Two cameras: PAL 25p, NTSC 30p (or 24p); how to marry them?

I'm on a shoot. 2nd camera went down. We found a make-do replacement. Problem: the replacement is a new Sony HDR PJ760, which is PAL 25p. Camera #1 is an EX3 (NTSC).

I'm shooting a score of presentations, all speakers with Powerpoints going up on a large screen. I'm using an EX3 to do the speaker, and need a second camera locked down on the screen ? this to facilitate a very quick edit at the end using FCP's multicam setup.

Should I convert the PAL 25p up to 30p, after the fact? (I have to convert the H264 to XDCam or ProRes anyhow.)

Or shoot with 24p on the EX3 and covert the PAL 25p down to 24p?

Or what might be the most ideal combination?

I'm only using the sound on the PAL camera as a guide to sync up with the first camera.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated ....


Ben

my take:

shoot 24p

if the second, PAL, camera is on the screen, you may get away with doing nothing, or doing a very simple conversion
if the on-screen stuff has beautiful flowing graphics, it will be problematic,
if it is just power-point slides, no one will see a dropped frame every second.

(if you shoot 30p, then you'll have to add a frame every 6 frames to match, so much more noticeable)

BUT YOU CANT GO MULTICAM, you will have to the old fashioned way, with 2 video tracks.

if you MUST go multi cam, then you can't conform the 25 to 24p, it will throw your timing off,
instead you will have to do a quick export and conversion to the or format of your other camera,
this will "bake in" the skipped frames.

if you do an old style multi cam edit over 2 tracks, then i think there would be some way to smoother out any really bad skip-frame issues,
but it could be a bit time-consuming.

another approach is to use compressor to so your transcodes from 25 to 24 and chose one of the better re-tme options.
if you can do that in the background, or overnight it might work.
i'd say a simple blend would fix almost all your possible issues, and not take too long


nick

Or if the lockdown is entirely on the screen, with no live edges showing, maybe you could get away with freeze frames of the PAL stuff. Since you've got a multicam situation, but can't run it as a multi without converting, you could just check the timecode you're at on the NTSC cam, skip over to the PAL cam and type in the same timecode to fly close by, then snap a frame and drop it on the timeline.

OR, get them to supply to original Powerpoints, which can in some instances provide a cleaner picture than shooting off the screen. Just export a .mov out of Powerpoint.

Thank you Nick and Jude,

Both really helpful suggestions. I'm trying to avoid doing the freeze frame thing, and going back to the Powerpoints. I can cut and title and output one of these in a couple of hours .... but if I start doing a fancy edit, using the original Powerpoint, syncing up the images, it takes days. I've done it this way before.

I think I will go the 24p and 25p route, convert the 25p after-the-fact (it has to be converted from H264 anyhow).

Very much appreciated Nick and Jude,


Ben