Exporting Standard DV back to DV Tape & Projecting DV Questions....

Question

My indie movie is finally finished, and I was wondering if anyone out there could give me some information on the next step.
Question #1
What is the best way to export this movie for large screen theater projection? The movie is Anamorphic 16x9 Standard DV. I was told by one person to export back to a 3 hour DV Tape, and attach the a DV deck to the projector for showing. Is this really the best way? Do people have problems with audio sync when exporting back to tape. I always have audio sync problems when I capture tapes to hardrive. I have to re-capture things all the time, and sometimes I have to capture piece by piece.
Question #2
Do projectors actually stretch the image (pixels)? How exactly does a projector make the image so large. My real question is "what is my standard DV footage going to look like projected on a big screen, and about how big can I go?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help! These forums have been so good to me over the years.
Frankie

Answer 1

First, congratulations on completing your film!
Now about your post:
I would make a print to tape.
The first thing I would do is make a special version of the timeline just to generate the tape that you will be projecting. I would include some extra graphics (your logo?) and music at the head, so that when the tape rolls at your presentation, you have visual and audible conformation that everything is connected right, nobody pulled a cable by mistake, the projector is working and showing an image and the sound is up and playing to the house prior to the commencement of your actual movie.
If you roll the tape and don't see or hear that extra material you put on the head of the reel, it will give you a chance to stop, see what is wrong (the sound guy forgot to bring the volume up for example) and the re-roll all prior to the start of your movie. Re-cueing and playing the graphics again is only slightly embarrassing, missing the first 50 seconds of sound on your film as run madly through the theatre is much, much worse.
You will have to output to a tape and verify sync to make sure you don't have audio sync problems. MAKE SURE YOU USE "PRINT TO VIDEO" which is File>Print To Video, or control-M. Do not just play the timeline and record the output. Using Print to Video locks the system down to one task - outputting every frame correctly. I don't think I have ever had an audio sync problem Printing to Video, but I don't use your system - so I would carefully spot check the tape, possibly watching the whole thing. If everything is OK on that tape, I would output a second copy of the movie just to have as protection in case something goes wrong with the first tape. And carry that backup copy with me to the show.
In answer to your second question, the only real answer I can give you is that you need to go to the venue and test run the projection and make the call as to how large you can go/are comfortable with. The projectors they use now in large venues are amazing in quality. I did a project for a charity that was projected and the quality was jaw dropping. Just remember - the laws of physics mean: for any given projector, the larger the image, the dimmer the image will be. Myself, I would rather have a smaller, brighter image, than a larger dim one. But this is your call. You really need to do a test projection.
(If you are interested, here is a basic rule of thumb, taught to me by a film DP a long time ago: go into a theatre, go to the middle of the theater; and then one or two rows back from there, if you hold a standard piece of folder paper, 8.5" x11" vertically at arms length, the paper should just cover the screen top to bottom. The width of the screen will then be determined by the aspect ratio of your film. If this applies today, I don't know, but it was also told to me by a film sound mixer as the method to use to find the right distance from the screen to be in the sweet spot for surround sound mixes.)
The other major reason for doing the test projection is to hear what your movie sounds like when played in a large venue. There is a reason film sound mixers make the large dollars, and have mixing suites that resemble theaters. Mixing sound for large venue presentation is an art and science unto itself. The mix that you have been working on in your edit bay is going to sound completely different when played at full volume in a theatre, you must hear it once and give guidance to whoever is controlling the sound as to what it is supposed to sound like. Also, it is likely you will be doing your test projection when the venue is empty, add the crowd and they will instantly suck the volume down like a sponge. Experienced sound engineers know that one the crowd fills the theatre, they need to raise the volume higher than at the rehearsals. Again, having the little extra bit of sound that we added to the head of the tape will help verify that we are loud enough so the audience will hear your film right from its start.
Good luck!