Proxy playback of iPhone footage even worse than OG media

[lehestro]

Shot a thing over the weekend on a c300 mkII and my iphone 12 pro using filmic pro's extreme setting in LOG, both in 4K. I made proxies for the c300 footage - 1080p ProRes Proxy settings.

Playback of the iphone files was good, but shuttling through was pretty choppy so I decided to make proxies of the iphone footage. Same settings. Now shuttling and playback are horrible - about 1 frame a second.

This is a particular situation. I've used ProRes proxies for all kinds of things, and never had this problem. I saw a couple of things on this, but no real solution. Some people had better luck with cineform proxies. 

Everything is running off of an SSD with plenty of bandwith. I'm on macOS 10.13 with plenty of RAM and all that. Premiere Pro 14.6 build 51.

[John V Knowles]

Are you creating Proxies from within Premiere (as opposed to externally and then attahcing)? If so then use the lowest quality ProRes preset and see how that goes. 

HTH,

JVK

[lehestro · Accepted solution]

I was using the lowest quality ProRes preset, creating the the proxies in Premiere.

But I figured out the issue. It's the original iphone footage itself. Nowhere did I know this before digging, but most phones shoot at a variable frame rate. This is really confusing for Premiere. Even though I was using Filmic Pro and specifing 24fps, it still is only able to approximate that (it's a very close approximation, but enough to through Premiere for a loop). 

Going to Modify>Interpret Footage and forcing the footage to adhere to 24fps has eliminated the problem and now the proxies work marvelously. I had my proxy settings to keep whatever the source FPS is. Going forward, specifically for smartphone footage, I'm making a new proxy preset that strictly conforms the footage to 24fps (or 30 or 60 or whatever the target is).

[Michael Grenadier]

2 things.  conforming the footage to a constant frame rate can apparently cause synch issues with the audio.  Handbrake will convert to a constant frame rate without causing any synch issues.  The other is that I've been told by a dp I work with that filmic pro has an option to record with a constant frame rate.  worth doing some research on that.

[lehestro]

Hey thanks, you are correct about the audio sync issues. Luckily my clips are rather short, so drift is less of a concern, but for best practices you're absolutely right.

As for Filmic Pro, all the research I've done has confirmed that the frame rate remains variable in Filmic Pro. It's just how the phone shoots. It tries really hard to keep it to the target frame rate, but can't lock it in. That was my experience as well. But if your DP knows how to change that, please share!

This isn't the only thing I've read, but it does a good job of breaking it down...

Conforming Filmic Pro Video for NLEs 

[Michael Grenadier]

thanks.  will dig into the filmic pro vfr issue.  The DP says he's sold a number of clips he's shot on his iphone to a stock house without any vfr issues.   but won't be the first time he's wrong.

[Michael Grenadier]

just checked a clip the dp sent me that he says was shot on his iphone with filmic pro and it shows up as constant frame rate in media info.

[lehestro]

It wasn't conformed, but straight from his phone? Huh. If you can query him what the secret is I'd love to know.

[Michael Grenadier]

will do and get back to you

[Michael Grenadier]

this is what he said

"There is an icon on the Filmic Pro screen.
It looks like a gear located on the lower right of the screen, third icon
from the right.
When that is touched, it opens a selection of options housed in a
rectangle, with small squares in that rectangle.
You want “FrameRate” located on the upper left, top horizontal column,
second from the left.

Open FrameRate and you can see the variety of frame rate choices."

I've got it on my samsung phone and will see if it works. irritates me
that the frame rates don't seem to be precise. says 29 fps which is
probably 29.97... but this is making me figure it out.

[Michael Grenadier]

and this says it doesn't shoot cfr

https://www.provideocoalition.com/filmic-pro-framerates-vfr-status-workflow-reaffirmed-at-nab-2019/

[lehestro]

Yeah, I mean I know how to adjust frame rate in Filmic Pro, but it still gives me VFR. It's not off by much, but for me 24fps becomes 24.006 or 24.03. My understanding is it keeps it closer to the target frame rate than it would be in just the Camera app, but can't lock it into a CFR. I think your DP might be mistaken.

[Michael Grenadier]

but the dp sent me a clip straight from his iphone which showed up in media info as cfr...   I'm befuddled...

[lehestro]

Huh. Yeah. That is really weird. What frame rate was the clip? Maybe
certain frame rates are able to be locked in and some arent?

[yam.tal]

I can't thank you enough my dear man.

[yam.tal]

I will add that closing all the irrelevant windows inside premiere,
especially the "Effect Controls" and "Lumetri Color",
will greatly boost the smoothness of the scrubbing.

These specific windows are context-sensitive,
so whenver the cursor selects a different clip on the timeline,
something in them gets updated, and delays the entire process.

Closing them (or deselecting "Selection Follow Playhead" from the "Sequence" top menu)
helps the scrubbing alot.