question about the whole 30p to 23.98p problem

[Starscream]

it may sound stupid but is there any problem with just drag the 30p file into compressor (since i'm convert anything to ProRes anyway, and set the conversion to 23.98p (24) ?

i've never seen any problems with that.

Sound is external recorded anyway.

 

[holyzoo]

It actually sounds smart, but you're right - it is stupid. 30p-24p conversion is a big controversial conundrum which results in some people...

- in disagreement regarding methods and their quality
- sorely unhappy with the results
- not knowing the difference when it's done wrong
- working smart and tediously to do it with complicated methods and being thrilled with the results

4 Techniques to do it:

- Just let your NLE or compressor do it - this will look terrible unless you can't tell (amazingly some people can't)

- Use frame blending - this will look decent to most people, especially considering how people enjoy YouTube so much, but if you look closely or frame by frame, you'll be disappointed.

- Use advanced frame blending in Compressor - http://www.holyzoo.com/content/dslr/CompressorConvert_Best.jpg - This is the easiest method I've seen that has pretty good results.

- Use Twixtor to do the conversion - takes a long time, and depending on the motion, it is prone to a ton of morphing artifacts. However, with certain material there is nothing better than this without changing speed. I should add that AfterEffects has Timewarp as a built-in alternative to Twixtor.

- Simply conform the 30p to 24p with Cinema Tools - results in a slight slow-down of all footage. For music videos some people actually speed up the music by a percentage for the shoot, so in post after the 30p-24p conform, you'll be generally in sync with the correct speed of the music. In my opinion this is the smoothest 24p you'll see out a 30-24p conversion, besides carefully Twixtor'd footage.

Bottom line, if you're picky, it's not easy. If you're not picky, frame blend it and be happy. If you're dumb as a rock, just let final cut or compressor do whatever it wants and drop frames to achieve 24p. You can always claim it was a "stylistic choice".

 

[squig]

What's the difference between just dropping the 30p onto a 24p timeline in FCP and conforming in cinema tools? I just dropped my russian trip clip onto the timeline and it looks ok.

I must be dumb as a rock because I totally forgot about conforming in cinema tools. Now I'm trying to figure out how to go back without having to start from scratch.

 

[Nathan Troutman]

What's the difference between just dropping the 30p onto a 24p timeline in FCP and conforming in cinema tools? I just dropped my russian trip clip onto the timeline and it looks ok.

I must be dumb as a rock because I totally forgot about conforming in cinema tools. Now I'm trying to figure out how to go back without having to start from scratch.

Just dropping 30P into a 24P timeline has FCP randomly drop frames to get the clip to 24. Hence the clip plays back at normal speed. It is possible that it doesn't look terrible if you don't have a lot of motion in the frame. Car driving past will look pretty bad - very jumpy motion. See the great conversion test here.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=175852

With cinema tools your simply taking all those fames and playing them at 24 a second rather than 30. Naturally now the footage is playing slower than original motion.

 

[squig]

thx for the link, if only I'd read it yesterday. the camera movement is so jerky with the 135mm lens that I don't notice any dropped frames. I'm gonna shoot it again with wider glass and do the slowed down cinema tools look.

 

[holyzoo]

I'm gonna ....do the slowed down cinema tools look.

This is my preferred method at this point, provided I have no audio I need to carefully sync. It's easy and let's face it, slowing everything down a little always looks cooler! Heh heh.