Working Back From the Week-Before DCP Deadline

A festival that asks for the DCP "a week before" the screening is telling you the last day its projectionist can still cope with you. It is not a target. Every film that lands on that day is betting that the file plays, the key unlocks and the subtitles sit where they should, with no time left to lose the bet.

So we work the calendar from the cutoff backward, and we count the days a DCP actually eats before we agree to any date.

The date on the page is rarely the only date

"A week" means different things at different venues. Anthology Film Archives asks for DCPs and KDMs two weeks ahead. RIT's MAGIC facility requests delivery 7 days before the screening, will accept nothing later than 48 hours, and gives no tech check to a package that arrives at that point. The Berlinale sets its latest possible delivery at 5 days before the first screening for late films, generally offers no test screenings, and expects you to have tested in a SMPTE-compliant cinema before anything ships.

Read the festival's technical document for the exact rule, and treat its date as the floor.

Start from the cutoff and walk backward

Put the cutoff on the calendar first. Subtract the shipping or download buffer. Subtract a test and fix cycle, because if the festival's QC fails the file, a replacement needs the same days again. Subtract the DCP build itself: one vendor quotes 3 days for shorts and 5 to 8 days for features once every file has arrived. Only then do you land on the day everything upstream has to be final.

That last date is the one that bites. The same guide says most delivery delays come from a missing audio stem, with out-of-sync subtitles and wrong frame rates close behind. It means the grade has to be final, the mix printed with its stems, and the subtitle file checked against the locked picture before the build is ordered, not while it runs.

Keys are a second deadline

An encrypted DCP brings a second clock. Anthology wants the KDM to unlock the DCP at least one week before the first screening so the theater can test it. Film Festival Cologne asks that test KDMs be valid on the test day from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and festival KDMs for the whole run. RIT wants playback windows open from at least 6 hours before the screening until 2 hours after its intended end, covering any tech check in between.

A key issued for the screening alone won't survive the test. Ask for the test window and the show window separately, and ask whether an unencrypted DCP is welcome. Cologne says it prefers them, and it removes one thing that can go wrong.

Pick the delivery method before you pick the date

The method sets the buffer. Cologne ranks server transfer first, a posted drive second and a download link last, and a download needs at least two full working days on its end. File systems differ too: NTFS there, Linux ext2 or ext3 preferred at Anthology and the Berlinale. We covered how we choose in how we ship to a festival by upload or by drive. Choose it early. A posted drive needs days in transit that a link doesn't.

A working note

When picture lock is set, write the backward calendar into the schedule next to it, with the festival's own wording of the deadline copied beside the dates. Then send the festival's tech contact three questions: which drive format, whether keys are needed and for what windows, and whether a test slot exists. Picture and sound both feed that calendar, the grade on one side and the mix stems on the other, and neither can slip once the build is ordered.