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Variable frame rates footage editing workflow assistance
I am a film editor and I have a new documentary project that I am editing on Premiere Pro CC 2020.
-The footage is shot with different cameras (DSLRs – IPhone – Samsung mobile – laptop camera and other weird mobile phones), whichresulted in having variable frame rates (20,23.98,24,25,29.97,30,50,60,220 and variable fps in the same clip) that is going crazy.
-All of the footage has sound recorded on an external device that need to be synced with the video, the problem is I have got scenes with multi angles and of course these angles are shot with different cameras so different frame rates, when I try to sync them with the audio recorded externally I get desync in audio in addition to the desync of video because of the frame rates.
-I thought of checking which frame rate do I have mostly in the footage and set it as my main fps for the sequences, but I found that they are almost all the same amount.
-I need to know the workflow for editing such footage like sequence settings, how to sync cameras together with the audio if possible and export settings all regarding the frame rate of course.
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4 Replies
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I’m no expert in this area so take my advice with a grain of salt, but the way I’d approach this is to begin by choosing my output frame rate (probably 24 or 30 depending on your audience), and then transcoding all the source footage to that frame rate before I even import it into premiere. It’s not gonna be pretty, but at least you won’t have to deal with the audio drift issue once you do your sync.
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Well, I don’t envy you and that mess! Too many people assume that you can just shoot with any camera, record audio separately, and you can just sync them. BUT, this might be possible, but you might need a third party app for it, but it’s one that is compatible with Premiere…Pluraleyes.
https://www.redgiant.com/products/shooter-pluraleyes/#hero
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Strongly suggested to convert any variable frame rate clips to constant frame rate before you import or edit in Premiere. The free Handbrake app does a good job. Be sure to set 29.97 and Constant Frame Rate in export settings before encoding new clip.
Perhaps once the clips are recreated with constant frame rate, will sync better with audio?
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
I agree about converting to a constant frame rate before importing in Premiere. Audio drift is going to be an issue regardless. Last time I worked with VFR I had to manually slip the audio when appropriate. Now maybe there are better ways of automatically doing it but I doubt it. Any auto sync feature will sync the audio at a certain point but it can’t sync it all the way without trimming out some audio or video. I found that the best workflow is to work with it kind of synced, then if a portion of the interview you’re using is out of sync by 10-20 frames you manually slip the audio right before the used portion
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