30p footage on a 23.98p timeline

Hey everyone,

I have some 30p footage I need to edit on a 23.98p timeline and I was wondering if there was anyway to make it look more like native 23.98p footage. I know it is basically dropping ~6 frames and the footage looks a little weird in motion. Is there anyway to add some motion blur or make it look smoother? Thanks!

A couple of ways to do this. You can cut it into the timeline and then tell it reconform to 23.976 by applying "automatic speed". This slows it down to about 80%, though, and isn't usually acceptable if there's sync audio. It may work ok depending on what kind of footage it is.

The other way to do it is to convert it to 23.976 fps using either a piece of hardware like a Teranex, or using software like Compressor. This will keep the speed the same, but of course requires extra processing. In Compressor, try Better or Best settings in the retiming option and leave duration to 100% of source. Keep in mind that this is not a fast conversion, and it will take some time for long clips. You should test on short sections to see if you like the results.

Either way, you're right... if you simply cut 30p into a 23.976 timeline, it will look choppy if it's not processed correctly.

haysoos123 wrote: You can cut it into the timeline and then tell it reconform to 23.976 by applying "automatic speed". This slows it down to about 80%, though, and isn't usually acceptable if there's sync audio. It may work ok depending on what kind of footage it is.

Dropping a 30p clip onto a 23.98 timeline will make it play at 23.98 (the project rate) without doing anything else. By choosing "automatic speed" the clip will actually conform to its natively recorded rate, in this case 30fps and will play slower in the 23.98 project. I think you meant to say that.

Inside FCPX, in the inspector, under video, there is an option of how do you want the pulldown to be done, is called SPARTIAL CONFORM, under there you can choose from 4 different methods, each has is advantages but it always comes down to the footage, give it a go and see with works best for you. Just keep in mind that OpticalFlow is very hardware intensive, but is also the one that usually solves the most complicated situations.

dgwvideo wrote:
Dropping a 30p clip onto a 23.98 timeline will make it play at 23.98 (the project rate) without doing anything else. By choosing "automatic speed" the clip will actually conform to its natively recorded rate, in this case 30fps and will play slower in the 23.98 project. I think you meant to say that.

I think we're just arguing semantics, but certainly I do mean that the timeline will always play at whatever it's set to (in this case 23.976 fps), so what happens when you drop in a 30p clip is that it will drop a bunch of frames so that it plays in real-time. Also, usually I have heard "comform to xxx framerate," which means that automatic speed will be conforming a 30p clip TO 23.976 fps, so it will in fact play slower. Again, we just have a difference of semantics and are saying the same thing, but I wanted to make clear that I've never heard it said to make a clip "conform" to its native framerate (which it already is at).

Also, I think the option in the inspector is called "Rate conform," and it will give you similar results to changing the framerate in Compressor (the Best mode in Compressor is pretty much Optical flow).

@haysoos123 .... yes, semantics And to clarify, conforming the clip to it's natively recorded frame-rate when it is in a project of a different frame-rate. Old FCPX referred to this as CONFORM CLIP. New FCPX (I think since 10.1 but not sure) now calls this same function AUTOMATIC SPEED.
Best,
Dan