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When 25p beats 24p…

There are many times when it makes more sense to shoot and edit video at 25p than at 24p, regardless of the final framerate(s) to be delivered to various distribution formats, even if you live in an NTSC (or ex-NTSC) country. You may know that “24p” video is almost always really recorded at 23.976p (although Apple and some camera manufacturers often like to round it to “23.98p”). This article is about:

• Why and when you would want to shoot low framerate video at all.
• In many of those cases, why it often makes more sense to shoot and edit at 25p instead of 23.976p.
• The reasons why with certain “segregated” camcorders, you are much better off purchasing or renting the 25p/50Hz version, even if you live in an NTSC or ex-NTSC country.
• 25p workflows: How to go from your 25p universal master to all imaginable output formats.

Why and when to shoot low framerate video at all

When I say low framerate, I’m referring to anything 25p or lower. When I say medium framerate, I mean 30p (29.97p). When I say high framerate, I’m referring to 50p or 60p (59.94p). (I am a progressive guy, but I will mention interlaced later on!)

If you live in the (up until now) NTSC world, the main reasons why you might want to shoot low framerate video for your “normal” footage (as opposed to your slow-motion footage) are:

1. To achieve one of the many aspects of the “film on video” look (This is equally feasible whether you shoot at 23.976p or at 25p, since the look is the same).
2. To have an easier path to filmout (This is equally feasible whether you shoot at 23.976p or at 25p, since both will require a slight audio pitch adjustment when exporting for filmout at true 24.000p with a 1:1 frame relationship—more details later).
3. To be able to deliver on NTSC “24p” DVDs or “24p” Blu-ray disks, both of which are really 23.976p (Both are equally feasible whether you shoot at 23.976p or at 25p using a similar audio pitch adjustment upon export).
4. To be able to deliver full-raster 720p-HD to the current AppleTV device. [Despite the imprecise information posted at Apple’s USA, UK, Spain, Latin America, and Australian websites, the current AppleTV will actually accept full raster 1280x720 at a maximum framerate of 25p. Those four Apple websites imprecisely indicate that the maximum supported HD signal is 1280x720 @24p. (Apple is underrating the product.) I have personally verified with several AppleTV units in the USA, and they have always worked fine with full raster 1280x720 @25p footage, even when matched with a 60Hz-only monitor or projector via HDMI. With anything higher than 25p, the current AppleTV needs you to downscale the spatial resolution of your HD footage to 960x540 to keep up with the higher framerate. If you have clicked the above links and it now says 1280x720@25p (or 25fps), it means that Apple has now corrected their websites ]

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