What fps to choose ? 24.000, 25, 30.000 fps ?

[sebastian___]

A few years ago there were a few topics about this. Maybe today there are different answers.

What fps should I choose for my film for internet distribution and/or international distribution ? Let's assume I can film in any fps.
I would prefer to avoid 23.976. Since I'm in Europe 25 fps would be the obvious choice except it's not compatible with NTSC.

[Barry_Green]

If you're putting it on the internet, it doesn't really matter, and if you're in Europe you might as well shoot and distribute at 25.000.

If you're sending it out to film, or want to distribute on DVD in NTSC territories, 23.976 is where you should start, although converting 25.000 to 23.976 isn't all that hard and it's done all the time.

[sebastian___]

Thanks for reply.
Normally I wouldn't even dream of filming in 30 fps or 50, but with the recent talks from J. Cameroon and P. Jackson about 60 fps and 48 fps (for better motion definition), I thought about whether I should consider filming in 30 fps. It's a little confusing if you have the choice for any fps.

Today I thought maybe the best would be 24.000. This would be compatible with NTSC, PAL and internet. But as I read further I found out it's not actually compatible with NTSC and maybe not with PAL.

Is 24.000 playable on NTSC and PAL ?
If not, it's easier to convert to 23.976 then 25 fps to 23.976 ?

[Barry_Green]

24.000 is not compatible with NTSC or PAL. 23.976 is compatible with NTSC, and PAL TVs can usually play DVDs that have been authored at 23.976.

If it's just as easy for you to shoot at 23.976 as anything else, then why not do it?

[Demistate]

I would shy away from filming in a different framerate other than 24 or 23.976. I had a friend who shot a film at 29.97fps and they ended up stuffing it into a 23.976 when they prepared it for theatrical release becuase that is what the projector ran at. It didn't look good.

Anything other than 24/23.976 might not get projected at the right framerate in theatres. You've been warned.

[JeganRX]

Seconding the 23.976/24.000 suggestion. The latter is actually compatible with Blu-ray spec, last I checked, and you'd only need the .01% slowdown to 23.976 if you went to DVD (followed by a soft telecine flag).

For PAL DVD, you can either perform the usual 4% PAL speedup, or leave it at 23.976 and use soft telecine flagging (Yes this is possible: http://neuron2.net/dgpulldown/dgpulldown.html) to bring it to 25.

[sebastian___]

Thank you for answers
The reason I wanna avoid 23.976 is the workflow is complicated as it is - matching different cameras with 3d setup and cg and on top of that some frame by frame compositing and others. So I just thought if it's all the same - choosing a whole number like 24, 25 or 30 would simplify things. 24 TGA frames in a folder would really mean one second and not some 0.98 second or something.

So I think at this point - the easier route would be to choose 24.000 for everything like CG, editing, color correcting - until the final point. And if needed I would convert the final material to 25 or 23.976.

[ejolson]

Let's assume I can film in any fps.

Theoretically 49fps with a 360 shutter could be skip printed to obtain 24.5fps with 180 degree shutter. This splits the difference between 24 and 25 fps. Speed things up by 2% to get 25fps and slow things down by 2% to get 24fps.