Skip to main content
M
media kat
Known Participant
September 6, 2018
Question

Playing 120fps footage in a 24fps timeline?

  • September 6, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 22832 views

I need to shoot a bunch of HFR footage at 120fps, though some of it I may want to play back at normal speed in a 24fps timeline.

1. How can the 120fps footage be played back at 24fps?

2. Besides the obvious issues with audio, what other issues are there with taking clips shot at 120fps and having them play back at 24fps if you choose to not play them back in slow motion?

Thanks.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Kristian Gabriel
    Kristian Gabriel
    Participating Frequently
    September 6, 2018

    If you are using true HFR footage at 120fps and you want SLOW MOTION do the following:

    • Import your video clip(s) and then SELECT them in your PROJECT WINDOW/BIN.
    • Go to CLIP > MODIFY > INTERPRET FOOTAGE
    • Under FRAME RATE, select ASSUME THIS FRAME IS and make it 24fps (or whatever frame your sequence will be).

    This will give you true slow motion at 24fps. Now you can edit your clips in a 24fps sequence and your clips will be in slow-mo. Note: HFR clips modified this way will make your clips longer.

    If you want your clips to play at 24fps with no slow motion, just throw your HFR clips into a 24fps timeline. This will "throw out" the extra frames to accommodate the timelines frame rate. There are some tricks you can play with to smooth playback or control your footage pull-down within After Effects for Premiere if your footage isn't playing back smoothly.

    EXTRA NOTES: The process above does not work if your camera PRE-PROCESSES the HFR. For example, if you shoot with the Panasonic GH5/GH5s, you can shoot up to 180fps--however, the camera will internally process the HFR and the resulting file will be whatever the final frame rate settings are. So, if you set your camera to shoot 24fps and then you change the variable frame rate setting to 180fps--the final clip will be 24fps and the slow motion will be "baked in".

      M
      media katAuthor
      Known Participant
      September 6, 2018

      It is true HFR as far as I know. It will be from a Sony A7S2.

      Does the HFR footage end up looking jittery when played back in a 24fps timeline? Are there any other issues to be aware of? My question becomes, why not shoot everything at 120fps so you have the option of slowing it down if desired and if not just play it back normal speed.

      Thanks.

      Kristian Gabriel
      Kristian Gabriel
      Participating Frequently
      September 6, 2018

      Not always, but it can. Whenever frames are dropped, it can be choppy. Then again, it might be just fine. The higher the HFR, the more problems can happen. If your HFR is is smaller...like 60fps, it will be smoother. Once again, no harm in dropping a 120fps into a 24fps timeline and seeing if it works for you. Luckily Premiere is almost entirely a non-destructive application! We have dropped 120fps footage into a 24fps timeline and it looked amazing. Premiere generally does an excellent job with this. If not, we can take the next step. The more advanced levels of this would involve bringing your clip(s) into After Effects or dynamically throwing them over to After Effects from Premiere and using the FILE INTERPRETATION feature in AE to control the frame rate change and pulldown and re-outputting for Premiere.

      To answer your second question, it is best to shoot in whatever your delivery frame rate will be unless you have specific needs for things like Slow Motion, Visual Effects, etc. Shooting everything in 120fps would require massive amounts of hard drive space in a normal project with a lot of clips and the processing of the footage could potentially drive you crazy. You would be creating an extraordinary amount of unnecessary work for yourself.

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices