STEP 4:

MASTERING

“Almost done!”

            Pictures locked! Sounds Locked! Time to finish this picture! You will need to export the film in its highest quality possible. Once you have this master you may create a variety of file sizes and types based on your needs. For film festivals you will only need to submit DVD’s or Blu-ray’s for screenings.

However, in order to actually obtain distribution you will need to master your film out into a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) in order to send it off to distributors. This is what most theatres use for their digital projectors and is essentially the new version of the film reel. You can do it yourself through some free open source programs. You will need Adobe Premier and After Effects or comparable programs in order to pull this off. There are some great resources for this, such as how to make a dcp digital cinema package on your own computer  This is the program’s download sight: http://code.google.com/p/opendcp/ Also see: Digital Cinema Mastering 101 and the best tutorial on creating the DCP I’ve found is Getting to grips with making a Digital Cinema Package Danny Lacey.