IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

Hi Michael.
I'm only really talking from an alternative 'option' point of view. I'm a huge Hard Media fan (you should see my Blu-Ray collection!) and i'm quite adverse to streaming and buying online content... but, when it comes to sharing my own movies with others... online/streaming is by far the easiest. Not saying it's the best mind... but it's an option that needs to be on the table for those that prefer the medium.
When it comes to BIAFF, i think there should be the option (like pretty much every other film festival on the planet) to send movies in via their YouTube/Vimeo link. This could enable some films to be judged outside of the judging weekend.

Worth a try?

(good to finally meet you too by the way!)

The use of discs has been falling dramatically for some considerable time, it's not Apple's fault nor did they instigate it - they're just responding to perceived market trends. Personally, the only time I ever use discs is in connection with the IAC, either for BIAFF or at local and regional competitions. Other than that, without exception, everyone else is happy to view my films on a memory stick or over the internet, even if the recipient is nothing to do with filmmaking and just an interested friend. I usually export anything up to 1920 x 1080 Full HD mp4 file at about 16,000,000mbps and believe me the quality is superb. For me the key issue is cost: it costs me nothing to pop an mp4 file on a memory stick, something I do maybe hundreds of times as each film progresses, to pass to interested people or simply as a means of sitting back and watching the ongoing project on various devices.

Discs still certainly have their place (one is at least reasonably certain that a disc will play in any compatible player - at home, at your club, at BIAFF etc) whereas there are increasing tales of misery and woe concerning incompatibility between playback equipment and some file formats. Constantly evolving CODECs can create havoc with devices that were state of the art last season. IF BIAFF instigates online uploads at some point in the future then I think two points need to be addressed:

1) A set of standardised common formats needs to decided upon that will cover both the Windows and MAC OS if needed, and which all the commonly used editing programs can export.
2) Some kind of 'parity check' should be put in place to ensure the file received is the same size as the file sent, and therefore not corrupt. This could be something as simple as entering the file size on the entry form, then on receipt the downloaded file size is checked and referenced against the entry form.

This is a topic that certainly warrants further debate, and definitely worth a try!

John

PS: Good to finally meet you as well, Geoff!

Fellows, I can't contradict what you say about discs and of course files are becoming the 'currency'. That's fine for many purposes, including judging for festivals, but, when you hand someone a memory stick, are they only going to view on a computer? That being so it's a shame, the modern large screens are so good. If however people are going to view on a large screen that's fine by me.

My Blu-Ray player has a USB Slot in the front, as well as being WiFi enabled so i can stream media from my Network to it. I quite often show my films on my lovely 55 inch LCD TV via a USB stick.

(ditto John)