Convert Mixed Frame Rate footage

Question

Hi Adobe Community,
 
I hope that you can help me work a miracle ! hehe
I looked everywhere on the internet for solutions but I found out that none of those solved my problem.
 
So, giving a bit of context, I'm currently working as an assistant editor for a documentary that has over 400 hours of footage and that was shot over the course of 4 years. The organization is not great and we were quite unexperienced when we started editing the footage. Conclusion, know we're almost getting to a picture lock, but we bumped into a problem: we have several frame rates.
 
The project has over 693 clips (video + audio)The frame rates are the following: 24FPS, 25FPS, 29.97FPS, 29.98FPS, 59.94FPS and 60.03.
The aspect ratio also varies (the footage was recorded with several devices, ranging from a Canon, to a DJI drone, to Iphone footage, etc)
 
We tried to export all the footage into 24FPS Apple ProRes. But while doing a test screening, we noticed some frame stuttering. That's why we dedided to convert all our clips to a stardart frame rate, 24 FPS.
 
I found two solutions online but none of them seem to apply. In the first one, it assumes that the entirety of our timeline is in a standart frame rate (e.g 25FPS) so we would only need to interpret a final export to 24FPS and adjust the audio accordingly (using clip/speed duration). In the second, we would need to interpret all our footage to a stardart frame rate BEFORE the editing process.
 
So, my question is, would it be possible to convert all this footage, so late in the editing phase ? What would be your suggestions/recommendations for this problem ?
 
A possible solution: around 80% of the clips are in 25FPS. Would it be a workaround to follow method 2, and convert 20% of the clips to 25FPS, and then method one, exporting the timeline in 25FPS and interpret it to 24 FPS ?
 
Thank you all !!
 
Best,
Vasco

R Neil Haugen · Accepted Answer

I queried the Facebook pro editor group on this awhile back, and got plenty of responses from some very experienced long-form/episodic workers.

First, they did say that all VFR ... variable frame rate ... media needs conversion, NOT just transcoding. Handbrake and ShutterEncoder are the two that can do that process, Adobe's encoders do not handle conversion properly. That 60.03? That's definitely VFR.

Second ... most media of different speeds, even interlaced/drop-frame/non-drop-frame, will work correctly on Premiere timelines. So try it and see..

Third, for the clips that don't, they may well be interlaced or something odd, and sometimes AfterEffects is best at sorting and transcoding those to a usable state. At which time you Import the t-codes from Ae to replace the original media in the Premiere project.

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