Digital Cinema Specifications 69 Festival del film Locarno 1. DCP Specifications 2. Source Material for Digital Cinema Encoding into JPEG2000 Image & Sound Specifications 69 Festival del film Locarno page 1 of 5
1. Digital Cinema DCP (JPEG2000) Locarno Digital Cinema screenings are only on a server basis. Film will have to be shipped on a physical drive containing only the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) of the version of the film (CPL) that will be screened in Locarno. Even If your movie is already a DCP encoded in JPEG2000 format following DCI/SMPTE standards, a Quality Check (QC) at our partner lab before the Locarno screening is mandatory The Festival takes in charge the cost of the QC The ultimate deadline to receive the DCP for QC at our partner lab is July 12 th To assure the best handling of the DCP and the distribution of the KDMs of your film, it s imperative to ship the DCP to our partner lab for a control of the copy and to provide them the D-KDM (Distribution Key). D-KDM time-window should be open from the moment the DCP is shipped for testing until August 21 st. In this way the lab will take care of the QC and they will then generate the KDMs for all playback servers in use at the Festival Short films are not encrypted (no KDMs) and should be delivered on a physical drive (Hard Disk Drive) It is recommended to ship 2 NTFS formatted drives of the same DCP (one master and one spare) Please ship CRU canister or USB2.0 compatible drive (along with Swiss 220v plug & power supply) If the producers/distributors choose NOT to send the DCP to our partner lab, it will be at their own risk and the Festival del film Locarno declines all responsibilities if the DCP will not ingest properly on the server or the KDMs will not work correctly Festival's Print Admission Unit will help you all along the procedure. Before preparing the shipment of the DCP for QC, please await to receive detailed information about the shipping address from the Festival's Print Admission Unit (printadmission@pardo.ch) 1.1 Technical Specifications 1.1.1 Image 2k & 4k DCP are both accepted, but 4k DCP will be screened in their native resolution only in selected venues 24 fps & 25 fps DCP are both accepted, but 24 fps DCP are preferred 1.1.2 Sound 2.0 Channel tracks (stereo) have to be mapped on 5.1 5.1 Channel PCM and 7.1 Channel PCM are both accepted, but 7.1 is available only in selected venues 1.1.3 Security Encrypted and non-encrypted DCP are both accepted For encrypted DCP, D-KDM and KDM costs are at producer/distributor charge 1.1.4 Subtitles Subtitles wrapped as a DC-XML file and subtitle additional packages are both accepted but be aware that in this case your DCP has to be tested well in advance, as major issues in DCP are caused by out-of-norms subtitle files, that can be corrupted or not fully compliant with DCP standards. So, in order to avoid troubles, it is strongly recommended to deliver a DCP with burnt subtitles (engraved on the print - rendered along with the picture) All works selected for the Festival must be screened in their original language with English or French subtitles: If the Original Version of your film is in French the subtitles on the print will be in English If the Original Version of your film is in English the subtitles on the print will be in French If the Original Version of your film is in another language (neither French nor English) the subtitles on the print will be in English If the Original Version of your film is multilingual please contact us so that we can establish together the language for the subtitling process Please refer to point 2.4 on this document and to point 6.a on Rules and Regulations document for further details about subtitles Image & Sound Specifications 69 Festival del film Locarno page 2 of 5
2. Source Material for Digital Cinema Encoding into JPEG2000 In case your film still needs to be encoded to DCP, we suggest to work with a professional laboratory experienced with DCP handling. This process could also be carried out by our partner lab You ll find hereunder technical specifications in order to prepare the source material (digital picture, sound and subtitles) to be encoded and - if requested - encrypted for digital projection at the Festival del film Locarno It is highly recommended to provide the source material as soon as possible. By the way, the ultimate deadline to receive all the source material (picture, sound and subtitles) at our partner lab is July 12 th. After this date, they won t be able to encode your movie on time If some elements are ready to be provided before this date, it would be much appreciated to receive them as soon as possible: in this way your material can be processed serenely before the rush time Additional information about DCP encoding preferential rates for the Festival del film Locarno selection will be available from end May Source material will be kept at our partner lab until the end of the Festival Please provide your courier account number for shipping back your tape or your hard disks If your movie is already a DCP encoded in JPEG2000 format, a Quality Check (QC) at our partner lab before the Locarno screening is mandatory. The Festival takes in charge the cost of the QC (please check point 1 on this document for further details) Before preparing your shipment, please await to receive detailed information about the shipping address from the Festival's Print Admission Unit (printadmission@pardo.ch) 2.1 Preliminary note: frame rate Nowadays, 24 fps (frame per second) is the only DCP frame rate fully adopted, developed and deployed by the D-Cinema industry. Even though more and more D-Cinema playback servers are capable of reading 25fps files, the conversion is still ongoing. For Festival screenings, both 24 and 25 fps are accepted, but for the distribution after the Festival, 24 fps is recommended. Our lab would be happy to quote a double frame rate DCP. Two versions on the same hard disk: one running at the source material s speed and the other running at 24fps 2.2 Picture track