Sundance's Digital DCP Workflow Transformation
Key Points
- The Sundance Film Festival runs ten days each January in a remote mountain town, drawing about 45,000 attendees, 2,000 volunteers, 300 staff, and operating across 22 screens spread up to 150 miles apart.
- In the past five years the festival has transitioned from primarily 35 mm prints to digital DCP files, now handling roughly 28–29 TB of data for the 160 films screened, creating new storage and network challenges.
- To move these massive files efficiently, Sundance adopted a specialized file‑transfer solution (spare‑cargo) that transports DCPs from a central warehouse to individual temporary theaters, replacing slower, manual methods.
- The organization aims to fully automate the digital workflow—from ingesting GCP files to delivering them to each venue—so that the temporary festival infrastructure operates like a permanent, seamless cinema network.
- Success is defined by flawless screenings that keep filmmakers and audiences happy while the behind‑the‑scenes technology remains invisible, like the “Wizard of Oz” pulling the show together.
Full Transcript
# Sundance's Digital DCP Workflow Transformation **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rE_1i-Zm3I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rE_1i-Zm3I) **Duration:** 00:03:42 ## Summary - The Sundance Film Festival runs ten days each January in a remote mountain town, drawing about 45,000 attendees, 2,000 volunteers, 300 staff, and operating across 22 screens spread up to 150 miles apart. - In the past five years the festival has transitioned from primarily 35 mm prints to digital DCP files, now handling roughly 28–29 TB of data for the 160 films screened, creating new storage and network challenges. - To move these massive files efficiently, Sundance adopted a specialized file‑transfer solution (spare‑cargo) that transports DCPs from a central warehouse to individual temporary theaters, replacing slower, manual methods. - The organization aims to fully automate the digital workflow—from ingesting GCP files to delivering them to each venue—so that the temporary festival infrastructure operates like a permanent, seamless cinema network. - Success is defined by flawless screenings that keep filmmakers and audiences happy while the behind‑the‑scenes technology remains invisible, like the “Wizard of Oz” pulling the show together. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rE_1i-Zm3I&t=0s) **Sundance Film Festival Digital Logistics** - The speaker explains how the shift from 35 mm to gigabyte‑size DCP files has created massive storage and network challenges for moving and managing tens of thousands of gigabytes across the festival’s widely dispersed venues. ## Full Transcript
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so the Sundance Film Festival takes
place in January every year usually
towards the end of the month it's ten
days long we see about 45,000 attendees
supporting them or 2,000 volunteers and
our staff of about 300 people we've got
22 screens
our furthest north and our furthest
south venues are 150 miles apart from
each other because Sundance is based in
a small mountain town we have to come
and build out a lot of what large cities
would already have in place we're
bringing in networks computers
workstations everything's temporary so
just five years ago the majority of
films shown at the Sundance Film
Festival were 35-millimeter the majority
of everything that we have is now a
digital file very rapidly we saw shift
from thirty five-millimeter to DCP a DCP
file on average is about 90 to 100 gigs
of information if you're taking the 160
films that we have and multiplying that
out by two copies you're looking at like
28 29 thousand gigabytes of information
and that's now creating demand on our
network it's create a Mandan storage
that we hadn't previously dealt with
just the logistics around that and the
challenges of efficiently moving big
packets of information around you don't
have ten hours to wait for a file to
download so we have a couple problems
begin to solve one is that receiving
large files so receiving those from
post-production houses or from
filmmakers a little bit trickier is now
how do we take that DCP file and move it
to one of our venues and so using a
spare effects and a spare cargo we're
moving these DCP files between our
warehouse and individual theaters from
our research it was the product on the
market they best suited our needs
it actually has been sort of a watershed
moment for us to we're like yeah we can
do this now that we've seen that we can
move a file from our central storage to
an individual theater using a spare
cargo
aspects we want to roll that out to all
of our cinemas and theaters and really
automate that workflow I feel that kind
of a driving force and just trying to
figure out ways that I can make us a
more efficient you know operation I see
a spare the as a way for us to create a
completely digital workflow for
accepting GCP files for getting those
files and for moving them between
theatres I don't have the bandwidth to
worry about the logistics of whether a
product is working that's why I choose
what I know I can depend on and it's
like it do the work I think we can we
can get to the point that even with the
temporary nature of the festival that we
have a fully automated workflow that
allows us to put resources on ensuring
that every single screening goes off
without a hitch unless on just moving a
file and driving a print from location
to location
the successful festival for me is a
happy filmmakers a happy audience and no
one knows that I exist I want to be The
Wizard of Oz behind the wall and have a
perfect show that's a successful
you
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