premiere pro slow motion problem

[Andrew Cleary]

We are having problems with slow motion in ppro 1.5. we are using vx2000s which are progressive cameras. We dont know if the problem is our settings or the program. at 50% speed, panning shots look very choppy however in version 6.5 it looks fine. we have tried progressive time lines and interlaced timelines. we have tried frame blending and always de-interlacing in the field options. if anyone has a solution to this problem please help us out.

thanks,

andrew

[Tommy James]

The Sony VX2000 uses progressive scan ccd's but it only outputs an interlaced signal. To get real progressive footage you need a camera that can output real progressive footage. But most cameras can only output progressive footage at 30 frames per secound which is fine for everything except slow motion because in slow motion you are only displaying 15 frames per secound which results in choppy footage.

The solution is to use a JVC JY-HD10 video camera that can shoot standard definition widescreen at a full 60 progressive frames per secound. Not too many cameras can do this but most videographers will point out that very few decks can playback footage at 60 progressive frames per secound. But when you convert the footage to slow motion you do not have to play back the footage at 60 frames per secound but rather the playback speed is only 30 frames per secound which any DVD player can handle. In the film industry shooting at higher frame rates than will be displayed for slow motion special effects is called overcranking.

[Rick Steele]

Well yes, use 60p footage but that advice doesn't do you any good after the fact.

I've found my shots at 50% motion look "OK" as long as panning is slow and I keep that in mind when I shoot. I've also heard good things about an AE plug-in called "Twistor" which basically interpolates and creates extra frames for smoother playback:

http://www.revisionfx.com/rstwixtor.htm

Also, the issue has been raised over at Adobe Premire Pro user forums:

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.1de9c1bf

Do a search on "slow motion" there.

[Ben Winter]

MotionPerfect from Dynapel.
www.dynapel.com

I suggested this in another thread and it's been getting good feedback. I highly recommend it. I used it in the One Headlight music video on my website almost the entire time.

[Rick Steele]

I tried MotionPerfect but couldn't tell the difference. It took a 1 minute AVI and ran it through. While it did correctly stretch it to roughly 2 minutes at 50% speed reduction I got the same results in Premiere Pro when also rendering the file at 50% speed.

An analysis of the original 1 minute file by motionperfect indicated no frames needed to be added. I'm wondering if this application is intended for choppy footage like web-cams where it really needs to interpolate frames and insert them.

How did you get this thing to make your already NTSC compliant slo-mo better?

Incidently Ben, I really enjoyed the Headlight video. :)

[Alex Geschke]

Does anyone have a comment on the fact that in the original post the slow-mo worked fine in Premiere 6.5? I am considering upgrading but still on the fence for other reasons and this may cause me to stay put.

Alex

[Wes Coughlin]

i suggest: do slow motion in after effects (looks better then premiere pro)-- I dont know what happen to the slow motion effect between premiere pro and premiere 6.5.

[David J. Payne]

hmm i have struggled with this problem for ages until i recentl got an XL1s and it seems to have solved it although I've only tested it a little bit. Would it make sense that the XL1s wouldnt have this problem?

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by Wes Coughlin

i suggest: do slow motion in after effects (looks better then premiere pro)-- I dont know what happen to the slow motion effect between premiere pro and premiere 6.5.

Well, for one the "Frame Blending" feature was brought over from After Effects, which should have improved slow motion quality. However, I've seen it recommended that Frame Blending should be turned off for best quality when slow motion is at 50% on interlaced video. Why?

Interlaced video is made up of 30 frames per second, each of which has two fields. Interlaced video has 30 frames/60 fields per second. When the video is slowed by 50%, there is now one field per frame, which effectively means the video has become progressive, though with half the resolution of true progressive video. So frame blending, which is designed to interpolate or create missing frames, probably wouldn't do any good.

If the results are poor when doing slow motion in Premiere Pro try turning frame blending off. To do this, right click on the clip and choose "Field Options...". At the bottom of the Field Options dialog box uncheck "Frame Blend Speed Changes."

[Andrew Cleary]

we have played with all of the settings under field options for months now and we have yet to find anything that works as good as 6.5. we have spent lots of money for premiere pro on all of our edit suites so we really want this problem to be solved without going back to 6.5. Our biggest problem is panning shots. on ppro at 50% the picture is REALLY choppy but in 6.5 its smooth. It makes sense that it would be choppy because of the lack of frames but I just dont understand what 6.5 does to the picture to make it look better. Adobe blows us off on the topic as if they have no idea what we are talking about, but our results are day and night between the two programs. because we are pumping out product we really dont have the time or space on our harddrives to take all of our clips into AE and slow them down. Same is true for the "perfect motion" program. If only it were a plugin. Thanks for all of your posts, I just wish something would help.

andrew

[Andrew Cleary]

Originally Posted by David Payne

hmm i have struggled with this problem for ages until i recentl got an XL1s and it seems to have solved it although I've only tested it a little bit. Would it make sense that the XL1s wouldnt have this problem?

what camera were you shooting with before? have you tried panning shots at 50% or under?

[Steve Gill]

have you tried at odd ratio ie 53%...friend says this may have a beneficial effect