Need Digital Cinema Print

Frank DiBugnara · January 8, 2011

I recently shot a short film/trailer, running time is 5 minutes. I acquired on Super35 and the transfer was to uncompressed 1080 files. The final online is pretty effects-heavy, so I think 1080 is pretty much the end of the road for this project (I had wanted to rescan at higher res, but that's not in the cards anymore).

I'd like to have some screenings at local cinemas. I got a quote for a 35mm print. I'm wondering if I can get a digital cinema print for a whole lot less.

Can anyone refer me to someone who can create my digital print? Is it something I could do myself? When I've proposed the idea of me (and not a major studio) providing a digital print for exhibition, I've gotten a lot of push-back from cinema managers. It seems as though they've never gotten a hard drive from anyone but a studio. They keep trying to push me to exhibit on Blu-Ray. The problem with that is that their Blu-Ray players display on consumer projectors and not digital cinema projectors.

Any thoughts?

Adrian Sierkowski · January 8, 2011

I came across this before, but we wound up going Blu-Ray. It's not really something you can do yourself and the programs for it are quite expensive. And major cinema post house, though, should be able to provide you a D-Cinema. I'd speak with Technicolor and Deluxe, see what you can get.

Brian Drysdale · January 8, 2011

For a one off print, the Cinevator mentioned in another thread is worth checking out.

Phil Rhodes · January 8, 2011

I've had HD playback gear patched temporarily in for this sort of scenario; it depends what your circumstances are. Most projectors have DVI inputs. Is this a one-off? If so, look into doing that (I have some gear to do it in LA at the moment).

P