Why do some Film Festivals not take DVD?

eomer41

eomer41

I was searching for film festivals to enter on withoutabox.com (WAB). They show many different film festivals. I wanted to enter into some of the more popular/bigger name festivals such as: Sundance, Indie Memphis, AFI Fest. It seems those feativals do not take a DVD submission. When I try to qualify the technical format of my short it says they want: 35mill, Beta SP, Digi Bata, Other - Digital. I have a .mpeg DVD.

Do they not take DVDs or am I missing something?
 
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Most 'top tier" festivals won't exhibit from DVD. They want a film print, a digi beta, etc... In my experience, most will take a DVD for the submission copy, but not for the exhibition copy if accepted. Though most want a regular region 0 NTSC DVD not a .mov or mpeg burned to DVD for the submission copy. They want to be able to stick in a DVD player and have it go.

A FEW festivals are now going to Blu Ray as an acceptable exhibition format, thank god, because projected DVD (the format a lot of "lower and mid tier" festivals use) looks like complete crap.
 
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Yeah cam, with lots of lower and mid tier festivals all the movies for a given theatre get burned onto a hard drive in correct order. The projection booth has a macbook hooked to the projector. That's how Phoenix FF was. So I can see them using a format like that.
 
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I'm glad they're going that way. SD cards. Though I've never entered a fest, I've heard other filmmakers lament the cost of dubbing their movies to DVCPRO HD Tape. Media alone is around $75 fwik.
 
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I was able to enter both Sundance and Slamdance with an online screener on Withoutabox.

Big mistake -- Withoutabox apparently uses video compression technology from 1997. It's awful, ruins your movie, and I'll never do it again. Only did it this time because I waited until the last minute (another thing I'll hopefully never do again!).
 
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DirtyPicturesTV said:
I was able to enter both Sundance and Slamdance with an online screener on Withoutabox.

Big mistake -- Withoutabox apparently uses video compression technology from 1997. It's awful, ruins your movie, and I'll never do it again. Only did it this time because I waited until the last minute (another thing I'll hopefully never do again!).
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I haven't bought in to online screeners on withoutabox either. i mail a DVD.
 
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eomer41 said:
I was searching for film festivals to enter on withoutabox.com (WAB). They show many different film festivals. I wanted to enter into some of the more popular/bigger name festivals such as: Sundance, Indie Memphis, AFI Fest. It seems those feativals do not take a DVD submission. When I try to qualify the technical format of my short it says they want: 35mill, Beta SP, Digi Bata, Other - Digital. I have a .mpeg DVD.

Do they not take DVDs or am I missing something?
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They accept a DVD for selection purposes, but a DVD uses MPEG2 compression which is really low quality. Presentation on a big screen in a real movie theater will mean you (and the festival) will want a higher quality image to use as a source for projection.
 
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sonnyboo said:
They accept a DVD for selection purposes, but a DVD uses MPEG2 compression which is really low quality. Presentation on a big screen in a real movie theater will mean you (and the festival) will want a higher quality image to use as a source for projection.
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I guess the bigger the screen the bigger the projection the bigger the quality. Tape does seem to work better for projections now that I think of it. I have watched a DVD on a home theater projection and it looks fine but it sounds like a real theater is a different story.

By the way, I entered my short using an online screener (Withoutabox). So far I have one rejection and several pending.

Thanks for the replys!
 
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Regular DVD is 480P. You blow that up on a 30' wide screen and it looks VERY rough. It looks WAY better if they project some HD format (or film). Festivals are starting to come around to Blu ray which looks pretty decent projected. Any burned media like a DVD or a Blu Ray has issues with crapping out on you as well. That's the other reason they don't like them. Sometimes they skip, jump,. freeze, etc...
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
Regular DVD is 480P. You blow that up on a 30' wide screen and it looks VERY rough. It looks WAY better if they project some HD format (or film). Festivals are starting to come around to Blu ray which looks pretty decent projected. Any burned media like a DVD or a Blu Ray has issues with crapping out on you as well. That's the other reason they don't like them. Sometimes they skip, jump,. freeze, etc...
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That's why I'm thinking the SD card thing will eventually take off for shorts. The cost will be the card you never get back.
 
