Mixed Media: 720p 60 + DVCPRO 50

Question

Hi all,
I've searched the forums looking to answer this question, and may have actually found the answer more than once but have now thoroughly confused myself into a corner, so I thought I should just post.
What would be the best method to work with 720p60 HD footage and DVCPRO 50 footage in the same timeline?
All media has already been captured; recapturing with a hardware/deck/camera-based downconvert is no longer an option. Final output is to an SD DVD, in both NTSC and PAL (for which I'll be using Natress' Standards Conversion).
I've been able to work with both formats in a variety of timelines, including Uncompressed 10-bit, DVCPRO 50 and so on, with each yielding slightly different results (letting FCP handle the rendering required). I'll be slowing down and reversing some clips, doing some desaturating, color correction, and adding grain here and there, so different combinations look better and worse depending on the sequence preset and the format of a particular clip, but none is consistently good for both formats.
I'm assuming the correct way to approach this is to standardize the formats between the two sources -- in this case I'm figuring the best option is to downconvert the HD to a friendly SD (like DVCPRO 50, for example).
Based on one of Shane Ross' posts I tried Media Manager, but I was given a warning that the frame rates didn't match and that I could either abort or preserve the framerate of the source (720p). Is the only other option a time- and drive space- costly conversion via Compressor?*
*Um, yeah, important note: I've already done a bunch of editing on this project, naively (perhaps) believing that I could go about downconverting later on, but I did this thinking that Media Manager could easily convert and replace or create a new project with the downconverted media.
Any advice would be extremely appreciated.
Did I mention my deadline is in two days?
2x2 GHz G5, 4GB RAM; 1.67 GHz 15" PB G4, 2GB RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   SATA RAID; G-RAID (x3)

Answer 1

Hey Pat, thanks -- your post gets to the heart of my troubles. (Shane's does too, in the sense of technical specifics, e.g. please forgive any slightly misstated specs in what follows...)
The 16mm footage, which was originally 24 frames per second, was transferred to DVCPRO 50 (interlaced NTSC, 720x480, 29.97) before being captured (and it looks great). The few bits of DV were actually shot PAL (progressive) before being transfered to DV NTSC (interlaced), prior to capture (I had no say here, this is how I received the material -- which, by the way, looked pretty nasty).
The HD footage was shot 720p 60, which I'm understanding means 960x720, 'p' for 'progressive' and 60 frames per second. That last part has confused the heck out of me -- I know it's possible to shoot faster than NTSC's run of the mill 30fps (okay, 29.97), but for some reason I thought this was an unusual circumstance (as if it needed a special camera or tape stock or whatever). I also understand the potential benefits when it comes to shooting a higher frame rate, like if you're planning on doing speed changes (especially slow-mo), but am I wrong to think that 60fps is unusual?
Let me clarify a little. I know 29.97 is standard NTSC video, but according to the info within FCP (and in my bins), 720p 60 means 60 frames per second, not fields per second (which would indeed be 30 frames per second, or 29.97). If, however, the format was called '60i' this would mean that it was indeed 60 (or 59.98) fields per second, giving us 30 (or 29.97) frames per second. Please let me know if I've got this right.
Assuming that's correct, then the 720p 60 is never going to play nicely with the DVCPRO 50. Even if I take the clips that I want to slow down and change their speed in a native timeline (720p 60), those rendered files still won't look good back in the DVCPRO 50 timeline (progressive vs. interlaced, 59.98 fps vs. 29.97 fps). It would seem to me that the best way to deal with this is to take the 720p 60 footage, make the speed changes in a native timeline (BTW, which way: using the speed controls within FCP, or Twixtor, or some kind of Cinema Tools conversion taking advantage of the 60fps?), and then output or convert this clips somehow before placing them back into the non-native DVCPRO 50 timeline. Make sense?
My original hope was that the frame rate would be a minor concern, rendered nicely in the DVCPRO 50 timeline, and I was optimistic by how easily they seemed to mix together prior to making any speed changes. This hope was further dashed by the different results yielded by some of the film effects, like adding grain (which I now have a solution for: make all of my speed changes, finalize my edit, output a final version, then import that movie for applying additional effects, which will no longer vary according to the source footage specs, such as frame size and frame rate). I know it'll wind up being more complicated than this (for example, if I've got a cross dissolve between a 720p 60 clip and a 16mm clip (transferred to DVCPRO 50), applying a 24p film effect to the HD footage must be done independently (since the 16mm clip already has a 24p look to it), output (or rendered?), a then dropped back into the edit before outputting for final effects, such as adding grain).
Phew. Sorry if I've overstated anything, I just want to be clear. Answering any of my questions above would be a huge help... and yes, my time is running out. No pressure.
Maybe I can help things along by restating my questions (simply):
1. What is the best way to apply speed changes, including reversals, to 720p 60 footage?
2. What is the best way to insert speed-altered 720p 60 clips into a DVCPRO 50 timeline?
3. What is the best way to apply a 24p frame rate effect (courtesy of Nattress' Film Effects) to this mix of 720p 60 and DV? (None of the DVCPRO 50 requires this filter because it was all originally 16mm film, which already appears to be 24p)
Thank you for your help so far, and thanks in advance!
P.S. - Sorry, another thought just occured to me. Say my cut is locked, couldn't I also opt to output the edited 720p 60 clips I'm using from a native 720p 60 timeline, then convert these clips using Compressor and re-import them into my project?
I've read elsewhere that Compressor's format conversions are pretty spiffy, if time-consuming, but I'd only need to do this to a handful of relatively short shots. This way I could import the clips as DVCPRO 50 NTSC (interlaced, 29.97, 720x480), then apply other effects to all of the clips (like 24p, grain, etc.)...