• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Is it better to shoot a film at 16-20fps or change it from 25 to 16-20fps in post to get that silent film look?

  Posted by Garrick Simpson on March 28, 2012 at 5:16 pm

  So I’m shooting a 10 minute short which is meant to pay homage to films of the silent era.
  My question is this, is it better to shoot the film at 16-20 fps (using a 16mm Arriflex film camera, with 250 day stock) or is there a way to convert footage shot at 25 fps to a lower fps say 16-20 fps in FCP 7 so that I can get that jerky look of a silent film.

  Also baring in mind the above mentioned are there any issues that I should look out for if I am going to be projecting this project with an SD projector that projects at 25fps?

  Any help would be greatly appreciated,
  Thanks

  Garrick Simpson
  Editing student, RSA

  Rafael Amador replied 14 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Neil Patience

  March 28, 2012 at 9:11 pm

  If you need to play your film from a 25fps Pal projector then your sequence and output must be 25fps.
  Obviously old films that were shot at 16 – 20 fps often look slightly speeded up as they were shot at say 20fps but played back at 25fps.
  Really old silent films were sometimes hand cranked and actually speeded up and slowed down by the projectionist to match the mood and music being played. This stopped with the advent of sound and set speeds then had to be used.
  There are old film look plug-ins you can use to simulate old film with scratches, hair and jumps etc etc
  I guess if you shoot film you will transfer to tape in order to capture in FCP ? If so that will be 25 in any event. (assuming you are in Pal land)

  best wishes
  Neil
  http://www.patience.tv
• 

  Rafael Amador

  March 29, 2012 at 2:06 pm

  If you put the 16/20fps stuff on a 25p sequence, FC will repeat some frames to get the 25fps speed.
  However you need to tweak the clips speed: leave it at 100% and uncheck “frame blending” so FC don’t try to interpolate blended frames.

  If you shoot at 25p, you would need to speed the footage up to drop frames, then slow it down the same amount, also avoiding any frame blending.
  rafael

  http://www.nagavideo.com

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