Drop Frame vs Non Drop when editing a 30-minute program

[Chris Harlan]

[Stacy Lincoln] “When editing for a 30 minute program (20 minutes), should I be editing in Drop Frame? “

If you are editing to fit into a broadcast slot, then yes, you want to use drop.

[Stacy Lincoln] “And if so, how do you make sure you keep your program in time?”

Well, that’s why you are using drop frame. It keeps an accurate time count in terms of minutes and seconds, which non-drop does not.

[Stacy Lincoln] “My only experience with DF has been “iffy” to say the least. I don’t seem to get the timing right. So, if anyone has advice on this, I’m all ears. Thanks in advance!”

I’d be happy to help, but you need to be more specific. There really is nothing iffy about Drop frame. As I’m sure you know, it doesn’t actually drop any frames, it just drops the counting of some frames, so that the clock reflects real time. The formula is this: Every minute–except the tenth minute–the count of frames is shortened by two, so that TC ticks over from 01:05:59:29 to 01:06:00:02 without the two intervening numbers. The tenth minute has a full count. The video retains the same number of frames as in Non-drop; its just counted differently, so that minutes and seconds do not go out of sync with the actual clock.

Does this help?

[Stacy Lincoln]

yes..thank you!

[Bill Davis]

Chris,

Very nice decryption well written.

This should help a lot of folks understand the terms.

Nice post.

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