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sonnyboo said:
Data files on any format (Jumpdrive, flash drive, hard drive, email, SD card, CF card, science fiction card that doesn't exist yet) will be the future in no time.
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I think you're right. It's just a matter of more of the festivals catching up with technology and saying goodbye to tradition. Some still accept cave drawings, though. ;)
 
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I've been using this media player, the WDTV from Western Digital and it can play most file types, every variation of HD with HDMI or analog output. Having put on more than 15 film festivals, the last one was such a dream because I just hit PLAY and it went off without a hitch. I loved it.

It is the future of presentation, at least for indies as most Hollywood movies are being played digitally on screen now too. Most theater screens, even the $1 second run theaters, are converting to high end DLP digital projection.
 
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sonnyboo said:
I've been using this media player, the WDTV from Western Digital and it can play most file types, every variation of HD with HDMI or analog output. Having put on more than 15 film festivals, the last one was such a dream because I just hit PLAY and it went off without a hitch. I loved it.

It is the future of presentation, at least for indies as most Hollywood movies are being played digitally on screen now too. Most theater screens, even the $1 second run theaters, are converting to high end DLP digital projection.
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Hollywood of course loves it. No more several thousand bucks each for film prints. Money straight in their pocket.
 
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Firstly, let me be clear that well projected well produced standard definition DVD's can and do look excellent in a theater at 30' wide. The problem is, most DVD's are not well produced and there are many better less compressed projection formats available, such as the aforementioned tape products like Digibeta and HDCam although they certainly have their drawbacks, cost being #1. Indeed, the easiest way to screen a film for acceptance is to pop a film in a DVD player and have it start playing. The best way to screen a film for an audience is off the best quality print possible, whether that be a 35mm print, hi-res tape format, or from a digital hi-res copy like blu-ray.

One other problem with DVD's that it seems nobody understands is that while there is supposedly a "standard" Mpeg-2 codec, the bitrates, audio codecs, menus, VTS structure, GOP length, etc is all over the board when it comes to one DVD from the next. With a true standard like a tape - it either has a picture and audio or it doesn't, you don't have to worry about one machine choking on a tape encoded with too high a bitrate like you do with DVD.

Another reason is because some well entrenched festivals have been set up to screen these other formats and see no reason to make exception to show an inferior format. That is their prerogative.

A final reason why some festivals don't screen from DVD is because it keeps the riff raff out. They figure if you aren't pro enough to be able to get a single print on an alternative format of your film, then it probably isn't pro enough to be in their festival.
 
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Yeah the bigger festivals we've played at require the better deliverables, and the small festivals do fine with a dvd copy. Once you sign a distribution deal, you will be providing them with these different formats anyways.

I will say this, and I'm surprised nobody has brought this up. Often times, if you want a festival to screen your film, if you have the option... Send them an online screener from a password protected account. This goes with people who want to review your film.

At the early stages in the game, I would send out a DVD to big names in Hollywood or people with influence, if they were interested in my film. But I've learned it's very risky, unless it's a large distribution company or a big film festival.

We've been luck to not have our film pirated, but I know for example, after we played at the Slamdance Film Festival, the projectionist gave the copy to a friend, who passed it to a friend, and one of those friends hit me up, telling me how much they loved the movie, and where it came from. This is how movies hit the pirate circuit before it's been released, killing a % of your initial sales. Be careful.

We make sure and insist that they send us the copy back, after they've screened it now. We are super paranoid, and you should be if you've invested the time and money into your baby, and you feel it's got a chance in the market.
 
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Screenwriters comments make me wonder if the POOR quality of the WAB online screeers isnt a GOOD THING. Nobody would pirate the low quality.

Im not clear on one point.. are you demanding the submission copy back, or the presentation copy? Most say you wont get the submission copy back, so maybe again its a GOOD thing that the DVD is low quality?
 
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So that's what they don't take and why they don't take it. However, as someone who wants to enter a load of festivals, I would like to know what they do take and how do I get it onto that format from a Mac?
 
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