When we face the distribution of a film, whether for festivals or any other exploitation window, it is surprising to see how few tools we have at our disposal. In other phases of filmmaking and production there are several options, such as script editors, programs for storyboards like storyboarder and storyboard quick, … Read more
It had been a long time since I published any article related to subtitles, so it’s not bad to review some tools for embedding them in videos, which is still necessary for festival distribution. When we begin distribution, it is very important to have all materials well prepared. In the case of … Read more
Documenta Madrid closed two weeks ago, and I still needed to publish some notes from the programmers’ meeting that took place on Saturday, May 30, in collaboration with Acción Cultural. The guests were: Dr. Grit Lemke, programming director of DOK-Leipzig (Germany), Elena Fortes, co-founder and general director of the Ambulante Festival (Mexico), … Read more
This year we have launched a Distribution Meeting during the Community of Madrid Short Film Week, which is currently taking place. The Meeting consisted of two parts: on one hand, a Workshop, where we reviewed what distributing a short film to festivals entails: promotional materials, strategies, submission platforms, etc.; and on the … Read more
I am returning to the subject of subtitles with this third post, as they are essential for international distribution and yet remain largely unknown—for instance, the formats they use. This might seem somewhat obvious, but as with all digital files, each has its own format; let’s look at some examples: If I … Read more
I haven’t written for some time now after a few complicated months that have left me with little time. During these months, some festivals have requested digital copies with embedded subtitles, even for DVDs, but at the office we only distribute copies with separate language tracks, except for those videos we upload … Read more
Although Digital Betacam is a somewhat outdated format (it was launched in 1993, and while it offers very good quality, it is 4:2:2, with a screen size of 576p, like a DVD), some festivals continue to request it and oppose the use of digital files, claiming they “cannot project those formats.” However, … Read more
One of the problems with distributing digital formats, and with new technologies in cinema, is the enormous number of video codecs that exist. To help us navigate them with some clarity, editor Zak Ray has put together a chart with most of the codecs used today and the main parameters (resolution, frame … Read more
Subtitles are a very important part of distribution, and it is too common for them to be embedded or “burned-in” to the video image. However, this means further compressing the video and forces us to have a copy for each language. Therefore, this is not the current trend, and it is preferable … Read more
In a previous post we have seen the advantages of MKV as a multimedia container compared to Bluray. But there are also a series of advanced utilities that are very useful for sending and projecting with digital files, one of them is the possibility of splitting MKV files into several smaller parts … Read more