Please only provide fully checked source material 2.2.1 File based delivery (files sequence) Uncompressed file sequences (DPX, TIFF, BMP, CIN, SGI, TGA, YUV) are accepted. It is mandatory that no compression, even lossless compression, is applied to the file sequence. Please check the files size in the file folder, all frames size should be identical. These frames have to be provided on Windows NTFS or Linux EXT2/3 formatted hard disk. A Macintosh volume would slow down the DCP creation process. Frames can be split into reels such as with film, with a different folder on the hard disk for each reel Unless stated differently (X Y Z, P3 ), the file sequence is assumed to be graded in standard HDTV color space (REC.709 / Gamma 2.2 / Full range) To avoid resizing, the files resolution for 2k DCP will be: * For scope format (1:2,39): 2048x858 pixels * For flat format (1:1,85): 1998x1080 pixels * For 16/9 format (1:1,77): 1920x1080 pixels To avoid resizing, the files resolution for 4k DCP will be: * For scope format (1:2,39): 4096 1716 pixels * For flat format (1:1,85): 3996 2160 pixels * For 16/9 format (1:1,77): 3840 x 2160 pixels Image & Sound Specifications 69 Festival del film Locarno page 3 of 5
2.2.2 Tape based delivery For some titles, it may be more appropriate, due to material availability or cost constraints, to repurpose existing video masters * Sony HDCAM-SR (either 4:4:4 or 4:2:2) and Panasonic HD-D5 are recommended since they are considered as uncompressed (visibly lossless). Sony HDCAM (first generation) could be used too but the native compression of this tape format is more consequential than the other ones so artifacts could be more visible * Unless stated differently, the tape is assumed to be graded in standard HDTV color space * If your source material on the HDCAM SR tape is in 29,97fps or 30fps, it has to be adapted to 25, 24 or 23,98 fps. This is a tricky conversion process and the result can change a lot depending on the preset/equipment used for it, you should validate the result of this cross conversion before submitting it to the lab * If your master is not High Definition (HD) but Standard Definition (SD PAL or NTSC), recorded on Digital Betacam (mostly for documentaries, short films, adverts ), up-conversion (de-interlacement + resize) will be applied. Obviously this support is not optimal: the resolution is not increased with the up-conversion process. Digital Betacam is the only SD support accepted. If the content has already been de-interlaced, it should be noted on the deliverables * Betacam SP, DV, DVCAM, HDV, DVCProHD, Blu-ray Disk are not accepted 2.2.3 Video file An alternative to the file based delivery is providing a single uncompressed video (i.e. Quicktime MOV uncompressed). By the way, this solution presents some disadvantages: resolution limitation, one large file to handle If the only available source material is a compressed video file, which is not recommended, it is crucial to check the compression ratio has been properly adjusted in order to preserve a sufficiently decent quality. Accepted formats are: Quicktime MOV, Apple ProRes, MPEG, Windows Media WMV, XDCAM MXF, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra, DNxHD. Highest quality recommended (bitrate and resolution) 2.3 Audio tracks 2.3.1 On videotape If the picture track is delivered on a tape, it is recommended that the audio tracks are laid back onto it as well. This method eliminates any synchronization or offset issue between picture and sound. Note that HD- D5 and HDCAM SR supports at least 6 audio channels but this is not the case with standard HDCAM format (4 audio channels). For more audio channels, please provide files (see next section). Dolby E is not accepted. 2.3.2 Files * 5.1 mix, preferably 6 individual files: L - C - R - LS - RS - LFE * LtRt, stereo or mono also possible: stereo files split, each file properly named * Broadcast WAV, WAV, AIF files * Sampling frequency: 48 KHz * Reference level: -20dBfs * Frame rate 24 or 25 fps * Clear synchronization mark (beep, start, first sample = first frame of action ) Audio files can be delivered: * on a DVD-ROM * or uploaded on our partner lab FTP server Image & Sound Specifications 69 Festival del film Locarno page 4 of 5
2.4 Subtitle track * STL-EBU format * D-Cinema XML (aka Cinecanvas file) * If none of these 2 formats can be delivered, please submit a timecoded text file * Subtitles rendered on the HD Tape or on the files along with the picture In this case take care to the size of the subtitles and the positioning: a cinema screen is much bigger than a TV screen, no needs of a big type size 2.4.1 Concorso internazionale Concorso Cineasti del presente Concorso Pardi di domani If the movie is selected for the Concorso Internazionale or Concorso Cineasti del presente or one of the Pardi di domani competitions, subtitles will be screened in two different languages. One on the picture (digital cinema subtitling) and one under the picture (electronic subtitling) Please provide our partner lab with the file for digital cinema subtitles only. Take a special care on source material delivery schedule since after the movie is encoded it has to be sent to the electronic subtitling company to check that both languages are in sync! Festival s encoding partner lab only takes care of the digital cinema subtitling Electronic subtitling is managed by a third party company called Dune MK 2.4.2 Other categories If the movie is selected in another category, only one language will be screened with digital cinema subtitling. Electronic subtitling will not be available in this case. (see section 2.4.1 for more details regarding the difference between digital cinema subtitling and electronic subtitling) For the Piazza Grande screenings, movies have to be subtitled in two languages, so you have to provide one single subtitle file with both languages merged together on two lines. Please contact us so that we can establish together the languages for the subtitling process Image & Sound Specifications 69 Festival del film Locarno page 5 of 5