Accidentally shot a scene in 30P

[Moseph]

I really have no idea how it happened, but we were on a shoot 2 days ago and the camera (60D) wound up in 30p for an entire scene. I understand that there will be a slight difference in the look between this and the rest of the film, which is 24P, and I think the director isn't too worried about that. The main thing we're concerned about is how to get them into the same sequence.

Delivery will only be on SD DVD. My guess is that it should be edited in a 60i timeline and that all of the 24P footage needs to have a 2:3 or 3:2 pulldown added in cinema tools. Which one should we go with, if there is a choice? Also, a downres to SD should be performed before this step since a downres after adding interlaced frames could cause a much higher loss in resolution for those particular frames, correct?

We also have the option of cutting on Avid Media Composer, which I believe offers the ability to edit with multiple framerates, but does that actually do any good for when it has to be exported (as one framerate of course)?

 

[Alex H.]

Not the most ideal situation, obviously, but it seems to me that adding pull-down to the rest of the project is going to be the lesser of the options as it does add interlacing to everything. There is a way to convert 30p to 24p, and it does give some pretty lovely results. His process is for edited pieces, but can be done to source clips before the edit (using in-camera audio from the original clips as time references). Not ideal, but it will get you some consistency for the edit.