SHORT FILM on 25fps and 60fps (CAPTURED ON FIREWARE)

[Dale Mccready]

Can you convert and cut at 23.98 and then once you’ve finished your edit use After Effects or Cinema tools to output 25FPS?

[Jorge Molina]

We could do it I suppose. Problem is we shot everything at 25 fps. What will happen if I change now to 23.98. Maybe time-artifacts, strobbing images?

Any idea on this?

[Jorge Molina]

Is there no solution for our troubles?

Will all our work be futile?

Does varicam not care for the poor souls of PAL-LAND?

We really liked the camera…

Please HELP!!!

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Jorje,
Varicam loves Pal world, apple and Final Cut Pro by themselves do not.
There are a couple of posts recently, yours included, that are demonstrating that people are using the Varicam without understanding how it needs to be understood with post production very much in mind. DoP’s cannot use this camera with out understanding how what they do on the shoot can really be a nightmare in post production. As DoP’s we should empower ourselves with a full understanding of the post process and be of assistance to the editor and line producer. I don’t like to hear people rubbish Varicam when the only problem seems to be a lack of real understanding about a new system. Anyway, enough of that said. Now to some help (I hope).

When your DoP used the camera, was it clocking at 60hz or 59hz internal frequency? You can find out by looking at the data on the userbit display on the 1200a. For use in the PAL world the camera needs to clocking at 60hz other wise a time artefact is introduced. The same happens if you digitise with the 1200a internal frequency set to 59hz rather than 60hz for PAL (I know this sounds like an NTSC setting but in the Varicam world it is not. 59hz is the setting to use when shooting for NTSC.)
Please don’t mistake these settings for the Variable cranking speed of the camera, they are a different set of settings with their own nuances.
When you first digitised, did you go through firewire from the 1200a to your MAC? If so, then understand that there is no real 25-fps support with HD 100 and firewire. This is an APPLE problem and why they have not resolved this within the last 2 years astounds me to this day. Transferring your material with the 59.98 frame setting was unfortunately a big mistake, you have inadvertently introduce a time artefact for going back to 25fps. If any of your edits occur after the 24th frame in a second, FCP will add that amount to the next second when you go to conform thus pushing out each consecutive out point for every shot.
There may be a way to fix this though, Graeme Nattress <https://www.nattress.com/> has a standards converter available as a pluggin for FCP. Buy this pluggin and download it from the site, follow the instructions for use. Exactly copy all the shots from your 59.98 time line onto the 25fps timeline and apply the filter to all shots making the appropriate setting change to the filter for all shots (don’t ignore placing the source material in the image well, and make sure the new time line is set to PAL 25fps) and render it back to 25fps. This will take a very long time, I have found that 6 minutes of source takes about 2hrs to render, so this may be a job over a couple of nights. If you have any problems refer back to the web site, or go to the “Panasonic P2 cameras” Forum on COW and Graeme is a forum leader there.
Once that is done you will have a properly converted time line.
You may choose to just conform as per normal without using the pluggin and make the changes necessary to each shot for the new time, it’s up to you to choose.

Once you are in the 25fps PAL world you can then rework your 60fps material using the Varicam settings for the Black Magic card you have mentioned. Make sure that the VTR menu settings are correct for what you need to do.

Is the Black Magic card a HD card and do you own it? If so then you could have captured to DVC HD 100 25fps through the BM card using HDSDI. The BM codecs allow you to do this and you would have avoided these problems.

Is the Slow Motion footage on the same tape as the intended 25fps material? This may cause you some headaches if it is. When capturing through the BM card using the Varicam slow motion settings, you will need to capture 3-5 times the amount of material off tape than what you intend on using. This can mean that the original camera tape may need to be stripped to the end of tape if one of the last shots on each tape is your intended slow motion shot, remembering that FCP will need to capture 3-5 times the amount of footage off tape than required. I have found that using the PANASONIC FRC can save a lot frustration for people who find themselves in this situation.

I hope this helps you in some way.