Scoring a DVCproHD film w/ 59.94 frame rate: How do you deal w/ daw sync?

[JT3_Jon]

Sorry for this OT post, but I know many here deal with film scoring on a regular basis and I dont know where else to ask such a question.

I'm scoring a student film that was shot in DVCproHD, and thus exists in a 59.94 frame rate. They sent me a quicktime movie in this frame rate, through unfortunately my sequencer (Logic) does not have a setting for 59.94fps. (does any sequencer for that matter?) I find it odd how Apple's FCP can edit native 59.94, yet Apple's logic cannot run in 59.94...but I digress.

I have attempted to run the project in 29.97ND (as this is half of the frame rate) and tho it seems to be working correctly, I have been told its best to get a 29.97 print, as Logic/quicktime is having to work twice as hard playing back a 59.94 file, and thus I may experience problems.

Since this is a student film, the editor is not 100% sure how working with a 29.97 file will effect sync. Has anyone had to score a DVCproHD film? How did you deal with the frame rate issues? Will asking for a 29.97ND export be ok, or should I continue working with the 59.94 print in Logics 29.97 "mode" and hope for the best?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

[dewdman42]

I would reccomend that you try to convince them to give you a 29.97 print with the time code burned into the video or else get Sony Vegas (or something similar) and convert the video yourself. But its better if they do it so that they won't try to blame you later if and when they have problems syncronizing things.

Remember that for you to do your job, you only need whatever timecode you want for you to do your job. In the end you are going to give them some wav files of the finished audio with SMPTE timecode of where to drop the wav's into the final film. You only need to be accurate within 2 SMPTE 29.97 frames or so (double that for your HD film). However, if your SMPTE timeline is different from what they are expecting, then how will they know? So make sure the timeline is the same in terms of each scene happening on HH:MM:SS the same as them, but the ff's will have half the value of theirs. WHen you give them the start points of each WAV cue, you'll have to figure out the proper HD frame number to tell them. Won't be easy. I can't think of any other solution right now.

Really they should have given you a 29.97 print with the SPMTE code burned into the screen and then THEY will figure out all of that stuff when they put the audio back to the film. Not your problem to solve.