Blackmagic Forum

Is it ok to shoot at 30fps (29.97fps) and put it on a 24fps (23.976fps) timeline if I change the speed of the clips to 23.976fps using the clip attributes dialogue menu?

I ask because I have read on the internets that when you do this, every fifth frame is "dropped" from the clip, which would (supposedly) cause a stutter in the footage.

I have to admit that I haven't seen such a stutter and I do this all the time.

Wouldn't frames be "dropped" only if one were speeding up the footage? (i.e., shooting at 23.976 and putting it on a 29.07fps timeline).

None of my videos have any audio so I am not worried about audio issues. Just whether shooting at 29.97 and slowing to 23.976 is somehow messing up my footage and I am too ignorant to realize it.

Thanks in advance.

Footage playback will be a bit "slow motion", but there's no interpolation or dropped frames in this case, because you're forcing the clip to play at the same rate as the timeline. The clip's audio won't be sync, as you already seem to understand. If you placed the 29.97 clip on the 23.976 timeline without altering its frame rate, the system would use your default motion settings to manage playback in real time. The quality of the playback would depend on those choices.

If you just drop it into the timeline, DR will do its best to adapt the footage, based on the Retiming settings in your project. If you change the frame rate in the Clip Attributes, you'll get clean and smooth slo-mo.

John Paines wrote:Footage playback will be a bit "slow motion", but there's no interpolation or dropped frames in this case, because you're forcing the clip to play at the same rate as the timeline. The clip's audio won't be sync, as you already seem to understand. If you placed the 29.97 clip on the 23.976 timeline without altering its frame rate, the system would use your default motion settings to manage playback in real time. The quality of the playback would depend on those choices.

Thank you, Joh!!! That is what I had assumed, but wasn't sure.

Uli Plank wrote:If you just drop it into the timeline, DR will do its best to adapt the footage, based on the Retiming settings in your project. If you change the frame rate in the Clip Attributes, you'll get clean and smooth slo-mo.

Thank you Uli for the confirmation!!!