If you are running a festival and using AutoDCP, ideally you want your filmmakers to deliver DCP’s to you via step #5 of the festival delivery instructions.   However, sometimes that does not happen, either you have your own DCPs you’d like to also include in the process, or a filmmaker has you doing things for them.

The reason’s you want to use the process of step #5 are:

1. The DCP’s are checked/validated to be proper DCP’s (avoiding the common issues associated with uploading/download folders on computers by either the festival or the filmmaker themselves)
2. Details of the DCP are entered into the ‘projection report’ which your theater will want, so they can easily update their automation systems to play the DCP at the theater.

First thing to know is DO NOT simply copy the DCP folder into your Dropbox/apps/AutoDCP/deliverables folder, this bypasses both the validation and reporting that takes places.  Treat your ‘deliverables’ folder as a read-only folder that only AutoDCP step #5 can delivery to.

Instead, simply pretend you are a filmmaker yourself, using your own Dropbox folder to do things, in short follow steps 1, 2, 4 & 5 of the instructions you gave your filmmakers to use AutoDCP.

FilmMaker Instructions:

1. 1. Requirements
   2. Activating
   3. Making a DCP
   4. Uploading an existing DCP
   5. Delivering a DCP

In summary, require that filmmakers deliver using step #5.  Don’t try to do this for them, or if you are forced to do so, do so using the instructions outlined above.  Due to the nature of DCP’s and how cloud files are handled by various browsers and platforms, whether google drive, wetransfer, onedrive, or one of the dozen other web file delivery tools, none do what AutoDCP delivery tools do  a) validate the dcp before delivery   b) transfer the entire folder intact ready for ingest by a theater projectionist.   Here’s a list of common problems that can and do occur frequently by those who have not followed our methods:

• folders downloaded as zip files, end up corrupted due to size exceeds web constraints
• files truncated/corrupted, again due to file size constraints
• files renamed (again corrupting DCP), because of versioning (appending version numbers to file names)
• generally taking MUCH more time then necessary (aka downloading/uploading when all that is really requires is a straight cloud to cloud copy which when using AutoDCP methods is seconds not hours.)