SUMMER 2014 Blu-ray� Screeners for Festivals can be STUNNING...

ZAP // Films and News

Projects and News

Festival Formats

Heaven Adores You

Regarding Susan Sontag

3 Still Standing

Fancy Frame Rate Fixing

SFIFF57

DCP Mastering

Blu-ray� Disc Authoring and Duplication at ZAP

To celebrate our new duplication system, we offer a JUNE DISCOUNT for

ZAP Email Readers:

Compress/author: $8.50 per runtime-min. (Min Charge $125)

Duplicate 1-9 @ $15

Duplicate 10-49 @ $12.50

SFFC SCREENING ROOM

24 Seats
12' x 6' Cinema Screen
Dolby 5.1 Calibrated Sound
DCP and HD QuickTime,
Blu-ray�, DVD, Laptop
Catering and Meeting
Rooms Available

ZAP

San Francisco Film Centre

39 Mesa Street
Prod. Suite 1
The Presidio
San Francisco CA 94129

415-788-7900
info@zap-sf.com

"Hi ZAP, my film just got accepted by the XYZ Film Festival in Smyrna! What format should I deliver? DCP? Blu-ray?"

We get this call at least twice a week. And things have changed profoundly in the festival space in the last 12 months, driven by the equipment in most cinema venues.

DCP vs HDCAM vs Blu-ray�

PROS AND CONS

DCP (Digital Cinema Package) is the replacement for the venerable (and obsolete) 35mm release print. Practically all commercial movie theaters, and most A-level film festivals that screen in commercial cinemas can play them back.

InterOp DCP is always 24 fps (progressive). If your film was edited and mastered in a frame rate other than 23.98p or 24p, a conversion will need to be made.

What is great about DCP: there is almost no room for technical projection issues. The image and sound equipment in the booth is calibrated, and if the DCP we make for you plays back well in our D-Cinema screening room, it's a sure bet

that there won't be color, aspect ratio or sound issues in the theater.

HDCAM videotape, especially when made from a film that was shot, edited, and finished in the "HD" color space is a very good screener option, and was our go-to standard for film festival presentation. But not all film festivals have venues capable of playing back HDCAM videotape, and there is the added complication of getting the 5.1 sound mix on to the HDCAM print, and confirming that the film festival technical staff had rented in the correct VTR and other equipment to make the playback from HDCAM possible.

HDCAM tape can be in these frame rates:

23.98 PsF (Progressive)

29.97i (NTSC Interlaced)

25i (PAL Interlaced)

And most venues can deal with all 3 formats.

We still deliver around half of the festival shows we post produce at ZAP on HDCAM videotape with Dolby E soundtrack (for the 5.1 sound mix). Before long, most festivals will drop HDCAM from their screening options as it is difficult to manage.

One more advantage of HDCAM over DCP: If any aspect of your film is non-final, such as end credits, or a shot getting replaced, it may be possible and inexpensive to punch in on your HDCAM master(s) after the initial festival screenings. You can't do this easily with DCP. DCP authoring is best done from a final linear master such as an HD QuickTime

�

file or frame sequence.

Blu-ray� Disc Screeners for festivals are a reality. We hated them at first and we made them reluctantly for our clients starting 4 years ago.

Things have evolved.

The media and the BD players now in most projection environments are more reliable. And we have a duplication process that is robust.

BD-R discs are consumer products: they are delicate, easily scratched or damaged and they do fail in playback from time to time. (We use very expensive media in our process, and have noticed the low failure rate.)

However many 2nd and 3rd tier festivals accept ONLY BD because they are exhibiting in non-theater settings and their budgets don't allow for renting in HDCAM or DCP.

The most frequent complaints we hear from filmmakers struggling with Blu-ray� discs at screenings are related to the projection booth set-up. Unlike DCP or even HDCAM, the connections from BD player and theater projection and sound equipment is often not the best. Incorrect aspect ratio, focus, color space or speaker mis-assignments are not uncommon.

WE URGE our clients to schedule a tech check screening of their BD film (at least 5 minutes) before the house is opened.

ZAP-authored BD-screeners always include a 5.1 speaker assignment check clip for in-theater testing.

SCREENER ECONOMICS

DCPs are more expensive to master.

But they are inexpensive to reproduce.
The "print" cost is low.

HDCAM screener tapes plus the cost for a real time playback check screening (highly recommended) for a 90 minute feature is usually around half the cost of authoring a DCP master.

