Frame rate issue when importing red into FCP

[Morisato]

Hi,

I'm having this issue that I can't seem to find any information on. I've been importing r3d footage through FCP's log and transfer and everything has been going fine until I came across footage shot on 48fps.

When I import 48fps footage, it automatically conforms to 24fps and plays back at real time speeds as if every other frame was dropped.

The DP claims that the footage was shot at 48fps and the slate says so as well, but without options in FCP to alter the fps on import, I'm no longer sure what to believe.

Is there a way to check the meta data or other source to make sure that it is in fact shot at 48 fps? If it was shot at 48 fps I'm interested in know of ways for 2 possible options. Either the footage is imported as shot (48 fps) and from there, I can drop it into a 24 fps timeline to render the slowmo or, the more ideal way would be to import at 24 fps while retaining every frame so that it plays back at 1/2 of real time speeds.

Does anyone know what's going on here? Is this an issue that others have run into?

Thank you.

 

[Alex Carr]

Do the Quicktime Proxies _M or _P playback at 48fps in Quicktime Player?

 

[jimhare]

What do Red Alert and Red Cine say about the meta data?

 

[Morisato]

Well I opened up the clip in clipfinder and the fps says 23.98. I open it up in Red Alert, and the frame count says 1346 on a 56:02 duration (24fps). I open up the _M and _P QT proxies and arrow through and count the frames for 1 second of the smart slate and it is 48 frames. Any idea?

 

[Cail Young]

EDIT: Disregard all that guff.

Are you absolutely sure FCP is dropping frames? Because from what you're describing everything's fine. When you varispeed the camera it runs the sensor at the requested speed but writes a timecode track of the time base (in your case 23.98fps) so that all the post tools read the file at the intended playback speed.

 

[Morisato]

You are correct Cail. After reviewing it further, it is in fact works properly. I was freaking out because of the difference FCP read the frame rate and what the DP was telling me it was shot at. Sorry for the panic.

 

[Cail Young]

Sorry for the panic.

Believe me, it could be a lot worse - I still take calls occasionally from folks who've been given 50P (not 50fps 25P footage) and don't know why it isn't playing in slow mo. I then have to chew out whoever changed the settings on the camera and give post the bad news that onlining any of the 50P stuff will be hell on earth because TC is all messed up.