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A guide to shooting with the DVX100a & FCP


ScottShaw

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I'm looking into doing a few shorts with this camera and hoping to utilize 24p for the "Film Look". I'm running a G5 dual 2g with 500g of media space and FCP. Other than pouring over the minute details of what rate and 3:2 pulldowns and such, is there a simple 1,2,3 guide to shooting at 24p, editing in FCP, compressing to MPEG2, and using DVD Studio Pro to go to DVD?

 

Can I use my DVCAM deck to digitze the 24p footy via FireWire(It's a DSR 1500a)?

 

Is it as easy as going into the easy set-ups and choosing Cinema Tools 24p to DV, or are there other considerations for going to DVD?

 

BTW, very cool forum, I'm glad I stumbled onto it!!... thanks in advance for any help and / or suggestions.

 

--Scott

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I'm looking into doing a few shorts with this camera and hoping to utilize 24p for the "Film Look".  I'm running a G5 dual 2g with 500g of media space and FCP. Other than pouring over the minute details of  what rate and 3:2 pulldowns and such, is there a simple 1,2,3 guide to shooting at 24p, editing in FCP, compressing to MPEG2, and using DVD Studio Pro to go to DVD?

 

Can I use my DVCAM deck to digitze the 24p footy via FireWire(It's a DSR 1500a)?

 

Is it as easy as going into the easy set-ups and choosing Cinema Tools 24p to DV, or are there other considerations for going to DVD?

 

BTW, very cool forum, I'm glad I stumbled onto it!!... thanks in advance for any help and / or suggestions.

 

--Scott

 

There's really no trick to shooting 24p with the DVX, then editing on a 24P timeline and going out to 24p DVD.

 

You shoot 24PA (24PA applies a 2:3:3:2 pulldown that allows FCP and other NLE'S to remove the frames added in camera to make the signal playable/viewable on an NTSC monitor and playable on any DV deck, digitize into FCP using the "remove advance pulldown" capture pre-set (also make sure your sequence settings are for 24P), then edit your footage on a 24P (technically 23.97) timeline, and when you're done, export your 24p project to DVD SP.

 

Of course, if you plan on strictly a DVD release, with no plan of going out to film, you could also shoot at 24P (which applies a standard 3:2 pulldown to the footage to make it NTSC viewable), and not bother with removing the pulldown, then edit and export your footage at 60i, though there's no real benefit to going this route. Keeping your material in a 24p environment saves some space on your DVD, since if you have a 24p dvd, the DVD player will automatically add the 3:2 pulldown.

 

Hope this all makes some sense.

 

For more extensive info on all things DVX, check out the following:

 

http://www.dvxuser.com

 

http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/index.html

 

Barry Green, who posts frequently at dvxuser.com, sells a comprehensive guide to DVX shooting, which you can purchase here:

 

http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/

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Concerning Noah's post in 2-pop.

Understanding that frames will "randomly" drop puts a bad spin on what actually happens in camera, isn't it?

When you capture at 24 fps you unduce a new type of motion blur to the picture, Noah makes it seem that it would all be the same if I shot in 60i and edited at 24 in fcp and used the 2:3:3:2 pulldown.

What happens when you shoot in 24 fps to the image is that even though frames are captured at 29.97 fps, that doesn't mean that your shutter and everything remains the same.

 

I guess my biggest question with this is the point of the entire post the fact that noah believes fcp doesn't correctly detect the cadence and delete the jutter frames?

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Concerning Noah's post in 2-pop.

Understanding that frames will "randomly" drop puts a bad spin on what actually happens in camera, isn't it?

When you capture at 24 fps you unduce a new type of motion blur to the picture, Noah makes it seem that it would all be the same if I shot in 60i and edited at 24 in fcp and used the 2:3:3:2 pulldown.

What happens when you shoot in 24 fps to the image is that even though frames are captured at 29.97 fps, that doesn't mean that your shutter and everything remains the same.

 

I guess my biggest question with this is the point of the entire post the fact that noah believes fcp doesn't correctly detect the cadence and delete the jutter frames?

 

 

What Noah's post is about is that many see the 23.98 capture setting in FCP. They use it and that is a mistake as that is not what FCP is capturing. It is capturin 29.97. Once the footage is in and you have previously set up your sequence for 23.08 and told FCP to remove the 2:3:3:2, then you footage will be in the bins at 23.98.

 

The setting for 23.98 capture is for the HD cameras that record 23.98 like HDcam. Many folks make the mistake and have randomly dropped frames. That is why he wrote it. Read it again and see if you get the same impression with this additional knowlege. I will point Noah to your remarks.

 

Best,

 

Jan

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The number one thing to get your mind around is that with the DVX there is a difference between what is photographed and what is put on tape. A standard NTSC 60i signal is _always_ what is put on tape. This gives you a DV tape you can play back on any DV deck or camera. The different capture modes determine what is photographed.

 

In the 24p modes, 24 discrete frames are photographed each second. Next the computer in the camera performs a telecine process to add enough interlaced frames to get a 60i signal. Then this is recorded to tape. Same exact process as what happens when you telecine 35mm film shot at 24fps to 29.97 NTSC video. Those extra frames are created the same exact way.

 

In 24pA mode the difference is that the telecine cadence is laid off in such a way that it can be detected and removed automatically by FCP during ingest. The advantage is easier workflow and you don't have to do a recompression of footage to get to 23.98 because the added frames fall perfectly between all the 24p frames you want.

 

In 60i mode, the DVX100 becomes the same as any other DV camera. 60 fields are photographed per second and 60 fields are directly laid off to tape. There is no telecine process required. Of course there is a vast aesthetic difference between the two. The 60i mode looks like video, the 24p modes look like film.

 

My article in Larry Jordan's site continues this discussion as to why it's important to understand this concept when capturing in FCP:

 

 

http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_dvx_capture.html

 

Hope that helps.

 

-Noah

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