Shutter speed, or what?

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Brandon,
At first sight it seems that the clip is interlaced but is being played with the wrong field order.
Give a bit more of info about the footage, sequence, etc.
Cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Brandon Ivey]

https://gallery.me.com/iveybrandon#100161/Test2&bgcolor=black

Try that. Upon export the fields were off. Plus I dont know what mobile me is doing to it either.

The footage was supposedly shot DV NTSC 29.97. It was captured in Adobe Premiere Pro, and to be able to apply the smooth cam filter, I converted it into Apple Pro Rez HQ and DV NTSC both as .mov. Honestly, that is the worst of the shots; smooth cam took care of most of them just fine. But there has to be a better way.

[Bret Williams]

I’m not an expert, and not sure if something is going on with mobile me, but it looks like it was shot 24p and it’s a pulldown issue to me. If you frame by frame it, you’ll see frame 1,2,3 and then frame 4 is a combination of 3 and 4. Frame 5 is a combination of frame 4 and the next frame 1. I don’t see any interlacing.

I’d say it was shot 24p and pulldown was probably added somewhere along the way with the incorrect field order. If he’s shooting in camera as 24p but adding pulldown to make it 29.97 (probably the best method of doing 24p unless you’re going to strip the pulldown off tape and actually work in 24p for layback to film or a 24p progressive scan DVD) then I think something is awry in the camera.

Bret Williams
Web Design . Motion Graphics . Video Editing
http://www.bretwilliams.com

[Brandon Ivey]

Hmm, think recapturing it as 24p would work?

[Bret Williams]

Perhaps he is shooting it 24pA? Doesn’t that require capturing it with a specific pulldown removal setting? I’m not used to getting things from tape anymore. But someone here probably knows.

Try capturing it off tape using the DV NTSC Advanced (2:3:3:2) pulldown removal setting. Its under the capture settings tab in log and capture. Then the capture/input pulldown and on my system it’s the second choice.

That’s going to leave you with a 24p file, NOT a 29.97 file. You CAN just drop that 24p file in a 29.97 sequence and use it, but you might get a bit of jutter because FCP isn’t interlacing the pulldown, just repeating every forth frame.

The best way, I’ve recently learned, to incorporate 29.97 and 24p in the same timeline is with a 59.94 timeline, then have that final quicktime interlaced into 29.97 via compressor or after effects.

Some shots look just fine as 24p dropped in a 29.97 timeline. Lock offs, interviews, slow moving shots. But shots like this one with a fairly brisk tilt down might have a little jutter, but might be acceptable.

[Bret Williams]

Whoops, I responded to the main post. See that…

[Brandon Ivey]

Well, the camera op called us when we left him a message. He said he was shooting on a different shutter speed because of the lighting. He doesn’t use an iris or aperture, he uses the shutter. And cant tell us what speed it was because it changed from one lighting condition to another. Anything I can do with the footage from here?

[Bret Williams]

A shutter speed would affect sharpness or motion blur of every frame. It wouldnt create the problems seen in your footage.

He definitely uses an aperture. That is how the camera adjusts for exposure. Of course a slow of fast shutter can also affect exposure, but it would be pretty bizarre to use that to control exposure. In video, a 1/60th shutter would be normal, with higher shutter speeds generally used only for special reasons like slowmo playback. A slow shutter like 1/15th would give you immense amounts of motion blur for a surreal look. Your footage looks like a standard 1/60th shutter to me. It’s probably embeded in the metadata on the tape.

Try that 24p Advanced pulldown removal capture.

Bret Williams
Web Design . Motion Graphics . Video Editing
http://www.bretwilliams.com

[Scott Sheriff]

He said he was shooting on a different shutter speed because of the lighting. He doesn’t use an iris or aperture, he uses the shutter.

slightlt OT
What? Completely unacceptable! Plus it sounds like you have had this problem before.
Not sure what the client/cam op/you relationship is, but if the shutter is being used in a way that compromises the look of the material or adds time (and cost) to post you need to bring it to the attention of the producer or person that pays the bills.
If the shooter wants to cut the DOF he should invest in a set of ND filters instead of using the shutter, unless the ‘shutter look’ is something client wants. You can also (in most cams) create alternate paint settings, and store them on a card. It’s pretty easy to create a -3db (1 stop) or more sensitivity reduction set up, which would allow a bigger f-stop.

And cant tell us what speed it was because it changed from one lighting condition to another.

Fired. No excuse for that. Non-standard shutter speed should be noted and/or slated. I would ask the producer why they keep hiring this guy.

[Brandon Ivey]

The attitude here, though it is getting better, is do what you have to to use it. Im going to try the pulldown, but if it doesn’t work I have no choice. The producer was just let go, so I have to bring it up the chain.

The camera up said they really dont use the iris that much. He kind of knows one of our in house DPs but not well.