How do you prepare a movie for screening at a festival

Hey everyone,

I haven't posted here for a while, but I have a question that I couldn't find answers to searching the web:

I just finished a 6 month project shooting a feature length comedy. We're nearly done editing the thing (we've got everything done but some looping for some scenes with inconsistent audio). Anyhow, I'm trying to find out how one goes about preparing the movie to be shown at festivals. I kind of want to have this figured out before I start submitting. Here is some information on the project:

-We shot the whole thing on my XL2, in 16:9, 24p, we edited it in FCP and will be burning DVDs for submitting.
-I plan on submitting to the following festivals: A bunch of local ones (near Tampa, FL.), Toronto, Austin, any other comedy accepting festivals that strike my fancy.

So my question basically is:
What formats do they screen festival movies on? Certainly they don't use DVDs do they? How does one go about getting their edited DV footage onto an accepted medium to be shown at a festival?

Thanks for your time!

Wil
 
Each festival is different, you should have different formats ready to go, and yes, DVD is one of them.
 
Thanks, that makes sense. Do you happen to know what the common formats are? I've heard the term "beta" thrown around. Is that related to the Betacam?

I'm guessing that there's companies that do the transferring for you. Does anyone know of any good vendors for such a service?

Whenever I try to look this up online, the only hits I get are "Transfer your DV tape to DVD" which is not what I want at all.
 
before you do anything, go to the film festival's site and check on their screening and viewing formats, because of the technology, right now, DVD has become a fairly standard format for viewing/submission and for screening (almost 70% of the festivals will take it), however, many bigger ones, which avoids dvd screening due to playback issue (or skipping) still prefer tapes (minidv, dvcam, or beta).

But before you jump to the gun and get what they need, your first thing you need to do is to visit the festival's website and all the regulations/guidelines will be avalable THERE. Then you should also include stills, press kits, director's one sheet statement, etc. as well.
 
Beta SP and DigiBeta are both common formats for festivals and yes, there
are companies that make copies in all formats. I checked on line using
Google and found one in Clearwater and several in the surrounding area.
If you can't find any I'll post the link for you.

mdifilm said it: check the websites of the festivals you are thinking of entering
and look at their submission format and projection format requirements. Then
you can contact a local media transfer company and ask their rates.
 
thanks for the answers, I got what I was looking for. I'll be sure to check the websites before making any screening copies. Its good to know that most festivals screen on DVD. That makes my wallet happy!
 
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