribution facilities request to ship back the drive while we are still playing it. We never adhere to that.

And it's easy to follow a straight policy like that. Drives never leave the cinema before we stopped playing the feature. No big deal for us since we rarely play a feature for more than one week.

- Carsten

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

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From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006


 - posted 05-01-2016 05:46 PM      Profile for Jim Cassedy   Email Jim Cassedy   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Watch the damn thing yourself, by yourself, before playing it for the public.
I remain amazed at how many of you folks seem to operate on the "push
play and pray" principle

Well, gee, Frank. . . in a perfect world it would be nice to do that.

For one thing- - I get paid anywhere from $45 to over $60/hr, (with a 4hr
minimum) depending on the venue, and very few of them are willing to pay
me at that rate just to run something for myself.

Oh, sure. . . if I have an especially big screening with important guests, I'll
arrange to do a pre screening, often 'on my own time' just to insure there
will be no problems.
. . and most of the venues will find some way to make it up to me somehow.

But as a rule- - they don't have the money to do it, and I'm usually busy
enough that I don't have time.

. . . besides - it's digital, so it's supposed to be perfect; first time-- every time.

............What could possibly go wrong? [Eek!]

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Frank Cox
Film God

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From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
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 - posted 05-01-2016 05:57 PM      Profile for Frank Cox   Author's Homepage   Email Frank Cox   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
So let me see if I understand what you're telling me here:

"Film done wrong" is bad and we call out people by name on this forum when they screwed something up, but digital done wrong is just fine and dandy because nobody has time to do it properly?

Somehow, there's something wrong with this picture (and maybe the sound, too.)

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

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From: Montgomery, AL
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 - posted 05-01-2016 06:28 PM      Profile for Martin McCaffery   Author's Homepage   Email Martin McCaffery   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
If the keys would activate the feature a few days in advance, and the feature would arrive more than two days in advance, I might have time to run it for myself. As it is, the best we can do right now if make sure the cues are properly set and that the key actually works and the movie plays.

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Jack Ondracek
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From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
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 - posted 05-01-2016 06:44 PM      Profile for Jack Ondracek   Author's Homepage   Email Jack Ondracek   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We never send a drive back before our run ends and, generally, Deluxe doesn't ask for it.

Our light and sound cues are on the playlist and don't always line up the way the cue sheet says they should. Or... maybe they do and I just take a bit of license on when I choose to turn them up. In any case, we do that on Thursday night, so we've run at least part of the show before the paying crowd shows up.

As Jim says... it's digital. In practice, we haven't had a failure doing it this way in the 3+ years since we converted. Don't know that running the whole show through would make a difference now.

Maybe we've been lucky?

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Mike Schulz
Expert Film Handler

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From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: May 2007


 - posted 05-01-2016 07:02 PM      Profile for Mike Schulz   Email Mike Schulz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Frank Cox
"Film done wrong" is bad and we call out people by name on this forum when they screwed something up, but digital done wrong is just fine and dandy because nobody has time to do it properly?

I'm not sure why you're being so harsh here but I think you must have glossed over everything Leo said about his specific venue. He is at a private repertory house that has many one-off screenings and festivals. If you've never run a festival before, especially an indie festival, then you have no clue what you're up against. If you're lucky, half of the drives sent to you will be CRU but most likely they will come on portable usb drives which can take forever and a day to ingest compared to CRU. On top of that, half of them will be encrypted, and half of them not. You may or may not have time to do a quick spot-check of the non-encrypted content but sometimes the festival scheduling doesn't allow for enough time to do a QC and you just have to press play and pray. The ones that are encrypted can be a crap-shoot as well with timezone discrepancies being the most common culprit. You don't have the luxury of calling Technicolor/Deluxe and have them e-mail you a new key in the next 10 minutes. No, you have to find the festival print coordinator (if there is one) and get the contact for the content distributor and hope they have somebody there who can respond to you. This, by the way, is all happening in the middle of all of your other bullshit going on during the already hectic day.

Anyway, my point is that not every venue is playing only first-run content that always comes on a CRU from a major studio with KDMs distributed my Technicolor/Deluxe. For that matter, I when I did used to work at a multiplex, oftentimes the keys they sent to us unlocked the feature literally 1 hour before showtime. Well guess what? Management has already started seating the house. There goes your opportunity to QC!

When I know I will be working a festival event somewhere, I try to tell the organizers that we need both DCP content *and* Bluray/DVD backup. If shit hits the fan with the DCP whether it be corrupted, bad hard drive, or KDMs that don't want to work, you will at least have a disc to go on-screen with so you don't lose a show.

I've worked with Leo many times and he is *always* on point with these things. You were wrong to judge him.

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Victor Liorentas
Jedi Master Film Handler

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From: london ontario canada
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 - posted 05-01-2016 08:15 PM      Profile for Victor Liorentas   Email Victor Liorentas   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I also have no time to watch all these movies other than a fast forward check to put credit and curtain cues where I want them.

I'd have to stay up Thursday night into Friday opening without pay to watch it all in real time.

With film...I could tell from experience, any major issues other than digital sound drop outs...if it was within spec while making up the shows.

