Capturing & Editing 24f & 24p in FCP6
 

I am trying to figure out what is the best capture and sequence settings for editing 24f & 24p footage in the same timeline with FCP6. Footage was shot on Canon XH-A1 & Canon HV30. Finished product will be going on DVD and the web. Should I capture both as 1080/24p or 1080/60i?

I shoot 24F with an XH A1. I capture everything into FCP with the HDV1080P24 setting. Edit with the comparable sequence setting, 23.98 timeline. If you capture in 1080i you're 24f footage will not look good, movement-wise.

The HV30 does the pulldown thing, (I think), but you should be able to capture with the same setting as the XH A1. I'd try that and see what happens. Even if you capture its footage in a different setting, you can drop it into your 23.98 HDV timeline and FCP will render it out properly for you. I think, however, it should capture OK with the HDV1080P24.

If your XH A1 footage wants to render when you drop it into the timeline, then your sequence settings are wrong. If you're in Studio 2 you can match the sequence setting to the capture setting automatically.

Though written for the HV20 it all applies to the HV30:

Final Cut Pro 6: 1080p24 workflow for Canon HV20 camcorder

Following the directions and creating a droplet in Compressor has worked for me. Just remember that the footage from your HV30 ends up taking 4x's as much hard drive space because of the use of the prores codec.

Thanks for the advice guys, I have ready many forums on how to edit each of these formats but have not been able to find one about editing them together. Bill I went with your workflow and everything seems to be working fine. I am going to run a test tonight and see how it looks burned to dvd. Thanks again.

The link Joel provided may be what you have to do for the HV30 capture because of the pulldown. If so, it shouldn't be a big thing when you drop it into your regular 23.98 timeline with your XH A1 footage.

Do like Bill said to capture 24f material, but because fcp6 has an open format timeline, (unless you for some reason require the whole sequence to be a 24frame timeline) just capture your hv30 24p material at the 1080i60 easy setup in fcp, it will look like 24p anways and you can still drop it in your timeline.

I'm not sure why people always seem to go through all the trouble of removing the hv30's pulldown where 9/10 times it won't matter.

I am now questioning whether I need to remove the pulldown or not. I want to produce a 24p DVD, so shouldn't I edit the footage from both cameras in a 24 frame timeline and remove the pulldown? Sorry this is my first time working with 24f & 24p.

Try it and see what happens. FCP is sometimes smarter than we are.

Run the HV footage through compressor outputting to hdv 24p with reverse telecine. It will remove the extra frames and it will match up with your A1 footage with no rendering and you'll be able to make an actual 24p Dvd. Regardless of how you have it set, fcp will capture the A1 at 24 and the HV at 60i.