[Evan Wolf]

Eventually, heard from the fest that it would be alright if I sent them an HDCAM 24p copy, and so thats what we did. Worked fine, and looks great. Thanks again for the help,
Evan

[Evan Wolf]

Shane,

Thanks again, very kind of you to take the time to answer my long questions.

[Evan Wolf] “Could I have messed something up with the pulldown removal?”
Possibly, if it succeeded and you used those clips. But it didn’t, did it?

Well, the files came in naturally as 29.97, into our custom setup of DVCAM HD 1080p30 sequence, but then we removed the advanced pulldown, and all of our clips became 23.98. That’s what we edited with, and what we have in the final cut sequence today.

I’m going to go ahead and print off the file at 24p, take it to the post house, and hope they can make it work, either with the Teranex, or a Kona. And that it looks decent on the other side!

Can’t thank you enough for the help,
Evan

[Evan Wolf]

Bryan,

We shot 24p. We imported into a sequence under setup with preset for DVCAM HD 1080p30. This created 29.97 fps files, and they had interlacing lines. I removed the pulldown, which made them 23.98, and they still had the lines. But when I export them as QT files, they don’t have them anymore.

thanks for the reply,
Evan

[Evan Wolf]

Also, to answer your question as to how I brought the files in originally, I used Log and TRansfer. Using Easy Setup to set Sequence settings, there is no option for a DVCPRO HD 1080p24. Only DVCPRO HD 1080pA24, and DVCPRO HD 1080p30, which I decided was closer and so I went with it. The files were imported as 29.97. But there were the lines. So I removed the advanced pulldown (someone advised me to do that, perhaps wrongly) and that is what made them 23.98. That’s how I got where I am!

[Evan Wolf]

Thank you so much for getting back to me.

I know, should have thought about the output earlier on, but as this is my first major fest I’ll be playing at, well, its the first time I’ve come across these challenges. Live and learn, I guess!

The thing about how we imported was, when I set up the sequences, no matter what I set them to, when I dropped the clips in, FCP would say that in order for the clips to be played right, it would like to change the sequence settings…and then if I agreed, it would automatically change them to an editing timebase of 23.98, with a QT video compressor of DVCPRO HD 1080p30. Furthermore, if I go back and look at the actual clips in the browser, under their properties, they are listed as 23.98 frames and DVCPRO HD 1080p30 compressor. Could something have gotten messed up while importing them either from the camera to the hard drive in the field, or from the hard drive to FCP, when it unpacked them? When I brought them into FCP, I also played around with removing advanced pulldown (by simply going to Tools, remove advanced pulldown) to make the lines disappear, but none of it ever really worked. But since it never showed up on the DVDs, I just let it go. Someone at the time told me that was probably the case, that it was just an issue of computer screens not being able to show the interlacing properly. But why do the clips themselves show up as 23.98..if technically, they should not be? Could I have messed something up with the pulldown removal?

So I guess going forwards from here I have several options, as far as I can tell. I can:

1 – Leave it as is and export at 23.98, then let the post house do one of two things they have suggested. Either they will play out my 23.98 project to a 59.94 HDCAM tape, running the material through a Teranex machine which will perform the frame rate conversion, or they can play out my project at 23.98 to an HDCAM tape and then send it out for an Alchemist conversion. They say the second is better quality, but more expensive.

2 – Somehow figure out why the clips seem to be 23.98, correct it..and rework? This might be insane. But if the issue here is really with the way I imported the files, is there at least a workable way to re-link them all to the absolute originals on the drive and not loose all of the cuts, edits, changes, etc in our final cut? (I’m guessing not, but never hurts to ask…)

3 – drop the clips into a new sequence set at 29.97 fps and make it work. The complication with this would be, I had my sound done at a sound house, and don’t really have control over chaging it anymore. So now if I change the framerate of the video, it will no longer match up with the sound, which is a single file at this point. but I could most probably go through and trim the sound wherever the frames are dropped in the video, and make it work. If this is at all a good way to go about it.

Again, can’t thank you enough for the help. This stuff can be very convoluted and complicated, and the advice and your time are very much appreciated!
Evan