Capturing 24p and editing
 

Hi all,

Just wondering if I may be setting myself up for a problem here and how to correct it if so.

I have about 12 hours of footage I've shot for a ~30 min movie and we have most of the major editing done at this point. I'm wondering if my 'mixed' footage may cause a problem though.

It's all shot on my XL2 in 24p mode at 1/48th shutter speed. I didn't use 24pA at all, just regular 24p. I originally captured a couple tapes into Premiere using the DV widescreen default setting and it captured at 29.97 (I realize it goes to tape at 29.97 regardless of mode). So then I read I was wasting resources by not capturing at 23.976, so I redid the captures and the files were smaller (I think, it's been 6 or 8 months). But since Premiere is less forgiving with multitasking than Vegas is, I captured the remainder of footage in Vegas as we shot new footage over the months since..

Anyway, the question is, why doesn't Vegas let you pick 24p for capture? Or at least that I saw, and it didn't detect the footage as such and make the files 24fps files. So now I have mixed 24 and 30fps footage in my timeline, about 10 sequences for the various scenes, some things linked to After Effects, etc.. Should I set the AE Comps to 23.976 or 29.97? I'm concerned this may turn into something ugly, even though playback seems fine from within Premiere. I haven't tried going to DVD yet, but playback via Firewire into camera into CRT TV looks fine.

So is this a problem at all, and is there any way to correct it if so? Like how can I recapture footage if necessary, etc?

Thanks in advance!
Eric

Anyone? :(

Hello Eric,
unfortunately you will not likely get much help in the Premiere section of this forum (at least this is my experience), which is sad because there is a thread dedicated to defending Premiere, but you can hardly get help on the subject. I also have a couple threads in the Premiere section that have never seen a response, though I have not had this problem in other areas of the forum. I just see it as my call to action, so I try to help where I can...as I have received a GREAT deal of help from this forum in general. I just wish I could get the same amount of help in Premiere, as I have to use it from time to time (I prefer FCP).

that being said : )

I must admit that I do not use Vegas, but I do know this; even if you capture your 24P footage at 29.97fps, you want to make sure that this is true for all your tapes. Basically you want to capture all of your tapes using the same settings. Even if it does not make a difference, it is just the safe way to go. Personally if I recorded 24P, I would want all my capture to be in a 24fps timeline. If you have trouble with capture, another option is to use a third party application, such as HDVsplit?, or something similar to capture your footage.

be sure to check all of your footage that there are no audio sync issues.

Well, I am no expert, but two heads are better than one. Hope I have been of some assistance.

-JS

As for why Vegas won't let you do something, as a PPro user, I can't answer that.

However, the footage that was captured in Vegas as 29.97 should (if I'm not mistaken) be able to be read as 23.976. In PPro, select the clips that are 29.97, right click on them, and select Interpret Footage. Then change to 23.976. In CS3 there is a box to click that says "Remove 24P pulldown" - click it and see if that solves your problem. It should change the frame rate of the clips to 23.976.

Hope that helps. We PPro users do get around to helping, but it may take some time. We can be busy editing...:)

Hey John, thanks for your reply. Sorry it took me a while to get back to you, I did read it in my email when you posted it. :) I'm also in the Orlando area. Is there any kind of Premiere User's Group around here by chance?

Eric, thanks for the interpret tip. I'll see if I can figure out the problem between these clips and get them all standardized.

Is there an easy way to recapture trimmed clips? Like if some stuff was captured at 24 and some at 30, and it's already trimmed and edited into the timeline and all? All the clips have the tape # assigned to them and are organized by folder, but they were renamed after capturing from Windows Explorer. I used the regular start/stop timecode, starting at 00:00:00;00 if that helps.

Thanks!
Eric

Well, you could use project manager and create a trimmed project, then offline all your footage and recapture that way. If you don't use project manager, you'll have to recapture the entire clip.

Does that mean I would need to already be using Project Manager, or if I start using it now, I can do that technique? I haven't up til now, thought it doesn't appear there's much to it.

Thanks,
Eric

Project manager is a tool in PPro that allows you to consolidate your project. I usually use it when I finish a project, and need to archieve it. It will create a new, trimmed project file that will just include the files used, and it will create new clips that are just the parts of the larger clips used.

Just open your project, select Project Manager, then create a trimmed project. PPro will do all the work, and then when it's done, open the new, trimmed project file. You can then offline all your newly created clips, and then recapture them.

I may give that a shot. I'm working out a few little glitches here and there with things. Once I get those taken care of, I'll try the offline and recapture idea. I have almost 12 full tapes in this project, so recapturing will take some time, even though the final runtime is around 30 mins at this point.

Thanks again. :)
Eric