[Herb Sevush]

Dave –

Do yourself a favor and call the network. They will have the exact answers to your questions; everyone here is guessing based on the standards of whatever network they’re used to dealing with. Unfortunately each network is slightly different. Your network will have somebody on staff who can answer your questions. They will not punish you for being unfamiliar with their requirements, however they will punish you for deliverables that don’t meet those requirements.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Shane –

Thanks for the input but I’m still in the “off-line” stage – the producer wants to see if the content warrants the cost of PAL/NTSC up and cross conversion – it doesn’t matter what it looks like for now, just so that I can work with it on a timeline. I’m just asking if what I’m trying to do is possible (i’ve never tried working with PAL in an NTSC timeline before.)And if it is possible then what am I doing wrong at the capture stage?

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Sean –

I see now, the magic is in “24 unique images per second”.

In this view inconsistencies in duration are irrelevant to the audience but the number of discreet images per second is not.

The fact that for 30 years film was shot and projected at various speeds centering around 18 fps and seemed to the public to have a “film look” doesn’t count for much I guess. And when sound came in and the frame rate ratcheted up to 24, which is a 33% increase, the fact that the audience didn’t seem to have a problem accepting this rate is, I gather, also beside the point. But now a 25% increase in rate to 30fps would be “un-magicall” to that same audience. What about 22 or 26 unique images per second – would they have that magic quality that 30 images per second obviously dosn’t? Or is 24 a divinely inspired magic number?

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Dave –

That’s way to much work to make an obvious point.

If you shot and projected film in a theater at 30fps instead of 24 fps the audience would not think it “un-cinematic” – they’d just think it looked great – more information.

In the 70’s Douglass Trumball created the Showscan system to film and project at 60 fps, and nobody thought the images were un-cinematic – they seemed “super” cinematic because of the additional information.

In the 80’s I used to shoot 16mm spots at 30fps for video conversion to make the 16mm look more like 35, and it did. No one who ever looked at that footage thought it “looked like video” yet it was shot at 30fps.

This stuff about 24 Frame motion being the essence of the “film look” is non-sense.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Sean –

Ah, now we come to the totally subjective and yet still logically bogus argument.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 1080psf 23.98 or NTSC w/ 3:2 pulldown. The actual framerate is always 24 frames per second.”

What do you mean “the actual” frame rate is always 24. When recorded in a film camera it is 24, when projected in a movie theater it is 24, but when converted to video with a 3/2 pulldown it is no longer 24. It is now some bastardization that leaves you between 24 and 30. It stutters on video in a way that it doesn’t on screen. It has interlacing, which it doesn’t have on screen. So already you have made compromises with the “cinematic” feel you find so powerful. And yet audiences everywhere find it totally acceptable.

As far as I can see there are 3 elements that constitute the “Film Look” – higher information rate, lack of interlacing artifacts and good lighting. Uncompressed HD eliminates the problems inherent in the first 2 and craft, always hardest to come by, can overcome the final element. Audiences can’t tell the difference on video between 24 and 30, they only want to be entertained. And in the end, that is the film look.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Tom –

The full quote is “Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.” It is Godard’s line, as are two other famous quotes:

“I like a film to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.”

and

“All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.”

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

“The cinema is truth 24 frames per second” – JL Goddard

And your post was “truth” at 30P. I’ve had way too many arguments about the perceived beauty of the “film look”, especially on the Varicam forum – personally i prefer 60P when I can afford the bandwidth – although it can be a bit of a nuisance in post.

Anyhow, great post.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Christopher –

I’ve used it on HD, SD anamorphic and standard: no problems, no flickering, no formulas – also no kerning on a line by line basis, but hey what do you expect when you’re no longer working with *edit.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

DRW –

Coming from the PC world I have always been shocked at the total inadequacy of tools for making credit rolls in the Mac world. As far as I can see the CHV plug in is the only reasonable option for Credit Rolls for FCP – which is NOT a good thing. It uses the FCP text UI which is like something from the early days of DOS – incredibly archaic, difficult and limiting. However it is the only program that I am aware of that has the basic features necessary to construct proper credit rolls:

1) – Global Settings – so that if you decide to change the color of all the proper names from white to yellow, or the font type from bold to italic, you make the change once and it alters the look of every name in the credits. This is an absolute must as far as I’m concerned and I don’t think there’s any other application that will handle this in the FCP world.

2) – Ability to easily go back and forth from different formats – centered, 2 column, left or right indented to any point you choose – you can even have multiple formats within one credit roll.

3) – Ability to easily add or delete or move around elements without screwing up the timing of the roll.

4) – Ability to add graphics or logos as element of credits.

Even if they were giving away Combustion for free, which might happen any day now, the CHV would be the better option for this one thing.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

CHV Electronics “The Text Collection” Plug In contains a “credit roll” application that works well – global style settings, up to nine different style and/or format settings per sequence, up to 9 different logos/graphic elements per sequence, all within FCP. Can setup your credit sequence in a text document and then paste it into the application. It’s not “Inscriber”, but it works.

https://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Text-collection/Text-collection.php?navanchor=1010026

For $50 you get this and 9 other text applications.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions