Using Sony 60p footage in an FCP 7 23.98 timeline

[Shane Ross]

[Robert Withers] “If I say yes, it changes the sequence settings to 60 fps. The footage looks smooth.”

Correct…that means that your sequence is now 60fps.

[Robert Withers] “If I say no, the footage still imports, but I imagine I see a slight shudder in the image compared to playing the footage in the preview. Is this my imagination or is some transcoding happening that effects the image?”

Yes, there will be a slight judder. You are removing lots of frames to make that 60fps footage then play at 24fps. It won’t look as smooth, but it should look just fine…match the other 23.98 footage. 60p converts to 24p better than 29.97 does.

[Robert Withers] “2. I set a timeline for 23.98 fps and import the 23.98 conversion from Clipwrap. It plays in slowmo.”

Yeah…don’t do that. Unless you want the footage to be slow motion.

[Robert Withers] “Am I really seeing slight image shudder in FCP 7 with this process? Or is it my imagination?”

You are…because less frames are playing back. That’s normal. It won’t play back smooth as it would at 60fps. But it will play back like 24p footage will…same look.

[Robert Withers] “Is there a different/better way to use Clipwrap or is there a better workflow?”

Well, you can try to remove the frames in Compressor, but I don’t think it’ll look any different. I’ve always just mixed 60p in my 24p when it came up…because it looks the same.

[Robert Withers] “Did I just screw up and do we need to switch to using the 24p option in the Sony RX10 for future shooting?”

Well, you did screw up a little. But if you want to have 24p footage and a 24p sequence…shoot 24p.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Robert Withers]

Thank you, Shane. I was hoping you’d check in on this. That’s very helpful and clear about the flow and we’ll definitely shoot 24p in the future for a 24p timeline.

Now since we bought the camera, Sony has updated the firmware and added an XAVC-S codec, which does shoot 24p. However, we have now have acquired some footage shot in XAVC-S 60p. Clipwrap doesn’t handle this codec but the other divergentmedia software, EditReady, apparently will handle it and convert to ProRes. Onward.

Thanks again.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks, Dave. I’ll try that too. AE and Pr are so mysterious. How do you learn what’s going on under the hood, like “a perfect 3:2 pulldown.” I always thought a 3:2 pulldown (different from a 2:3 pulldown?) was a way to interpret 24 fps film footage into a 29.97 interlaced video timeline by repeating one film frame as three fields, then the next film frame as two fields.
And I’m dealing with 60p to 24p. But I’ll try anything.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[John Heagy]

If you want the 60fps footage to play at 60fps yet still have the 24p look correct than your only real option is to edit in 60i. This would require that you convert your 24p to 60i by adding 3:2 and converting your 60p to 60i.

John

[John Heagy]

If one does a 23.976 to 59.94i conversion via 3:2 then there is no pulldown done. 3:2 and pulldown both occur when converting from 24 to 59.94i which requires a very slight slowdown be done first. 24 with just 3:2 would be 60i

People commonly refer to 3:2 as 3:2 pulldown but pulldown is rarely done with the exception of feature films which are commonly shot at 24 thorough more are 23.976 as film is phased out.

[Robert Withers]

Thanks Dave and John, that was my understanding of 3:2 conversion too.
But maybe I wasn\’t clear: I\’m going in the other direction: I need to convert 60p for a 24p timeline. It\’s not for a \”look\” it\’s just that the timeline includes a lot of 24fps film transfer and that\’s what the producer is editing in.

But I\’ll try AE to see if it does a smoother conversion from 60p to 24 fps than Clipwrap. Trying EditReady too.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City