[Todd Terry]

Well that’s super weird. It’s definitely not got anything to do with the zooming.

What you are seeing there with the B camera is a much slower frame rate. I was curious enough about it to download the video from YouTube… and while your A camera is 24 frames per second (actually 23.976), the B camera is only 12fps…half what it should be. That is what is giving you that stuttery staccato looking motion and the “swimmy” looking backgrounds.

Now, the bigger question, is, why is that? Is there a camera setting on the B camera where you can set the frame rate? If so, it’s too low. You need to set the frame rate the same as the other camera, which is probably 24fps (or 23.976).

Next question… are you recording both cameras separately and then taking the footage from both and editing your finished video? Or are you punching it “live” with a switcher and recording it to some other device?

If you are making two separate recordings, look at the footage from the B camera… when you play it back directly, either on a monitor or using the camera’s viewfinder, how does it look? If it looks good and correct, then the problem is not a camera setting, but a problem further down the chain in production… there’s an issue with editing somewhere. But if the footage looks stuttery on that direct playback, then the issue is with the camera and some settings there.

If you are punching it “live” and it looks like that, then either you have an issue with a camera setting, or you have a settings issue with whatever switcher you are using. Check the output of the camera first (connecting it directly to a monitor) and see how it looks. If it looks bad, there’s your problem and you have a camera settings issue. But if it looks good before it goes into the switcher, then you have an issue with the switcher settings somehow.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Here’s another potential solution… this should have occurred to me as well…

Will the footage play ok outside of Premiere, using something else?… just as the VCL Media Player, or some other utility?

If so, you could play it that way, and use some screen-capture utility to record it as it plays, and generate a new usable file that way.

That’s not nearly as easy and elegant solution as simply converting the file into something workable as I mentioned above… but could work in a pinch. IF you can play the file, obviously.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Based on your description, I’m willing to bet it is salvagable… if you convert it using Handbrake.

If you don’t have it already, Handbrake is an AWESOME utility, easy to use, and totally free….
https://handbrake.fr/

Just try using Handbrake to convert your 4K MXF file to another 4K MXF file and try that one. I’m going to give it a fairly reasonable bet that the new footage will work.

Honestly we mostly still shoot 1080 footage (and edit 1080 projects) with our Canon C300PL… but we do have a bunch of 4K sources (a little Canon XC15, and a bunch of stuff from DJI… Mavic, Osmo, Osmo Pro, Osmo Pocket, etc.). While we can import all the 4K footage from those DJI devices into Premiere, they are very difficult to use, very laggy and will clog the system in a heartbeat. But if I make new files using Handbrake, those work like a charm (with no quality loss, because I make very high-profile conversions). With the little XC15, that generates MXF files but for some reason they won’t import into Premiere at all… but if I convert them into new MXF files, those work like a charm. It’s weird to me that the conversions work better, even though they are often bigger files than the originals… but they do.

Give it a try.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Well I don’t have a solution for you, but I do have to ask this, which might keep you from spending a bunch of money…

Even though the files generated are huge, have you tried, as a test, recording some of your key setup at 4:2:2, or 4:4:4 (even a short couple-of-seconds clip as a test)? If so, did that make a big difference? Did you get a perfect key?

I ask because you admitted your key setup was “really bad” and your “lighting’s all over the place.” If that’s the case, improving your recording a little bit by going to 4:2:2 might not solve your problem. In fact it might not even improve it at all. I’ve pulled many flawless keys from 4:2:0 footage, because the lighting was good… but I’ve also struggled with even 4:4:4 footage because it was poorly lit. Kicking it up to 4:2:2 is not the golden ticket that’s going to make everything perfect or even easy if you start with bad footage captured in a bad environment.

Not to be a smartass, but it’s a bit akin to telling your doctor “My foot hurts, what can I rub on my arm to make it feel better?” I just don’t want you spending a bunch of money (or wasting your time) buying an expensive recorder, when that’s not the problem. I understand that your shooting situation may be difficult, but getting good lighting when shooting comp shots is not only Rule #1, it’s really Rule #1 through about Rule #10 or #11. If your lighting is as you say “really bad” it might be an impossible situation to overcome… or at least require a lot of fairly painstaking roto work or garbage matting.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Hmmm yeah it obviously works differently with mine using the DV connection.

With my setup, we only ever use it with a “studio” configuration, with a separate rocker zoom toggle switch clamped to the tripod handle which connects to the camera via LANC. The on/off button on that switch will trigger the recorder, as will the record buttons on the camera itself. Sorry that yours will not, I do not recall there being any menu settings that we had to change to get that to work.

So, is there any reason not to record to tape at the same time, just to give you back your triggering ability?… even if it’s just a junk tape that you put in there to re-use over and over again just to give you the triggering? It’s a lot of wear on the heads, but since you have the Blade I don’t imagine you have need to record to tape anymore (same as our situation).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’ve had a similar, lower-end setup.

When the tape drive in my old H1 died (for the second time) we started using a FireStore recorder (an older one we bought on eBay). The big difference being that it’s just DV, not HD-SDI… but works like a charm. We had long retired this camera but brought it back out to use when needing a really long lens to record some events.

In our case the camera trigger does start and stop the recorder, but does NOT record to tape. In fact, we don’t even put a tape in the camera, no point in it since it doesn’t record properly to tape anymore.

