Need quick tips on shooting a race

[Scott Di Lalla]

I'm shooting my new film in 24p, 1/48, 16:9. There is a motorcycle race scene and had a question on shutter speed. I will keep it in 24p. I know if I want nice shots slowed down I should shoot in a higher shutter speed, but since it's a doc I won't have any retakes so I want to stay as consistent as possible. I'll have a few cameras on this day so I wouldn't mind experimenting with shutter speed on one of the cameras. My question is shutter speed. Will it film nice at 1/48 and if I bump it up what would be the recommended speed? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Cal Johnson]

Well, I'm no expert though I do own an XL2. For what you're going to be shooting I would guess that 24p might look pretty smeary. Can you do some test footage first, like of moving traffic or something?

[Travis McMunn]

I shot a lot of motocross and I've always shot in 60i, but I have shot some in 24 & 30p and highest shutter I've ever used was 1/500 its going to look pretty jumpy but it has a nice effect to it, and it looks pretty good slowed down. Unless you have to shoot the 24p you should really use 60i instead.

[Adam Bray]

Anything that I know I want slowed down I would shoot 60i. In my experience anything slowed down in 30P or 24P looks terrible past about 30%. With 60i I can dip it down past 50%

[Scott Di Lalla]

thanks a bunch for the tips. The only reason I would keep it in 24p is because I'm not sure if I would have problems editing the two together. I'm shooting my film in 24p 2332 pull down and editing in FCP (HD). I took some test shots of his bike doing a few laps and they looked pretty good with the standard setting in 24p. I also think I don't have to slow it down past 50%, but if I can shoot in 60i and edit the two with no problem that would be great as well. I've just never mixed two frame rates before. Any thoughts on that? thank you.