Over the weekend, I completed my first completely 24p (24 progressive frames per second) project.  Traditional film runs at 24p, and it's this framerate that is responsible for that “film look” that you can't quite put your finger on.

I've done several 24p projects, but always added 3:2 pulldown at the end to but back on miniDV to show.  I've also done several projects with mixed rates for a “flashback“ type effect.  This project was different in that it was completely 24p all the way to the DVD. (I've only just recently figured out the intricate MPEG flags and settings for proper 24p DVD encoding.)  It wasn't that big a deal, it was really just a for fun project that Dave and I shot last year that I finally got around to encoding to MPEG2.  Some of you have seen my NFL-films-style mockumentary, “The Road to Catathalon, 1987“, about our cats training for an athletic competition.

I have a Panasonic DVX100, which shoots in native 24p and encodes it on miniDV using an advanced pulldown technique to make removing it a lossless conversion. (DV is stuck at 60i, or 60 interlaced fields per second)  To remove this encoding, I use Maker, a deinterlacing tool with special settings for my camera.  This tool is excellent.  The latest version can even convert 60i (that all video cameras us) to 24p!  I thought several of my readers might find that particularly interesting.  I haven't tried it out with my Sony Digital 8 camera yet, but the results are supposed to be pretty good.

The guy who wrote the software runs a Digital-to-Film transfer house in town, and actually lives right down the street from me.  He also has a great book out called Shooting Digital, which has some very valuable material in it.  I recommend it highly.

I am looking at Vegas Video as an alternative to Premiere and Encore for editing and DVD creation.  It is alot cheaper, and supports a 24p editing pipeline with much fewer hassles.  Does anyone have any experience with it?  I've heard good things, especially about customer service, something that Adobe is notoriously bad with.