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Varicam 59.94 to 29.97
I freelance for a company that does kiosks. The final screen sizes and formats are unique and non-standard. For this project, the final video needed is 617 pixels by 317 pixels and will later be combined with html surrounding the video. This project needs to be at 29.97 fps.
We shot the talent on green screen that will later be combined in AFX with psd files.These projects will later need to be recreated for different screens, sizes and frame rates.
They don’t own a deck so one was rented to digitize. The intention was to digitize the footage once for this and future projects that need different sizes and progressive or interlaced playback. The HD footage is a plus allowing us to re-position and re-size the video as needed.
The footage was digitized DVCPRO HD 720p60 in Final Cut Pro. All compositing and keying will be in AFX on a Mac.
If I make my comp at the 617×317 size needed, at 59.94 fps, will it work to just drop this comp into a final render comp at 29.97?
Thanks!
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3 Replies
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Basically 59.94 and 29.97 are the same frame rates. 59.94 is used when referencing 720P and 29.97 is used when referencing 1080 interlaced. At least that’s my understanding. We go between the two on a timeline with no issues.
jw
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Not really Jim. If you’re talking frame rates, 59.94fps and 29.97fps are two different rates. 59.94fps is used either as a video or live look or as slow mo to be frame-rate-corrected to a 24 or 30fps timeline, yielding either a 2 or 2.5x slowed-down effect. 29.97 is a progressive frame rate that is filmlike without the 3:2 pulldown, and is often used for tape pieces on network news-type shows and for internet or other computer display, where progressive would be better than interlace.
Now in the interlaced world, 59.94 or 60i resembles the video or live look. When an interlace camera (like the Sony F900) shoots at 29.97 it is making its version of progressive, known as PsF (progressive segmented frames) where each of the two fields per frame are identical in space time.
Some editing programs, notably the latest FCP will mix any and all framerates and formats in the timeline.
I think the original question involves digitizing at 60 rather than 30 fps; you can do this in error with Varicam footage because it’s always written at 59.94. The difference is that they’ve created a 59.94 timeline rather than a 29.97 timeline, but if the camera original was shot at 29.97 then it doesn’t really matter as each frame is repeated to make the 60 fields per second and the 30 fps progressive motion is retained.
JS
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Thanks for the clarification John. I normally edit my 59.94 Varicam material on a 29.97/1080i timeline converting to 1080i in the deck when I digitize, so for me wouldn’t it be the same? We’ve been doing this since the Varicam came out and it seems to wok?
Actually I also do this with my 24P & 30P video too, though we seldom shoot at anything other than 59.94.
thx..jw
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