Legend

Answered

what should the sequence settings be for an edit from a silent movie 15fps

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
January 28, 2023
12 replies
2854 views

So I'm working on a music video that will be visually all from a silent movie (in the public domain). The file I have is 15fps. Seems like youtube will accept and maintain the 15fps but wondering if there's any reason to drop the film into a 30 fps timeline? When I do that, it simply repeats every frame twice. with frame sampling chosen. That seems the best visual choice, rather than frame blending or optical flow. I have a feeling I'm overthinking this... At this point, I'm assuming that the main distribution will be youtube... but will check back with the record company... I'm guessing they might want to screen it as part of a performance or at a film festival... any issues there?

Thanks as always,

Michael

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Correct answer Michael Grenadier

create a new 1080 sequence at 30 fps and just drop the 15 fps file into the timeline which will repeat each frame twice, or just edit into a 15 fps timeline. The only reason to use a 30 fps sequence is if you're going to have to deliver a DCP (digital cinema package).. or publish somewhere that requires a more standard frame rate...

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

my brain is like mush.... so much I don't understand about silent movies etc.

I put into editor 2 ways...16 fps timeline and 24 fps timeline.

the 16 looked OK but the sound got wanky.

the 24 looked OK and sound stays nice.

I exported both 16 and 24 and 24 was OK for sound.

this is a portion ( cropped out the blurry background stuff )

M

Michael GrenadierAuthorCorrect answer

Legend

create a new 1080 sequence at 30 fps and just drop the 15 fps file into the timeline which will repeat each frame twice, or just edit into a 15 fps timeline. The only reason to use a 30 fps sequence is if you're going to have to deliver a DCP (digital cinema package).. or publish somewhere that requires a more standard frame rate...

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

ohhhhh....ok, thanks.... that makes sense. thanks

M

Michael GrenadierAuthor

Legend

one of the few advantages of being as old as I am, is that I've lived thru all these changes and understand what's going on. This is one of the simple ones... do some googling "interlaced video" and you'll understand how crazy this stuff can get...

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

Mike, do you see this stuff on the sides ???

M

Michael GrenadierAuthor

Legend

Yes. Old films were shot 4x3 aspect ratio. HD is 16x9. So what they did
is create a background to fill the left and right sides.

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

thanks, was able to edit mssg and delete email address....

playing movie in media player classic home cinema and it looks fantastic ! I'm totally amazed.

next step is to start new project in editor and see what happens....this is truly cool.

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

ok, thanks... i'm gonna do the same... like double check my account settings and make sure private messages is ON or something like that.

The other alternative is to just give you my email address...which is:

what's the worse that could happen if some creepy people try to hurt me by using it ???

M

Michael GrenadierAuthor

Legend

Here's where you need to enable private messaging but I have mine enabled, so I don't think your settings should matter, bwdik...

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

I did it and got a page with your name on top in big letters and a bunch of symbols under it and some posts listed that you made... but didn't see anything to click to send a private mssg ...

M

Michael GrenadierAuthor

Legend

looks like they've changed this behavior... Let me see if I can figure out how you can get in touch with me directly

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

OK, thanks... will try it....

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

Mike, do you by any chance have a sample ( 5 seconds or so ) of the 15fps footage ?? I'd like to experiment with it just to learn a little more. I have google email and there is some google thing that allows people to share files....and I think there's something called dropbox which sorta does the same thing ??

thanks.

I did download an old movie from some place but it was 29.97.

M

Michael GrenadierAuthor

Legend

click on my user name at the top of any of my posts and send me a direct message with your email and I'll send you a link for the file.

YANNA26705213grl5

Inspiring

wow. thanks a ton... I learned a lot from the article about frame rates !

S

smrpix

Participating Frequently

YouTube is capable of playing non-standard framerates, so it shouldn't be an issue there.

An argument for using a more standard 30fps (or even 60fps) is that it gives other people less opportunity to interpolate it in a way you don't like if the video is used in other contexts.

But I am curious how you determined it is 15fps. 16 fps was more common, and it was equally common to project 16fps material at ~24fps even in the early days. (Between hand-cranked cameras and projectors with rheostats, fps wasn't really standardized until the advent of sound.)

M

Michael GrenadierAuthor

Legend

Hey smrpix, guess you posted while I was composing my previous post. I downloaded the film from youtube. I checked the frame rate in media info and it's cfr 15fps... It's clearly a professional restoration... I imagine that for dvd's they just did some frame interpolation to 30fps and then slowed it down slightly to 29.97fps. and I imagine they used the same workflow for blu-ray.. bwdik...

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