Best output for movie theather

[SeanBrown]

So I will be playing a movie I shot with the RED one and 5d in the theater.
I will have a final output res of 1080p.. What do you suggest for the highest quality of the output. Pro ress 444? I can play it off my computer plugged in to the movie theaters projector. Or I can burn a dvd but I don't have a blue-ray burner which they do have a blue-ray player..
I think he has a server there so I never made a Jpeg2000 file anyone have experience with that?

 

[Rainer Fritz]

Making a DCP by your self is not a good idea... you should go to a lab with your highest source and let them do that....
playbacking prores444 from a macbook will not run smooth. prores422 will be a better choice but you can test that...
an export to uncompressed 10bit 422 and encoding then a bluray is a very good way for a screening like that.

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I agree with Rainer, but want to expand on his comments.

Making a DCP by your self is not a good idea...
you should go to a lab with your highest source and let them do that....

What Rainer skipped over is that DCP is the format to deliver if you are playing in a "real" theater. A lot of smaller venues that cater to independent cinema can deal with all sorts of formats though, the easiest being BluRay.

Rainer, can you expand on this? With a tool like Easy DCP Creator it seems straightforward- if expensive.

You may need some trial and error at first, you'll almost certainly have to either regrade the film or adjust the output LUT from your REC 709 grades.

I prefer to regrade myself, I don't have the expertise to create a custom LUT.

playbacking prores444 from a macbook will not run smooth. prores422 will be a better choice but you can test that...

MacBook Pro's should all have the processor capacity to handle ProRes4444.

It won't be smooth because of disk bandwidth.

You do have options that will help.

First off if you have an SSD in your MacBook that would be a big improvement... and might be enough, depending on the size of your picture.

Secondly you could install a RAID-0 in an external enclosure. You can play back ProRes 4444 1080p from a fast Firewire 800 device ... but on a Mac you need to keep volume sizes under 2TB for best performance.

I very much prefer the idea of a RAID-5 array on an eSATA card with port multplication

an export to uncompressed 10bit 422 and encoding then a bluray is a very good way for a screening like that.

I prefer exporting to a 444 format and converting THAT to BluRay.

Of course that assumes a high quality source, like RED that hasn't been trashed by the workflow.

 

[SeanBrown]

Thanks for your help both of you.. In this case this is just a demo of a feature and we are playing it for the writer in a "Real theater" they have 35mm film projects and Digital projectors but can't afford to make a film print and no need to here. I think I will send out of PP from my 1080P time line at 10 bit 444 and then burn that to bluray..
We will try a few ways..
Thanks again.