[Guy Mellitz]

These are all excellent questions I’ve been wrestling with all day. Unfortunately, the contact I have is, I believe, an AE who is probably doesn’t really know, or is unauthorized to stray from what he’s been told to do. I would love to give them both 24p and 30i versions, but I’m not sure that I’m allowed to.

You’re correct that this ultimately will be broadcast, hence the ‘i’. Beyond that, he says “We sometimes deliver other versions that are progressive, it’s just the broadcast master than needs interlace. Starting with interlace makes it tougher to make the progressive masters.”

After trying virtually every combination of frame interpolation and export setting imaginable, I’m actually back to square 1 which, despite your reaction, seems to in fact look the best. However, there is of course visible ‘banding’ (in addition to the blending at many of the cuts). Basically, it gives me 3 normal frames, then 2 blended ones, 3 normal, 2 blended, etc. If a cut falls on one of those 2, they’re blended.

I think what I have to do is send them what I have, point out the banding/blending issue and see if it’s possible to deliver the 2 separate versions.

In answer to Jeff’s question: If I try to export the 24 directly to 30, I get duplicated frames, so there’s a stutter. If I bring it in to a 60p project, I no longer have the banding issue, but basically every frame is blended, so it’s as if there’s a 1 frame dissolve on every frame. Can’t have that.

Incidentally, thank you both for your help. I appreciate it.

Guy

[Guy Mellitz]

Yeah, the thing is, I even checked to confirm that they wanted 29.97p, and was told “yes”, but that “the final export will be interlace but we make that one” which seems really dumb to me.

I definitely can’t bring it to an Alchemist, and Fluid Motion/Optical Flow is really not going to work (because of the morphing effect you mentioned).

I tried exporting it as interlaced, which seems to be ok, though the frame blending seems a little bit jittery (yet not as bad as repeated frames. I may have to just do that.

[Guy Mellitz]

Thank you for responding Glenn. After much trial and error since I posted, I’ve pretty much solved the puzzle pieces by downloading the free version of resolve, and going back and forth, trying different things. The main thing was definitely the different frame rates, but there was also a clip with timecode that rolled over from 24:59:59 to 0, causing a huge headache. Basically I was given material from people who did not know enough to do the things necessary to bring it back to Avid. I have now learned a great deal more that I anticipated. The next time should be a little easier for sure.

Thanks again!
Guy

Guy Mellitz
Film/Video Editor
http://www.guymellitz.com