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Stutter and flicker problems
Hi everyone,
I am shooting a long-term project mostly on XDCAM, using the EX1 and an EX3. We have been shooting in1080/24P (with the shutter speed set to 1/48). The only problem we are having is with pans and tracking shots when vertical elements are moving across the frame. They stutter tremendously, far more than 16mm or 35mm film. So much so that they are often unusable. We just did a test using other combinations, 30P (1/60th sec stutter), and 60i (1/120th sec shutter) and 60i (1/60 sec shutter). The 60i footage hardly stutters at all (the 1/120th shutter is better). However, I assume because of the interlaced chroma and luminance fields, there is discoloration at the edges of the vertical elements crossing the frame (especially when they are white), which I also find unacceptable.
We have played back all this material in multiple different ways, from within FCP onto an external monitor, as self-contained Quicktime files to a HD projector, and also from the SxS card within the camera directly through HDMI out to a HD plasma screen. All of them display the same stutter problems, so I do not think it is a problem of playback, but of recording.
There are certain tracking shots that we want to do very much. Does anyone have any advice? We would shoot them in 60P, if we could, but we don’t have a camera that can record at 60P. Some of these tracking shots will be part of a separate video by themselves (so we can shoot them all at the same frame rate); however, it is also possible that we may wish to include excerpts from them in our main video, which we are shooting at 24P. Does anyone know whether the latest FCP can deal with different frame rates, within the same time line, or project?
Any advice? Thanks so much. Verena
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4 Replies
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[Verena oaravel] “They stutter tremendously, far more than 16mm or 35mm film. So much so that they are often unusable.”
Have you followed the Cinematographer’s (ASC) rules on panning at 24fps?
You must pan slowly.This is generally not a camera issue but a DP issue.
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If I remember correctly, according to the ASC, [shooting @24fps] an object should take AT LEAST 8 seconds to pass from frame edge to frame edge during a pan.
Dave J
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I found this mention by John Faur at theasc.com regarding the DVX-100 when it first came out
https://www.theasc.com/magazine/product.htmIf you’re just getting into shooting 24p, shooting some motion tests would help you get used to acceptable panning speeds. Most of the rules for strobing when shooting 24-fps film apply: generally, you’re safe from strobing if an object takes five or more seconds to move across the entire screen.
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Don’t use the electronic shutter (turn it off). You’re going to have issues, as the others have noted, with fast pans at 24fps. Fix it in After Effects using interpolated motion blur.
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