November 26, 2015 at 6:09 pm

How Movies Get Delivered To Your Local Theatre (6 Photos)

by twistedsifter

 

Filmmaker Christopher Presswell recently shared an interesting series of photos and captions on reddit, explaining how a typical movie is delivered to your local theatre.

His most recent film, Candlestick, just finished touring the festival circuit and he explains how his film went from place to place.

[via Christopher Presswell on reddit]

 

How Movies Get Delivered To Your Local Theatre (1)

Photograph by Christopher Presswell

 

“This is a Peli 1300 flight case, which most hard drives containing the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) are shipped in.”

 

How Movies Get Delivered To Your Local Theatre (2)

Photograph by Christopher Presswell

 

“On top, you’ll find details of what’s contained on the hard drive within (which in this case, is our film Candlestick). There are no specific rules about what to put here, but the more information there is, the less likely the film is to screen with any issues. So here, we have the aspect ratio, sound format and duration of the film, along with contact details (removed in this photo) in case of any technical or playback issues. The labels are a little worn, as a result of it having recently finished touring the festival circuit.

 

How Movies Get Delivered To Your Local Theatre (3)

Photograph by Christopher Presswell

 

“Inside is a CRU DX115 caddy, which contains a standard Western Digital 500gb hard drive, Linux formatted in EXT3. Here, it is slotted into CRU’s accompanying Move Dock.”

 

How Movies Get Delivered To Your Local Theatre (4)

Photograph by Christopher Presswell

 

“Depending on the theater’s set-up, the caddy (right) may slot straight into their server, and the files ingested (or in some cases, played directly from the hard drive without the need for them to be transferred). If the theatre is unable to slot the drive directly into their server, the Move Dock is a separate external dock that allows the drive to be connected to the server via a USB or SATA connection.”

 

How Movies Get Delivered To Your Local Theatre (5)

Photograph by Christopher Presswell

 

“Beneath the caddy are all the necessary cables for the move dock to work. The theatre should already have these, but we like to include them so as to make sure they’re on hand if required. Our power adapter is currently awaiting replacement, after it made a rather loud bang and started giving out smoke the last time it was plugged in.”

 

How Movies Get Delivered To Your Local Theatre (6)

Photograph by Christopher Presswell

 

“And finally, this is the contents of the DCP folder, as viewed on a Mac. It contains: Video (MXF) Audio (MXF) Packing List (XML) Composition Playlist (XML) Asset Map Volume Index And that’s how movies are shown at your local theater. If you’d like to check out Candlestick, it’s available now on DVD from Amazon, and to download from iTunes, Google Play, MGo and more.”