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Mixed frame rate questions
Hello friends!
My wife and I shot some nice video on our last vacation to Europe using three cameras, Canon 5DMK3, DJI Mavic Air and iPhone 8 Plus. I want to edit the project and started one at 23.98 fps as that’s what the 5D, Mavic, and most of the iPhone footage was shot at. However, there are some iPhone clips that were shot at 29.97 and some at 120 fps for slow motion. Since the bulk of the footage is at 23.98, I was assuming I’d edit in that. My question is that I noticed when I drop some of the 29.97 clips onto the timeline, they don’t “look right.” I then clicked “Automatic speed” and the clip slows down to 80% and looks normal. However, I’d like to play it at 100% speed, but have it look correct.
Questions:
1) Should I just drop the 29.97 footage onto the time-line and let FCP X handle it and hope it looks right on the final export?
2) Should I use compressor to transcode those clips to ProRes at 23.98 and then use those to edit?
3) Is there an easier way I don’t know of?
I’m on the latest FCP X 10.4.6.
Thanks, community!
Daniel -
2 Replies
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[Daniel Scherl] “at 23.98 fps as that’s what the 5D, Mavic, and most of the iPhone footage was shot at. However, there are some iPhone clips that were shot at 29.97 and some at 120 fps for slow motion. Since the bulk of the footage is at 23.98, I was assuming I’d edit in that. My question is that I noticed when I drop some of the 29.97 clips onto the timeline, they don’t “look right.””
This is because there is no perfect way to conform non-multiple frame rates. Fortunately FCPX has a feature called “optical flow rate conforming” – which is a different menu choice than optical flow retiming. Using this method non-multiple frame rates can usually be combined without great problems.
To use this, select the 29.97 clips in your timeline, then in the video inspector at the bottom under “Rate Conform”, pick “Optical Flow”. Render that and observe the playback.
The render time will be longer but it will usually be fairly smooth and without motion or optical flow artifacts.
Ideally it’s best to use either the same frame rate or a multiple frame rate (eg 30/60 or 24/48) on all cameras which avoids this.
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Joe, THANK YOU! Worked perfectly and was exactly the kind of solution I was looking for.
Once I’ve rate conformed the clip, can I make speed adjustments to it? i.e. a drone shot that I want to speed ramp, or do you think it’s better to do the speed ramp first, then do the rate conform? Or is it a simple case of try both and see which one looks better? Haha!
Thanks very much again!
DanielDaniel F. Scherl
President / CEO, Group 8 Productions, LLC
Los Angeles Boston Cleveland
(818) 808-0022
http://www.group8productions.com
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