Final Cut thinks clip is 23.98 when it’s not!

[Sean Oneil]

I don’t know why FCP is reporting the wrong framerates. But what I can tell you is that you cannot reverse telecine AFTER editing in 29.97. Final Cut and Cinema Tools cannot detect cadance automatically with 3:2:3:2 pulldown. It can only reverse 24A automatically.

Cinema Tools can reverse 3:2:3:2, but you have manually to specify the cadence for each individual clip. Furthermore, it won’t even do 3:2:3:2 pulldown if the codec is DV. It stupidly assumes that 24fps DV footage must be 24A (this may have been fixed in later versions – you shouldn’t use DV anyways because it’s very lossy to re-encode).

You have three options:

1) If you have all the source tapes, the best solution for you to do is convert the EDL to 23.98 and batch re-capture everything at 23.98. That should do it.

2) Lay it off as 29.97 to a Digibeta. Take it somewhere that has a Teranex and have them deal with it. Tell them you want it converted to 23.98 and delivered on a hard drive. This will naturally cost a lot of dough.

3) If you’re stuck with the media you already captured, you can use the “recompress” feature in Media Manager and convert all the media you are using to Photo-JPEG @ 75% quality. Use the “delete unused media” option so you only have the stuff you need. Make sure you add a few frames of handles. Now you’ll have a folder full of new media. Run each clip through CT and do a manual reverse telecine. You’ll have to jog through the first few frames to identify the cadence. If you can’t tell then its trial and error. 5 possibilities. Obvioulsy this will take a very, very long time. Sorry. Save it to its own folder. It keeps the same names but adds “.rev” at the end.

Once that’s done, start a new FCP project and import all the .rev clips. Now you can look at the media TC in the Browser. You’ll need this. Open up your working project and copy and paste everything from your sequence to a new 23.98 sequence. Now reconnect everything to the new media and use the other project to determine what clips connect to what media. This will also be a pain in the ass. Sorry.

Now go through every single edit point. You will find that a large amount of your edits are either a frame too short or too long. This is because you made non-film-safe inter-frame edits within fields via your 29.97 editing. So you have to manually correct this by trimming each edit point that needs it.

4) You could export your 29.97 sequence to a self-contained QT movie and try using a free program called JES Deinterlace (google it). It can do a reverse telecine on your whole project whilst detecting cadence breaks. I played around with it and it seemed to work, but I never actually used it in a meaningful way. Might be worth trying, but your 24A footage will probably prevent this from working.

This is why I tell everyone to capture and edit the native frame rate of the source footage no matter what.

Sean

[Sean Oneil]

One other thing. If you decide to use CT, you don’t need to convert your 24pA footage to JPEG. CT should automatically convert that no problems (except it seems you were having problems). Anyway, I would try and put 24pA footage on separate video tracks form the regular 24 footage. Then you can just use MM to convert the 24 footage.

Also, your speed changes are hosed. You’re gonna have to redo them. Again, you can always take it to a high-end shop that has a Teranex and let them deal with it.

Sean

[Bill Russell]

Hi there. Thank you for your response! Hmm, I know it CAN reverse 3:2:3:2 cadence of DV material, because I have often put telecine material on DVCAM (without flex files) into FCP 5.1.x and had it reverse whole batches of clips no problem. This project was edited a few years ago in FCP 3, so editing 23.98 at the time was not an option (and this was before 24P HD became dominant). Show was shot DV, small chunks of tape not available (or not easily recaptured because of repeating timecode swaths across breaks), will go PBS in the fall and film-out later. It was mostly shot DV (Panasonic 100). The reason I’m converting the show is precisely because the Tenorex (actually Alchemist) house said too many 30 frame dissolves/FX and interactions with 30 frame archival made converting without heavy artifacting nearly impossible, that I needed to give them a 24fps timeline first, so their main purpose would be the uprez. I’ve done other 29.97 shows through Alchemest to 24p HD, but those shows had only scattered instances of material that needed to be pre-corrected.

One reason I am getting wrong cadences is that captured clips have changing cadences across camera-start/stop, so CT correctly identified head of clip, but not portion used. I’m putting each one of those aside to media media manage as you say. What I don’t know though, is why some simply failed. Anyway, my main concern is why FCP is detecting and forcing wrong frame rates on some footage, I don’t know how to “release” those clips now.

So 29.97 DVCAM tapes can be captured into a 23.98 edl?

That’s VERY interesting about the free JES software! It sounds somewhat sophisticated! This may be quite helpful.

The “hosed” speed changes, and much other key-framing in fact, is such a bummer. At v5 FCP still as buggy as ever, some ways new, some ways quite old.

So there ya go. Again, if ever thoughts what this forced frame-rate change is about – or how to get out of it – much appreciated. Thank you, Sean!

“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –

And more…

[Sean Oneil]

Good luck.

Sean