FCP HD Slow Motion versus SD slow motion

[Canney]

Hey has anyone ever played around with the Constant slowmotion effects in FCP. I did it for HDV footage the other day and it was incredible as to how the fluidity of the image movment was maintained. It looked like over cranked film. I took the same raw footage and converted it down to SD. Then I did the slowmotion effects on the SD and it was kind of blurred in the movement like always. I was wondering if any one else has noticed this. Thinks it has something to do with how High Def works.

[Michael Collier]

Theoretically on interlaced footage you can slow dow to 50% without seeing any stutter (the software pulls the feilds out and makes new frames out of them, which for all intents and purposes is a progressive frame.)

 

In SD when you do this up to 50% usually makes the image softer (resolution redux by 50% of the verticle lines) with HD you have extra resolution to burn, so the loss of resolution is negligable. Now if you reduce below 50% you will see image stutter.

 

Also a good trick if you want super slow mo (without renting a highspeed digicam), if you shoot HD at say 1080i (at 30fps) and slow it to 50%, yeilding 720p (at 60fps), then have your software interperet the file as a 24p file (slowing it further to 40%, or a factor of 2.5) Then add a pulldown as the telecine would and you will have smooth overcranked-like motion. with stutter similar to any 24fps telecined footage.

[Michael Nash]

Also a good trick if you want super slow mo (without renting a highspeed digicam), if you shoot HD at say 1080i (at 30fps) and slow it to 50%, yeilding 720p (at 60fps), then have your software interperet the file as a 24p file (slowing it further to 40%, or a factor of 2.5) Then add a pulldown as the telecine would and you will have smooth overcranked-like motion. with stutter similar to any 24fps telecined footage.

 

I've been researching this for an upcoming HD shoot. Has anyone tried using a faster shutterspeed on 24P or 30P material instead of shooting interlaced? I realize that you're not capturing as many discrete images per second, but instead gaining a few extra pixels (with an F-900) and more closely approximating the motion blur of film overcranking.

 

I know there's limits to all of this, and I see how Twixtor can do a great job in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. But I'm curious about what FCP can do.

[Canney]

Well you can go from one format to another one with relative ease like in the guys instructions above. Its just as simple as clicking and dragging from one sequence to another.