Will Create, Archive, and Distribute DCPs for Indie Filmmakers
Digital cinema encoding specialist Quvis has launched a new service aimed at indie filmmakers who need to make a DCP on a tight budget. The Wraptor DCP Service allows users to send source files to Quvis via FTP or snailmail and receive a DCP a couple of weeks later.
Users pay $15 per minute, plus a $250 set-up fee, for a DCP to be completed within 10 working days of receipt of the files. That means a 90-minute DCP would end up costing $1600 and a 120-minute DCP would be $2050. For an expedited DCP, finished within five working days, the charges are exactly doubled. Users pay additional shipping fees to have the DCP returned on a physical storage device ($100) or in a U.S. Cinema Distribution Package ($400).
Quvis will also archive the DCP for 12 months at no extra cost, and offers a service to submit archived files to film festivals. Encryption of the file and resizing (to fit an HD image to the 2048×1080 digital cinema frame, for example) are both free, if requested. The service does not (yet) offer 4K or stereo 3D DCPs.
For those who prefer the DIY approach, Quvis launched Wraptor, a $699 plug-in for Final Cut Studio 2 that outputs compliant DCPs, at this year's NAB. A free 30-day trial version is available. Later this year, Quvis is promising a software DCP player for Mac and WIndows that will allow users to view their finished DCPs without installing digital-cinema hardware in their studios.
The new products represent a shift in strategy for Topeka, Kansas-based Quvis, which invested heavily in digital cinema servers in the 2000s and was forced into bankruptcy in 2009. In 2011, the investment firm Seacoast Capital Partners became the majority owner of Quvis.
For more information: www.quvis.com
