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changing frame rate


tom lombard

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I shot a short at 29.97fps and am in final stages of post. One of the short film festivals I'm looking at submitting to has a requirement of 24fps. I've emailed them on this requirement as they may have a good reason but seems a bit odd to me. My question is in regard to my converting a final copy of my short to 24fps. I know there are conversion tools that will do this but doesn't this reduce the quality a bit? Not much action in this so dropped frames might not be visibly noticeable but it is score heavy and I'm concerned for the audio quality. I'm particularly concerned in that submission to this festival is thru Film Freeway so by uploading a compromised(?) file there means that all other festivals I submit to would get the same file. Any feedback welcome. Any input on a conversion tool that might be better for this than others would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom

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If you don't change the overall speed of the film your audio "should" remain untouched.

 

To convert 29.97 to 24 you don't want a process that drops frames, since that will result in stuttery uneven motion. You need a process that retimes the frames and makes new tween frames to even out the frames.

 

Back in the day the Snell and WIlcox Alchamist was the "Best" tool.

 

These days lots of software plugins can do it. Maybe try twixtor.

 

At some level your going to reduce the quality - since the new frames are going to be the computers best guess rather then actual photographed images. Some shots will look better then others. But these days its possible to get quite decent results, but its usually possible to spot some frame rate conversion artefacts.

 

On films its always better to shoot at 24fps - since it can be projected in all cinemas and meets DCP spec. 24 fps can be sped up to 25fps for European TV and 3:2 pull down applied to convert to 60i for US broadcast.

 

In terms of the film freeway thing - the file you upload isn't usually the version they screen. Normally you upload a h.264 type screener for them to decide if they want to program the film. If they do, they will come back and ask for a proper DCP or ProRes. So the frame rate of the film freeway screener file matters less.

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That's all useful. Thanks! I know that this is their initial film festival and I've only submitted to a local, non competitive festival previously so I think we are both going thru a learning curve. There 24fps requirement now makes more sense for a DCP but seems to make a bit less sense in their additional requirement of it being an .mp4, .mov, or .avi. This is the specific event BTW... https://filmfreeway.com/SandyDennisFilmFestival

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Looking at the listing its the first year the festivals run, so they might have a bit of a learning curve about what they are asking for in terms of spec. .mp4 or .avi are no guarantee of screenable quality.

 

Just because they are running a film festival doesn't mean they know anything about file formats. Its also not clear if this is for the approval copy or screening copy. Or if they intend to screen mp4's (yuck)

 

On the last round of film freeway submissions I did - I uploaded a SD version of the film. To make sure they asked me for the big pro-rez version on screening. I once entered a new york festival - went to a lot off effort making an nice high end HD master - only to hear they screened the DVD I'd sent initially.

 

You could always shoot them an email to confirm.

 

In the end if they like the film - the format is less of an issue and can always be worked out ahead of the screening

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