Shoot in 60i or 30p?

Question

Shoot in 60i or 30p?

I can shoot either way with my Canon HD camcorder. Most of my footage will end up on the web and maybe down the road onto DVD and/or Blu-ray. I've been shooting 1080 60i up to this point. Is there any advantage for editing or workflow in FCP to go with one mode over the other?

I spoke with a fellow earlier today who teaches FCP classes and he thought many pros were moving from interlaced shooting to progressive. I also read recently in a post by Shane that progressive has more of a "film feel" and interlaced is more of a sports, news cast, or soap opera kind of look. I'm not sure I care much either way. I do know I've run into a few problems trying to get all the artifacts out when de-interlacing via Compressor.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Dave

MacBook Pro (late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.8), 4 Gigs of Ram, Logic 9.1.1

Posted on Aug 6, 2010 12:54 AM

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Answer 1

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Aug 6, 2010 1:45 AM in response to Harmonica_Lessons

Well, the web hates interlaced...doesn't deal with it well. So if you are editing for the web, progressive is the place to go. And then yes, there is the idea of whether or not you want the smooth video look, opposed to the film look.

-shane

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Answer 2

Aug 6, 2010 1:56 AM in response to Shane Ross

Shane,

(Wow, you're up late also.)

I take it that shooting in 30p should not be a problem down the line if I want to go to DVD? I would assume that Compressor can do what is needed to make it look fine for standard definition DVD.

Does it seem to you that more pros (and non-pros) outside of the TV world are moving towards progressive?

Thanks,
Dave

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Answer 3

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Aug 6, 2010 2:05 AM in response to Harmonica_Lessons

Yup, up late editing. Trying to get audio fixes done for a client review in the AM.

Progressive will still look fine on DVD and TV. A majority of the shows I work on are shot progressive, mainly 23.98 (24p). When I output often I output to 1080i 29.97, so the capture card puts the proper pulldown and it looks fine. And we make DVDS and they look fine. Hollywood films are all progressive on DVDs...they look fine too.

The only people I see still clinging onto interlaced are sports, news...and a few documentary people. But even there, we are getting more and more progressive footage. IMHO, interlaced needs to just go away. Except for sports...and maybe news.

-shane

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Answer 4

Aug 6, 2010 11:13 AM in response to Shane Ross

Shane,

I hope you got everything done last night.

IMHO, interlaced needs to just go away. Except for sports...and maybe news.

Yeah, works for me. One less thing to think about.

A majority of the shows I work on are shot progressive, mainly 23.98 (24p). When I output often I output to 1080i 29.97, so the capture card puts the proper pulldown and it looks fine.

I'll have to research "pulldown". I've seen this term used in my searching the last couple of days, but I don't completely understand it.

Since I will be doing instructional video for my business, I will likely shoot 30p and hopefully it will work with family stuff also. I will shoot a test today with the kids and see how the fast motion holds up. I've read the knock on progressive (especially 24p) is that motion is not as crisp and clear as interlaced and slo-motion doesn't work as well. But, I don't anticipate using much slo-motion.

Thanks,
Dave

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Answer 5

Aug 6, 2010 12:04 PM in response to Harmonica_Lessons

I think I get pulldown now (even reverse telecine).

This confused me more-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2:3_pulldown

But, this was very helpful, especially the 3rd graphic "3:2 Pulldown- Converting film to video" and 4th graphic showing the actual 3:2:3:2 conversion layout-
http://www.theprojectorpros.com/learn.php?s=learn&p=theaterpulldowndeinterlacing

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Answer 6

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Aug 6, 2010 12:23 PM in response to Harmonica_Lessons

Pulldown just means spreading out the 24frames to make 30 frames and still look smooth. It took me a while to wrap my head around it too.

Shane

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Answer 7

Aug 6, 2010 12:51 PM in response to Shane Ross

Pulldown just means spreading out the 24frames to make 30 frames and still look smooth. It took me a while to wrap my head around it too.

I believe I still understand the FCP steps and procedures better than the concepts behind them. I can get work done, but when I run into a problem or need to make a choice like 60i or 30p (before I even get to FCP), understanding how this stuff works allows me to not have to add so many posts.

Thanks again,
Dave

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Answer 8

Aug 8, 2010 11:04 AM in response to Harmonica_Lessons

Shane,

I shot some new footage yesterday using both 60i and 30p 1920x1080 settings with my kids doing jumping jacks as fast as they could, both clips look nearly identical viewed directly on 67" Samsung HD TV. I didn't test fast pans, but I don't see that coming up a lot in my work and/or family shoots.

I put together a quick Apple ProRes 422 sequence with Field Dominance set to "None". I then exported a QT Movie, self-contained and imported into Compressor for export to Youtube. For the first time, I was able to turn off the Frame Controls in Compressor and it came out great! Yeah, no de-interlacing.

Thanks again,
Dave

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