Shooting for an interlaced broadcast station on my Epic Dragon.

[Thomas Koba]

I´ve been looking through posts here, but I find it a little bit hard to understand. I know what interlaced footage is, have been working with PAL signal for 10 years in broadcasting before going into the "Red-sphere". But do not quite understand how interlaced works with HD footage, and what is actually meant when using these old-terms today.

I have a Epic Dragon. My client is making a doc in The States (NTSC).

He's asking for me to deliver in this format:

Full Res HD (NTSC) 1080i 59.94 50mbps 4.2.2

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Questions:

1. It looks like he wants a tv-old-school "smooth" interlaced look on his HD format, right? NOT a Progressive look, which is delivered in an interlaced format. Correct?

2. I´m thinking shooting in 4K at 59.94 FPS. And then exporting through Premiere to the Interlaced 1080i format? Correct?

3. What would be the procedure in Premiere to interpret the high-framerate progressive as an interlaced signal?

4. In the camera, if I set the project FPS to 59.94, there should be no problems in recording audio into the camera, correct?


Thanx for your attention!

 

[Nick Morrison]

We shoot broadcast all the time, for major networks, and we always shoot 23.98 progressive. Even if all our promos deliver 59.94

(in fact almost every show we help promote is shot 23.98 progressive as well, and that includes reality shows like Project Runway).

For broadcast delivery, the 23.98 footage is loaded into an Avid 59.94 project, and Avid can seamlessly work with the footage this way (via a pulldown), and output a 1080i master. It's how my clients have been doing it for years!!

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. In aftereffects I'd work in a 59.94 project (progressive hfr) and export to 1080 23.98 with interlaced turned on (upper frame). Must work the same in premiere but you can always process a short test clip (with some motion) and send it to them for validating the workflow.

4. Yes, set both project and sensor fps to 59.94

 

[ericyoung]

59.94p will better interpolate to yield the motion capture smoothness of 1080i 59.94.

Best to ask if that is really what they want, or do they want it to look more filmic.

 

[Thomas Koba]

Ok, thanks people!

It looks like I was on the correct path

 

[Marc Wielage]

Generally, reality shows shoot at 29.97fps progressive (59.94 is an interlaced rate), then at the very end convert to interlace. It's an easy conversion. 23.98fps will result in 3/2 pulldown -- technically, it's 2:3 pulldown, but still -- and you run the risk of more potential motion problems. If they want a reality/doco look, 29.97 is the way to go; if they want more of a "scripted/dramatic" look, go for 23.98.