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Few concerns with Slow Mo
So, I have a scene that is going to end up being around 3 minutes, give or take. It is a basic idea and would rather not have people comment on “I have seen that so many times” or anything of that nature. Basically, a character destroys a cabin living room. He tosses couches, an ottoman, CDs, a computer monitor, etc. I shot it all in 60p bc I knew I wanted to put in slow motion. But here is my concern… it is a bit too slow and bit too dramatic when I conformed it in cinema tools and then brought into FCP.
So I am wondering if I can adjust the speed once it is in FCP without having to start all over in cinema tools. I click on a link and even though it is in slow motion, since it has been brought in at 24p, it shows up at 100 as the speed duration. If I move that up to about 135ish, it feels like better pacing. So my question is simply… am I missing anything… Is it doing anything wrong with frames or anything of that nature that it will not look right when compressed and moved to DVD/Blu Ray. Any concerns at all that I should be aware of by doing this?
thanks for the help
jared
And it was shot with a Canon 7d if that matters and i am using FCP 6 -
8 Replies
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Speeding up in FCP can look pretty good. The important thing is that the original is actually shot slo mo. 135% is not a big speed manipulation and speeding up should look better than frame blending when slowing below 100%.
Motion has more options with speed manipulation which might look smoother (optical flow etc)
Also if you go back to your original file and use Compressor to make the shot the exactly length you want with frame controls, (whilst converting it to ProRes)that might be better yet. Lots of options.
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it wasn’t actually shot in slow motion… it was shot at 60p with the 7d which many guys are taking into cinema tools and conforming it to 24p.
unfortuneatly, i am still very new with any program other than fcp in the fcp suite so i don’t know how to do the other options you mentioned… i think i will stick with the 135 manipulation unless someone has a bad comment on it or unless someone can walk me thru how to use motion or cinema tools -
sorry- that is how to use motion or compressor (not cinema tools)
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Are you able to check the final on an external monitor? Judging quality on the FCP viewer is not advisable.
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the best i can do is either burn it to a dvd and watch it in the living room on a 50 inch dlp or make the fcp viewer window bigger… yeah, i’m poor… and i don’t have a second monitor
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In my experience it is best to use cinema tools to conform the footage to the frame rate you will be working in, and then speed it up if you want it to play faster.
Dropping 60P footage into a 30fps or 24fps timeline then slowing it ~50% doesn’t get you the frame by frame clean slomo you are after. It is as though FCP blends the frames when you initially put it into the timeline, then interpolates the slomo from the reduced blended frames. This leaves you with ugly slomo.
Also, the realtime playback of the material isn’t as good as it should be either.Conform the footage in cinema tools to the framerate of your project, then speed it up the the desired speed you are after. This works best.
Test it out and see for yourself. Duplicate a clip of your source material, run one instance through cinema tools and conform it to 30FPS. Import both files into FCP and drop in a 30FPS timeline. Slomo the 60FPS footage to 50% and compare it to the stuff you conformed. See how much crisper and nicer the conformed footage looks!?
Now speed up the conformed footage to 200% and it will playback regular speed way better than the 60FPS material. (this is far more evident when viewing on a proper external monitor.) The 60FPS material plays back on TV monitors as if it was shot with a high shutter (very ugly,) and the conformed 30fps material sped up 200% will playback smooth.
Hope I didn’t loose you there… In short FCP does a far better job speeding up footage than it does slowing it!
Cheers,
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C. -
i would conform as well. But do it IN A COPY of the original clips.
Speeding up in FC is not a problem; Is just a matter of dropping frames, no creating.
If you have Revision you can add some movement blur and will look very well.
Rafael
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