P2 - BIG PROBLEM - NEED HELP !!!

We just got our P2 footage sent to us from out camera guy from a remote shoot in Denver. Unfortunately the guy didn't do as we asked which was to copy the P2 cards to an external and send it to us. Instead he imported the files and in FCP and sent us Quicktimes. And when we asked for the original .mxf files he said he doesn't have them anymore.

Well our problem is the Quicktime files are all out of sync. I noticed the footage was shot in 720p60 at 60 frames but is now 29.97 (the clips still count to 60 but only have odd numbered frames, so it goes from 1 to 3 to 5 to 7 etc... to 59 then back.

It's not just a simple matter of resyncing the audio to the video because when you do that other parts are off... by A LOT.

So I'm not sure how the camera guy brought the footage into FCP (or even why a camera guy was in FCP) but if anyone knows how to fix this maybe with audio pulldowns or what I'd appreciate the help.

Some additional info:

He shot on the Panasonic HVX 200 and I think he used P2 Store to dump the cards on set. He was supposed to shoot 720p30n but it looks like he shot 720p30 (which is 720p60 with it marking where to pulldown for 30 frames) and did a pulldown on the import to bring the footage in at 29.97

God. I am the resident P2 expert and I don't know what to do about this. You only got the imported QTs? What an idiot. Sorry, but what a frickin idiot.

I don't believe there is a 30PN setting. But I don't have my camera on me now so I cannot say for sure. I think the only N setting is 24PN. 30P does do what you indicated happened...if they set the camera up for 720p30 and the frame rate to 30, then it would pull out every other frame, like a pulldown.

Can you give me this DPs e-mail so I can educate them? I'll try to be gentle.

Try.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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> And when we asked for the original .mxf files he said he doesn't have them anymore.

Is murder still a crime?

You're not supposed to delete those even when you're close to finishing editing...let alone before you've even watched the footage!


www.derekmok.com

Ouch. What is the footage? Interviews? Can you keep it in sync long enough to get overlay happening, then resync the next section underneath the overlay, so the voice stays consistent, but the picture is quietly slipped?

There is a 30pN setting on the HVX as well as the 30p it sounds like your guy used. It's a neat trick to get longer recording times without being in 24.

My suggestion for this is Compressor. Test out a clip and use the Advanced Format Conversions setting for whatever DVCProHD setting you want to get to and pray. This saved my ass on some improperly pulldowned 24p footage. Depending on much footage you got, it may take forever but then you can always take advantage of virtual clusters to bring that time down.

Ouch. I didn't know there was actually an option to convert framerates or add a pulldown on p2 imports. Do what you do with the video, then throw in a long clip and see how much the sound drifts off sync. Then use that to calculate the speed to alter your clips.

I used to run into this problem as an audio editor. The fix was to time compress the audio an arbitrary amount until it "sunk" all the way to the end. It's a tedious suckie process.
Have fun.

'Frank