Settled On 1080p 30
 

I think I've finally settled on shooting most projects in 1080p 30.
Just finished a project (PSA) I was shooting progressive and interlaced at the same time.
Set up a shot and recorded it with both formats.
The idea being I wanted the progressive version for local movie theatre insertion in the pre-movie commercials they show here, and for web distribution.
I planned to re-edit an interlaced version for local TV and cable.
They require a DVCAM dub of the PSA.

In the past I shot interlaced only and upon encoding for the web I would de-interlace for cleaner playback. No interlace artifacts that way.

I edited this new project progressively, rendered in Pro Res, exported as a Quicktime Movie, then dropped this file into a Basic DV Firewire timeline.
Added a Flicker effect set to maximum, rendered and fire-wired it to a DV tape.
Looks great. And no interlace re-edit necessary.

Kevin Jones

I have found these decisions are really more centered around your NLE and how IT handles different framerates.

Using Edius, I have to say it does not matter what framerate you choose because the software can work with anything!

I shot some 1080i material and put it in a 720p60 project and I could not tell the difference.

720p60 material put on a 24p timeline looks great as well.

This probably would not apply to shooting in 24p and going to 720p60, but I have not tried that yet.

Since 1080p30 is often really 1080i combined, the two are interchangeable at the editing stage.

But I agree, 1080p30 is a useful format which I shoot in for web based content as well.