• DSLR Video

  May I ask a rather newbie question I don’t know the answer to…..please

  Posted by Jeff Waldrop on December 1, 2013 at 1:23 pm

  I shoot still photography with a Canon 5DM3 and I am starting to shoot video with. I have some success. More than I anticipated. I use Final Cut Pro X on my Mac for editing and adding soundtracks.

  Here is my question. I usually shoot 24 fps and I must be playing back at 24 fps as the video is in real time. How do I shoot for a “slow motion” effect? Shoot at a faster FPS and playback at a slower FPS. Where specifically in Final Cut Pro do I tell it the speed to run the video file at?

  Thanks in advance….

  Jeff W Waldrop

  Steve Crow replied 12 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Al Bergstein

  December 2, 2013 at 5:17 pm

  A couple of tips Jeff.

  Don’t default to 24 all the time. Just like still photography, there will be times when 30 or higher is needed. i.e. I shot aerial the first time at 24fps, had to throw out most of it. Now shoot in 30 if not higher.

  Shoot as little in 1280×720 as possible (the standard for slow mo in the 5D). Upscaling results in terrible looking video. Downscaling works fine. You may find that someday you need to reuse the video you shot, and if it’s in 1280 you will be very unhappy, believe me. The only time I shoot in 1280 is when I need slo mo *and* I assume it is a one off deal that I will complete in 1280 for all other scenes. Some of my original video I shot, stuff that is very valuable historically to our area, was shot in 1280, and I’ve recently tried to use it, but upscaling it was worthless. I ended up removing the footage but would have downscaled my entire video to match it if I had to use it.

  I shoot all footage all the time in 1920×1080.

  Al
• 

  Jeff Waldrop

  December 2, 2013 at 6:03 pm

  Thanks, Steve for the tips. I’ve just started the video techniques but did manage to stumble on the Retime options in FCP X. I looked at your video work on your blog.

  Thanks again,

  Jeff W Waldrop
• 

  Steve Crow

  December 2, 2013 at 6:31 pm

  No worries Jeff, interesting to hear about FCP X’s built-in retiming option. I’m curious to know if it’s doing the same thing as the “speed” option in FCP 6 and 7 (or Motion’s Optical Flow?) or is it doing the “change the metadata” thing?

  Steve Crow
  Crow Digital Media
  http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com

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