Help with DVCPRO HD: Converting 50fps to 30fps & 25fps in FCP

[Patrick McCabe]

I'd like to convert P2 footage shot at 50fps into 25fps and 30fps. I've done a bunch of forum searching (here and at CreativeCow), but no luck so far in finding out the best way to do this.

I'm using FCP 6.0.5 on a Macbook Pro with 4GB Ram running OSX Leopard. Footage shot on a P2 AGHVX202AEN all at 720, but I don't know if it was 720P or 720PN.

Using FCP's log and transfer, I've imported footage shot at 50fps and it comes into my project as 25fps under the DVCPRO HD 720p50 compressor. This is great for when I want to use this footage as slow mo overcranked. But I'd like to also bust this footage down to 25fps for a regular speed look, and possibly 30fps for a slight overcranked effect.

Can anyone advise the best way to achieve this and get it all onto the one sequence?

I've tried importing with the "Remove advance pulldown and duplicate frames" checkbox in the transfer preferences both on and off but either way clips still come in as 25fps.

I've tried using the Frame Rate Converter tool, but it won't recognise the footage as anything but 25fps, and therefore won't work (I believe it needs the clip to be 50fps to begin with).

I've got the P2CMS software installed, so I can see a lot of metadata for each clip, but can't quite tell if it's been shot as 720P or 720PN.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Patrick

 

[Patrick McCabe]

Problem solved

Problem solved

I've realised the best way to 'convert' the frame rate is to use Speed parameters to remove frames from the clips.

I'm now taking the slow motion 25fps clips and creating new clips at 200% to get real time and 166% to get a 30fps-slightly-slow-mo effect. Frame blending is off.

Thanks to everyone who read the original post, I was sure it must be something I had to do in the import settings, because this solution just seemed so simple. I should have remembered Occam's Razor and realised the simplest solution is usually the correct one!

Patrick