[Matt Lyon]

Sean, I re-read your first post and do I understand correctly that the footage is for material that has already been edited? If that is the case, are you sure the cadence is consistent for the whole clip? IE, does it change at the cut points? Cinema Tools will not auto-detect or compensate for changes in the pulldown cadence mid clip.

If that isn’t the case, then what you said makes sense … one of those choice ought to work. But are you sure that your footage isn’t “style 2” pulldown.

You could also try toggling off the “standard upper/lower” check box.

As a test, you might want to open the clip in CT and find an “AA” frame in the middle of the clip and rerun the reverse telecine and see what happens.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Did you make sure you were parked on an “AA” frame in the clip viewer before you hit “OK”? Cinema Tools will assume that the current frame matches whatever part of the cadence pattern you have ticked in the “fields” section of this settings window.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Just adding my $0.02:

I agree with everyone’s comments. Once you lock your edit, there is nothing stopping you from duplicating the sequence as many times as you want. Often, I’ll make a new copy for each deliverable: audio edl(s), audio omf(s), picture edl(s), etc…

I personally prefer Chi-Ho Lee’s approach of adding the slug track with timecode filter. If you manually modify the timecode track of the slug, you can then use the TC reader plug-in if you like.

And Cody, you shouldn’t confuse the timecode BASE with the picture FRAME RATE.

23.976 fps material still uses base-24 timecode, just like 29.97 video uses base-30 timecode. It is normal to not see a 23.976 setting in the filter.

[Cody Hoerig] “[I haven’t tried that, just because I have read that compressor is no god with 23.98 timecode and messes the sync up.”

It is true that Compressor is no God, but people often expect it to turn water into wine…

sorry, I couldn’t resist 🙂

But seriously, I’ve never had a sync problem with 23.98 material and Compressor. Or are you talking about a bug with the Compressor timecode burn in filter?

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Phil, it is hard to give you advice with so little info about your workflow. You are saying the TC on the edl does not match the source tapes? Did you verify the timecode was correct when you ingested the footage? Do you have visual TC burn in on the tape you can compare to the EDL?

It may be as simple as manually fixing the timecode on your source clips using “Modify>Timecode…”

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

I didn’t think it was possible to make an EDL with keycode in it… unless I’m missing something?

Did you try “FILE>EXPORT>Cinema Tools Film lists…”?

(but the rest of your workflow looks fine to me!)

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Hi Philip,

This approach does require a fair bit of user involvement. I guess you need to decide if it will be more efficient for your project (and set aside time on the backend to do the conform). As with anything, I would do a little test with a short sequence and see if you like the approach and verify that it works.

Here’s what I would do:

1. Lock the show
2. Duplicate your timeline and delete all clips and tracks you don’t need to convert
3. Select all clips and remove all filters, speed and motion effects.
3. Use media manager to export copies of your clips to be converted. Using the right settings here is essential:

COPY media referenced by duplicated items. ENABLE “delete unused media” (you may want to add handles if you anticipate needing to massage your edits after the conform is done).

DISABLE “include master clips” and “include affiliate clips.”

ENABLE “duplicate selected items and place in new project.”

If all goes well, you will end up with a new project with a copy of your timeline and a folder on your HD with a bunch of clips in it. Now you can import these clips into Compressor and batch process.

For relinking, you should now open your locked timeline and add a new video track. Duplicate the clips that you had targeted for conversion. Right click and make them “independent clips” then make them offline (leave the files on disk, when prompted). Now relink to your new clips. Because you duplicated the clips and left an old copy of the non-converted versions, you can now compare the two and make sure the timing matches.

You’ll also need to make sure all your effects and filters are preserved (they should be!).

Hope this helps!

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Hi Christian, to ensure correct sizing of your graphics, create your flash sequence at 768×576 (this will be square pixels that display correctly on your computer monitor).

Then you then need to “squish” your output to the DV PAL pixel aspect ratio (so it will display correct on a DVD). Resize the file to 720×576, using either compressor (for best quality), or QT player pro (for simplest workflow).

Set your FCP timeline to “CCIR 601/DV PAL” pixel aspect ratio … NOT square pixel.

I don’t know if this will solve your problem with “hard” curves. I’m not sure what you are describing, to be honest; Aliasing?

If you can post a picture of the issue, that may help.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Yeah, the settings for adding 3:2 pulldown in compressor are not intuitive at all 🙂 Like you said, I’d test a file and make sure it works, then run the batch.

I didn’t realize you had so much 29.97 footage. You might still want to consider editing in a mixed timeline with the 4:1 pulldown, and then doing a conform at the end … converting just the actual 23.98 footage you used, instead of ALL the rushes. That can be a PITA though too! Good planning is essential; like keeping all the 23.98 footage on its own track(s).

I’ve also read about people having success with editing in a 59.94 timeline. I haven’t tested it myself though, so I can’t comment.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Hi Philip,
Compressor can indeed do proper 3:2 pulldown insertion. Search the forum and you should find several posts that discuss the correct settings to use.
But given the you have mostly 23.98 footage and just a little 29.97 material, it seems inefficient to me to convert all your footage to 29.97. If it were me, I’d probably edit natively in 23.98 (with a placeholder for the 29.97 material), lock the picture, convert the final program to 29.97, then add the 29.97 SD material.
Hope this helps,

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Shonners, I think your editor is right and it is not a very good idea to bring the 48048 files straight into FCP. I think FCP it will try to do some auto sync correction, which always scares me.

it should be a simple matter though to change the footage to 48000 Hz. The key is to do this without resampling the audio, so you get the proper speed change, thereby maintaining sync. How are you ingesting the footage? If it’s from DAT, you can just set your machine to playback at 48000. Otherwise, you need to run your digital audio files through some kind of batch process to do the necessary adjustments (via compressor, for example). In the past I’ve used ProTools. If you wanna go really hardcore (and free), you could do it via the command line, using SOX.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto