Mixing 5D footage with 50i footage in FCP

[Brendan Pyatt]

Hi,

I am considering a 5DmkII as a b-cam for interviews and scenic shots coupled with my current 50i cam that I shoot action sports with.

I have found a decent workflow for converting the 30p canon clips into 25p but I would like to know how much trouble it would be to mix 25p footage and 50i footage on a FCP timeline?

Thanks.

[Susanto Widjaja]

Hi, do you mind sharing your workflow for 30p to 25p please?

thank you

Santo

[Brendan Pyatt]

Sure,

All credit to Denver Riddle:


1. Cut video in 30 fps timeline

2. Create copy of finished edit so you'll have two clips, one to convert to 24p and one to preserve audio.

2. Open Cinema Tool (part of Final Cut Studio), File, "Open Clip", choose "Conform", specify "23.98" to conform to.

Explanation: This keeps the same number of frames in the clip, it only changes the timebase from 30fps to 24fps, essentially creates overcranked footage by 6 frames, (desirable on some shots). As a result this makes the clip longer and slows the audio down which is undesirable where audio is important. At this point you've already created a copy of the original clip therefore preserving the original audio which we'll relink later in Final Cut.

3. Open compressor 3 and specify deliverable format and destination. Now open the inspector window so we can do some tweaking. Under "Frame Controls" tab, click the button to the right of "Frame Controls:" to enable this feature. Once enabled, select "On" for "Frame Controls:" Underneath the "Retiming Control" section is where we'll make changes. For "Set Duration to:" click the radio button where it will allow us to put in a duration. NOW THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, OPEN THE COPY OF THE CLIP WE CREATED THAT STILL HAS THE 30 FPS TIMEBASE AND PUT IT INTO THE FINAL CUT PRO TIMELINE, DELETE THE VIDEO TRACK AND ENSURE THE TIMEBASE OF THE SEQUENCE IS SET TO 23.98, GO TO THE END OF THE AUDIO AND READ THE TIMECODE, THIS WAY WE'RE ENSURING THAT WE'RE RETIMING (SPEEDING BACK UP) THE CLIP SO IT WILL MATCH THE ORIGINAL AUDIO. This number is the timecode you'll put into the duration field, (example01:08:01:06) then depending on how well you want the footage to look also taking into consideration the time it will require to compress it choose the desired quality under "Rate Conversion:". I choose, "Best (High quality motion compesnation)" to get superb results, however this increases the compression time.

Important: Make sure that no matter which codec you use that it remains as a 23.98 fps timebase.

4. Now take the treated clip into Final Cut, we've already set up the sequence from step 3. Add the clip to video track 1, relink and presto!

I've extensively tested this and find it to be the best way to convert 30p to 24p for the time being, or atleast until and hopefully Canon comes up with a firmware to address the issue.

Additional Tips: If you have multiple clips to treat, in Cinema Tools, choose "Batch Conform" locate one file where all the files are located. Then setup batch conversions in compressor, if you have a quad core or 8 core configure Q master to take advantage of all cores otherwise it will take longer.

[Eduardo Gellner]

Hi there

I am actually interested in the same thing. Just did a project where I mixed in two minutes. There is no problem at all in FCP and a "normal" person wont see the difference - but I did it for broadcasting and well...you see the difference between i and progressive...in motion stuff. That's all. Simple 25p stuttering as all 25p does.

I would love to see a method to convert 5D footage to 25p via BATCH (or even 50i...lol).
MpegStreamclip works great, but a batch thing via "better rendering" as AE or Shake does would be awesome.

Thanks

[Susanto Widjaja]

sorry somehow i overlook the fact that i asked the question and never came back to this post!

I've heard of that solution from philip bloom blog.

Though I still think its a bit too hassle to convert the files that way. ( I know.. I'm whining..)

But yeah, my main business is wedding videos and I'd love to incorporate 5D footage into 50i footage that I'm shooting especially on my SDE edits.. I can't afford to do heavy rendering when doing SDE.

Its very sad when you realise that all the luxury of not having to capture the footage is suddenly gone with the fact that its 30p...

I'm still not buying the 5d till now.. just because of the 30p..

why canon.. why?????