23.98 - 29.97 timebase woes

[Craig Schober]

this is more of a fcp->color workflow question than anything red specific but since most users in this forum shoot 23.98 and my feature was shot on my red cam, i figured you guys would have better insight into my problem than most fcp users in the apple discussions board...

i am overseeing a feature being edited on two different macs with 2 different versions of fcp. we started out at 23.98 fps and somewhere along the line, it changed to 29.97. all the media is 720p prores at 23.98 fps so it should not have automatically changed to match different media.

anyway, i'm trying to move the finished cut to my mac pro for export (after i relink proxies via clipfinder of course) to color for grading. but everytime i export the xml sequence from the other mac to mine, all the audio clips (several thousand) appear to be a 1 or 2 frames off as indicated by many red, flagged clips. it will not allow me to change the timebase after importing and if i try to simply copy and paste the 29.97 sequence directly into the 23.98 sequence, everything is messed up beyond repair.

does anyone have a fix or suggestion? if all my media is correct but it was edited in the wrong timebase, does that screw up my chances for 23.98 delivery? and if everything plays fine in fcp, can't i just export at 29.97 or will that mess up things down the line like a possible film out?

thanks

 

[Brandon Kraemer]

i am overseeing a feature being edited on two different macs with 2 different versions of fcp. we started out at 23.98 fps and somewhere along the line, it changed to 29.97. all the media is 720p prores at 23.98 fps so it should not have automatically changed to match different media.

I'm not sure I follow you here... why would the media have automatically changed? Did you begin cutting your 23.976 footage on a 29.976 timeline? The media doesn't change when you do that.

anyway, i'm trying to move the finished cut to my mac pro for export (after i relink proxies via clipfinder of course) to color for grading. but everytime i export the xml sequence from the other mac to mine, all the audio clips (several thousand) appear to be a 1 or 2 frames off as indicated by many red, flagged clips. it will not allow me to change the timebase after importing and if i try to simply copy and paste the 29.97 sequence directly into the 23.98 sequence, everything is messed up beyond repair.

does anyone have a fix or suggestion? if all my media is correct but it was edited in the wrong timebase, does that screw up my chances for 23.98 delivery? and if everything plays fine in fcp, can't i just export at 29.97 or will that mess up things down the line like a possible film out?

thanks

Can you open the project file edited 29.97 on the destination machine, rather than importing an XML? Is the destination machine running the newer version?

I think Cinema Tools is going to be helpful, you can convert your EDL from 29.976 to 23.976 and rebuild your sequence in 23.976 from the edl first, then your on the same page as your other sequence.

I think this will solve your audio issue too, keep in mind that FCP treats audio as samples, not frames... and that is likely why your imported XML is slipping them out of time. If you can promote the imported project first, that should get you to a better starting point.

 

[Craig Schober]

I'm not sure I follow you here... why would the media have automatically changed? Did you begin cutting your 23.976 footage on a 29.976 timeline? The media doesn't change when you do that.



Can you open the project file edited 29.97 on the destination machine, rather than importing an XML? Is the destination machine running the newer version?

I think Cinema Tools is going to be helpful, you can convert your EDL from 29.976 to 23.976 and rebuild your sequence in 23.976 from the edl first, then your on the same page as your other sequence.

I think this will solve your audio issue too, keep in mind that FCP treats audio as samples, not frames... and that is likely why your imported XML is slipping them out of time. If you can promote the imported project first, that should get you to a better starting point.

the media hasn't changed on me but the audio sync has. the destination machine is running the newer version and all i really don't even need to sync both versions. i just need one good version on the destination machine. is there a difference between opening a project file on my mac and importing the xml from that project file onto my mac?

i suspect you're right. cinema tools might be the easiest or only way to fix this automatically at least.