Quite the coincidence that one year ago today I said those three words, filled with the same sort of excitement tempered by fear that I have right now. One year ago, we wrapped filming on “The Bet,” and I was partially relieved (it was a less than stressless shoot) and partially terrified not knowing exactly how what we had filmed in three days would actually turn out. It, in fact, turned out pretty damn good. The film has gotten some pretty awesome reviews. Perhaps the most awesome was from City Life if only because it was entirely unsolicited (in that I didn’t ask for a review) and of the reviews (about 8?) only one was sorta negative.
But anyway, I am now sitting here one year later filled with the same dread because tomorrow (much like the tomorrow of a year ago held the same “here is your footage, now make a film” kind of terror) the DVDs for “The Bet” will be delivered. Why am I scared? I know the film is good. I know the extras are far beyond many Hollywood releases. I know I’ve packed the fuck out of a dual-layer DVD, especially for a 19-minute film. FOUR HOURS of extras? Yeah, the DVD is solid. So why the fear? Because I had to go about making the master for replication in such a bassackwards way.
From the DiscMakers site:
Q: What is the difference between DVD replication and DVD duplication?
A: Replicated discs such as DVD-5, DVD-9,DVD-10, and DVD-18, which are sometimes called “pressed” discs, begin with a process called glass mastering. During glass mastering, a stamper containing the data is created, which is then used to injection-mold the discs. These “pressed” discs have their data encoded as a series of microscopic indentations molded directly into the disc surface. The resulting disc is only half of a finished DVD and is half as thick as a normal disc. The process is then repeated to make the other half of the disc. The two disc halves are then metallized, usually with aluminum, which gives the discs their silver color. The process is completed when the two halves are bonded together to create one complete DVD. The replication process takes place in a manufacturing facility and is how all retail-ready products are produced. Replicated discs have virtually 100% compatibility with DVD playback devices. Recordable DVDs (DVD-R and DVD+R) differ from replicated DVDs in that their data is not stored as actual indentations, but as laser marks made by burning tiny holes in the dye layer of the DVD-R media. DVDs created this way are called “duplicated” as opposed to “replicated” discs.
If you got this far, I commend you, because going into this, I had no idea about the difference between replication and duplication. All I knew was I made an awesome DVD with DVD Studio Pro and it worked awesome in my DVD player, but for whatever reason (come to find out my DVD recorder on my Mac sucks ass), the dual-layer DVD I created (and played fine on everything) would not replicate properly. So, following the very specific directions from Disc Makers, I found out you could “burn” the disc to the hard drive as a DDP file. So I did that, making a disc with one layer of the DDP file and another for the other. This is what was replicated and what is coming tomorrow on 1000 (that’s ONE THOUSAND) DVDs. If I run up to the reception desk, crack open a box and run back to my computer only to find the disc doesn’t work the way it should, well, I can’t even tell you what will happen. I don’t know. Well, I know there will be a lot a swearing, followed by phone calls to Disc Makers with a lot of swearing, followed by phone calls to the credit card company… Let’s just hope they work. I was promised they would be fine.
Why am I getting all weird about this? This blog is my way of venting, and this has been such a huge part of my life and major source of stress over the past few weeks, that if I didn’t put it down now, I won’t ever.
Let’s just hope that last year’s “That’s a wrap” is followed by the same fulfillment as this year’s.
Please.