Are you saying that the Blade can’t be triggered unless a tape is running? And that it wouldn’t function if there was no tape in the camera at all?

I’ll poke around…

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Rich Rubasch] “So for me the industry has provided both the outlet for my creative drive, as well as the ability to earn a living doing something that is more of a hobby than a job.”

All that makes perfect sense and is a good thing… but I feel compelled that it is a little bit of a double-edged sword.

Back a zillion years ago when I was young, energetic, and starry-eyed, I thought of myself as very creative and had big visions of doing creative things. I was always writing screenplays, thinking up film ideas, schlepping hundreds of miles to take meaningless acting jobs on (really good) TV shows or (really bad) movies, and in my day job as a television promotions producer I tried to turn all my spots into little :30 movies.

When I started my own company 23 years ago (as of last Friday, I completely missed/forgot our anniversary), I thought “This is perfect“… I’d be my own boss, doing the kind of work that I liked (I did and do really like producing TV commercials), and I’d have all the needed tools, toys, and resources to be able to produce a movie, or short films, or whatever I wanted to do.

Which I’ve never done.

I’ve had a few efforts, and a couple of false starts that never went anywhere (spent the better part of a year on pre-prod for one film that eventually crashed and burned for a variety of reasons), but mostly it was just because I didn’t have the energy or enthusiasm to do it. I found that when I was writing, producing, and directing all day every day, I really didn’t have much drive to do the same thing in my off hours…. even though those would be my projects rather than the other-people’s projects that I did every day.

I don’t think that effect is universal. I know plenty of professional photographers whose hobbies are taking pictures in their off hours. There are probably professional chefs who enjoy cooking for themselves on the weekends. Carpenters who enjoy woodworking projects. I’m not really one of those guys though… I can’t seem to generate tons of enthusiasm to do the same thing after work that I do during work.

Please note that I’m NOT complaining. I love my job. It’s certainly better than having to work for a living, drag into an office promptly at 8am, or wear a suit instead of my usual uniform of Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and Yankees cap (side story: the first day after I stopped being a guy-on-the-news for a living I gave away 12 Brooks Brothers suits). Now I get to do interesting work, it’s creative (in its own somewhat limiting way), I come and go as I please, and although I’m not a millionaire I have to say (with the exception of this virus business slowdown) I’ve been paid pretty darn well for doing what I do. I’m just not, at 56, the brilliant auteur that I thought I would be when I was 26. Oh well, plans change… or get changed for you.

Of course that has little to do with IDQ’s original question… but thought it was worth mentioning.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’m not going to be of any help with FPC (sorry but I don’t know Apple products from a hole in the ground)… but I will say that is super easily solved in Adobe Premiere. I mention it because there might be an equivalent (or similar) way of doing in FCP.

In Premiere you’d simply import the 24fps footage as-is, then right click on the footage in the project widow, go to “MODIFY >> INTERPRET FOOTAGE” and in the “Modify Clip” window under the “Interpret Footage” tab you would click the radio button that says “Assume this frame rate” and enter the value 23.976. Your footage would then appear in your project (and on any timelines) as 23.976fps footage, with no other conversion or other voodoo needed. Of course the speed of your clip would change… but only by .024 of a second, so that’s unlikely to cause any heartburn unless it’s a really looooong clip that you need to sync with another really looooong clip that was natively shot at 23.976.

I know that doesn’t do you a lot of good in FCP, but maybe there are some Apple users who see my suggestion and say “Oh yeah, to do the same thing in Final Cut you just….”

Or… find someone with Premiere to convert your footage for you.

Or or… I haven’t tested this (as I never shoot true 24), you might be able to convert it in Handbrake. Handbrake is an unbelievably great tool (and totally free) that gets my highest recommendation. We mostly use it for converting 4K footage to 1080 proxy files for easier editing, but it will do lots of different types of conversions.

Good luck…
T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Not knowing your exact camera… I can offer some guesses…

Are they like the little 100′ “daylight” spools? These would be spools that have a hard solid side to them… as opposed to cores (usually 400′) that do NOT have any sides on them at all.

If so and they are spools, you are in luck. These spools are designed to be loaded/unloaded in the light (although I’d still suggest dim light, not harsh sunlight even though they are called “daylight”). If that’s the case, you have only fogged the visible film that is between the two rolls (and the outside layer of film around the spool)… everything inside that should be fine.

Good luck!… and glad to see there is someone still shooting film.

Oh, and if this is an old camera that you’ve inherited, it probably hasn’t been used in quite a while, so a “C&L” is definitely recommended first before you ever pull the trigger (clean and lube), but it sounds like you are past that point. Still it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’m sorry Paloma I really can’t say for sure.

BUT… in theory it should be exactly the same as recording to tape. You are recording the same set of ones and zeros whether you record to the XL1’s internal tape, or an external recorder via the DV output.

In theory with a newer camera like the XLH1, you can snag the signal before it is compressed to HDV by using the HD-SDI output, which would be better than you get off the tape.

But… the XL1 is just a standard definition camera and if memory serves it does not have an SDI output, so that’s not an option (I could be wrong… I don’t remember the XL1 having an SDI port. We do actually still have one, but it has been packed away in storage for just years now).

So… I think it’s going to be the same quality either way for you.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com