30P to 24P time lapse transfer

[J_Farina]

This is one for you math guys & girls.
I recently filmed some time lapses with my new DVX. They came out insanely well.
However, I could not figure out how to shoot it in the 24PA mode. I therefore set up a scene file to mimic the look of the the 24PA that was actually shooting 30P. I captured the footage along with my 24P footage and it showed up in FCP as 29.97. The time lapse setting was 0.5 sec (or 15 frames) every 30 sec.
My intention was to simply speed the footage up by 15 times with the hope that I would get a smooth timelapse which sampled 1 frame from the 0.5 sec (15 frames) intervals. This actually worked out quite well.

The problem I am now having is getting the 29.97 footage to play smoothly on a 24P timeline. Obviously, this will not work with my chosen method as the clip I created is 30 different frames per second and I would obviously need to drop 6 frames per second, which makes for jerky playback.

So I need to figure out a method to draw a 24 different frames from theis footage. Using Time Re-mapping in AE is the only thing I could think of, but setting a new keyframe every 15 frames and then sliding them all down the time line is a long tedious process.

Any suggestions?
J.

[dashwood]

J.

To make your 30P file into 24P, launch CinemaTools and then select "Open Clip" from the file menu. Find your 29.97 clip. When it opens click on the "Conform" button.
Conform it to 23.98. This is performed instantly because CT simply tells the quicktime file to play at 23.98 instead of 29.97. (80% of the original speed)

Now go back to your FCP project and you will see that your clip is now a true 23.98 clip.

I use this technique to shoot 30P "overcranked" slow-motion. It works well with no data loss, re-compressing, or rendering.

Your timelapsed shot will still change every 15 frames, but the interval is now 0.625 of a second instead of 0.5 second. (15/24=0.625)

Since you want the image to change every frame, you should set your speed to 1500% That would make 15 frames = 1 frame. Is my math right?

If you still don't get the desired results, then I suggest using either BTV or iStopMotion to capture (and the ability to blend frames for "long exposures").

[yia]

hi, guys I am new at this and I have a few questions I need to ask you guys.....

I shot some stuff in 24p and I wanna to capture it in fcp. Is there any setting in fcp that I have to set to get that smooth film look .... I don't it to look like the "daytime shows" ....thankyou

[VaricamLife]

yia,

If you recorded with 24PA then you just need to set your capture settings to remove the advanced pulldown. You can then edit on a 23.98 timeline and get the look you desire.

If you recorded with 24P, bringing this straight into FCP is designed for cutting on a 29.97 timeline. Not sure if this will get as bad as "day time tv" look you talk about, but might not be entirely what you wanted. In this case, after bringing the footage in you'll need to use Cinema Tools to confrom it to 23.98 so you can cut on that type of timeline.

cheers.

[yia]

Thanks varicamlif..
hey, if I shot in 24p and bring straight into fcp as 29.97 frame, will I still get the smooth 24fps look... or it's going to look like normal 30 frame (29.97)

What I'm try to do is to get the smooth "film look"....it doesn't matter if is on 29.97 23.97

thanks

[BenB]

When you drop your 24fps into a 30fps Seqeuence, extra frames get added to conform it to 30fps. So, you have the basic 24fps "effect", but it's not as true nor as smooth as using a native 24fps Sequence. Depending on the motion and various qualities of the footage, dropping 24fps into a 30fps Sequence may also introduce some juttering.