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Varicam Editing in Final Cut?
We’re going to be editing a spec spot for a beatuty product that will be shot in DVCProHD. All of our editing is always done on HDCAM, but the DP is opting to shoot on a Varicam for this spot because he feels it will give better slo-mo perfermance for the hair demos. He would like to shoot the dialogue scenes at 23.98 and the hair scenes at 59.94. Capturing will be done in FInal Cut Studio 2 through the Kona 2 over HDI-SDI from the Panasonic 1200a. All of these scenes will involve compositing within After Effects and final delivery will be Standard Def NTSC. I had a couple of questions and concerns that I’m hoping some of the COW faithful could assist me with:
1. Would it just be easier to shoot everything at 59.94? Is him wanting to mix frame rates during the shoot a bad idea? Ultiamtely everything is going to be comped in AE before it goes back to Final Cut for SD output, so I can always add pulldowns to the 23.98 footage, but I was wondering if it would be easier to keep everything in the same frame rate.
2. If he does shoot everything at 59.94 how does that effect SD playback – especially for the dialogue scenes? When I downconvert through AE to 29.97 do I need to speed up the footage 2X to have it play correctly?
3. It was my understanding that DVCProHD always plays back at a tape speed of 60FPS. So, in the scenario that he shoots mixed frame rates of 23.98 and 59.94, should I set the deck frequency to 59.94 and then just change my capture settings in Final Cut from either 23.98 or 59.94 depending on the frame rate of the particualr scene I’m capturing? Will Final Cut see the flagged frames over HD-SDI for the 23.98 footage?
4. How does the look of the footage shot with the Varicam at 59.94 differ from the look of 23.98? I’m assuming that even at 59.94 it doesn’t have a total “video” look because of the progressive format, but I was curious as to your opinions because the client is still trying to maintain a film look as much as possible. I can always run everything through Magic Bullet once the master is finished.
Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.
– Mike
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10 Replies
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He wants to shoot @ 59.94 for the slow motion scenes. The KOna card will capture these clips as slow motion, ready for you to edit in a 23.98 timeline. What your DP wants to do is correct. Choose the AJA easy setp in the codec of your choice, just make sure that the word ‘Varicam’ is in that easy setup, example, ‘AJA Kona3 720p 23.98 DVCPro HD Varicam’
The down conversion to SD is not a problem, as the Kona card will add the proper 3:2 pulldown for NTSC, no speed up/slow down necessary.
JEremy
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Thanks Jeremy-
A followup question: The scope of the project has actually changed and the shooting will now only be done at 59.94. On my Kona 2 settings in Final Cut, I don’t see a “Varicam” setup for 59.94 – I only see it for 23.98. Am I okay to use the Kona 2 – 720P Uncompressed 10 Bit 59.94 easy setup? Or is there a setup that I’m missing? Also, I’m assuming that I will now just be capturing everything at 59.94 and keeping it in a 59.94 timeline? Is this correct?
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Yes, that is correct and that setting is correct. The ones that say Varicam at the end of it remove the duplicated/flagged frames to get you to the frame rate that you want. Since you will not be removing duplicate frames there’s no setting that says Varicam for 59.94.
Does that make sense?
Jeremy
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Yup. Makes perfect sense. Thanks very much.
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I”m working on a project right now digitizing tapes shot on Varicam, and my Kona LHe is removing the frames, but it’s showing up in FCP with a TC Rate of 30.
Footage was shot 720p24. Digitizing using the Varicam 23.98 Easy Setup.
Any ideas?
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There’s a difference between frame rate (called Vid rate in FCP) and tc rate in Final Cut. The TC rate is changeable, meaning, you can change the way the rate the tc is based on. You can change it from 30 to 60 to 24. The Varicam shoots @ 60, but the tc is based on 30. So, depending on your needs you can view the tc rate as you wish and change back and forth to whatever rate you want and FCP will keep track of the dropped or missing frames when capturing @ 23.98. That is to say, if you step through frame by frame you should notice the tc dropping frames in a 3:2 pattern all the way up to 60 (if you choose 60). If you captured at 23.98 than the Vid rate should say 23.98 but TC rate should say 30 (and you should keep it @ 30) as the tape is 30 frame based as opposed to 60.
Does that make sense?
Jeremy
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Yes, that makes sense. Thank you very much for the clarification.
What confuses me is that when I digitize through the Kona card, the clips show up with a TC Rate of 30. When I digitize the same footage through firewire, the TC Rate shows up as 60.
Any ideas on how to change that?
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[thebishop] “I”m working on a project right now digitizing tapes shot on Varicam, and my Kona LHe is removing the frames, “
HOW MANY DIFFERENT TIMES ARE YOU GOING TO ASK THE SAME QUESTION?
this is the 3rd separate thread on the same subject in 2 different forums.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD -
[thebishop] “Any ideas on how to change that?”
Just curious, why do you need to change it? COntrol click on the TC rate in the browser to change it. You should be more concerned about the VidRate than the TC rate.
Jeremy
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Excuse me, Gary, but I’m going to query different forums until I get a response that sufficiently answers my question.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to tap different resources of knowledge by posting in different forums (as long as the question is relevant to that forum). My question has been answered, thank you very much.
Have a happy thanksgiving.
Powermac G5 Quad 2.5
3 GB RAM
Quaddro 512MB Video Card
Kona LHe
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