24p to 3:2 Pulldown
 

I always shoot my videos in the advanced pulldown mode. When I import it to the Mac with Final Cut Pro 4, it converts it to a 24p Quicktime file (or I can use Cinema Tools) so I can edit. I do my editing in 24p mode and export a 24p M2V file for DVD (the DVD player will automatically do the 3:2 pulldown for TV). What I would like to do, however, is save a 3:2 pulldown version back to DV tape. This would be beneficial in many ways. Does anyone know of a way to reintroduce 3:2 pulldown to 24p footage (changing it to 29.97 footage) with the Mac? In the FCP timeline it will repeat every few frames so it can be played back on he monitor, but that makes it look very "stuttery" so to speak. There are a few different methods I can choose from that effect how this works, but none of them actually interlace the frames together for the true 3:2 pulldown.

Am I making any sense?

Hi Ted,

I'm not in front of FCP4 at the moment, so these instructions may be a bit approximate...

FCP already has the means to reintroduce pulldown to the sequence, either 2:3:2:3 (standard 3:2 pulldown), 2:3:3:2 (Panasonic's 'Advanced' pulldown), or 2:4:4:2 (I think, I may have the numbers wrong - but this is just a low intensity, for processor, pulldown mainly for previewing with - likely the one that is currently in effect.)

If memory serves me correct you just need to select 3:2 as the preferred pulldown. This will be under one of the preferences ('System Settings' perhaps...) and might also be selectable via the pulldown menu at the left of the timeline.

I believe you will have to force it to render to avoid any dropped frames.

Hope this helps - if any one notices something I've miss recalled, please chime in.

Clayton

Thanks for the response. I did try tooling around with that before and all I got was a slightly jerky playback (as if frames were being repeated instead of interlaced). My timeline is a 24fps timeline. Do I want a 30fps timeline?

Since you mentioned "render", I want to try a 24fps clip on a 29.97fps timeline and let it render (looking at the 3:2 settings). I'll reply here if that works.

EDIT: It didn't work. No matter what I do it repeates frames instead of interlacing them together properly. The result is jerky playback and looks awful. I am using Final Cut Pro 4.

Do I need to get a PC to do this properly?

Have you applied the two upgrades to FCP 4? I was thinking one of them applied to 24p editing etc. You can download the updates directly now, not using the Software Update feature in System Preferences.

I believe my version is 4.0.2. I have upgraded a couple times, I know that. And I also know the version I have has a ".2" in it.

i don't have a good answer for that, I don't shoot 24p. You might want to try posting on Apple's FCP forums.

Go to http://discussions.info.apple.com/ and click your way to the FCP discussions.