35mm vs 16mm 2-3 Pulldown

[John Mastrogiacomo]

Hi,

 

In general, it seems to me that 16mm strobes more than 35mm with 24p footage with a 2-3 pulldown added. 35mm just seems smoother.

 

Is there a real difference or am I just imagining things?

 

Thanks for any information. :(

[John Sprung]

I'd think it must be the content of the shots rather than the film format. 3-2 is a temporal distortion. All film frames are created equal in terms of the amount of time they represent, within a given shot. What 3-2 does is it presents alternating frames for different amounts of time. Frames that were shot every 1/24 of a second are presented with one frame getting 1/20 of a second, and the next 1/30 of a second, alternating over and over 1/20 1/30 1/20 1/30.... What this does is it takes uniform motion and sort of adds a 12 cycle per second vibration to it. Here in the NTSC countries, we grow up with 3-2 and get so used to it we don't notice the artifact. PAL/SECAM natives find it very annoying, as we find the 50 Hz flicker.

 

You'd have to shoot a side by side test with 16 and 35, telecine both, and make a split screen to really tell if the format has any interaction with 3-2. I very much doubt that it would.

 

 

 

-- J.S.