Help with 60p footage for slo-mo

[bgreenstone]

I'm stumped on this. I've got 60p footage that I recorded with my HMC150. FCP is correctly Log & Transferring the file as ProRes @ 60fps. The imported files look great.

Now, I create a FCP project that is 30p and bring in my 60p footage. The clip still plays at 60p in the Viewer.

If I now drag that 60p clip to my 30p timeline, it does what you'd expect: it plays it as a 30p clip by simply skipping every other frame.

But, I want my 60p clip to play in slow-motion, so I set the Speed to 50%. That works... sorta, but not really. It does slow the clip down by 50%, but it also eliminates every other frame *again* to do it. So, now that 60p clip is actually playing back at 15fps!

It's pretty obviously just by watching it that it's 15fps, but to verify I can see that every frame is doubled as I step thru frame-by-frame.

So, the big question is: how I do bring my 60p footage into a 30p timeline and have it play back in *true* slow-motion at 30fps?

Thanks,

-Brian

[NoahK]

Make sure frame blending is turned off in speed controls- you are already on the right track.

Noah

[bgreenstone]

Frame blending doesn't make any difference at all. That's not the problem.

However, I think I've found a solution, albeit an extra step I'd rather not have to do. It seems that the solution is to simply load the Clip into Cinema Tools and Conform it to 29.97fps (or whatever timebase I'm working with). That instantly fixes the Quicktime .mov file so that Final Cut thinks it's already 30fps. Now when I load that into FCP I don't have to do anything! It just plays back in slo-motion without skipping any frames or anything.

I just think it's odd that FCP isn't smart enough to do the math on its own. I mean it knows what speed the file is, and it knows what speed I want it to play back at, but it's thinking about it too hard. First FCP skips every other frame to make the 60fps clip play at 30fps, but then when I change the speed to 50% it skips half th frames again rather than just going back to the original data and doing 50% on that.

-Brian

[Jokerswild]

I have a similar situation but a little confused about how to bring in two clips onto the same timeline that were shot in different frame rates..

Bulk of footage shot 24f on Canon XH-A1, ProRes transcode ingested.
Additional footage shot 60i because it will be used as Slo-Mo. How do I bring that footage into the same project? Thanks.

[bgreenstone]

I'm guessing that my solution will work the same with 60i as it did with my 60p. Try going into Cinema Tools and doing Open Clip, then Conform it to 24fps (or whatever timebase you're using in FCP, maybe 23.98?). When you bring that into your FCP timeline it should just magically work like it did for me... I think.

Although, I thought I read on the web that to convert 60i for slow-motion you have to first separate the fields out to create a 30p movie. I know I stumbled across a lot of info about that when I was Googling trying to figure out my 60p situation.

-Brian

[lalugela]

I'm having the same issue. and I wish I didn't have to do it for every slow mo.

Is there any other way, that might be faster, than to use Cinema Tools?

[bigbossbmb]

with 60i you'll need to send it through compressor first to deinterlace it to 60p before bringing it into Cinema Tools.

[bgreenstone]

After all the hassle with converting the 60p files I've got some results. Not bad for my first slo-mo stuff: http://vimeo.com/3930488

[Jokerswild]

Hey Brian..That was very peaceful and sharp as a tack..I really enjoyed watching and listening to your music. So, if I shot at 60i and want slo-mo, I need to take it into another program to slow it down? can't bring it into a 24p timeline and just slow it down in FCP?

[bigbossbmb]

can't bring it into a 24p timeline and just slow it down in FCP?

For best results you'll need to de-interlace to a 60p file and then conform it in Cinema Tools to 23.98. For a different slow-down speed, do this first and then change the speed in Motion.

[steve phillipps]

Don't forget you can Batch Conform in Cinema Tools if you've a lot of clipst to do, only takes a few seconds.
Steve

[DammitJanet]

What shutter speed works best for that 60p to slow-mo stuff? Particularly shots with people moving around a lot or falling.

[agcohn]

I just think it's odd that FCP isn't smart enough to do the math on its own. I mean it knows what speed the file is, and it knows what speed I want it to play back at, but it's thinking about it too hard. First FCP skips every other frame to make the 60fps clip play at 30fps, but then when I change the speed to 50% it skips half th frames again rather than just going back to the original data and doing 50% on that.
The problem isn't that FCP isn't smart enough, it's that it tries to be too smart. It does a lot of things behind the scenes that you can't control, which often lead to unexpected results.

[bigbossbmb]

What shutter speed works best for that 60p to slow-mo stuff? Particularly shots with people moving around a lot or falling.

1/120 if you want it to look film-like, or higher if you want a sharper image.

[mcvideo]

Don't forget you can Batch Conform in Cinema Tools if you've a lot of clipst to do, only takes a few seconds.
Steve

i have not done this and gald i ran across this. located this video if it helps anyone. Is this all you do?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1647374840422391475

[J Davis]

Original Post:-

I'm stumped on this. I've got 60p footage that I recorded with my HMC150. FCP is correctly Log & Transferring the file as ProRes @ 60fps. The imported files look great.
Now, I create a FCP project that is 30p and bring in my 60p footage. The clip still plays at 60p in the Viewer.
If I now drag that 60p clip to my 30p timeline, it does what you'd expect: it plays it as a 30p clip by simply skipping every other frame.
But, I want my 60p clip to play in slow-motion, so I set the Speed to 50%. That works... sorta, but not really. It does slow the clip down by 50%, but it also eliminates every other frame *again* to do it. So, now that 60p clip is actually playing back at 15fps!
It's pretty obviously just by watching it that it's 15fps, but to verify I can see that every frame is doubled as I step thru frame-by-frame.
So, the big question is: how I do bring my 60p footage into a 30p timeline and have it play back in *true* slow-motion at 30fps?
Thanks,

-Brian

There is only one way I know how to do this correctly using only FCP and Quicktime.
It requires a fair amount of extra disk space. Here are the steps.

1. Bring the clip you want into the FCP project panel and select it.
2. Go to MENUS > FILE > EXPORT > USING QUICKTIME CONVERSION
3. under format select image sequence (and make sure it all goes into a newly created folder)
... under options select TIFF and choose the frame rate that the clip is originally at (or u lose frames)
4. Go back to OS-X and use the finder to open the newly created folder and you will see a all the frames as separate files.
5. Using Quicktime go to MENU > FILE > OPEN IMAGE SEQUENCE
6. select the first frame
7. as it opens the image sequence it asks what frame rate. HERE YOU DECIDE THE NEW FRAME RATE.
8. once the video is open in quicktime, choose MENU > FILE > SAVE AS
... and select 'quicktime reference movie'
9. This newly created file serves as a pointer to the image sequence.
10. go back to FCP and bring the newly created quicktime reference movie into FCP
11. You will now be missing audio. If you need the audio cranked as well use FCPs FitToFill envelope edit

Hope this helps