Blu-ray� Screener compression and authoring is a bit less expensive than DCP or HDCAM and the duplicates are also less inexpensive.

We are offering discount pricing for BD authoring and duplication in the month of June.

Heaven Adores You (an elliott smith project)

Directed by Nickolas Rossi. Produced by Jeremiah Gurzi, Kevin Moyer, Marc Smolowitz

Heaven Adores You had its sold-out world premiere at the San Francisco Intl. Film Festival.

ZAP was the event sponsor, and we provided all post finishing for this wonderful film. Mike Fleming on-line editor, Ri Crawford color.

Heaven Adores You is an intimate, meditative inquiry into the life and music of Elliott Smith. By threading the music of Elliott Smith through the dense, yet often isolating landscapes of the three major cities he lived in -- Portland, New York City, Los Angeles -- Heaven Adores You presents a visual journey and an earnest review of the singer's prolific songwriting and the impact it continues to have on fans, friends, and fellow musicians.

VIEW TRAILER

Regarding Susan Sontag

Directed by Nancy Kates.
Edited by John Haptas.

Regarding Susan Sontag premiered at Tribeca 2014 and was made in partnership with HBO Documentary Films. It will be broadcast Fall 2014.

ZAP provided post finishing for this richly textured film with color grading by Gary Coates, and on-line editing by Ri Crawford and Mike Fleming

REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG is a nuanced investigation into the life of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century. Passionate and gracefully outspoken throughout her career, Susan Sontag became one of the most important literary, political and feminist icons of her generation. The documentary explores Sontag's life through evocative experimental images, archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her own words, read by actress Patricia Clarkson. From her early infatuation with books and her first experience in a gay bar; from her marriage in adolescence to her last lover, REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG is a fascinating look at a towering cultural critic and writer whose works on photography, war, illness, and terrorism still resonate today.

VIEW TRAILER

3 Still Standing

Directed by Robert Campos
and Donna LoCicero

NOW IN POST AT ZAP.
We are resurrecting lost footage from VHS, 1", 3/4" and other aging media. Online editing my Mike Fleming. Color grading by Ri Crawford.

It's 1980 in San Francisco. Comic geniuses Robin Williams and Dana Carvey spearhead a new era of stand-up comedy. Next in line for the "big time" are three talented comics: Will Durst, Larry "Bubbles" Brown and Johnny Steele. But then, the comedy "crash" hits. Now, like millions of other downsized Americans, they scramble to survive, while also staying funny, relevant, and true to the art form they love.

VIEW TRAILER

The Nerd Corner:
Teranex Joins
Dark Energy at ZAP

The Dark Energy Processor has been our rock star for making great frame rate conversions and for up scaling and down rezzing for the past four years. The developers keep improving their algorithms and work flows, and Dark Energy is still our go-to system for on line projects with mixed media such as archival SD clips that need to be converted to beautiful HS 24p media. Other high end post facilities used rival hardware/software products like the Alcehmist or Teranex systems. We resisted. Until now. For SOME scenarios, especially linear flattened media (finished films), we discovered that the Teranex can be a better choice for handling material that has sharp text or graphic content that was originally interlaced that needs to be converted to progressive. For making a DCP for example.

If your film needs efficient very high quality batch processing of clips of many sizes and frame rates to HD ProRes 24p for mastering, we still recommend our Dark Energy. But sometimes, we recommend a less expensive work flow from tape based media capture in real-time through our Teranex, accomplishing excellent up-scaling and progressivizing in one step.

Still confused? We'd be happy to run a test with your sample media to see which solution works best for you.

SFIFF57 - ZAP was a sponsor and creative vendor for the 2014 S.F. Intl. Film Festival

ZAP provided the SF Film Society with film post production services including editing and DCP mastering. For awards night, we edited four tribute reels for this year's SF Intl Film Festival Awardees:

Peter J Owens Award to Jeremy Irons

Founder's Directing Award to Richard Linklater

Kanbar Award for Excellence in

Screenwriting to Stephen Gaghan

George Gund III "Craft of Cinema Award" to John Lasseter

VIEW TRAILER

DCP for Theatrical Release and Festival Screeners

We can work with your film's elements, making the necessary conversions and enhancements to get your project on Digital Cinema Package. We provide the authoring, QC and duplication in-house with pricing that independent filmmakers can afford. Contact ZAP for details.