[Robert Withers]

Yes, the very model of a hot mess.

But you make a good point–this file is already an HD square pixel file made from a film scan. It’s got pillarboxes and only the center image is 4:3.

Apparently 1998×1080 is a pixel ratio that is targeted specifically for making DCPs. So maybe the festival will simply accept and convert the existing 1920×1080 file, adding a little more box to the pillars.

See research below:

2K = artificial standard

The reason for making 2K (2048×1080) slightly bigger than HD seems to have little other reason than that it is a bit bigger and that they need a catchy name. Cinema content is almost never 2048 x 1080 sized, but it is almost always distributed in a 2K (or 4K) ‘envelope’. What does that mean:

cinema ‘flat’ is encoded as 1998 x 1080 frames: aspect ratio 1.85 and fits inside the 2K frame. The frames can be just that size, or black bars are added left & right to get to the full 2K size (‘pillar boxed’).
cinema ‘scope’ is encoded as 2048 x 858 frames: aspect ratio 2.39 and fits inside the 2K frame. The frames can be just that size, or black bars are added top & bottom to get to the full 2K size (‘letter boxed’).

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Yes, the very model of a hot mess.

I don’t know how the producer got to her current version but it is HD with pillarboxes already, only the central image is the 4:3 ratio, a scan from film. So that’s a good point. The file must already be 1920×1080.

The weird 1998×1080 is apparently a 2k format specifically for DCP. I’ve heard of DCP studios asking for these. (They also want 24 fps!) But maybe the festival can use the HD file is.

From research:
2K = artificial standard

The reason for making 2K (2048×1080) slightly bigger than HD seems to have little other reason than that it is a bit bigger and that they need a catchy name. Cinema content is almost never 2048 x 1080 sized, but it is almost always distributed in a 2K (or 4K) ‘envelope’. What does that mean:

cinema ‘flat’ is encoded as 1998 x 1080 frames: aspect ratio 1.85 and fits inside the 2K frame. The frames can be just that size, or black bars are added left & right to get to the full 2K size (‘pillar boxed’).
cinema ‘scope’ is encoded as 2048 x 858 frames: aspect ratio 2.39 and fits inside the 2K frame. The frames can be just that size, or black bars are added top & bottom to get to the full 2K size (‘letter boxed’).

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks Dave and John, that was my understanding of 3:2 conversion too.
But maybe I wasn\’t clear: I\’m going in the other direction: I need to convert 60p for a 24p timeline. It\’s not for a \”look\” it\’s just that the timeline includes a lot of 24fps film transfer and that\’s what the producer is editing in.

But I\’ll try AE to see if it does a smoother conversion from 60p to 24 fps than Clipwrap. Trying EditReady too.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks, Dave. I’ll try that too. AE and Pr are so mysterious. How do you learn what’s going on under the hood, like “a perfect 3:2 pulldown.” I always thought a 3:2 pulldown (different from a 2:3 pulldown?) was a way to interpret 24 fps film footage into a 29.97 interlaced video timeline by repeating one film frame as three fields, then the next film frame as two fields.
And I’m dealing with 60p to 24p. But I’ll try anything.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

What was the frame rate of your AVCHD footage if not “true 24”? I recently used Clipwrap to convert 60p XAVC footage from a Sony RX10 for use in a 24 fps Final Cut 7 timeline. Final Cut throws out frames to reduce the 60p to 24p for the timeline, so I see a very faint judder compared with the original 60p. The real time isn’t changed, however. It’s certainly not as noticeable as a slower-than-24 silent film type flicker.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thank you, Shane. I was hoping you’d check in on this. That’s very helpful and clear about the flow and we’ll definitely shoot 24p in the future for a 24p timeline.

Now since we bought the camera, Sony has updated the firmware and added an XAVC-S codec, which does shoot 24p. However, we have now have acquired some footage shot in XAVC-S 60p. Clipwrap doesn’t handle this codec but the other divergentmedia software, EditReady, apparently will handle it and convert to ProRes. Onward.

Thanks again.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

More than 20 bug fixes! Would that Adobe would see the wisdom of doing an update that would just make the software solid and predictable in its current version, instead of adding new features and bugs each round.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Another hidden feature of AME 🙁 Do we need to make a “render from” copy and have a backup before using AME? Did Adobe support have any suggested causes for this?

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

A cool thing I discovered about Prelude is that it does a checksum-like comparison when you ingest cards.
Haven’t worked with it lately, but I think the suggestion was to leave the camera shot file title as is, and add shot names in another field.
Is that right?

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Shane, thanks for your contributions and tutorial. I too stupidly shot an event at 1080p60 on a Sony RX10 that I wasn’t very familiar with. It produced .mts files. The producer needs to edit in her FCP7 with either 24 fps or 30 fps. I will try the workflow you describe with MPEG Streamclip and Cinema Tools. Does that make sense?

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City