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Film submission process

As mentioned in our meeting, we are having a new on-line registration process for our call-for-entries. The new process is asking that all entries be submitted in a digital format. In receiving a digital 'file' on a CD/DVD, it will make it easier for us to process the films for judging, screening programs, and creating promos, not to mention the logistic simplicity.
Question: will this format turn away some artists from entering their films because of the techniques/software they used (ie:drawings) ?:confused:
Maggie

dchai's picture
Submitted by dchai on

Hi Maggie,

Most of the festivals that I've seen accept regular DVDs, which I find to be pretty convenient. It wouldn't be too hard to burn a Quicktime or AVI to a CD or Data DVD, but it would be an extra step in the submission process.

I think asking for data files would also be more time consuming on your end because you'd have to take the time to copy all of the files to a computer or server. Even if it takes only one minute to load, copy and eject each one, that'd be eight and a half hours of copying for 500 submissions.

Unless there's a reason for doing otherwise, I'd suggest DVD submissions (NTSC, region 0 or 1)

Have a nice weekend!

DC

DC

Deanna Morse's picture

I understand asking for DVDs for selection. My concern is whether the quality of the submissions will be good enough for projection.

At Zagreb, they had sound (audio) issues with films submitted on DVD, noticebale when the competitors did not send a projection quality screening, and they were forced to project from the DVDs. Because DVDs and CDs are already compressed, visually, you may not have the best images for projection screening... (Ryan looked crummy, and the new Joanna Quinn film was nearly incomprehensible... Both projected from DVDs.)

As an international festival, will this complicate things too with PAL/NTSC issues? If entrants use consumer based DVD authoring programs, will you have difficulty screening them?

These would be my concerns - projection quality if you rely on DVDs and QT files...

Deanna

Maggie-KAFI's picture

On Tuesday some testing was done with PAL DVDs in the computers here. Using the DVD software that comes standard with the computers, they could play both NTSC and PAL disks without any problem. It seems reasonable to assume that this would carry over to SECAM DVDs as well, given that PAL and SECAM have the same frame rate.

What this means is that the DVDs sent to judges may not be playable in regular players hooked up to TV screens (unless you have an NTSC/PAL compatible player). However, all of the DVDs should be playable in a computer with a DVD Drive and basic DVD Player software.