Sending the DVDs to festivals has, so far, gone smoothly. The same can't be said for the 20 Tom sent back to me (recall the mastering had been done in Australia but the duplication in the US).
Tom went to the UPS shop on Saturday 18th December. Once the package was in the system, they were claiming an arrival estimate of Wednesday 22nd December. This seemed optimistic at the time. I thought 23rd was a possibility. Backworking, that would mean it would have to arrive in Sydney on 22nd and hence leave California by late on 20th.
The package, however, was not even picked up from the UPS shop until 6pm on Monday 20th. This meant it didn't fly out of New Hampshire until 10pm that night. At that point I knew it probably wouldn't make it by Christmas. The arrival estimate, however, was still showing 22nd.
It arrived in Ontario, California at 7.10am on 21st and within a few hours, had been seized by customs (or whatever "PKG DELAY-ADD'L SECURITY CHECK BY GOV'T OR OTHER AGENCY- BEYOND UPS CONTROL" means).
Finally at 3.44am on 23rd December, another hub scan was done. The arrival estimate was still showing as 22nd but at least there was a chance it was going to make it on a flight pretty soon and make it into the country by Christmas at least.
But, alas, no new scans. It didn't make it on a flight on 23rd or the 24th. By 27th there was still no new scan. Then on 28th December, ten days after the package had been sent, there was another hub scan done at Ontario, California. It still hadn't left the US!
Then, a few hours later, another dreaded: "PKG DELAY-ADD'L SECURITY CHECK BY GOV'T OR OTHER AGENCY- BEYOND UPS CONTROL"
I can only guess that the customs officials just really like the film. Hey guys, keep a couple of copies, just send the rest on please!
UPS is still showing the arrival estimate as...you guessed it...22nd December.
The original post was in the category: alibi_phone_network but I'm still in the process of migrating categories over.