iMovie 11 Projects Have to Be 30fps?

HQ is overkill for AVCHD. ProRes is sufficient and for most media even ProRes LT. Not sure why you're going through the Toast process. ClipWrap will transcode to ProRes at 50fps, which can be imported into FCP.

Again not sure what the conversion to H.264 does for you. The media can't be edited properly in that form in FCP so it's going to have to be converted again. You're just adding time and transcoding cycles into the production process.

Ah yes sorry for being unclear on this.

A. I do the Quicktime rewrapping just to get iMovie or FCP to actually recognize my 1080p50 footage. This results in editable h.264 compressed clips which works surprisingly well even on my laptop. Depending on end target, I can do transcoding outside of iMovie.

B. In some workflows, I just do some rough cuts and sequencing of clips and then export the timeline to XML for FCP. The raw footage is just referenced and copied out of my iMovie event folders. These clips are also transcoded to ProRes xxx (whatever required flavor) in the A step.

C. I also do basic home stuff where I sometimes want to export in 1080p50.

I use Toast since I already own it. It can transcode, which Rewrap2M4V can't do. ClipWrap and Voltaic HD are nice but they don't significantly improve on my workflow.

As for ProRes HQ being overkill or not depends on the end target and the post work done in between. I just deliver in requested format.

Message was edited by: mattias.rylander

Regarding mattiasrylanders point 4 - how can I create a project with fps set to 50 (or 60 if usa)? When creating a project I get the choices 25 (PAL), 24 (Cinema) and 30 (NTSC). I've changed the plist file and I can see that the original 1080/50p video is imported with 50fps (ie after rewrapping using rewrap2m4v and importing files into imovie). But when the 50fps clips from the events are added to a project it definitely looks like it's "converted" to 25fps. Any help is appreciated...

To edit 50fps media you need Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro. You can export a 50fps file but it has already gone through the iMovie project machine.

Ok, thx Tom. Exporting from IM with 50fps when it's actually a 25fps project would hardly improve the quality I guess, but probably the file size.

Is quality then actually better when importing 50p video, which is converted to 25fps by IM, compared to setting the camera to use 50i which is handled "off the shelf" by IM and also ends up with 25fps?

I can't test it. I don't have any 50p or 60p media.

You need to ensure the new project is created after you've changed the plist entry for "newProjectFrameRate". The drop down list will show a blank entry for the fps.
The project will also be marked with the fps in the project library.

iMovie does get confused, and will warn against adding a 50fps clip to a 50fps project.

In order to actually export your final movie in 50fps, you must switch the project frame rate to 25, or you will have an exported frame rate of 49.95! You change the project setting in the project's settings file. Also you must explicitly set the 50fps in the export dialog.

The workaround to get 50/60 fps from iMovie is far from nice.

edit: In the projects file, edit the "frameRate" field from 50 to 25.

HTH

Message was edited by: mattias.rylander

I believe the 50p footage is actually intact, even though you import it into a 25p project. However, the way iMovie uses the frames I do not now. I'm guessing it just throws away the superflous frames.
However, when importing 50i footage, it applies some standard de-interlacing techniques, maybe not the best but still this is a common procedure, and spits out a progressive version. I would guess the 50i->25p conversion is more pleasing to the eye than the other option. However quality is in the eye of the beholder, so try it out.

HTH