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Frank Cox
Film God

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From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
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 - posted 05-01-2016 08:24 PM      Profile for Frank Cox   Author's Homepage   Email Frank Cox   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Mike (and Victor):

Didn't you just agree with everything that I said?

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
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 - posted 05-01-2016 09:05 PM      Profile for Dennis Benjamin   Author's Homepage   Email Dennis Benjamin   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Several things:

I have had several theatres learn the lesson the hard way when they have sent the hard drive back for a feature that was still playing on a server. I instruct all managers to keep the hard drive in the building until the run is over.

We try to watch every film before it hits the screen for the public. But quite often the keys are not valid until right up to showtime.

Typical issues can be ironed out when a film is pre-screened. It's the film companies that apparently don't care about the presentation of their films...

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Leo Enticknap
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From: Loma Linda, CA
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 - posted 05-01-2016 09:20 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
As everyone above has pointed out, previewing a show in its entirety is usually impossible, because:

1 - The budget isn't there to pay a projectionist to do it, except if it's a really high profile event (e.g. a premiere, or a VIP is doing a Q & A);

2 - For mainstream titles, the KDM often doesn't open until just before showtime (which was what nearly bit me in the ass this afternoon).

3 - For arthouse/rep/festival titles, you're dealing with so many arriving at once that there often aren't the hours in the day needed to do this.

When the DCP replaced 35mm for most releases, its cheerleaders in the arthouse world confidently predicted that it would see the end of minority interest titles being released on a small number of 35mm prints (because the distributor couldn't afford more), being used very intensively for lots of short bookings, and thus wearing out very quickly. Digital stuff can be copied for almost nothing, right? Everyone expected that you would be able to send the DCP to as many venues as you liked, on the opening night, for a one-time outlay.

Ironically, what is actually happening is that these small distributors are only having a small number of DCP CRU drives and cases made of a given title (and if it's really low budget, the drives are consumer USB ones). Although the cost of having a post house make each copy is less than that of a film print, it still isn't nothing. So what will happen is that the DCP arrives in my booth, is ingested, and then a day or two later our programmer emails me: the movie has just been accepted for a fest in Seattle, or an extra booking has come in for a campus theater in Wisconsin, and would I please prepare it for shipping ASAP? You've already ingested it, so it can go out now, right?

It's the same problem as existed in the 35mm days (well, almost: then it would be a case of staying until 2am on Friday mornings breaking prints down), only this time if there's a problem, you don't see a scratchy and dirty print: you see the backup DVD or BD instead if you're lucky and they've given you one, or you lose the show if they haven't.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99


 - posted 05-01-2016 10:25 PM      Profile for Brad Miller   Author's Homepage   Email Brad Miller       Edit/Delete Post 
I couldn't agree more with Leo and Mike, although the most ridiculous part of the indie/festival circuit is that yes most often they will send a bluray backup...but they still encrypt their DCP. Ridiculous!

Then of course there is the random bad authoring which is met with "that exact same hard drive played in a theater in Los Angeles, so it's your equipment at fault". I think we all know sometimes a DCP is unplayable on a particular type of machine and the firmware it is running. For example, we have seen them that would not play on a Doremi, but played fine on Dolby. I've also see the reverse. I've also seen where a GDC wouldn't play it, but a Dolby would.

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Buck Wilson
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 - posted 05-02-2016 12:14 AM      Profile for Buck Wilson   Email Buck Wilson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Frank Cox
And a third moral: Watch the damn thing yourself, by yourself, before playing it for the public!

I remain amazed at how many of you folks seem to operate on the "push play and pray" principle.

Boy that'd be nice. Some theater companies won't authorize pre screenings at all "too much electricity/bulb hours" let alone PAY an employee to do it! That of course on top of KDMs that don't release a feature until a few hours before it is scheduled to go on screen.

And then Tehnicolor has the nerve to call and ask if someone has QC'd it. LOL NOPE SORRY

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Mike Schulz
Expert Film Handler

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From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: May 2007


 - posted 05-02-2016 04:42 AM      Profile for Mike Schulz   Email Mike Schulz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Brad Miller

Then of course there is the random bad authoring which is met with "that exact same hard drive played in a theater in Los Angeles, so it's your equipment at fault".

Oh man, I love this one! In fact I just had this happen to me last weekend. I had a portable USB drive with the DCP content on it and I plugged it into the DSS-200 and after it mounted the drive, nothing. Blank. I tried plugging it into a couple of other USB port to be met with the same result. Next, I plugged it into my laptop to see what the deal was and it had a ext3 partition but the drive was completely blank with 0% of the space used so no hidden files either. We did have a Bluray backup in the booth so I wasn't too worried about it but sure enough when the director showed up a little later and noticed I was QC'ing the Bluray he got all agitated and after I explained that the drive was seemingly empty I got the infamous "We just played our movie at 3 other venues before this one and used this same hard drive so something has to be wrong with your equipment!". He was pissed but what was I to do unless he wanted to rush over another hard drive from somewhere? I never heard back from him or management so my guess is that when they checked the drive back at their office, it was blank.

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